Roses I saw, too, in great abundance; and tall snapdragons, and bushes of rosemary, and many flowers unknown to me.

As our talk proceeded the gardener gave me a little light on his own history; formerly he was valet to a gentleman of Cotrone, with whom he had travelled far and wide over Europe; yes, even to London, of which he spoke with expressively wide eyes, and equally expressive shaking of the head.

That any one should journey from Calabria to England seemed to him intelligible enough; but he marvelled that I had thought it worth while to come from England to Calabria.

Very rarely indeed could he show his garden to one from a far-off country; no, the place was too poor, accommodation too rough; there needed a certain courage, and he laughed, again shaking his head.
The ordinary graves were marked with a small wooden cross; where a head-stone had been raised, it generally presented a skull and crossed bones.

Round the enclosure stood a number of mortuary chapels, gloomy and ugly.