GARDENS NEAR THE SEA 



that it included a lower garden, a terrace garden, and 

 a water garden. There was also a special place for 

 roses. But the dominant feature of the whole was 

 the box set in so rambling and mysterious a fashion 

 that, had not the present mistress of the garden walked 

 by my side to show the way, I should have been lost 

 in its mazelike intricacies. 



The flower beds edged with box were laid out about 

 seventy-five years ago, but the incipiency of the garden 

 dates from 1652, at which time it is not unlikely that 

 the thoughts of its builder clung with intense affec- 

 tion to the home land across the sea; for it cannot be 

 overlooked that the garden must originally have been 

 much like an old English maze. In this garden George 

 Fox preached to the Indians. 



To-day it rests calmly in its seclusion, happy with 

 fair blossoms. Here grow lavender and many fragrant 

 herbs; here tall lilies glisten in the midday sun, while 

 those floating in the water basin open wide their 

 petals. Here hundreds of perennials live their lives and 

 many annuals grow gayly. 



In this garden there is no tense formality, no sense 

 of newness. It is, moreover, a garden of very distinct 

 personality. 



The water-color sketch (plate Ixxii.) represents it 

 at twilight, the hour at which the pink night moth 

 seeks the primrose; the time when the whiteness of 

 the tall lilies becomes more subtly fair, when the 

 trickling water in the fountain is as the voice of 

 the garden, and when the thoughts of its visitors 

 are filled to overflowing. 



[264] 



