14 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



luscious peas as no mere dealing with the local 

 greengrocer, before we had tasted the delights of a 

 garden of our own, could at all have prepared us 

 for; or we may have borders ablaze in glowing 

 floral splendour ; or, by patient persistence, such 

 roses and chrysanthemums as once seemed to us 

 but an ideal, a dream nowhere to be found on earth 

 outside the wonder-compelling illustrations of the 

 florist's catalogue. 



When, however, we have reaped the reward of 

 our labour in these well-ordered lines of acceptable 

 produce for bodily needs, and when the aesthetic 

 sense within us has been captivated by the rich 

 fragrance, the magnificent colours of the treasures 

 of our parterre, there remains even yet to us an 

 added charm in the return to the sweet simplicity 

 of nature, a corner somewhere where the delicate 

 primroses may cluster and the ferns of the hedge- 

 row unfold their spreading fronds amidst such 

 resemblance to natural conditions as we can com- 

 pass. Some would tell us that such are but weeds, 

 unworthy of a place in any well-ordered garden, 

 while other some, as narrow-minded as these, would 

 seek to persuade us that there is an ineffable charm 

 in these wildlings that the results of the skill of the 

 horticulturist cannot yield ; that the wild strawberry 

 of the woodlands has a flavour that no purchase in 

 Covent Garden can rival ; that the wild rose of the 

 country lane has a beauty and a fragrance that no 



