14 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN 



its leaden coloured pall of smoke gently drifting over 

 from the City, thereby not only cutting out a large 

 amount of the vigour from the light rays, but is ever 

 depositing its injurious particles of by-products upon 

 the foliage. This in time is liable to choke the little 

 mountain plants unaccustomed to anything but the 

 purest of pure air. Then again, the garden as a whole 

 is upon a clay subsoil, with three or four feet of heavy 

 sticky loam on the top. 



The last and by no means least of the difficulties I had 

 to face, was the fact that there is no stone quarried 

 anywhere in the neighbourhood and as far as I know, 

 for a very considerable distance. 



You will agree that at the outset my chances of 

 success were small indeed, and I was many times 

 told by experienced friends that I should do no good 

 with many of the more difficult plants. 



Business connections prevented me removing to a 

 more suitable locality, so I had either to make the best 

 of my disadvantages, or give up the idea altogether. 

 After careful consideration, I chose the former, as I 

 believed that by some thought and ingenuity a large 

 amount of the trouble could be circumvented, and since 

 the space available was small, I felt sure that no other 

 form of gardening would give me the same prolonged 

 period of interest and pleasure as the cultivation of 

 Alpine plants. 



