Other again to fresh beauty, making a glory of its rocks, and covering 
Howth the whole top of the hill with a cloak of purple. That 
Gardens however is a different story, and not a garden one. 
Of garden-pictures proper, which return to the memory 
in connection with this hill of Howth, a few may be jotted 
down here almost at random. Thus, in a garden upon the side 
facing landwards, a succession of high slopes, clothed to the 
very tops with Japanese Roses, chiefly of the Rugosa persuasion, 
is one which stands out with special vividness. ‘The wooded 
grounds to the back of these rose-covered slopes possess a wealth 
of creepers, festooning the trees and scenting the air in a fashion 
which it is difficult to persuade oneself is a mere bit of artifice, 
due to the cunning hand of an expert horticulturist. In 
another and a smaller garden upon the other side of the head- 
land a hollow, shut away from the rest of the grounds, and 
brimming over with Wichuriana and other Roses, is what rises 
first before my mind’s eye. So brimming over indeed was it 
when I saw it that the flowers appeared to have burst the bounds 
assigned to them, and to have gone tossing and tumbling headlong 
downhill of their own accord towards where, below a steep pitch 
of ground, the pale gray rocks of the shore-line became visible. 
Unlike the shallow sandy type of shore usually found 
upon this coast, the water upon this north-eastern side of 
Howth is, even at low tide, deep. And this, combined with 
the whole character of its scenery, with its suggestively-placed 
lighthouse, and keenly penetrating air, tends to give it a certain 
stamp of dignity—I might almost say of austerity—not readily 
associable with that debased word “suburban”; one which even 
a recently constructed electric tram-line has, odd to relate, been 
unable wholly to do away with. 
20 
