1 6 A GARDEN DIARY 



that come within their reach. Walks, and shrub- 

 beries, lawn, and flower-beds began within a 

 short time of his appearance to emerge as if by 

 magic out of their primal chaos. Order grew 

 out of disorder ; symmetry to be evolved, and 

 light to break in upon the very duskiest of our 

 entanglements. We have a habit of telling our 

 friends that we ourselves "made" these grounds, 

 but our part in the process has in reality been 

 chiefly to sit still, and point our wands. It is 

 Cuttle, Cuttle alone, who has been their real 

 creator. 



For sheer, beaver-like, apparently instinctive 

 industry I have never in my life known his equal. 

 For rooted self-opinionatedness not, I must add, 

 very often. How he contrives to get through 

 the amount of work he achieves in the course of 

 every day, still more how he induces his sub- 

 ordinates to do the same, remains a perennial 

 marvel to me. Possibly seeing that my garden- 

 ing experiences have hitherto lain a long way to 

 the west of Surrey my standard as regards 

 manual labour is not of the highest. That our 

 Cuttle is a typical Surrey labourer I decline how- 

 ever to believe, though theoretically that, and 

 nothing loftier, is his status. Early in our ac- 

 quaintance he discovered my ingenuous surprise 

 over his prowess. Far from this suggesting to 

 him that less activity would serve the turn, it 

 seems to have only spurred him on to fresh and 



