306 IS COUNTRY LIFE STILL POSSIBLE? 



looked by the masters, are generally very dear to the 

 servants, is a thing not lightly to be trusted to subor- 

 dinates without supervision ; and it is not too much to 

 say that if all these are to thrive and be happy and 

 there is no more depressing sight round a country house 

 than sick and ailing animals the master may rise at 

 half-past six, and still feel that by eight o'clock break- 

 fast he has not done more than the supervision of his 

 animal dependents requires. It is only too common in 

 country houses to see hungry horses and cattle and 

 famished poultry, which ought to have been fed at six, 

 and are kept without food till eight by the neglect of 

 careless servants. Besides the welfare of the animals, 

 this early rising offers two other " compensations for 

 disturbance," health, and the beauty of the garden, 

 which is never so lovely as in the early morning, when 

 the flowers seem half-asleep, and all the wild birds in it 

 are tame and confiding. Never, since the great revival 

 in Queen Elizabeth's days, has the garden had a greater 

 store of pleasure to offer than now, when all good 

 flowers, old and new, are cultivated and cherished for 

 their single and separate beauty, instead of being 

 banished to distant borders to make way for curly 

 cactuses and paths of pounded brick. The garden is 

 the one pleasure of country life which stands unques- 

 tioned and alone ; it is a pleasure which never palls, 

 which makes demands upon our time rather than our 

 purse, and is dearer to women even than to men. 

 From March till October the flowers last, from the first 

 tulip that raises the signal of spring to the last Michael- 

 mas daisies drenched with autumn dew. In the late 



