1 32 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



we look in vain for the musk rose of Shake- 

 speare's praising, nor can we with certainty 

 identify the eglantine, which Chaucer and 

 Spenser thought so fair. Perhaps it is better 

 that we have no absolute knowledge of these 

 two roses, and we can think into them colour 

 and fragrance such as Keats found on the 

 Elysian lawns where 



" All the daisies are rose-scented 

 And the Rose herself has got 

 Perfume which the earth has not." 



When I think over the rose gardens I have 

 known I hold two in supreme regard. Over 

 one, old elm-trees hung fringing shadows lightly 

 over walls of box clipped so closely that it 

 seemed as if the broad level tops could easily 

 bear one's weight if one walked on them 

 swiftly down the long alley which led to the 

 sundial and so divided the roses into two dis- 

 tinct groupings. Standards stood about on 

 picket duty. Hybrids covered plats and formed 

 hedges. Small plantings of Hermosas gave 

 promise of perpetual succession of bloom, and 

 glorious masses of tea roses lifted their delicate 

 blossoms among the strong crimson and copper 

 foliage of their new wood. Prairie queens, 



