1

another. Here you shall see on the | ful counsel, "I wish you would help hedge-banks the yellow agrimony, but me to lay out the garden.' I know no not the lavender-colored scabious; and more difficult, if indeed it be not an between East Meon and Winchester- impossible task, save within the limits and indeed on to Whitchurch and of strict formality; and, as regards the Hurstbourne Park-I saw miniature latter, very little help or counsel is forests of the verbascum or mullein, needed, any one of the hundred of which I have carefully to cultivate at forms already existing sufficing for the home, not finding it in the neighboring purpose. But the request, I suspect, lanes. If one missed the sound of springs from the feeling of discontent the yaffel, or Kentish woodpecker, in with gardens as they for the most part scenes that were new, compensation are, and from a wholesome rebellion was forthcoming in the apparition of against the system that relegates the the woodchat and the yellow wagtail. sweetest and most pleasing flowers But the very commons, nay, even the either to the kitchen-garden inclosure artificially and carefully designed parks, or to a remote pleasaunce. So far am I have specific characteristics of their from imagining that I have any soluown in each county, Eastwell having tion of the difficulty to offer, that I little in common with Arundel or Par- always reply I could not " lay out a ham, Parham not reminding you in the garden unless I abided in it for some least of Hurstbourne, and Hurstbourne years; which is only another way of being quite other than Aldermaston. saying that the garden must help one It was a fortunate accident that, three to lay itself out. It must have a mind years ago, burned Hurstbourne House of its own, as well as bear the impress to the ground; for it was an unlovely of yours. But, indeed, I note that the edifice in a lovely position, and its larger the place, and the greater the owner has thus had the chance, of amount of ground dedicated to garden, which he is availing himself, to bring the more perplexing becomes the enabout closer harmony between the two.deavor to produce one that shall be I dare say one may be too much of a beautiful. There are impediments to purist in art; but I cannot help regret the marriage of grandeur and beauty. ting that even the new Hurstbourne, I am asked to invest magnificence stately addition as it will be to the with charm, and I know not how to do homes of England, was not conceived, it. I fear splendid houses must be satin some of its details, with a more com-isfied with having splendid gardens; plete recognition of the absolute perfection English rural domestic architecture attained three centuries ago, when the rural magnates of that day strove to establish their claim to nobility of mind, by building edifices in which prodigality of expenditure was controlled and tempered by severe and supreme taste.

and if you are in search of winsome simplicity, you will scarcely mend matters by tacking on a cotton skirt to a velvet bodice. The humbler graces of life evade the commands of the opulent; and that long-expressed ideal, "love in a cottage," seems to suggest that cottage-gardens best satisfy the eye, and get nearest to the heart. In oue respect, it must be allowed, That, at least, is the only explanation I you may travel from county to county can offer why gardens in which it is without getting away from a certain impossible to discern a fault, or indicate monotonous similarity. The gardens a mistake, excite a certain conventional of large country places resemble each admiration, but leave one unmoved. other overmuch, and betray the ab- Is it that they are too perfect, and that, sence of individual conception and as in other domains of effort and feelsupervision. More than once in the ing, we quickly wax dissatisfied with course of my excursion, it was said to the absolute attainment of our aim, me, from a generously overweening the absolute fulfilment of our own deestimate of my capacity to proffer use-sire? As a rule, however, it is scarcely

from perfection that the larger gardens | are beginning so universally to affect.
suffer. Their defect springs rather One would have to be a very ignorant
from the inertness of mind or the in- optimist not to be aware that sickness,
curiousness of disposition of those who and scant or precarious wage, some-
alone could imbue them with the spell times make life painful and pathetic
of surprise and originality. Their in the most picturesque and smiling
owners accept the dispensation of villages. But the general impression
costly tradition with a too placid con-
servatism, and omit to borrow instruc-
tion from the simpler but more telling
expedients of their humbler neighbors.
It is not always so; and at the end
of the last stage but one on my way
back to Kent, I had the agreeable op-
portunity of noting how, at beautiful
Loseley, new ideas can make them-
selves at home in an old-world garden.
Not less pleasing was it to be able there
to philosophize to oneself on the dispo-
sition of our own flesh and blood from
across the Atlantic, like Goldsmith's
hunted hare, to "pant to the place
from which at first she drew,” and—

Here to return and die at home at last. Blood is stronger than many leagues of water; and it is in England alone that cultivated Americans can hope to satisfy the inherited longing in their veins for haunts of ancient peace.

left on the mind by a drive through
England, is that of a well-to-do, home-
loving, self-respecting, contented peo-
ple, who consider the questions pro-
pounded for their supposed advantage
by theorists on society and govern-
ment, with a somewhat incredulous
mind; nor do I think the most seduc-
tive orators will quickly convert into
impatient malcontents the comfortable
folk one sees, through the open door
at the home end of the garden, sitting
at a table covered with a spotless cloth,
drinking their tea at 1s. 4d., sweetened
by sugar at 2d. a pound, and slicing the
quartern-loaves from the neighboring
mill, four of which can now be had for
8d.

If rents and profits go down,
wages happily go up; and if Parlia-
ment would but hold its hand, and let
well alone, a natural law is, I believe,
now at work, which will leave our En-
glish hamlets as peaceful in temper as
they are ancient in aspect.

But let the terraces and parterres of the opulent be what they may, the With what affection, too, Englishcottage-gardens of England invest a men, no matter how far an active and driving-tour through its villages and eminent career may have carried them hamlets with a continually recurring from their home, cling to the countrycharm. In their diminutive domain side where they were born, to the rustic are all the loveliest and most sweet- church where they were christened. smelling flowers; roses, pinks, car- Halting at West Meon, in Hampshire, nations, sweet peas, honeysuckle, an hour after midday, I found the lavender, jessamine, hollyhocks, sweet- village inn, whose larder is, I susbriar, and modest mignonette, sur-pect, at ordinary times of a very elemised only by the virtue of its scent. mentary character, had concentrated all And they are all so well cared for, so its energies on providing a funeral lovingly tended; and, one notes with luncheon for a number of strangers, satisfaction, their plants for the most sadly attired, who had come to pay the part evidently come from the bigger last tribute of respect to a distinguished gardens that are so much less beautiful and useful citizen, who was for years than themselves. This particular rela- responsible for the peace and order of tionship between mansion and cottage the largest and most populous city in is a peculiarly grateful evidence of the the world. Yet his bones were to lie minor charities of life. But I hope the in this remote and quiet hamlet. To cottager will retain his simple tastes in him less than to most men, for he this respect, and not give hospitality in was a "good and faithful servant," but his little garden to the glaring, flaring, to all of us, more or less, I think, are tuberous begonias which his betters applicable the reflections that shaped

themselves in that sequestered church- which was ripening a field of wheat, yard when all the mourners had quitted it :

THE DISCHARGED DEBTOR.

Why should we, from this long and losing

strife

When summoned to depart, halt half afraid?

Death is full quittance for the debts of life, Discharging the account though still unpaid.

Who is it that can say he still hath met
Friendship's just claim and Duty's punctual
call?

How little do we give for what we get,
And but for Death we should be bankrupts

all?

For loan of life the richest but compound,
Love's priceless gift we but repay in part;
Beggared and bare our balance would be
found,

If all we owe were honored by the heart.
Die, and the lenders our default forget,
Nay, though defrauded, then seems theirs
the debt.

and on the other was swelling a broad expanse of mangolds. Anything more peaceful than the ruins of Donnington Castle now are, one would seek for in vain. It still commands a vast sweep of country, and eight splendid elms, towering where its banks slope away, stand like sleepless warders before it. But a family party of the humbler sort had come out from Newbury to enjoy their tea on the greensward hard by its ivy-clasped gateway; and while the water was boiling, the little daughter sat arranging the folds of her doll's frock, while her brother, even younger than she, amused himself by masterfully cracking his whip. We are all Cavaliers or Roundheads still, I suppose, all for this side or that; and I thought of one of the controversies of to-day on which, it seemed to me, the contrasted natural instincts of those two children shed some suggestive The furthest point I had in view in instruction. Half an hour later, I my excursion was in the vicinity of observed fresh confirmation of the inNewbury, which perhaps more than ference I then and there silently drew. any other district in the island makes For, on my return to the fair English one remember that England was not home where I was staying, I found my always a land of ancient peace. Ex- hostess just starting for her own little actly two hundred and fifty years ago private hospital on the neighboring was fought the second battle of New-common, and her daughters intent on bury, the first having taken place in the part they would shortly have to the preceding year, 1643. Donnington take in an entertainment whose final Castle, within a quarter-of-an-hour's object was healing charity; while their walk of which I was given kindly hos- young brother, though as yet only at a pitality for four days-the longest halt preparatory school, had marshalled the I made was besieged in 1644 by the footmen, the stable-helps, and any Earl of Manchester, and Charles, other male retainers within call, for a whose headquarters were at Shaw primitive cricket-match; and the masHouse, then known as Dolman's, just ter of the house was waiting to take outside the town of Newbury, had me to Shaw House to show me the come in force to relieve it. Though inscription: "Hanc juxta fenestram, the fortune of the day was hardly rex Carolus primus, instante obsidifavorable to the Royalists, Donnington one schoppopetrae ictu tantum Castle, which, by commanding the trajectus est, die Octob. XXVII., Broads both to Oxford and London, was MDCXLIV." The king was dressing of first-rate importance, was still held at the bow-window, near to which, in by Colonel Boys, who, though over the wainscot, is a hole made by the and over again vigorously assailed, did bullet that missed its mark, leaving not surrender till 1646, and then only its intended victim for a still darker in obedience to an order from the king. tragedy. Now, Shaw House looks as I approached it, one sunny August though it had been a haunt of ancient evening, along a path on one side of peace from all time.

non

ALFRED AUSTIN.

From Public Opinion.

THE "BOY HERO" OF THE CRIMEA.

A grey

sight of horror was revealed!
quivering mass covered the heights-
fifteen hundred dead and wounded En-
glish, French, and Russians. Groans
and screams of agony were rising up
from all parts. To add to the terrors
of the scene, the Russians from their
ships in the harbor and from the forti-
fications to the north were throwing a
perfect storm of shell all over the field,
killing their own and our wounded.
Among all these a sturdy little figure in

WITH reference to an inquest held on Friday at Battersea on Thomas Keep, the "Boy Hero" of the Crimea, the following is an extract from a story, published some years ago, with reference to the deceased: "Thomas Keep, of the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, aged ten years, was a very proud boy when he first donned his gay red uniform and sounded the bugle-call morn-red came and went, evidently with a ing and night in the barrack square or purpose in view. 'It's little Tom outside the guard-room. He felt him- Keep,' said many a soldier; whatever self every inch a soldier when he lay can the lad be at? He must be dead down with his boots on to sleep in the beat. Why can't he stay out of reach guard bed at night, ready to turn out of the shells, instead of walking about in a moment when the orderly officer among them like that?' Still Tom went his rounds. But his excitement went on steadily with his work, tearing knew no bounds when the startling down rails, picking up wood, or anyorder came for the army to proceed thing that would burn. Soon a good to the seat of war in Russia. He was big fire was burning, the mere sight of wild with delight when his turn came which warmed and cheered many a to depart. The plucky little fellow did sorely wounded man who lay shivering his duty manfully, and kept up his in agony under the sweep of the bitter, spirits and health, notwithstanding restless wind. Eagerly dim eyes all the terrible sights and sufferings watched the boy's movements as he he witnessed, which crushed many bent over something he was apparently brave hearts around him. He passed boiling on his fire. Then with cheery unharmed through the battle of Bala- words he moved amid that suffering, clava. Then set in that dreary No-helpless throng of prostrate forms. vember colder, darker, gloomier,' Have a drink of hot tea?' he said, even than it was in England. The offering a mug to the cold, quivering early morning of the 5th found him lips of many a fainting comrade, who sleeping amid his comrades. None murmured a heartfelt blessing as he will forget the dawn of that eventful day. The terrible fire suddenly opened from ninety pieces of artillery, placed stealthily by the enemy during the night on heights commanding our position, awoke our troops from sleep, and, | like roused lions, they turned out at once to fight to the death. Our men fought with indomitable courage, but in many places the enemy outnumbered them forty to one. When the darkness of the winter night fell the victory was When the clear full moon shone out between the clouds what a

ours.

...

passed on with the welcome refreshment. That cup of hot tea brought back life and hope to many fainting hearts, and gave them strength to wait on till further aid came. Well and bravely Keep bore himself through the long hours of battle and carnage, shirking no fatigue, showing no fear amid scenes which tried the nerve of hardened veterans. Well did he deserve the honorable mention he received from his colonel for his personal bravery in the field, and for his self-sacrificling devotion to the wounded."

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