Picturesque English Cottages and Their Doorway Gardens 
AT NEWPORT, ISLE OF WIGHT 
Gloire de Dijon or Marechal Niel, or strong¬ 
growing crimson rambler, which fill the air 
with fragrance. Clematis plants of various 
hues are seen on many a cottage wall, and 
ivy, too, “that creepeth o’er ruins old,” loves 
to cling to rustic dwelling- 
places, and sometimes 
clothes walls and thatch 
and chimney with its 
dark green leaves. The 
honeysuckle is a favorite 
plant for climbing pur¬ 
poses. It covers the 
porch and round about 
sheds its rich perfume. 
The garden path is 
made of gravel. In Sus¬ 
sex it is paved with large 
flat Horsham slabs of 
stone. Box edgings are 
not uncommon, than 
which nothing can be 
more handsome or suit¬ 
able. In the beautiful 
little garden of the Shal- 
fieet Post Office there is 
a charming well-trimmed 
edging of box, which surrounds the little 
path and the central bed, wherein stocks 
flourish and a carefully tended standard rose 
raises its beautiful head. Cottagers espec¬ 
ially like edgings made of large loose 
flints or stones arranged in formal shapes 
with little paths between the beds, as in 
the views of the cottage gardens at New¬ 
port, Isle of Wight, where every advantage 
is taken of a little space. You will notice 
also the “gray-heads ” in the wall of the 
cottage, a favorite and old-fashioned method 
of relieving a wall surface, much used in 
Berkshire. The gray-headed bricks are fre¬ 
quently arranged in various patterns and de¬ 
signs. In this little garden no attempt is 
made to grow vegetables. The whole space 
is devoted to flowers. This shows the devo¬ 
tion of the cottager to his flowers in spite of 
the needs of the olive branches. Miss Hay¬ 
den records the saying of an old Berkshire 
dame, who said that she could gaze at them 
all day long, if she had no work to do. 
“They be sawunnerful, an’ there is sa much 
in ’urn, when you comes to study ’um. As 
for hurtin’ or breakin’ a flower, well there, I 
couldn’t do it; ’twud sim downright cruel.” 
The window garden, too, is a sight to be¬ 
hold. You will scarcely find a cottage that 
has not in the window some plants which 
are tended with the greatest care, and are 
A ROSE GARDEN AT TOLLBURY 
25O 
