Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

This year fate took us to the North, to Northumberland, the home of my maternal family, from which my mother in her youth, with the whole large family, travelled twice a year on the old North Road to London and back in carriages and coaches. One of my mother's aunts used to tell a story of how in her youth she had had her hair dressed in London to appear at a Newcastle ball, and she added with pride, ' When I entered the ball-room I had my reward.' I was surprised to find that the great changes that have come over our Southern gardens by the re-introducing the old-fashioned flowers and the old methods of culti- vating them are much less noticeable in the North. Apparently changes work slower in the North than around London. I wonder why this is? People there have the same books, the same newspapers, and the same climatic advantage as in Scotland, which makes the herbaceous plants grow to great perfection, and flower much longer than in the South. One would have thought the fashion which has so influenced us would have influenced them. I saw in many places long borders planted with rows of red, violet, white, yellow, and purple — vistas of what used to be called ribbon-borders, very un- picturesque at the best, and nearly always unsatisfactory. Why they ever came in, and why they have lasted so long, it is difficult to understand. The gardens of rich and poor, big house and villa, were planted on the same system — perennials in lines, annuals in lines, Mignonette in lines ; and where long lines were not possible, the planting was in rows round the shrubberies, which is, I think, the ugliest thing I know. If shrubberies are planted with flowers at all, I like large holes cut back, which makes a good protection, and plants introduced in bold groups. I did not see one garden while I was away — whose owners ought to have known better — where things were what I 152 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN call well planted, in good bold masses of colour ; whereas near Dublin more than two years ago I found the best herbaceous border I have ever seen. The way of plant- ing in this Dublin border, with all the reds in one place, and the blues, the yellows, and the whites kept apart as much as possible, was as superior to the dotted arrange- ment as the dotted system is to the line, in my opinion. I even saw in some places this year what I as a child had remembered as old mixed borders, turned into that terrible gardening absurdity, carpet-bedding — the pride, I suppose, of the gardener and the admiration of his friends. This is never to be seen now in Surrey, I think, except in certain beds at Hampton Court ; and why it is continued there I find it hard to understand, unless it is that it really does give pleasure to Londoners, and certainly in its way it is carried out to great perfection. I had always heard of the brilliant beauty of Scotch gardens, and the moment I saw them I understood why it was. The seasons are so late that all the summer flowers bloom together ; May and June of the South merge into July and August in Scotland, and everything is in flower at once. No wonder the gardens look bright ; besides, the damp air makes the colours more beautiful and the scent stronger.