1 8 BOOK OF OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 



Through the trees, which now have grown to 

 moderate size, may always be seen the most beautiful 

 setting which a beautiful garden can have — the ever 

 restless sea. The contrast is good and effective, and 

 is calculated to prevent any undue development of 

 horticultural vanity. 



I thought of Ruskin's statement that "the path of a 

 good woman is indeed strewn with flowers, but they 

 rise behind her steps, not before them," when one day I 

 sat on a quaint old seat under a pear tree in this little 

 flowerful garden ; for it is literally behind his steps, 

 not before them, that all the beauty of my friend's garden 

 has sprung up. Each beautiful leaf and stem and flower 

 are products of his labour and care almost as much as 

 of sun and rain. Yet to a stranger the garden shows 

 no sign of human fingers, human muscles, or human 

 interference. 



To many, possibly to most, there is attractiveness in a 

 garden of well-kept, straight-bordered paths, of tidy beds 

 symmetrical beyond reproach, of plants arranged like 

 soldiers under review ; but to me such gardens- — how- 

 ever pleasant to look at — seem unsuited to repose and 

 impossible to sit and dream in. 



This garden is very different. It has no trees cut to 

 the shape of peacocks or wind-mills, no hideous collec- 

 tion of stakes and raffia, which goes by the name of 

 " the carnation bed " (after the manner of Thackeray's 

 " library where the boots are kept "). It is merely a 

 bit of enclosed and humanised natural beauty, a place 

 where one may quietly enjoy delightful flowers and 

 delightful fragrance without the jarring condition of 

 viewing behind the scenes all the time that the per- 

 formance is being enacted. Every flower in the garden 

 was originally planted by my friend, and has been 

 regularly watched over and tended by him ever since, 

 yet not one but looks as though it had been planted 



