THE VEGETATION OF THE ISLAND OF ST. LEGEK. 



505 



All this preliminary work was done in less than two months, and 

 then I migrated to what has ever since been my real home. All, 

 except myself, played at colonizing, and my friends, from their 

 point of view, considered my eccentricity (as they called it) the 

 consequence of my recent illness. This seemed to be the general 

 opinion also all round this part of the lake, especially when they saw 

 me discarding the flat-bottomed boats, usually employed, but present- 

 ing very little security in rough weather on this lake, and providing 

 instead some sea-going boats, supplemented also by a little 2|-ton yacht 

 for sailing purposes. 



I had to be brave indeed not to mind and not to be discouraged by 

 those " who knew," or " thought " to know. But I was quite happy 

 at the time, and went on living in what I afterwards, from my own 

 experience, found out to have been more or less of a fool's paradise, 

 because I had not yet begun to make my garden. Still very young, 

 I had never yet had the occasion to " plant " anything, and therefore 

 could not know of the somewhat sour joy in store for me in the shape 

 of my first experience of gardening and gardeners. 



But, before describing some of my gardening experiences, I must 

 first explain some of the structural features of the garden and how 

 they shaped themselves quite naturally. 



After a good and easy approach to the house had been discovered, 

 the other paths and walks were laid out and built. T say huilt, as 

 hardly any of them could be made without a strong sub-structure of 

 stone walls, partly on account of the great and abrupt inequalities in the 

 levels of the ground and partly from wishing to keep as near as 

 possible to the water, so as to gain the maximum available space for 

 future planting. And so the walk, affording an easy promenade round 

 the northern part of the island, has been built on the very edge of the 

 water; it is 7 feet high and three-quarters of it is pretty often under 

 water. 



Another walk, the broadest on the island, measuring 12 feet, and 

 likewise completely built on a stone sub-structure, is cut out from the 

 southern corner of the house (which, as well as all the other inhabitable 

 buildings, stands 32^ feet above the mean level of the lake) and leads 

 in a gentle slope straight down to the water, affording a lovely view of 

 the Italian part of the lake. 



Then another of the principal walks starts from the same corner of 

 the house and, passing through the middle of the island, finishes at the 

 extreme western corner, ending in a terrace, measuring 90 'feet by 

 51 feet, all clad with ivy (Hedera Helix var. canariensis) coming down 

 from a height of 30 feet and sweeping the water, interrupted here and 

 there by Clematis montana, holding its own amongst the ivy and 

 literally covering it with its white flowers. Close to the entrance a 

 strong plant of Cotoneaster huxifolia is just now (August) covered 

 with its bright red berries, and would continue so for a long time were 

 it not for the blackbirds disputing their ownership. 



The view from this terrace is, of course, indescribable : the big 



