22 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 
under man’s dominion, we shall see, have, little by 
little, become more artfully like Nature. 
The one place which St. Augustine boasted that 
might reasonably be expected to show real design was, 
of course, the Government House, the seat of the Ade- 
lantado; and sure enough, here was a garden of some 
pretense. But Major Ogilvie, the English officer 
who received the town from the Spanish at the time 
of its cession in 1763, behaved so abominably that 
“the Governor destroyed his gardens, which had been 
stocked with rare ornamental plants, trees and flow¬ 
ers.” And the Spaniards very generally left the 
country, unable to endure the indignities of the situa¬ 
tion; with which emotions and exodus I must confess a 
sympathy, although the Governor’s unrestrained ebul¬ 
lition of temper, taken out on his garden, of all things, 
was most lamentable! But human nature is human 
nature—and he was sorely tried, beyond a doubt. 
After all, it seems that his destructive efforts failed 
in a measure, however; for the design of the grounds 
remained, clear and definite enough for William Stork, 
the engineer, to trace them in his plan of the town, 
made just after it was ceded to England, for his de¬ 
scription of East Florida. Neither did he succeed al¬ 
together in throwing doubt on what had grown in his 
gardens, although here, to be sure, we have no direct 
statement but must accept tradition. The English 
