NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 267 



in admiration of them than of those of New College, such 

 beautiful lawns with tall ancient trees, and heavy clouds of 

 foliage, and sunny glimpses through archways of leafy branches, 

 where, to-day, we could see parties of girls, making cheerful 

 contrast with the sombre walls and solemn shade. The world, 

 surely, has not another place like Oxford ; it is a despair to see 

 such a place, and ever to leave it, for it would take a lifetime, 

 and more than one, to comprehend and enjoy it satisfactorily. 

 English Note-Books. (Oxford.) 



Positively the garden of Eden cannot have been more beautiful 

 than this private garden of Blenheim. It contains three hundred 

 acres, and by the artful circumlocution of the paths, and the 

 undulations, and the skilfully interposed clumps of trees, is made 

 to appear limitless. The sylvan delights of a whole country are 

 compressed into this space, as whole fields of Persian roses go to 

 the concoction of an ounce of precious attar. The world within 

 that garden fence is not the same weary and dusty world with 

 which we outside mortals are conversant; it is a finer, lovelier, 

 more harmonious Nature; and the Great Mother lends herself 

 kindly to the gardener's will, knowing that he will make evident 

 the half-obliterated traits of her pristine and ideal beauty, and 

 allow her to take all the credit and praise to herself. I doubt 

 whether there is ever any winter within that precinct, any 

 clouds, except the fleecy ones of summer. The sunshine that I 

 saw there rests upon my recollection of it as if it were eternal. 

 The lawns and glades are like the memory of places where one 

 has wandered when first in love. Our Old Home. (Near Oxford.) 



My garden, that skirted the avenue of the Manse, was of pre- 

 cisely the right extent. An hour or two of morning labour was 

 all that it required. But I used to visit and revisit it a dozen 

 times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable 

 progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of, who 

 had never taken part in the process of creation. 



It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to 



