28 V^TOOD AND GARDEN 



could be seen, mostly Scotch fir, seemed to be com- 

 pletely wrecked. Some were entirely stripped of 

 branches, and stood up bare, like scafFold-poles. Until 

 the snow was gone or half gone, no idea could be 

 formed of the amount of damage done to shrubs ; all 

 were borne down and buried under the white rounded 

 masses. A great Holly on the edge of the lawn, nearly 

 thirty feet high and as much in spread, whose head in 

 summer is crowned with a great tangle of Honeysuckle, 

 had that crowned head lying on the ground weighted 

 down by the frozen mass. But when the snow was 

 gone and all the damage could be seen, the Junipers 

 looked worse than anything. What had lately been 

 shapely groups were lying perfectly flat, the bare- 

 stemmed, leafless portions of the inner part of the 

 group showing, and looking like a faggot of dry brush- 

 wood, that, having been stood upright, had burst its 

 band and ;fallen apart in all directions. Some, whose 

 stems had weathered many snowy winters, now had 

 them broken short off half-way up ; while others escaped 

 with bare life, but with the thick, strong stem broken 

 down, the heavy head lying on the ground, and the 

 stem wrenched open at the break, like a half-untwisted 

 rope. The great wild Junipers were the pride of our 

 stretch of heathy waste just beyond the garden, and 

 the scene of desolation was truly piteous, for though 

 many of them already bore the marks of former 

 accidents, never within our memory had there been 

 such complete and comprehensive destruction. 



