XXIX 
CONCERNING LAWNS, WITH INCI- 
DENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON 
EARTHWORMS 
I am not a lover of lawns; on the contrary, I 
regard them, next to gardens, as the least interesting 
adjuncts of the country-house. Grass, albeit the 
commonest, is yet one of the most beautiful things 
in Nature when allowed to grow as Nature intended, 
or when not too carefully trimmed and brushed. 
Rather would I see daisies in their thousands, 
ground ivy, hawkweed, and even the hated plantain 
with tall stems, and dandelions with splendid 
flowers and fairy down, than the too-well-tended 
lawn grass. This may be regarded as the mental 
attitude of the wild man from the woods, but 
something may be said for it. Sir Walter Raleigh 
explained, centuries ago, the reason of our desire 
for and pleasure in trim gardens, lawns, parks, and 
neatly cut hedges of box and privet and holly: 
those surroundings of the house were invented as 
a refuge from the harsh, brambly outside wilderness, 
the stinging nettles, scratching thorns, sharp hurt- 
ful stones and hidden pits—from all the roughnesses 
and general horriblenesses of an incult Nature. 
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