The gardener should be an idler, and
have a gross partiality to the kitchen plots: an eager or toilful
gardener misbecomes the garden landscape; a tasteful gardener will be
ever meddling, will keep the borders raw, and take the bloom off
nature. Close adjoining, if you are in the south, an olive-yard, if
in the north, a swarded apple-orchard reaching to the stream,
completes your miniature domain; but this is perhaps best entered
through a door in the high fruit-wall; so that you close the door
behind you on your sunny plots, your hedges and evergreen jungle,
when you go down to watch the apples falling in the pool. It is a
golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will
take care of themselves. Nor must the ear be forgotten: without
birds a garden is a prison-yard. There is a garden near Marseilles
on a steep hill-side, walking by which, upon a sunny morning, your
ear will suddenly be ravished with a burst of small and very cheerful
singing: some score of cages being set out there to sun their
occupants. This is a heavenly surprise to any passer-by; but the
price paid, to keep so many ardent and winged creatures from their
liberty, will make the luxury too dear for any thoughtful pleasure-
lover.
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