6 EVERSLEY GARDENS 



the same line containing a number of Rose 

 bushes too large for the five-foot straight 

 borders. Otherwise straight lines and right 

 angles, as near as may be, are the order of 

 the day. 



First of all, then, the long border under the 

 hedge had to be made and in fact it was 

 begun before ever a brick of the house was 

 laid ten feet wide from the hedge and 

 trenched three spits deep. I collected an 

 admirable supply of soil for it ; for it needed 

 " making " all the way. While wandering 

 round the parish, through woods and bogs, 

 meadows and lanes, I made one of my most 

 lucky hits in soil. Under the hedge of one 

 of the poor " Starve-donkey " fields that creep 

 up into the great heather moors of Hartford- 

 bridge Flats, I saw lying beside the road a 

 heap of rotten turfs. They were the real 

 old-fashioned round turfs with the Heather 

 left on them, which were universally used here 

 for fuel forty to fifty years ago, and were, 

 alas ! so fruitful a cause of terrible burns 

 in the cottages, until my mother supplied 



