34 
The Fern Garden . 
as if the dryads themselves attended to the planting. 
I could mention hundreds of private gardeners where 
I have seen beautiful ferneries under glass, but the 
reader would gain nothing by the list. Pardon my 
boldness, but in truth I have scarcely met with a fernery 
to surpass Mrs. Hibberd’s in beauty and interest, though 
it is on an extremely small scale. I will tell you some- 
thing about it. 
Given, a recess in the walls of a house, and what shall 
we do with it ? It is of no use to put the question to 
echo, who is represented as giving answers as required, 
because an honest echo could only reply, “ Do with it V 9 
which, at the best, would be ambiguous, and might be 
supposed to mean, “ Do away with it V 9 In a certain 
sense that is just what I have done; for, by converting 
the recess into a fernery, it is a recess no more, but a 
part and parcel of the garden, and yet not utterly sepa- 
rated from the dwelling-house. Please allow a few 
hap-hazard lines to represent the case in the first in- 
stance. If you suppose A to be one side of the house, 
2 
B 
3 
1 
C 
and C another side, then B will be the recess or hole in 
the wall requiring to be occupied in some way or other, 
or by some construction to be blotted out. Letter A 
