NOVEMBER 205 



It is well worth while for anyone walking round the 

 kitchen garden in November to pick the few remaining 

 frost-bitten pods of the Scarlet Runners. When gathered 

 and opened, what a treat of colour they display ! — ^recalling 

 wet shells on the seashore, mottled and marked, and of 

 a rich deep purple, and no two alike. 1 grow Scarlet 

 Eunners singly, or two or three together, between the 

 Apple-trees ; and it is a good plan, as they bear much 

 better than when planted in rows in the open, and look 

 much prettier. They creep up into the branches of the 

 Apple-trees ; the growth is so light it does no harm, 

 while it protects the late pods from frost. 



The dear, bare branches of my favourite Polygonum 

 cuspidatum, here planted in a hole in the grass, look 

 lovely now at this time of the year, red in the sunshine 

 against a background of evergreens. I have now on the 

 table before me — cold and grey as it is out of doors — 

 Marigolds, Tea-rose buds (that are opening in the room, 

 and looking so pretty with a shoot of their own brown 

 leaves), Neapolitan Violets, some branches of small white 

 Michaelmas Daisies, and of course Chrysanthemums — 

 those autumn friends we are half tired of, and yet we 

 could so little do without. Another striking feature in 

 the garden just now are some small Beech-trees, quite 

 small, grown and cut back as shrubs are pruned. In a 

 soil where Beech-trees do not grow naturally, it is well 

 worth while to have them in this way, because of their 

 peculiarity of retaining on their branches the red dry 

 leaves more than half through the winter, causing a 

 distinct point of colour against the evergreen shrubs. 



November lith. — This is my last day in the country, 

 calm and warm. I eat my luncheon by the open window. 

 AU Nature is very, very still, the silence broken now and 

 then by the chirp of a bird and the distant crow of a cock 

 in some neighbour's yard ; the sky is pearly and grey, and 

 soft light-grey mists hang about, just enough to show up 



