THOUGHTS ON GARDENING 81 



experience abundantly proves it, let us resist with 

 all our strength the temptation to bring the 

 hurry of workaday life into our gardens. A 

 beautiful pleasaunce, which is to me the embodi- 

 ment of repose and peace, cannot be created by the 

 wave of a magician's wand. We need not regret 

 it, for were it so it would lose its power over 

 the restless spirit. Be we never so impatient, 

 the law of the earth must needs be fulfilled, 

 and we ourselves must tarry for her precious 

 fruits. 



Perhaps it is an old garden that must be re- 

 ordered, and the impulse on first looking round 

 about it is to cut down and to pull up, and re-cast 

 the whole. Wait, and you will reveal unsus- 

 pected treasures above ground and below — a happy 

 combination of tree and climber, a little opening 

 framing a bit of sunset sky or glimpse of woodland 

 — patch of some rare bulb not to be replaced. Axe 

 and spade soon make a clearing, but there is sure 

 to be some feature of the old garden, beloved in 

 bygone time, and precious even yet, which once 

 taken away will be a loss irrecoverable. 



Or our lot may be the making of a new garden 



destined to be a fit and perfect setting to the home, 



which is the Englishman's haven of content. This 



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