i 4 o A GARDEN DIARY 



whose doings I take a natural interest. Plans of 

 Invasion are always rather fascinating, whatever 

 the realities are likely to be. On this occasion 

 I have only allowed myself a very small and 

 cheap Invasion, just enough to put our rifle- 

 shooting civilian standing in it and asking how 

 he is to behave himself. It is not coming off in 

 the orthodox place, which I take to be nearly 

 opposite the bathing sands of Boulogne, but upon 

 quite a new theatre, namely upon the shores of 

 Dublin Bay. My invaders are probably French, 

 but may be anything else, it does not in the least 

 matter. Whoever they are they have succeeded 

 in evading the Channel Fleet, have run the gaunt- 

 let of the forts no impossible feat and have 

 disembarked some forty or fifty thousand strong 

 somewhere between the Bailey of Howth and the 

 foot of Bray Head. 



As for their purpose in landing, so far as my 

 information extends, it is simply to do as much 

 damage as can be conveniently accomplished 

 within a given time. If the defending fleet re- 

 mains entangled elsewhere, and they can be 

 reinforced, so much the better. In any case 

 France can afford to lose some twenty or thirty 

 thousand recruits in a good cause. Moreover 

 he would be a poor sort of Frenchman who for 

 the sake of burning, harassing, shooting, raiding, 

 racking, ruining, and generally running amuck, 

 amongst British possessions, would not run the 



