Robin Hood's Barn 



to grotto, from grotto on to wilderness, in an 

 unswerving circuit designed to prove an arti- 

 ficial stimulus to varying moods. No pleasant 

 progress that, made under the close scrutiny of 

 a guide who fovmd the test of one's gentility in 

 one's manner of response. 



And yet it could be made with gayety; for 

 there was, the story goes, a prankish gentleman 

 who had access to Pope's garden from a strategic 

 position at the rear, and who with every show of 

 innocence and flattery would lead his guests 

 through the famous Twickenham by a reversal 

 of its intended order, upsetting its perspectives, 

 despoiling its vistas, routing its moods, and pro- 

 voking its ill-tempered little owner, "the wicked 

 wasp," to sally forth to implant what proved to 

 be an ineflFectual sting. 



There are no formalities to my own little gar- 

 den and yet I must confess I should not want 

 that gentleman residing at my gates. No, not 

 at either; whether in the rear it led to wilderness, 

 or in front to what in the elegance of his own 

 language, he would term my "desert." I, too, 

 wish to lead my guests on a personally conducted 



[lOO] 



