22 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



under man's dominion, we shall see, have, little by 

 little, become more artfully like Nature. 



The one place which St. Augustine boasted that 

 might reasonably be expected to show real design was, 

 of course, the Government House, the seat of the Ade- 

 lantado; and sure enough, here was a garden of some 

 pretense. But Major Ogilvie, the English officer 

 who received the town from the Spanish at the time 

 of its cession in 1763, behaved so abominably that 

 "the Governor destroyed his gardens, which had been 

 stocked with rare ornamental plants, trees and flow- 

 ers." And the Spaniards very generally left the 

 country, unable to endure the indignities of the situa- 

 tion; with which emotions and exodus I must confess a 

 sympathy, although the Governor's unrestrained ebul- 

 lition of temper, taken out on his garden, of all things, 

 was most lamentable! But human nature is human 

 nature — and he was sorely tried, beyond a doubt. 



After all, it seems that his destructive efforts failed 

 in a measure, however; for the design of the grounds 

 remained, clear and definite enough for William Stork, 

 the engineer, to trace them in his plan of the town, 

 made just after it was ceded to England, for his de- 

 scription of East Florida. Neither did he succeed al- 

 together in throwing doubt on what had grown in his 

 gardens, although here, to be sure, we have no direct 

 statement but must accept tradition. The English 



