There was some excitement on the part of Eunice the first week in March, because of the discovery of a white Violet under the north fence. We thought it was a straggler, but it proved to be the first of a whole colony, which now began to grow in earnest, together with Primroses and Daffodils.

Planting and Pruning Roses. - Our Rose purchases proved to be satisfactory in all respects but one - we found several "substitutes" when we opened the bundles. [When the nurserymen are sold out of a particular variety ordered, they put in another of their own selection. This is the only drawback the author has ever found to spring planting, which is so often denounced by rosarians. In buying late he has always got strong plants, and they have always succeeded.]

We planted them very firmly, without putting the roots far down, and when we had planted we pruned, but not hard.

[Close pruning ought not to be done before early April, because it may start the bottom buds, beyond which there is no reserve, too soon, and lead to the growth being crippled by a late frost. Half pruning early in March is safe, because it leaves a reserve of buds]

Shady Banks. - A bank under a large Poplar proved to be full of the roots of Crowfoot and Nettle. We substituted Primroses for the time being, but what of the summer? It was a happy thought to try

Montbretias, for they took to the place as readily as tadpoles did to the pool at the foot of the bank, formed a strong colony, and were beautiful for many weeks. Solomon's Seal, St. John's Wort, Lilies of the Valley, Forget-me-nots, Daffodils, and Evening Primroses also made themselves at home, and flowered well at their several periods.

The Lawn. - The gentle Wilkins rubbed his cheerful face and sighed pensively over the lawn. He became reminiscent too - told us of the several lawns he had dealt with in forty years of gardening life most of which had been bad when he began them, but none - oh, none! - so bad as this. The grass had been to hay while the house stood empty, but remained unnourished by sheep. It was coarse, tangled, and full of blown leaves. The Ancient, who had been a noted scythesman in his younger days ("Up to seventy-dree," he informed the author, "A'd 'a sneezed at it, that A would, but sin' seventy-fower A haven't been so frolicsome like"), begged leave to "have a go at it," but retired discomfited and muttering.

The author and Wilkins subdued the lawn by slow labour, turn and turn about, with a plucky little 10-inch mower, which sang through it as merrily as a steam saw through a baulk of timber. Once cleaned of long grass and leaves it was rolled, and dressed with superphosphate and nitrate of soda. [But it would have been better, as the author saw later, to plough it up, dig, manure, and lay fresh turves, or seed it. For the finer grasses had been choked to death, and when the coarser kinds were kept low with regular mowing and rolling, moss began to spread.]

Filling Herbaceous Borders. - Growth was beginning in the borders, and we pushed on the fresh planting. So far as our material would allow, we planted small clumps of each kind rather than single plants, some g inches, some 18 inches apart, according to their stature. [This system gives large, bold, and impressive clumps, and if the different kinds are well spaced out to prevent overcrowding, they grow and flower far longer than when huddled up. Every clump or group ought to stand clear of its neighbours on all sides, so that one can see all round it. One may plant, too (we learned this by degrees), to get early morning, mid-day, and evening effects, and to get beauty from spring to winter.]

Flower Beds. - The author asked Eunice whether she wanted any flower beds, and she replied no, that bedding was out of date, and was only practised by old-fashioned people, who had chandeliers and horsehair sofas in their "parlours." Wilkins respectfully differed, and told stories of the marvellous flower beds which they used to have at The Highlands. (He also expressed a favourable opinion of horsehair sofas, "which gave you a feel as if you had something under you" - but that by the way.) His recollection of a bed of Henry Jacoby Geranium, finished off with a border of Cineraria maritima, was particularly keen. It had been at once the envy and despair of the whole countryside "It was in 1877, marm, when you weren't quite born," Wilkins protested in response to a smile. " Everybody was singing, 'We don't want to fight, but by Jingo if we do,' because of the Russians threatening Constantinople; and master said it made a fine Jingo bed." Wilkins's kind old face became suffused w th a tender melancholy when he thought of his great triumph.

The author had to resort to arbitration, and gave his vote for beds, but not Jingo beds ("Because, you see, Wilkins, the Russians are not at the gates of Constantinople now"). He suggested bold oval beds on the outskirts of the lawn, filled with flowers specially chosen for cutting. And when he enumerated Sweet Peas, Comet Asters, Pinks, Columbines, Sweet Sultans, annual Chrysanthemums, Stocks, Daffodils, Gladioli, Clove and other Carnations, ornamental Grasses, Lilies of the Valley, Pentstemons, Helichrysums (Everlasting flowers), and Gypsophilas, Eunice flew feverishly for the turf cutter so that the beds might be started at once. The turf was lifted and the ground manured before she slept; and she anticipated the sowing of the annuals next day by sowing them in her dreams that night.

Creepers. - In the tangled growth of a William Allen Richardson Rose on the east wall of the house there was an interesting museum of old sparrows' nests. Eunice wanted the Rose pruned, but she thought it cruel to destroy the nests. Failing any sympathy on the latter score from either the author or Wilkins she broached the matter to the Ancient, who clearly missed her point, for he fetched a billhook while we were at lunch, cut all the Rose growth away to the main stems, and chucklingly told Eunice afterwards that "the dratted spars got no change out of he." There was a storm, and the Ancient ejaculated puzzled "Heys?" by the dozen as he strove in vain to get the irate lady's meaning.

[In the end the Rose so roughly handled grew vigorously, covered the whole wall before the summer was half over, and flowered splendidly. Always cut W. A. R. hard.]

The author watched the incident with a secret glee, for he had long harboured designs on the whole of the creepers, and he now got his way, on the pretence that you could no more prune the creeper on one side of the house hard and not the other than you could have your hair cut on the left side and not on the right. All the creepers were pruned and neatly nailed in.

Asparagus. - A bed was made 4 feet wide, and two rows of three year old crowns were planted in it, each a foot away from the edge, and 18 inches apart.

[Dressed with decayed manure in the autumn, and with a very light sprinkling of nitrate of soda the following March, the bed yielded well.]

Carrots, Onions, Parsnips, and Peas were sown in a piece of the new kitchen garden which the Ancient had cleared.

A hotbed was made up, 4 feet high at the back, and 3 feet in front, and a frame put on. In this were placed pots and boxes sown with Cucumbers, Melons, Tomatoes, Celery, and Vegetable Marrows; also Stocks, Asters, Zinnias, Salpiglossises, Nicotiana affinis (sweet white Tobacco), N. Sanderae (coloured Tobacco), Petunias, Phloxes, Marigolds, Statices (for drying), and boxes of Begonias and Dahlias. ("Not much heat, sir, but just a bit to start 'em, and then harden 'em in a cold frame" - thus Wilkins, explanatorily, when the author hinted a fear of "coddling." The latter word, by the way, always "draws" a gardener, and puts him on his mettle. To "coddle" plants is next door to a capital offence on the part o a professional horticulturist.)