170 MY GARDEN 



turns for posterity, and do my gardening in the grand 

 manner. I would secure half a county, and plan 

 forests, lakes, islands in the lakes, and marble temples 

 to Ceres and Pomona on the islands. I would 

 emulate the princes of the ancient time, and my 

 garden should resemble those classic and stately 

 plantations of the past, wherein " noble spirits con- 

 tented not themselves with trees, but by the attend- 

 ance of aviaries, fishponds, and all variety of animals ; 

 they made their gardens the epitome of the earth, and 

 some resemblance of the secular shows of old." 



One cannot cram the epitome of the earth into an 

 acre, but birds, beasts, and even reptiles occur in my 

 garden from time to time. The little pond is the 

 centre of fascination for most of them. Here the 

 human boy shall be found harassing the newts and 

 water-man beetles, and the human girl also appears, 

 to the discomfort of dragon-flies and dismay of 

 water-snails. My higher vertebrates are, however, 

 better treated under the chapter devoted to garden 

 pests. 



Of respectable wild beasts the hedgehog occurs. 

 He goes his nightly rounds and, I think, does good 

 according to his lights. If we meet, as sometimes 

 happens, in the dusk, he salaams very respectfully, 

 bows his head down between his paws, and remains 

 motionless in that somewhat servile attitude until I 

 have passed by. Squirrels cross my garden constantly, 

 with that little undulating run of theirs; but they 

 do not stay, as I have nothing to offer them. Field- 

 mice, on the contrary, are very fond of half-hardy 



