OCR
HISTORVOt Tá RE RO REL NI TA And as we proached fair Poplar Hall, Beneath a poplar tree, They were sitting all beneath its shade And chatting merrilie. Now welcomings on ev'ry side Right cordially did greet, And full glad in truth were we Our fair young friends to meet. We ate and drank and play’d and sung, And walk’d about the grove, Chatting of this thing then of that, But wot not aught of love. The morning come—and breakfast o’er, And having bid good-bye, They went with heavy hearts, I ween, And many a heavy sigh. Long live the girls of Cum’land Street, And Hoggard, long live he, And when he next invites them out May I o’ the party be. The large garden, which was used both for flowers and vegetables, still has the original square central beds bound by long, narrow borders on each side. Its dominant feature is a very beautiful and unusual Persian lilac, which stands ten feet high and throws out its graceful branches with a span of twelve feet from the ground upward. | And there are many roses of the old varieties at Poplar Hall. But in the culture of roses, this garden has kept pace with the times. Nearly all of the old-fashioned flowers bloom here at their various seasons, but the lily of the valley, which has naturalized, has spread about the garden in almost tropical luxuriance and is easily the one flower thought of in connection with Poplar Hall. [156]