O SOUTH SITCH, IDRIDGEHAY. 



externally with a brick chimney stack, and it is difficult to say 

 how it originally finished above the thatched roof. A wooden 

 chimney seems, according to our modern ideas, a ver}- dangerous 

 contrivance, and there is no doubt that in the days of timber 

 building fires were of very frequent occurrence, but it has to be 

 remembered that with wood fires on an open hearth and with a 

 wide chimney the heat would never be very great. A plastered 

 chimney was taken down about ten years ago in a very old 

 cottage at Little Eaton, and the timbers showed but slight traces 

 of the action of the fire. 



Not the least pleasant feature of South Sitch is the delightful 

 old-fashioned garden, with its well kept turf and sheltering belt 



Stems of Trees. 



of trees, which contains a curiosity in its yew arbour, well shown 

 in one of the accompanying photographic plates. This was 

 fashioned of seven yew trees jjlanted to form three sides of a 

 square, the fourth being left as an entrance; the boughs of the 

 trees have been arched over and grafted into the stems of their 

 neighbours opposite and on each side, so that each tree now 

 draws nourishment from the roots of the others. It would be 

 interesting to ascertain the date of this very unusual example of 

 the gardener's art. Topiary work was popular at the time when 

 the house was built, and was revived in the days of Queen Anne. 

 In the sicji or dell of the garden winds a tiny stream, which 

 nevertheless supplies a large fishpond and a fountain in its 



