2 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



of old-world man and the semi-tropical mood of Na- 

 ture combined to hold aloof, to decline assimilation 

 with the republic; and although it holds much of in- 

 terest and delight, it is the interest of the strange and 

 foreign rather than of homely familiarity. Here is 

 no affection, no stir of that strange thrill which comes 

 with the contemplation of the things common to our 

 nativity, that wonderful exhilaration which we call 

 patriotism. The old Spanish city in New Spain is 

 with us, but not of us — nor we of it. 



Shorter by a score of years is the trail that began, 

 back at its farther end, when Raleigh's two barks, 

 under the commanders Philip Amidas and Arthur Bar- 

 low, reached the shoal water off the Virginia shore 

 which indicated land not far distant, on the second 

 day of July, 1584; where "we smelt so sweet and 

 strong a smell, as if we had been in the midst of some 

 delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of odorife- 

 rous flowers," wrote Barlow, in his immortal account 

 of the voyage. Wonderful old Barlow! Bronzed, 

 weathered, dauntless man of the sea, yet he wrote as 

 a poet of the sweet promise borne on the wings of the 

 wind; and what a picture he has made for us, just from 

 words, of the land whereon they finally landed. "We 

 -viewed the land about us, being, whereas we first 

 landed, very sandy and low toward the water's side, 

 but so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of 



