4 8 
Old Time Gardens 
step, usually in the home of the well-to-do. A 
great shell might be on either side of the door- 
sill, if there chanced to be seafaring men-folk who 
lived or visited under the roof-tree. Annuals were 
few in number ; sturdy old perennial plants of many 
years' growth were the most honored dwellers in 
the front yard, true representatives of old families. 
The Roses were few and poor, for there was usually 
some great tree just without the gate, an Elm or 
Larch, whose shadow fell far too near and heavily 
for the health of Roses. Sometimes there was a 
prickly semidouble yellow Rose, called by us a 
Scotch Rose, a Sweet Brier, or a rusty-flowered white 
Rose, similar, though inferior, to the Madame Plan- 
tier. A new fashion of trellises appeared in the 
front yard about sixty years ago, and crimson Bour- 
sault Roses climbed up them as if by magic. 
One marked characteristic of the front yard was 
its lack of weeds ; few sprung up, none came to 
seed-time ; the enclosure was small, and it was a 
mark of good breeding to care for it well. Some- 
times, however, the earth was covered closely under 
shrubs and plants with the cheerful little Ladies' 
Delights, and they blossomed in the chinks of the 
bricked path and under the Box edges. Ambrosia, 
too, grew everywhere, but these were welcome — 
they were not weeds. 
Our old New England houses were suited in 
color and outline to their front yards as to our 
landscape. Lowell has given in verse a good de- 
scription of the kind of New England house that 
always had a front dooryard of flowers. 
