152 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



call well planted, in good bold masses of colour ; whereas 

 near Dublin more than two years ago I found the best 

 herbaceous border I have ever seen. The way of plant- 

 ing in this Dubhn border, with all the reds in one place, 

 and the blues, the yellows, and the whites kept apart as 

 much as possible, was as superior to the dotted arrange- 

 ment as the dotted system is to the line, in my opinion. 

 I even saw in some places this year what I as a child 

 had remembered as old mixed borders, turned into that 

 terrible gardening absurdity, carpet-bedding — the pride, 

 I suppose, of the gardener and the admiration of his 

 friends. This is never to be seen now in Surrey, I think, 

 except in certain beds at Hampton Court ; and why it is 

 continued there I find it hard to understand, unless it 

 is that it really does give pleasiire to Londoners, and 

 certainly in its way it is carried out to great perfection. 



I had always heard of the brilliant beauty of Scotch 

 gardens, and the moment I saw them I understood why 

 it was. The seasons are so late that aU the summer 

 flowers bloom together ; May and June of the South 

 merge into July and August in Scotland, and everything 

 is in flower at once. No wonder the gardens look bright ; 

 besides, the damp air makes the colours more beautiful 

 and the scent stronger. 



It is, I think, very interesting to the gardener, where- 

 ever he goes, to see how the common everyday things 

 flourish more in one place than another. The Highlands 

 seem to be the home of the Gooseberry — such old and 

 hoary bushes, more or less covered by grey Lichens, but 

 laden none the less with little hairy Gooseberries, both 

 red and green, and full of flavour. There, too, the 

 beautiful TropcsoVum speciosum, South American stranger 

 as it is, flames and flourishes and luxuriates everywhere, 

 growing too, as it wiU not do in the South, in full sun- 

 shine. The seed is so lovely in Scotland, almost as 



