every imaginable annual, broken by soft-toned plants like Autumnal 
Nepeta, Heliotrope, and Sweet Alyssum, and of the long Aspect of 
alley (of which a sketch is given at page 62), which runs Gardens 
between severely clipped Yews and Hollies, and is planted 
almost entirely with mauve Nepeta and Larkspurs. 
Memories, too, were recalled of the Strouan garden, where 
I had painted Montbretias (Germamia, orange red, and Aurea, 
golden yellow) only ten days before, as they glowed on a 
sunless day against pale mauve Sweet Peas with a background of 
fruit trees, Irish Yews, and distant mountains, and where I had 
left unpainted several other good subjects. Two pink borders 
especially attracted me—in the one were Shell Pink Japonica 
Anemone, with Auratums and clumps of AHyacinthus candicans 
at intervals, and mauve and cream Violas below—in the other 
were Phloxes, Hollyhocks, and Michaelmas Daisies. Yet 
another border, planted chiefly for October effect, was gay 
with groups of white Anemones, bright mauve Michaelmas 
Daisies, tigrinum and auratum Lilies, Tritomas, Eryngiums, and 
golden Montbretia. Everywhere it was the same story, the beds 
were full of flowers looking as if they meant to bloom for weeks. 
Phloxes never seem to flourish anywhere as they do in 
Scotland. I learnt at Nether Place the value of pink and white 
varieties massed with the rich blue of Monkshood, set against 
the dark background of the finest old Irish Yews I have ever 
seen, and at Barskimming the beauty of the mauves, alone or 
grouped near white flowers, such as Clematis flammula or 
Hydrangea paniculata. 
The sketch of the picturesque garden of Kirkhill, in the 
Lowlands (shown in “ Lily Notes”) was not painted till October, 
when tigrinum splendens and Michaelmas Daisies were in 
5Y 
