A quaint pathetic poem by Allan Cunningham, written in 1824, records in characteristically stilted language an incident supposed to have occurred to Mrs. Montagu. A sad boy, whose life was spent in climbing flues, is pictured, and one lady he supplicates turns away--“And lo! another lady came,” and spoke kindly to him, asked him why he thus spent his life, listened to his tale of how he was an orphan and “sold to this cruel trade.” “She stroked the sooty locks and smiled, While o’er the dusky boy, As streams the sunbeam through a cloud, There came a flash of joy. She took him from his cruel trade, And soon the milk-white hue Came to his neck; he with the muse Sings, ‘Bless the Montagu.’” Her kindness is recorded in other poems, and in her lifetime took the practical shape of a sumptuous spread of beef and plum-pudding on the lawn of her house in Portman Square. Grosvenor House garden, with terrace and lawn sloping down to large trees, has natural advantages for a beautiful garden, but a row of beds along the terrace are the only flowers. The owners of these large London gardens have such an abundance of floral display elsewhere that no real gardening seems to be attempted. To understand what are the horticultural possibilities of London, it is in the minute back-garden that the lesson must be learned, and the subject studied. Holland House is an exception to this rule, for there the most beautiful garden, in keeping with the magnificent old house, is kept up, and the greatest care and skill were bestowed on it with wonderful results by the late Earl of Ilchester. [Illustration: THE LILY POND, HOLLAND HOUSE]