12 A GARDEN DIARY 



SEPTEMBER 6, 1899. 



often say to one another that it is im- 

 possible that we can have been only two 

 years and a half in possession here, so greatly 

 has the scene changed in that time. Those two 

 and a half years have done the work of many, 

 or so it appears to us in our innocent vanity. 

 Where I am now sitting three years ago stacks 

 of raw planking rose out of the trampled briers 

 and bluebells. The house stood roofed, but 

 the inside was horrible. The reign of the 

 Hammerer had spread to every creature with 

 ears. Even in my own little nursery -garden 

 chosen in the first instance as the most re- 

 mote spot the sound of it went far to extinguish 

 the nightingales. Now quietude and a sense 

 of comparative settlement has stolen over the 

 scene. Indoors, when the windows are open, 

 the birds have it all their own way. Outdoors 

 there is still much to be done, much to be 

 harmonised and regulated, but the first sense 

 of newness and desecration has, I think, wholly 



