A GARDEN BY THE SEA 



attempt at terraces, clipped evergreens, and the like, 

 would have struck a jarring note at once. Therefore, 

 it is quite in keeping that beautiful flowers and beautiful 

 shrubs border one's way right up to the entrance door ; 

 nor does Nature end there, for over all the outer walls 

 are trained lovely and fragrant climbers — Clematis, Rose, 

 and Honeysuckle — which give the idea that the cottage 

 does indeed nestle " in the garden. 



Through the open windows also, at almost any time 

 of the year, pours the delicious scent of leaf and flower 

 — of Winter Sweet, Violets, or Sweet Peas ; of Stocks, 

 or Mignonette ; of Wallflowers, or Roses. Just to name 

 a few of the plants whose scent fill the rooms, what 

 glories are thereby called up : — Honeysuckle and Jasmine, 

 Lily of the Valley, Lilac and Narcissus, Carnation, 

 Syringa and Heliotrope, Thyme, Bergamot, and Aloysia ! 

 These, and a hundred other fragrances mingled together 

 in infinitely varying combinations, give sensuous joys 

 which even the most jaded can but appreciate. For 

 there is probably no pleasure so democratic as that which 

 is yielded by the fragrance of flowers and leaves. The 

 colour and form of plants require a little attention for 

 their appreciation, but their odour overwhelms our senses 

 whether we attend or no. The variety of perfumes 

 yielded by plants is almost as great as their forms, for 

 blossom of Apple and of Jonquil, leaf of Strawberry, 

 Currant and Sweet Gale gives each an aesthetic pleasure 

 peculiar to itself. 



In Elizabethan times, a royal visit seems to have been 

 preceded by a process of sweeting the house, which 

 consisted in filling the rooms with scent of crushed 

 leaves and flowers, scattering also extracts and essences 

 of fragrant plants. This sweeting of the rooms is a 

 continuous process through the open windows of the 

 cottage, and no queenly visit would induce any aug- 

 mentation of it. 



B 



