This section is from the book "The Chronicles Of A Garden: Its Pets And Its Pleasures", by Miss Henrietta Wilson. Also available from Amazon: The Chronicles of a Garden: Its Pets and Its Pleasures.
"As now, on some delicious eve, We, in our sweet sequester'd orchard-plot, Sit on the tree crook'd earthward; whose old boughs. That hang above us in an arborous roof, Stirr'd by the faint gale of departing day, Send their loose blossoms slanting o'er our heads."
Coleridge.
IN leaving spring and entering upon summer the transition is so gradual that we scarcely know whether to ••lass the month of May as the last of the spring months or the first of those of summer; much depends on the weather, but perhaps it is the combination of spring with summer that makes this month so universal a favourite with old and young. In Scotland, however, it is rarely warm enough to allow of what may be classed as one of the chief pleasures of summer in the garden, I mean sitting-out of doors, or rather, living as much as possible in the open air. It is not merely when actually at work in the garden that this pleasure may be enjoyed; but reading, sewing, and even writing may be carried on out of doors, and much quiet enjoyment derived from doing so. I have often wondered why people so seldom avail themselves of this luxury; they will live year after year in the country and never go out except for a walk or a drive, - scarcely even for that delicious indulgence, a saunter, will they move from indoors work or idleness. It must be admitted that one great charm of sitting or sauntering out of doors is, the idleness that yet feels like doing something, and that it is not always easy to think or read steadily in the open air; but for all the usual occupations that we call work, there are few more enjoyable sitting-rooms than the grassy shade under a large tree, and very little practice will enable any one to carry on many indoor occupations in the pleasure grounds.
No doubt it is still more delightful to sit out of doors and fix our tent among the rocks of the sea-shore, or on the thymy side of a hill, among the boulders, or on a fallen trunk of a tree in the deep, cool shade of a wood, with a burn rippling at our feet; but we have not always in our power to luxuriate in such situations, and it is wise and well to be content with such tilings as we have, and to enjoy the common blessings that lie at our doors. If you have but one tree, have a seat under it, - if you have none plant a bower; but whenever our changeable climate admits of it, learn to sit out of doors. When actually in the country, during a long walk or a short saunter, there is a power of selecting fitting resting-places, and some people seem to have a knack of finding the most pleasant nooks, while others seat themselves anywhere, turning their backs on the view, and evidently considering sitting out of doors only as a rest from fatigue, not as an additional source of enjoyment. Some never go to a new place but almost the first thought is where they may sit out in the open air; and, ere two days have elapsed, the out-of-doors drawing-room is as familiar as the indoors.
Bright visions of past days come over me as I write. I seem to see a gray rock half sunk in the grass, shaded by an old holly tree; it lay but a few steps from the cottage door, on a hill-side, and around and beneath it lay stretched the lovely vale of Grasmere, encircled by its guardian hills; or a quiet nook in the shades of Killiecrankie, with the wild Garry rushing beside the half-hidden seat among brakes and trailing brambles, while the timid squirrel would gambol near, all unaware of human onlooker.
" Beautiful! - How beautiful is all this fair, free world Under God's open sky! "
In thus placing sitting out of doors as the first of our summer enjoyments of the garden, I am not advocating idleness:-what is meant is rather the carrying on of our work, when practicable, in the open air - light reading and ladies' work are as easily attended to as sketching, and do not suffer in consequence of the frequent glances of enjoyment cast around, or the interruptions caused by shy visits of inspection by birds. Those who dwell in cities must often wonder that those who have garden ground around their houses should so seldom enjoy it thus; how often, in paying a forenoon visit, do we not hear the remark made that it is a sin to sit in the house on such a day, when "All things that love the sun are out of doors;" and how pleasant it is when the visit is paid in the open air, under the shade of the trees, the birds singing around, and the landscape beyond our narrow bounds bathed in summer light. While sitting quietly and alone out of doors, the small birds seem to lose their timidity, and hop near one, - sometimes gathering materials for their nests, sometimes seeking food, sometimes apparently coming to see why you are there, and what you are doing - darting off at the rustle of a page turning, or any sudden movement; while ever and anon the book is laid aside, and the play of the shadows on the grass under the trees, or the passing of the bright clouds above, lead the mind into a pleasing dreamy state. Wordsworth, indeed, alludes to his garden as a "Happy garden, whose seclusion deep Hath been so friendly to industrious hours."
But I suspect most of us common mortals must confess to our seclusion bringing forth little more than quiet enjoy-ment. There is much to be learnt, no doubt, in communion with nature; even in "the trim garden's narrow round," many types of higher things are suggested by almost all the occupations there, as well as by our plants and flowers themselves; some of these, being scriptural, will recur to every one, but it is by no means an unprofitable task to find new analogies and types for ourselves, - it must be a very dull, prosaic mind that does not almost in voluntarily do so.
George Herbert says - "Our Saviour made plants and seeds to teach the people......And I conceive our Saviour did this for reasons : first, that by familiar things He might make His doctrines slip the more easily into the hearts, even of the meanest; secondly, that labouring people, whom He chiefly considered, might have everywhere monuments of His doctrine - remembering in gardens His mustard-seed and lilies, in the field His seed-corn and tares, and so not be drowned altogether in the works of their vocation, but sometimes lift up their minds to better things, even in the midst of their pains."
 
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