MONTEREY AND THE ARIZONA GARDEN 253 



you leave them as suddenly as you come upon them, and 

 then no more is seen of them. Of course I have photos 

 ad nauseam of them and the valley, which is run very 

 hard by the Valle'e d'Arras (on the Spanish side of the 

 Pyrenees), but no photos can give an idea of what they 

 are. To-morrow we go to Monterey to see some very 

 fine trees there of a different kind, and as I will be able 

 to write in two days or so, I will shut up now as I have 

 a lot of packing to do. I get very homesick at times 

 and count the days till we shall be back, like a school- 

 boy. However, it won't be long now, please God. 

 Kiss all the wee things for me, and love from Douglas, 

 who is such a comfort." 



"HOTEL DEL MONTE, MONTEREY, 



We are here in one of the loveliest places on the earth. 

 It makes me quite ache to think how you would enjoy 

 it, and also my dear old mother. It is really too 

 beautiful to describe. This hotel, which is immense and 

 has now in it about seven hundred guests, is kept up just 

 like Hurlingham or any first-class sporting English 

 club. It is very well managed, and the cooking excel- 

 lent. The gardens and pleasure-grounds are really a 

 fairy land. Some tennis grounds, bowling alleys, lakes 

 with boats, all kinds of driving traps ad libitum. The 

 most lovely spot is, however, the ' Arizona Garden/ 

 which is given up to plants from Arizona in the tropics, 

 and is full of palms, enormous cacti and aloes, and 

 innumerable flowers ; amongst the cacti, what the 

 western Yanks call modestly the ' boss cactus of the 

 world,' a huge plant that grows 40 and 50 feet high. 

 But the chief glory of the Arizona Gardens is the 

 humming birds ! which are in quantities. Words 

 cannot possibly convey an idea of the loveliness of 



