GARDENS NEAR THE SEA 



admission to the brotherhood. It was a working order, 

 however, and whether he felt aggrieved on being allotted 

 the task of scrubbing the floors and assisting on a 

 Monday with the family wash, in lieu of attending 

 the garden with Brother Louie, is not known. When 

 curiosity concerning him had somewhat abated, and 

 when the populace had had its fill of peeping at him 

 through the monastery windows, a more picturesque 

 account of him was circulated. He was then described 

 as sitting at the organ in the twilight sounding the 

 call for vespers. There, at least, he may be left, a 

 supposed captive of thyme, for he has not returned to 

 his former life and his companions. 



In spite of the increased formality of the majority 

 of gardens, and the hundreds that exist principally 

 for show, there are still found many that murmur 

 an underlying note of sentiment. It is not meant 

 that in them there bursts from the plants any unusual 

 show of feeling, but rather that the plan of such places 

 and their flowers are peculiarly destined to call forth 

 the imagination and the romantic sentiment dwelling 

 in those who tread their paths and sit under their 

 arches. Naturally, this more often occurs in old gar- 

 dens than in those that are new; for in the former the 

 growth is so well established and so assured as to 

 lack that element of uncertainty which is always a 

 detriment to peaceful sentiment. 



The garden glimpse shown in plate Ixx. is one of 

 the oldest in Salem, where such places have long been 

 noted for their sweetness and their seclusion. This 

 particular garden was laid out in 1782 by an architect, 



[258] 



