THE LURE OF THE GARDEN 



roses step primly beside the path, and where the night- 

 ingale keeps the long June nights awake. 



Here half the social life of England is passed. The 

 small householder gives his garden quite as much care 

 and thought as he does his house. He improves upon 

 what his father has done, projects new plans and cher- 

 ishes the old ones. At five o'clock he welcomes his 

 friends there. And tea in an English garden is Eng- 

 land at her best and most intimate. An English house 

 seems forever leading you to its lawns and flower beds. 

 The windows open on the green spaces or flower- 

 edged walks, its whole being turns to it, as it were. 

 Here the nurse-maid sits of mornings at her sewing 

 while the children dig in their own beds, or question 

 the despotic old gardener, whose rules they must im- 

 plicitly obey; while the afternoon brings the master 

 from his work in the city for an hour or two's refresh- 

 ment before dinner, and the evening sees the family 

 and their guests, with a rug beneath them to guard 

 against the ever-present dampness, taking their coffee 

 and cigarettes on the lawn, while they listen to the 

 nightingales. Here it is that the life of the home cen- 

 ters, finding among the flowers its greatest charm and 

 freedom, yielding to casual caller or cherished guest its 

 most delightful hospitality. 



The following book is pledged to convey to its 

 readers something of this social side of gardens old 

 and new. Following no strict rule or formal plan, but 



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