Box Edgings 
93 
the aunts, who all recalled the occurrence, as they 
reassured the fainting and bewildered girl. She, of 
course, had never known aught of this till she was 
told it by the old Box. 
Many other instances of the hypnotic effect of 
Box are known, and also of its strong influence on 
the mind through memory. I know of a man who 
travelled a thousand miles to renew acquaintance and 
propose marriage to an old sweetheart, whom he had 
not seen and scarcely thought of for years, having 
been induced to this act wholly through memories 
of her, awakened by a chance stroll in an old Box- 
edged garden such as those of his youth ; at the gate 
of one of which he had often lingered, after walking 
home with her from singing-school. I ought to be 
able to add that the twain were married as a result 
of this sentimental memory-awakening through the 
old Box; but, in truth, they never came very close 
to matrimony. For when he saw her he remained 
absolutely silent on the subject of marriage ; the 
fickle creature forgot the Box scent and the singing- 
school, while she openly expressed to her friends 
her surprise at his aged appearance, and her pity for 
his dulness. For the sense of sight is more powerful 
than that of smell, and the Box might prove a 
master hand at hinting, but it failed utterly in per- 
manent influence. 
Those who have not loved the Box for centuries 
in the persons and with the partial noses of their 
Puritan forbears, complain of its curious scent, say, 
like Polly Peacham, that “ they can't abear it," and 
declare that it brings ever the thought of old grave- 
