Lamia's winter-quarters . enge each other as to whichwould tower highest in the summer air. ThePaeony Poppies, some purposely some accidentallysown, were a garden in themselves, fair but fugi-tive, yet making up by their number and infinitevariety for the briefness of their existence. Theywere everywhere in the beds and borders, and, as itseemed, where they had chosen to be ; there, by theright of supreme loveliness, and the Swan-neckPoppies, the Caucasian, and the Victoria Cross,rocked more humbly beside them. No otherplant of such supreme beauty has so solid a stemand such imposing foliage f
Lamia's winter-quarters . enge each other as to whichwould tower highest in the summer air. ThePaeony Poppies, some purposely some accidentallysown, were a garden in themselves, fair but fugi-tive, yet making up by their number and infinitevariety for the briefness of their existence. Theywere everywhere in the beds and borders, and, as itseemed, where they had chosen to be ; there, by theright of supreme loveliness, and the Swan-neckPoppies, the Caucasian, and the Victoria Cross,rocked more humbly beside them. No otherplant of such supreme beauty has so solid a stemand such imposing foliage for so fragile a flower ;and this it is, I think, which mainly constitutes itsfresh charm. Every one now loves flowers, and Ihave no need to weary you with a catalogue of thosein the Garden that I Love. But I doubt if therebe any perennial plant of real beauty and valuethat will grow in our latitude which is not to befound there ; and I can say with truth, of everybed and border, that you could not see the ground LARKSPURS. LAMIAS WINTER-gUARTERS i6r for flowers. As for the winding turf walk, whichperhaps you remember as the South Enclosure, itis not I who will say what it looked like when wereturned. For one who has justly acquired honour,not only by the beauty of her own home, but by hercharming pages concerning all that appertains to agarden, and who had visited it the day before ourarrival, left a little line for Veronica, in which shegenerously said it was the loveliest she had ever should hesitate to repeat so flattering an opinion,were it not for some injustice to myself thatfollowed. As for the winding turf walk and itsglow of bloom and colour on either side, said thekindly writer, nowhere, I am sure, is there any-thing like it; and only the Poet could have con-ceived it. As if it was the Poet who had con-ceived it! It was I who,—but so it is in thisunfair world, where everybody bows down beforeprestige. Lamia herself could not have beenmore partial or more unju
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondonaandcblack
