24 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



the little forecourt bright with roses and lilies 

 and hollyhocks which is an adjunct so ordinary of 

 rural English homes, however lowly. Some win- 

 dow plants, or a flower-pot set in the loop of an 

 iron rod and hung up against the wall of a chalet, 

 perhaps an oleander or fuchsia in a tub that can 

 be housed in winter in some safe corner of the 

 rough stable, secure from the attention of cow 

 or goat, may often be noticed a pathetic tribute 

 to the human hunger for flowers. In Norway only, 

 overcoming every difficulty, are the peasants so 

 clever as to make gardens of their housetops, by 

 covering the roofs with sods and sowing gay an- 

 nuals upon them. 



But we may safely conclude that the village 

 homes of England were not always flower-decked. 

 We have only to take down an English history 

 from our book-shelves to read, if we will, of the 

 miserable hovels of the poor, the hardships under 

 which they writhed, and the social discontent which 

 led to continual outbreaks of revolt. " A life so 

 wretched," cries out Sir Thomas More in his 

 "Utopia," "that even a beast's life seems envi- 

 able." It was not then the Merrie England, 

 surely, of which so many tales are told ! 



So long as serfdom existed, the churl was, as- 

 suredly, the slave of his overlord; but his food, 

 if rough and coarse, was plentiful there was no 

 lack of meat or meal but when the churl became 

 a freed-man, he was the slave of bodily needs, and 

 had much ado to provide for himself and his family 

 the common necessaries of life. The farmer was 

 but little better off. We find his picture painted 



