There were two old larches that shaded the building, and interrupted the prospect; St.Aubert had sometimes declared that he believed he should have been weak enough to have wept at their fall.

In addition to these larches he planted a little grove of beech, pine, and mountain-ash.

On a lofty terrace, formed by the swelling bank of the river, rose a plantation of orange, lemon, and palm-trees, whose fruit, in the coolness of evening, breathed delicious fragrance.

With these were mingled a few trees of other species.

Here, under the ample shade of a plane-tree, that spread its majestic canopy towards the river, St.
Aubert loved to sit in the fine evenings of summer, with his wife and children, watching, beneath its foliage, the setting sun, the mild splendour of its light fading from the distant landscape, till the shadows of twilight melted its various features into one tint of sober grey.