oi THE MANSE GARDEN. 



put your hand to the work. A volume of minute 

 details might be written on this pleasant theme ; but, 

 giving an air of importance by the minuteness of de- 

 tail, they would serve only to deter from the enter- 

 prise which their author would zealously recommend. 

 There is no such mystery in the matter. Only make 

 a beginning; improvement will grow out of experi- 

 ment ; and you will find in the very nature of the 

 work a new interest communicated to your life; and 

 which, relieving the pressure of cares, and lightening 

 the burden of toil, will tend to no worldliness of 

 spirit; for ministers certainly do not plant for their 

 heirs, and though others may, yet do they reap only 

 the pleasure of their handiwork, and must bequeath 

 its gains to the unknown futurity. Thus conferring 

 as well as receiving good, and incurring no evil, let 

 our gardens and every corner of our glebes be 

 adorned ; and if we have to lament, on the part of 

 those having large possessions, that too little is done, 

 let us at least set an example, though it be but in 

 the model style, and have our home a paradise of 

 fruit and flower, of shelter and shade, endeavouring 

 still to make the place more worthy of ourselves, and 

 eurselves more worthy of the place. 



In order to avoid the box-like appearance of a 

 common walled garden, I have recommended, as part 

 of the enclosing line, a hedge and sunk fence. It is 

 not to be expected that before the hedge is well 

 grown, the low wall should be sufficient to keep out 

 the ordinary intruders; and there it will be necessary 

 to erect a paling, which may be very slight, as it will 

 neither be long needed nor have much to do in re- 

 sisting cattle, being well aided by the sunken wall of 



