[Illustration: ST. JOHN’S LODGE, REGENT’S PARK] A few of the gardens, like this one, have succeeded in keeping the real stamp of the country, in spite of the encroachments of the town and the advance of trams and motor omnibuses, but they are every day becoming more scarce. Hampstead and Highgate have many such, and here and there, to the north and on the south of the river, such delightful spots are to be found, although the temptation to cut them up and build small red villas on the sites is very great. Towards the north of London there are many small gardens which are bright and attractive, and without going so far as Hampstead, pleached walks and small but tastefully arranged grounds are met with. Within Regent’s Park there are several charming gardens round the detached villas, which have been already noticed in the chapter on that Park. The two most interesting from a horticultural point of view are St. Katharine’s and St. John’s Lodges. The fountain in the former is the frontispiece to this volume, and that view says more than any elaborate description. It might be in some far-away Italian garden, so perfectly are the sights and sounds of London obliterated. On a still, hot day, when the fountain drips with a cool sound and there is a shimmering light of summer over the distant trees beyond the terrace, the delusion is perfect. Most of the herbaceous plants which take kindly to London grow in the border--hollyhocks, day lilies, poppies, peonies, pulmoneria and lilies, while there is a large variety of flowering shrubs--ribes, lilacs, buddleias, shumachs and _Aralia spinosa_. The kitchen-garden produces good crops of most of the ordinary vegetables. The garden is arranged with a definite design; there is nothing specially formal, no cut trees or anything associated with some of the formal ideas in England, but there is method in the design; the trees and plants grow as Nature intended them, but they are not stuck about in incongruous disorder and meaningless, distorted lines, as is so often thought necessary, in designing a garden or “improving” a park.