23 chapters
8 hour read
Selected Chapters
23 chapters
Old Time Gardens
Old Time Gardens
OLD-TIME GARDENS Newly set forth by A L I C E M O R S E E A R L E A BOOK OF T H E S W E E T O' T H E Y E A R " Life is sweet, brother! There's day and night, brother! both sweet things: sun, moon and stars, brother! all sweet things: There is likewise a wind on the heath. " NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON MACMILLAN & CO ltd MCMII All rights reserved All rights reserved Copyright , 1901, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped November, 1901. Reprinted Decemb
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
COLONIAL GARDEN-MAKING "There is not a softer trait to be found in the character of those stern men than that they should have been sensible of these flower-roots clinging among the fibres of their rugged hearts, and felt the necessity of bringing them over sea, and making them hereditary in the new land." — American Note-book , Nathaniel Hawthorne . Old Dutch Garden of Bergen Homestead. The shrewd and capable women of the colonies who entered so freely and successfully into business ventures fo
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
FRONT DOORYARDS "There are few of us who cannot remember a front yard garden which seemed to us a very paradise in childhood. Whether the house was a fine one and the enclosure spacious, or whether it was a small house with only a narrow bit of ground in front, the yard was kept with care, and was different from the rest of the land altogether.... People do not know what they lose when they make way with the reserve, the separateness, the sanctity, of the front yard of their grandmothers. It is
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
VARIED GARDENS FAIR — Faerie Queene , Edmund Spenser . Many simple forms of gardens were common besides the enclosed front yard; and as wealth poured in on the colonies, the beautiful gardens so much thought of in England were copied here, especially by wealthy merchants, as is noted in the first chapter of this book, and by the provincial governors and their little courts; the garden of Governor Hutchinson, in Milford, Massachusetts, is stately still and little changed. Preston Garden. English
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
BOX EDGINGS "They walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the lines of Box, breathing its fragrance of eternity; for this is one of the odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the unbeginning past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than this, it must be that there was Box growing on it." — Elsie Venner , Oliver Wendell Holmes , 1861. To many of us, besides Dr. Holmes, the unique aroma of the Box, cleanly bitter in scent as in taste, is redolent of the eternal
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
THE HERB GARDEN "To have nothing here but Sweet Herbs, and those only choice ones too, and every kind its bed by itself." — Desiderius Erasmus , 1500. In Montaigne's time it was the custom to dedicate special chapters of books to special persons. Were it so to-day, I should dedicate this chapter to the memory of a friend who has been constantly in my mind while writing it; for she formed in her beautiful garden, near our modern city, Chicago, the only perfect herb garden I know,—a garden that is
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
IN LILAC TIDE — Ancient Chinese Saying. "A flower opens, and lo! another Year," is the beautiful and suggestive legend on an old vessel found in the Catacombs. Since these words were written, how many years have begun! how many flowers have opened! and yet nature has never let us weary of spring and spring flowers. My garden knows well the time o' the year. It needs no almanac to count the months. While I sit shivering, idling, wondering when I can "start the garden"—lo, there are Snowdrops and
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
OLD FLOWER FAVORITES — Adeline D. T. Whitney , 1861. Not only do I love to see the same dear things year after year, and to welcome the same odor, grace, and hue; but I love to find them in the same places. I like a garden in which plants have been growing in one spot for a long time, where they have a fixed home and surroundings. In our garden the same flowers shoulder each other comfortably and crowd each other a little, year after year. They look, my sister says, like long-established neighbo
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
COMFORT ME WITH APPLES "What can your eye desire to see, your eares to heare, your mouth to taste, or your nose to smell, that is not to be had in an Orchard? with Abundance and Variety? What shall I say? 1000 of Delights are in an Orchard; and sooner shall I be weary than I can reckon the least part of that pleasure which one, that hath and loves an Orchard, may find therein." — A New Orchard , William Lawson , 1618. In every old-time garden, save the revered front yard, the borders stretched i
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
GARDENS OF THE POETS "The chief use of flowers is to illustrate quotations from the poets." All English poets have ever been ready to sing English flowers until jesters have laughed, and to sing garden flowers as well as wild flowers. Few have really described a garden, though the orderly distribution of flowers might be held to be akin to the restraint of rhyme and rhythm in poetry. Shakespeare Border at Hillside. It has been the affectionate tribute and happy diversion of those who love both p
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
THE CHARM OF COLOR — James Russell Lowell. The quality of charm in color is most subtle; it is like the human attribute known as fascination, "whereof," says old Cotton Mather, "men have more Experience than Comprehension." Certainly some alliance of color with a form suited or wonted to it is necessary to produce a gratification of the senses. Thus in the leaves of plants every shade of green is pleasing; then why is there no charm in a green flower? The green of Mignonette bloom would scarcely
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
THE BLUE FLOWER BORDER — James Montgomery. Questions of color relations in a garden are most opinion-making and controversy-provoking. Shall we plant by chance, or by a flower-loving instinct for sheltered and suited locations, as was done in all old-time gardens, and with most happy and most unaffected results? or shall we plant severely by colors—all yellow flowers in a border together? all red flowers side by side? all pink flowers near each other? This might be satisfactory in small gardens,
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
PLANT NAMES "The fascination of plant names is founded on two instincts,—love of Nature and curiosity about Language." — English Plant Names , Rev. John Earle , 1880. Verbal magic is the subtle mysterious power of certain words. This power may come from association with the senses; thus I have distinct sense of stimulation in the word scarlet, and pleasure in the words lucid and liquid. The word garden is a never ceasing delight; it seems to me Oriental; perhaps I have a transmitted sense from m
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
TUSSY-MUSSIES "There be some flowers make a delicious Tussie-Mussie or Nosegay both for Sight and Smell." — John Parkinson , A Garden of all Sorts of Pleasant Flowers , 1629. No following can be more productive of a study and love of word derivations and allied word meanings than gardening. An interest in flowers and in our English tongue go hand in hand. The old mediæval word at the head of this chapter has a full explanation by Nares as "A nosegay, a tuzzie-muzzie, a sweet posie." The old Engl
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
JOAN SILVER-PIN "Being of many variable colours, and of great beautie, although of evill smell, our gentlewomen doe call them Jone Silver-pin." — John Gerarde , Herball , 1596. Garden Poppies were the Joan Silver-pin of Gerarde, stigmatized also by Parkinson as "Jone Silver-pinne, subauditur ; faire without and foule within." In Elizabeth's day Poppies met universal distrust and aversion, as being the source of the dreaded opium. Spenser called the flower "dead-sleeping" Poppy; Morris "the black
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
CHILDHOOD IN A GARDEN — Mary Howitt. How we thank God for the noble traits of our ancestors; and our hearts fill with gratitude for the tenderness, the patience, the loving kindness of our parents; I have an infinite deal for which to be sincerely grateful; but for nothing am I now more happy than that there were given to me a flower-loving father and mother. To that flower-loving father and mother I offer in tenderest memory equal gratitude for a childhood spent in a garden. Winter as well as s
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
MEETIN' SEED AND SABBATH DAY POSIES — Robert Browning. My "thought" is the association of certain flowers with Sunday; the fact that special flowers and leaves and seeds, Fennel, Dill, and Southernwood, were held to be fitting and meet to carry to the Sunday service. "Help me to hold it"—to record those simple customs of the country-side ere they are forgotten. In the herb garden grew three free-growing plants, all three called indifferently in country tongue, "meetin' seed." They were Fennel, D
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
SUN-DIALS — Austin Dobson. A century or more ago, in the heart of nearly all English gardens, and in the gardens of our American colonies as well, there might be seen a pedestal of varying material, shape, and pretension, surmounted by the most interesting furnishing in "dead-works" of the garden, a sun-dial. In public squares, on the walls of public buildings, on bridges, and by the side of the way, other and simpler dials were found. On the walls of country houses and churches vertical sun-dia
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
GARDEN FURNISHINGS "Furnished with whatever may make the place agreeable, melancholy, and country-like." — Forest Trees , John Evelyn , 1670. Quaint old books of garden designers show us that much more was contained in a garden two centuries ago, than now; it had many more adjuncts, more furnishings; a very full list of them has been given by Batty Langley in his New Principles of Gardening , etc., 1728. Some seem amusing—as haystacks and woodpiles, which he terms "rural enrichments." Of water a
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
GARDEN BOUNDARIES — Kings Qubair , King James I of Scotland . One who reads what I have written in these pages of a garden enclosed, will scarcely doubt that to me every garden must have boundaries, definite and high. Three old farm boundaries were of necessity garden boundaries in early days—our stone walls, rail fences, and hedge-rows. The first two seem typically American; the third is an English hedge fashion. Throughout New England the great boulders were blasted to clear the rocky fields;
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
A MOONLIGHT GARDEN — Walter Savage Landor Gardens fanciful of name, a Saint's Garden, a Friendship Garden, have been planted and cherished. I plant a garden like none other; not an everyday garden, nor indeed a garden of any day, but a garden for "brave moonshine," a garden of twilight opening and midnight bloom, a garden of nocturnal blossoms, a garden of white blossoms, and the sweetest garden in the world. It is a garden of my dreams, but I know where it lies, and it now is smiling back at th
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
FLOWERS OF MYSTERY — Cary's Translation of Dante. Bogies and fairies, a sense of eeriness, came to every garden-bred child of any imagination in connection with certain flowers. These flowers seemed to be regarded thus through no special rule or reason. With some there may have been slight associations with fairy lore, or medicinal usage, or a hint of meretriciousness. Sometimes the child hardly formulated his thought of the flower, yet the dread or dislike or curiosity existed. My own notions w
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
ROSES OF YESTERDAY — Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , translated by Edward Fitzgerald , 1858. The answer can be given the Persian poet that the Rose of Yesterday leaves again in the heart. The subtle fragrance of a Rose can readily conjure in our minds a dream of summers past, and happy summers to come. Many a flower lover since Chaucer has felt as did the poet:— The old-time Roses possess most fully this hidden power. Sweetest of all was the old Cabbage Rose—called by some the Provence Rose—for its p
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter