NOTES ON A SHELTERED GARDEN 
NE of the most charming of Irish gardens, that of Mount A River 
Usher, Ashford, Co. Wicklow, affords the student of Bank 
beauty many examples worthy of imitation, and sugges- 
tive of fresh ideas. It unites many of the attractions of nature 
with the true skill of consummate gardening. ‘The house was 
formerly a mill, and the most dexterous use has been made of the 
original features of the place in the development of the garden. 
The little river Vartry, which runs through it, has a walled bank 
on one side, beautified in spring by masses of Aubrietia, Arabis, 
Paul’s Carmine Pillar, and other early and late spring flowers, 
which hang from the stones, whilst along the path above runs 
an ultramarine line of big Gentian. Later, these are succeeded 
by Pinks, and still later by the effective scarlet flowers and grey 
green tufts of Zauschneria californica. A creeping grey- 
leafed Convolvulus, Convolvulus altheoides, or Riviera Bind- 
wood, trails over the top of the wall, bearing through the 
summer pretty pink flowers; and Erigeron mucronatus, is 
established in crannies between the stones. 
On the farther side of the river the ground rises rather 
steeply, and the natural edge is left. Rocks lie, as only nature 
lays them, forming miniature promontories and bays. By the 
side of the stream are huge plants of Saxifraga peltata, which 
send their great, snake-like roots into the river, where they 
cling to the rocks forming its bed. Fortunately these plants do 
not resent being drowned in their leafless state, as the water 
in winter rises from three to five feet. Above on the bank are 
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