86 
NATURE NOTES 
garden, an old-fashioned rose-and-jasmine-covered cottage. A 
cottage wherein were deep window seats, delightful to repose, 
read, or dream away the happy drowsy hours in ; and casements 
through which, when open, the pink and white blush roses 
persisted in obtruding their shy, yet inquisitive faces, filling the 
long low-ceilinged room with the sweet purity of their fragrance. 
Up and up the roses climbed, nodding past the bedroom lattices, 
up until they nearly reached the roof, and here they paused to 
struggle through a portion of broken casement, to “ blush unseen, 
and waste their sweetness ” on the sunny but dusty atmosphere 
of the attics. 
But the “ wild and winsome jessamine tree,” whose 
“ Tiny flow’rets seem in glee 
Like silver spray-drops down to fall,” 
never aspired to climb so high, but remained, like a modest 
maiden, clinging gracefully round the porch and the lower case- 
ment windows, its subtle perfume mingling sweetly with that 
of the roses. 
There was an upper and a lower garden, the latter being 
approached from the former by a flight of stone steps. The 
former was shut off from the road by a tall hedge on which grew 
the glistening snowberries, and at first sight it seemed as though 
the dark leaves had been flecked with real snow, so white, large 
and numerous were the berries. 
This little upper garden was kept in the most trim order, 
from the small, carefully cut lawn, to the border of choice, 
brilliantly coloured dwarf nasturtiums, a vivid splash of colour 
with a subdued background of pure green. 
I have never, before or since, seen these flowers grow to such 
perfection as here. Gardeners do not utilise them half so much 
as they might, nor do people generally realise their great beauty 
of form and colour. The climbing variety, which seems to be 
the most popular, is not half so showy, and is very apt to run to 
leaves, the one or two flowers being almost completely hidden 
by them. 
In one corner of the garden grew an elder-berry tree, and here 
every evening several jays used to take up their sleeping-place, 
and how they did quarrel and chatter to be sure, before they 
finally settled for the night ! 
Jays are, or were, plentiful in this part of Gloucestershire : 
we had one as a pet, and a splendid talker he became. At 
the top of the steps was a low barberry bush, and it was quite 
a sight to watch the numerous thrushes congregate, pluck the 
red berries and swallow them like so many pills, with the 
greatest rapidity imaginable. 
At t ne bottom of the lower garden stood a grain mill, and 
running parallel was the brook that had at one time fed it, and 
which, also, I believe, suggested the name of Inchbrook for the 
hamlet; but the mill had long since fallen into disuse and 
decay, and half in ruins, and wholly dark and silent, it kept 
a grim and solitary watch over the place. 
