ENGLISH STRENGTH 



It is a garden of long borders. It is a garden 

 of little gardens, one to face a sundial, one to 

 hold the wise-looking herbs and simples, one 

 dedicated to roses and carnations. But the trees ! 

 They are almost arrogant in their beauty and the 

 triumph of their age. If you have imagination 

 look at an oak and conjure up picture after 

 picture of what the oak means to England. Oak 

 and elm and walnut and willow, ash and pine. 

 Oak for our panelled walls, oak for our ships 

 once upon a time when we had wooden walls. 

 In elm we bury our dead. Off walnut we dine, 

 and it gives us the table and the nuts to our 

 good port. Pine for the masts of our ships, 

 ashen staffs for our hands 3 and willow for our 

 national game. These are the kings of our 

 gardens, these wonderful trees. Nor should one 

 leave out the yew, for it sings of the great bow- 

 men of our past, nor the holly, nor the may for 

 our festivals. 



This garden has all the clean feeling of a 

 vigorous old age. It must have some genius, not 

 the golden glamour of the garden in Italy, not 

 the smiling friendliness of France. 



" It is the eighteenth century," says the king. 



c 17 



