House and Garden 
been supplanted by modern sash or square 
panes of glass, which are not nearly so pic¬ 
turesque. You will notice also the tiles 
used for the covering of the porch and their 
fish-scale shape. 
The gardens in the Isle of Wight are 
especially rich in luxuriant growth and the 
wealth of sweet flowers. Part of the garden 
of the Post Office at Shalfleet has already 
been described. The whole village is most 
picturesque, lying in a hollow in the western 
part of the island. The merciless hand of 
the “restorer” has as yet spared its beauties. 
We give a view of the pretty garden path with 
its trees and flowers, an ideal border. Adjoin¬ 
ing this picturesque post office is another 
cottage equally beautiful, with its mantle of 
ivy and Virginia creeper, its dormer windows 
and tiled roof whereon the lichen clings and 
produces a rich coloring. 
Our villagers are very expert gardeners. 
They know not the Latin names of plants; 
they have their own names for shrubs and 
flowers, which you will not find in the 
botanical books, but are formed on some 
whimsical idea, some errant fancy born of 
rustic imagination or quaint conceit, and are 
often very appropriate and true. Lecturers 
sometimes come to teach us how to dig our 
gardens, what potatoes to plant, what fertil¬ 
izers to use, the kind and nature of the soil 
which it is our privilege to cultivate. But 
our rustics like not lecturers. We think we 
know from experience quite as much as the 
lecturer can tell us; so we refuse to “ sit 
under ” his eloquent discourses, and prefer 
to pursue our own ignorant and perhaps 
mistaken ways. Here is a description of a 
Berkshire village garden told by one who 
knows her county well and the quaint ways 
of her rural neighbors. She tells of the 
glories of “ the Red House which gained its 
title in its youth. A century of wear and 
weather has toned the bricks until they look 
almost colorless by contrast with the rich, 
crimson flowers of the Pyrus Japonica that is 
trained beneath the lower windows. The 
upper portion of the walls is covered bv a 
A FRONT GARDEN NEAR DORKING 
2 53 
