A DAY IN THE ELYSIAN FIELDS. 91 



A DAT IN THE ELYSIAN FIELDS. 



[From "The Scottish Gardener" (1860), vol. ix.,/. 109.]* 



HIGH on an emerald throne, inlaid with gold and 

 glittering with brilliants, sat Flora (the Goddess of 

 Flowers), surrounded by a grove of orange trees. On her 

 right hand were Veritas (the Goddess of Truth), Astraea 

 (Justice), Bacchus (Wine) ; and on her left Vertumnus 

 and his wife Pomona (Orchards) ; while at the foot of the 

 throne reclined Priapus (the God of Gardens), Robigus 

 (Mildew), Picumnus (Manuring of Lands), Bonus Eventus 

 (Good Success), and other of the rural deities. Around 

 were magnificent bowls overflowing with nectar, and golden 

 goblets filled with purple wine. It was autumn, the fruits 

 of the earth were garnering or garnered. Here lay a 

 massive pile of luscious pine apples ; there was heaped a 

 gorgeous offering torn from the clustering vine ; in one 

 spot arose a goodly store of pears and apples ; in another 

 mountains of nuts and walnuts, while the abundance of 

 downy peaches, figs, and pomegranates could only be 

 accounted for by the balmy air and genial sunshine of the 

 Elysian Fields. Tranquillity and happiness seemed indeed 

 concentrated there the branches of the orange trees 

 were slightly stirred by the breath of zephyrs as they bent 

 beneath the weight of their golden fruit, while the circum- 

 ambient air was filled with the rich perfume which the 

 various flowers exhaled. 



It was indeed a scene of unearthly beauty, a world of 

 spectral illusion but of seeming substance, a sight such as 

 mortals sometimes behold in Dreamland when the 

 imaginative soul shuffles off for the time her mortal coil, 



* This article was written in reply to an attack on myself, and which at the 

 same time unduly lauded the Manetti Stock ; it was signed "Rosa Spinosa,' 

 and appeared in the " Florist," for January 1860. 



