2 COLOUR SCHEMES 



Brown leaves still hang on young Beech and Oak. 

 The trunks of the Spanish Chestnuts are elephant- 

 grey, a notable contrast to the sudden, vivid shafts 

 of the Birches. Some groups of the pale early Pyrenean 

 Daffodil gleam level on the ground a little way forward. 

 It is the year's first complete picture of flower-effect 

 in the woodland landscape. The place is not very far 

 from the house, within the nearest hundred yards 

 of the copse, where flowers seem to be more in place 

 than further away. Looking to the left, the long ridge 

 and south slope of the house-roof is seen through the 

 leafless trees, though the main wall-block is hidden by 

 the sheltering HoUies and Junipers. 



Coming down towards the garden by another broad 

 grassy way, that goes westward through the Chestnuts 

 and then turns towards the down-hill north, there 

 comes yet another deviation through Rhododendrons 

 and Birches to the main lawn. But before the last 

 turn there is a pleasant mass of colour showing in the 

 wood-edge on the dead-leaf carpet. It is a straggling 

 group of Daphne Mezereum, with some clumps of red 

 Lent Hellebores, and, to the front, some half-connected 

 patches of the common Dog-tooth Violet. The nearly 

 related combination of colour is a delight to the trained 

 colour-eye. There is nothing brilliant ; it is all 

 restrained — refined ; in harmony with the veiled light 

 that reaches the flowers through the great clumps of 

 HolUes and tall half-overhead Chestnuts and neigh- 

 bouring Beech. The colours are all a little " sad," 

 ■ as the old writers so aptly say of the flower-tints of 

 secondary strength, But it is a perfect picture. One 



