GARDEN-CRAFT. 



It is a sort of twin-picture, conceived of man in the 

 studio of his brain, painted upon Nature's canvas 

 with the aid of her materials a twin-essay where 

 Nature's 



" primal mind 

 That flows in streams, that breathes in wind " 



supplies the matter, man the style. It is Nature's 

 rustic language made fluent and intelligible Nature's 

 garrulous prose tersely recast changed into imagin- 

 ative shapes, touched to finer issues. 



" What is a garden ? " For answer come hither : 

 be Fancy's guest a moment. Turn in from the dusty 

 high-road and noise of practical things for 



" Not wholly in the busy world, nor quite 

 Beyond it, blooms the garden that I love " ; 



descend the octagonal steps ; cross the green court, 

 bright with great urns of flowers, that fronts the house; 

 pass under the arched doorway in the high enclosing 

 wall, with its gates traceried with rival wreaths of 

 beaten iron and clambering sprays of jasmine and 

 rose, and, from the vantage-ground of the terrace- 

 platform where we stand, behold an art-enchanted 

 world, where the alleys with their giddy cunning, their 

 gentle gloom, their cross-lights and dappled shadows 

 of waving boughs, make paths of fantasy where 

 the water in the lake quivers to the wind's soft foot- 

 prints, or sparkles where the swallows dip, or springs 

 in jets out of shapely fountain, or, oozing from 

 bronze dolphin's mouth, slides down among moss- 

 flecked stones into a deep dark pool, and is seen anon 

 threading with still foot the careless-careful curved 



