The flower-borders are so full and luxuriant that they completely hide
the vegetable quarters within, for the garden is still a kitchen garden
as to its main inner spaces. These masses of good flowers are the work
of the Misses Freeling; they are ardent gardeners, sparing themselves no
labour or trouble; to their care and fine perception of the best use of
flowers the beauty and interest of these fine borders are entirely due.
Indeed, this garden is a striking instance
[Illustration: BLYBOROUGH: HOLLYHOCKS
FROM THE PICTURE IN THE POSSESSION OF MR. C. E. FREELING]
of the extreme value of personal effort combined with knowledge and good
taste.
These qualities may operate in different gardens in a hundred varying
ways, but where they exist there will be, in some form or other, a
delightful garden. Endless are the possibilities of beautiful
combinations of flowers; just as endless is their power of giving
happiness and the very purest of human delight. So also the special
interest of different gardens that are personally directed by owners of
knowledge and fine taste would seem to be endless too, for each will
impress upon it some visible issue of his own perception or discernment
of beauty.
About the house and lawns are other beds and borders of herbaceous
flowers of good grouping and fine growth; conspicuous among them is that
excellent flower _Campanula pyramidalis_, splendidly grown.
Though Blyborough is in a cold district, it has the advantage of lying
well sheltered below a sharply-rising ridge of higher land.
GREAT TANGLEY MANOR
Forty years ago, lying lost up a narrow lane that joined a track across
a wide green common, this ancient timber-built manor-house could
scarcely have been found but by some one who knew the country and its
by-ways well. Even when quite near, it had to be searched for, so much
was it hidden away behind ricks and farm-buildings; with the closer
overgrowth of old fruit trees, wild thorns and elders, and the tangled
wastes of vegetation that had invaded the outskirts of the neglected, or
at any rate very roughly-kept, garden of the farm-house, which purpose
it then served.
What had been the moat could hardly be traced as a continuous
water-course; the banks were broken down and over-grown, water stood in
pools here and there; tall grass, tussocks of sedge and the rank weeds
that thrive in marshy places had it all to themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account