1/6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



speak of, remind many a gaudy neighbour that fine 

 feathers do not constitute a perfect bird, and that men 

 have other senses as well as that of sight to please. Not 

 even among the Roses shall we find a more delicious 

 perfume. The Thurifer wears a sombre cassock, but 

 no sweeter incense rises heavenward.^ 



In one of our midland gardens there is a circular 

 space hedged in, and filled exclusively with sweet- 

 scented leaves and flowers. There grow the Eglan- 

 tine and the Honeysuckle, the Gilliflower, the Clove 

 and Stock, Sweet-Peas and Musk, Jasmine and Ger- 

 anium, Verbena and Heliotrope ; but the Eglantine 

 to me, when I passed through ' The Sweet Garden,' 

 as it is called, just after a soft. May shower, had the 

 sweetest scent of them all. It is an idea very grace- 

 fully imagined and happily realised, but suggested 

 by, and still suggesting, sorrowful sympathies, for the 

 owner of that garden is blind.^ 



The Austrian Brier is a Sweet-Brier also ; and 

 though not so fragrant in its foliage as our own old 

 favourite, it brings us, in the variety called Persian 

 Yellow, a satisfactory recompense, namely, flowers of 

 deepest, brightest yellow, prettily shaped, but small. 



1 Lord Penzance has produced by hybridization some charming 

 varieties of this family. See Appendix, p. 291. 



2 The blind Squire of Osberton has been long dead, but I retain this 

 description of his Sweet Garden, hoping that the idea may be realised 

 elsewhere, for the comfort and refreshment of others similarly affected. 



