CHAPTER VII

_JULY_

A perfect summer's day--Wild birds strong on the wing--They can mock at the terriers--My roses in full glory--My collection of Moss roses--Chinese larkspurs or delphiniums--Larkspurs of many strange colours--Chinese peonies--The glory of the tree peony--A hedge of Austrian briar--The hybrid teas--The charm and excellence--The gorgeous hybrid perpetuals--Irises and their beauty--Crimson ramblers and Penzance briars--The bower garden--The charm of annuals--The border beneath the old greengages--Marigolds--Stocks--Love-in-the-Mist--Sweet sultan and cockscomb--Sweet peas in lines for picking--Bess's treasure--Great excitement--A great twittering in the great yew hedge--A cat the suspected cause--Greenfinches hover round us--I see a nest--We fetch the garden steps--A moment of glory--Alas! I fall, and heavily, in securing the prize--The treasure proves to be a young cuckoo--Terror of the children--Help at last arrives--I cannot spend the week, as I had intended, seeing friends framed in their gardens--The children flit off to Constance, and I am left alone--An afternoon of happy daydreams, past and present--The old Hampshire garden--The great gardens of England--Shipton and its charms--James I. of Scotland and his Quhair--The garden at Westminster where Chaucer wrote--Lord Bacon's stately conception of what a garden should be--The charms of wild gardening--A talk about Bacon--His greatness and his baseness--Nonsuch--John Evelyn and his love of a garden--His ride along the Mediterranean coast--Elizabeth of York's bower--Sir Thomas More's garden--The gardens at Hampton Court--Moor Park and its beauties in Hereford--Sheen--Sir William Temple's Moor Park in Surrey--His sundial--The gardens of the ancients--The garden where Epicurus walked--Where Solomon wrote--The Hesperides--The garden of Alcinous--Chaucer's earthly paradise--Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia--The wreaths of other centuries--The extent of Theobalds--Kenilworth and its garden--The old delight of sweet scents--Bacon's suggestion to surround the house with pleasant perfumes--Markham's nosegay garden--Lawson's delight in a garden--A word about the gardeners of the Middle Ages--Many of the gardens of the past are gone--The old home of the Newports--The old gazebo at Eyton--The garden in which the Masque of Flowers was given in 1613--The children return to me--How they spent the afternoon--Shropshire games--Kiss-in-the-ring--Dog Bingo--Bell-horses--Green Gravel--Wallflowers--Nuts in May--Three Dukes a-riding--Ring of roses--A-walking up the green grass--I lie awake--A volume of Milton--The charm of "Comus"--The beauty of the masque--The stately ruins of Ludlow Castle--Princes who have visited it in its days of splendour--The little murdered Princes--Prince Arthur--The Lady Alice--John Milton--His learning--Musician and poet, and a fine swordsman--Auguste's gift--Burbidge's roses--A word about roses--Stories about ladies who have disliked them in the past--Hals' visit draws to a close--Bess broken-hearted--We leave for the seaside 280

INDEX 323

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE PAGE

WENLOCK ABBEY IN 1778 _Frontispiece_ _From an engraving after a drawing by Paul Sandby, R.A._

THE ABBEY FARMERY } 18 } THE CLOISTER GARDEN } _From photographs by kind permission 32 } of Messrs. F. Frith & Co., Ltd._ THE RED WALLED GARDEN } 62

WENLOCK ABBEY IN 1731 94 _From Buck's view._

"MOUSE" AT HOME } } _From photographs by Miss Gaskell_ 114 "MOUSE" ON A VISIT }

THE CHAPEL HALL 132 _From a photograph by Miss K. Wintour._

SIR THOMAS BOTELAR'S HOUSE 152 _From a photograph by Mr. W. Golling._

THE ABBEY RUINS 174 _From a photograph by kind permission of Messrs. F. Frith & Co., Ltd._

NEST OF GREENFINCH { } { _From photographs by kind permission of_ } 186 NEST OF RING-OUZEL { _Mrs. New._ }

RUINS OF WENLOCK ABBEY IN 1778 202 _From an engraving after a drawing by Paul Sandby, R.A._

THE LAVABo 224 _From a photograph by Mr. W. Golling._

THE OLD GUILDHALL 246 _From a photograph by kind permission of Messrs. F. Frith & Co., Ltd._

THE ORATORY 264 _From a photograph by Mr. W. Golling._

CHAPTER HOUSE AT WENLOCK { _From photographs by kind permission } 292 { of Messrs. F. Frith & Co., } OLD WENLOCK TOWN { Ltd._ } 304

SPRING IN A SHROPSHIRE ABBEY