DAYS AND HOURS IN A GARDEN.
At the South Window.
DAYS AND HOURS IN
A GARDEN.
BY
“E. V. B.”
NINTH EDITION.
LONDON:
Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C.
1896.
NOS ET MEDITEMUR IN HORTO
TO
RICHARD CAVENDISH BOYLE.
WHOSE LOVE FOR NATURE AND FOR ART,
YEARS HAD NOT CHILLED
NOR TROUBLE CHANGED,
THESE RECORDS OF OUR GARDEN
WERE INSCRIBED BY
E. V. B.,
IN 1884.
[Pg ix]
PREFACE.
IF for a sixth reprint of Days and Hoursin a Garden a new Preface was deemedadvisable, still more so, perhaps, shouldthere be something new prefixed to the SeventhEdition, although, indeed, it contains nothingthat in any sense is new. Neither new wordsnor any new vignettes appear therein. Neverthelesswe venture to hope that perhaps newreaders may be found. Since the last editionwas published some three years have comeand gone, with their world-old roll of seasonsand their burden of inevitable change. Thegarden has three times slept beneath the rainsand the snows of winter, and has awakened inspring with the birds and the bees. Meanwhile,the shrubs are taller and larger, and thetrees have extended their roots and stretchedout their branches over lawns and gravel paths.And the summer shade, so coveted in other[Pg x]days, has broadened, while, on the other hand,it has become more hard to maintain in theirwonted brilliancy our borders and flowerfulcloses. The axe and the pruning-knife havebeen busy during the winter months; and manya fine Laurel, in all its wealth of glossy green,has been laid low, and with Yew and the full-foliagedPhylleria, and more than one tall Deodara,—becomea burnt sacrifice to “Apollo’ssunny ray.” For the south sunshine must belet in, no matter what the cost. In certainways the garden may be said to suffer change;and chiefly when the grace and softly roundedloveliness of various evergreens which do notbear the shears—Cryptomeria Elegans, RedCedar, and the like—after a course of yearsbegins to wane. Even to the upward-pointingCypress middle l