The Happy Gardener The scheme of opening the gardens of
big country houses to the public on a select day or two in the summer has given great pleasure and earned a fair sum of money for charity. One of those who thus invited the public was Lord Hunsdon, who died last week. Muftis ills bonis fiebilis occidit. The number of those who will feel the loss is immense and a great many countrymen will be of the company. The obituary notices of him recorded his talents in finance and• commerce. They said nothing of his love of a garden and of the country. His brother, Vicary Gibbs, was perhaps the greatest gardener of shrubs, and indeed of vegetables, in Europe. He grew things for love of their rarity. Lord Hunsdon grew them solely for love of their beauty ; and would grow nothing that was not " a good doer." In his later years the various tints, especially of green, along the pleasant vistas of his garden gave him an incomparable, an enviable pleasure. It was a liberal education to taste the pleasure of the garden in his company. And he was singularly observant of the phenomena of the country, such as the vagaries of the birds and the eccentricities of the weather, as well as of local custom, such as the treatment of Lammas Land. He was a great countryman.
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