The Rescue of an Old Place 



jeers at the passers-by with songs and 

 laughter and merry cries, till you would 

 think a whole primary school was let loose 

 upon the lawn and all the pupils calling 

 each other by name, or else that this was 

 a lunatic asylum. 



Drought on To return to the line of trees that bor- 

 V ere! * der the street. We find that it is not safe 

 to leave them without a heavy top-dressing 

 to act as mulch, and this application hav- 

 ing been delayed this year by press of 

 business, we found one good-sized Elm, 

 that we imagined to be settled for life, 

 dropping its leaves and turning brown in 

 a most unbecoming manner, while the 

 smaller and more recently planted trees 

 were also showing signs of distress. A 

 good dousing and dressing brought them 

 all to, however, and when the mowing of 

 the swale after the rain allowed us to 

 make the rounds of the plantation, we 

 discovered that the only serious sufferers 

 were our newly set Pines, which are bring- 

 ing the hill into disrepute by their brown 

 and sear condition. This eminence natu- 

 rally suffers severely from drought and hot 

 weather; the little Oaks and Chestnuts 

 198 



