XXIX 



CONCERNING LAWNS, WITH INCIDENTAL 

 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. 



337 z 



