78 TOWN AND WINDOW GARDENING 



have been played upon it, — first croquet, then tennis, 

 then croquet again in the cycle of the mode ; dainty 

 tea-cups' cheerful chink has softly sounded over it, and oft 

 has it been dinted by childish feet. In the morning it 

 has been dim with early dew, at noon a carpet all alive 

 with shadows flung from leaves, and in the evening warm 

 and smooth and barred by sunshine. The lawn has been 

 as good as a sun-dial for telling the hours ; the trees are 

 the pointers, here a Willow and there an Oak, and the 

 dial-plate is the grass itself. Whether in shade or sunshine, 

 the lawn is always soft to the foot and pleasant to the 

 eye. 



In this garden grass was made the keynote. Turf is 

 the favourite bordering for the shrubbery — a good wide 

 border, that makes a handsome edge and is pretty for 

 flowers to tumble over ; grass again where there is room 

 for another little lawn, that can be given up to flower- 

 beds. 



How much is said now about the dreadful practice of 

 cutting up a lawn to stick flower-beds in it, " shrieking 

 spots of colour set down here and there with little 

 thought." An authority I revere says "a lawn is a place 

 for grass ; to spot bright beds all over it is to ruin it." 

 I quite admit that to " spot," if there is only room for 

 one lawn, is gross Vandalism, but I am quite as firmly 

 convinced that no garden is complete without some 

 flower-beds set in turf. What else shows the colours to 

 so much advantage ? Flower-beds in gravel, with a stiff 

 edging of Box, do not please me at all ; they are formal, 

 and the effect is hard. Even these can be improved by a 

 broad edging of grass to every bed. Herbaceous borders 

 are delightful ; we cannot live without them, but we do 

 want beds too, they are so brilliant, so useful, and so well- 

 behaved. " Bedders " are the good children of the garden, 

 herbaceous plants the wayward. To manage them is 

 like playing a game of croquet with Wonderland Alice's 



