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MY GARDEN WILD.

I.

PREFATORY.

IF, in the surroundings of my old house, there was one thing which I prized more than another, it was my garden wild; and if, amongst often-recurring desires to contribute, in some little way, to the pleasures or pastimes of fellow-enthusiasts who may be readers of my books, there be one which may be said to stand out conspicuously from the rest, it is the wish, nay, the earnest hope, that my old hobby may be the hobby of many others.

The world, as understood to consist, not of so many cubic miles of matter, but of so much flesh and blood, and so much brick-and-mortar work—the populated, or residential, as distinguished from the physical or natural world-is continually increasing. Towns are getting bigger, and populations are growing denser,

and, though natural resources give few signs of falling off, the struggle for existence is becoming keener. The town, being of man's making, is, like all man's works, imperfect. It is, in fact, of all human constructions the most imperfect; and citizens, by a natural and uncontrollable instinct, have always turned from it, on every opportunity, towards the country.' The early institution of the garden' furnishes proof of the ancient existence of this feeling, which has grown with the growth of cities, and is stronger in the present day than it has ever been before.

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Of the various expedients adopted in modern times to give pleasure to urban populations, and to relieve the tedium of city life, there can scarcely be one which is more delightful in every way than the institution of city gardens. The love of Nature, which is innate. in most people, has had less and less opportunity of indulgence as our towns have grown larger and larger, until city life and country life have become two distinct phases of existence. But as the augmentation of the number of human dwellings in any particular place has caused the country to be pushed, so to speak, further and further away, the love of Nature has, on the part of those compelled to live within the lines of bricks and mortar, become more and more intense in proportion as the absence from natural objects has become more pro

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longed. If, however, city people cannot always visit the world of Nature existing outside their own, they can bring near to themselves the objects of their admiration. And it is undoubtedly this longing for communication with Nature that has led to the institution of the garden,' which, in whatever age and under whatever conditions it has existed, has always been established with one object, or rather with one desire, namely, the growth or cultivation, as adjuncts to the dwelling-house, and for purposes of beauty or use, of the vegetable productions of the earth.

Gardening might, indeed, be defined as a sort of domestication of plants; and not only the universality of the practice, but its predominance over other kinds of domestication--the domestication of animals, birds, and fish-proves how deep is the hold it has taken on the fancy of mankind. The universal popularity of gardening is doubtless due to the ease with which the pastime can be followed; but it is more especially due to the larger measure of success attending the cultivation of plants than that which attends the attempts to domesticate animals, birds, or fish. The caged animals or birds, or the fish confined within the circumscribed limits of pond or aquarium, are never ‘at home' in the sense in which plants are at home' in 'the garden,' for the reason that the natural conditions

under which all wild life exists can so much more readily be extemporised in the one case than in the other.

Yet, in the case of plants, the cultivators of gardens have not been content to let Nature run her free course; and a practice has grown up--it has been the growth of centuries—of supplying abnormal, instead of natural, conditions, and of distorting the inhabitants of gardens into unnatural shapes to please a morbid and unnatural taste. In ancient times the art of topiary was considered-by the Romans, for instance-as the highest and most valuable accomplishment of the gardener, and the degree of success in the practice of the art was measured by the more or less faithful likeness of the clipped tree or shrub to the animal, bird, or other object which the landscape gardener' of those times. set before him as his model. The more the distorted plant could be made unlike its natural self, the greater would be the triumph of the distorter. It was in vain for Nature to resist and endeavour to regain its own form. The attempt was vigorously repressed by the free use of the inexorable clippers.

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The growth of towns, which made city life a phase of existence distinct from country life, was no doubt the first cause of a change of public feeling with regard to the character of gardening. Topiary became less and

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