CONSERVATORIES 161 



the flower- picture and of hiding a good deal of the 

 upper part of the glazing, while the plants would 

 have the full benefit of the light. If the porch 

 was of fair height and the glass merely a lean-to, giv- 

 ing a space inside of only four or five feet wide by 

 two or three deep, it would still accommodate enough 

 plants to make a pretty show, and I know nothing 

 about a house that offers so bright and kindly a 

 welcome to a visitor. 



Such a small space, even without a greenhouse 

 in the background, could be easily dressed with a 

 few pots of Aspidistra and some potted hardy Ferns 

 as a groundwork; then a flowering plant or two, 

 renewed from time to time at very small cost from 

 a nursery or shop or barrow, would be all that is 

 needed to keep it bright. 



Wasted opportunities are ever-flowing sources of 

 regret. I feel this every time I pass any of the 

 small villa residences near towns, whose doors face 

 the road; where, for the sake of some form of desire 

 for pretentious display, or some allied motive to me 

 equally incomprehensible, a good proportion of the 

 small garden-space around the house is wasted, and 

 privacy sacrificed, for the sake of a useless drive to 

 the door, with either a pair of gates in and out, or a 

 screwy space where a one-horse carriage can barely 

 turn. How much better to have one door straight on 

 to the footpath, and a glazed passage filled with well- 

 arranged plants. Such an entrance, seven feet wide 



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