GRASS, GROUND, OR GRAVEL 77 



article on English and Continental suburban gardens 

 that interested me very much, but I am sorry to say 

 there was no mention whatever in it of turf. Certainly 

 there was not much room for grass in the plots that were 

 described, and in some of them the gradients were too 

 steep for grass-growing. The garden I liked best out of 

 those mentioned was a mere strip about thirty yards long 

 by about ten or eleven yards wide. In this small space 

 (little more than a courtyard) was a border with vines 

 and fruit trees and flowers, a broad brick path, and then 

 a pleached alley of small Lime trees, the outer row close 

 against the boundary wall. This is another of the small 

 gardens I have read of that live in my memory and are 

 a pleasure to think of. 



Under the circumstances, it is difficult to see how its 

 arrangement could have been improved upon. I am sure 

 the owners, being people of taste, would have had turf 

 also if possible, and I am still wondering what was done 

 under the Lime avenue. The trees must have been sweet 

 when in flower, but alas ! Lime foliage falters and falls 

 down with the first touch of frost, and then what a litter 

 it makes. But no trees are more delightful in summer ; 

 the wind stirs so gently in the boughs, with eloquent soft 

 speech of leaves. 



It is now a good many years since it fell to my lot to 

 plan and lay out a new suburban garden, fortunately not 

 one of the smallest, and happily placed, inasmuch as the 

 ground ran down to a railway cutting, at that period almost 

 sylvan in its wildness, with scattered Birch and Fir trees 

 and banks of Primroses. How many of this garden's 

 inhabitants have been grateful since for the good broad 

 stretch of turf that then was carefully put down and has 

 gone on improving and mellowing with time and age. 

 Blackbirds and thrushes have hopped about all over it, 

 finding many a meal, and so have round-eyed robins, 

 though not at the same moment ; croquet and tennis 



