On either side of it are long rectangular flower-beds, sunk six inches below the surface of the court.

This pavement, which consists of what we should call pantiles, is clean and perfect, and freshly sprinkled; and the sprinkling and consequent evaporation make a grateful coolness.

In the flower-beds are irregular clumps of marvel of Peru, some three feet high, of varied coloured blossom, coming up irregularly in wild luxuriance.

The moss-rose, too, is conspicuous, with its heavy odour; while the edging, a foot wide, is formed by thousands of bulbs of the _Narcissus poeticus_, massed together like packed figs; these, too, give out a pleasant perfume.
But what strikes one most is the air of perfect repair and cleanliness of everything.

No grimy walls, no soiled curtains, here; all is clean as a new pin, all is spick and span.