TOWN GARDENS 



Besides these, pink and white Brambles, Meadowsweet, 

 Weigela, and Rhododendrons all grow fairly easily. 



One of the first sights the traveller notices on approach- 

 ing any large town is the numerous and gay back gardens 

 of the little houses. The contents of these gardens are a 

 true index to the inhabitants of the houses. Where one 

 garden boasts little but old packing-cases, drying linen, 

 a few stalks of hollyhocks, and one or two giant sun- 

 flowers, the very next will show borders full of all varie- 

 ties of flowers in season, an eloquent picture of what may 

 be done with a little trouble. The consolation and 

 pleasure these little town gardens give is out of all pro- 

 portion to their size. The man who can come home to a 

 villa, however badly built and hideous, and it often 

 appears that some competition in ugliness has won 

 suburban prizes, can find a delight all good gardeners 

 know in working his plot of land. 



One thing we can see at a glance, that the good in- 

 fluence of one well-kept garden in a row will very soon 

 have its effect. There is one street I know within the 

 bounds of London, a street of new houses with little 

 gardens in front of them running down to the pavement. 

 I watched this street with interest from its very begin- 

 ning. At first it was a thing of beauty, the men at work 

 on the buildings, the scaffolding against the sky, the 

 horses and carts waiting with loads of brick, the gradual 

 growth of the houses from foundation to roof. Even the 

 ugliest building is beautiful in the course of construction, 

 the poles and ladders hiding the coarse design. Then 

 there came a day when the street was finished. It is not 

 an entire street, but about half, being a row of twenty or 

 so houses built in flats, three flats in each house. When 

 the men left and the houses stood naked, after the plan 

 of the builder, looking pitiful and commonplace, the 

 new red brick was raw, the little balconies very white and 



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