4 PAST DIFFICULTIES 



the paving-stones, although very golden, have 

 touches of red, too, and sometimes this is accentu- 

 ated in a fat strawberry that has somehow come 

 so late this year that it has escaped being picked. 

 Little miniature-pottery oil- jars act as sentries at 

 the corners of the five formal rose-beds. Dark 

 red fuchsias are in them, with here and there a 

 pink ivy geranium, and these two flowers harmonise 

 wonderfully in colour with the old China roses 

 and pale pink Bourbon ones that are in the beds. 

 There is, as everywhere in our garden, a prevalence 

 of pale blue, for the tall wooden symbol standard 

 that stands erect in the centre, waiting for a baby 

 rambler rose to grow long limbs and clamber up 

 it, is painted this colour, and so are the tub arm- 

 chairs and the wooden table that invite to restful 

 writings . 



The only things that perhaps remind me now 

 of many difficulties that had to be faced some 

 five years ago, when this portion of the garden 

 was begun, are the high banks of chalk. They 

 are partly covered with strong creepers, and even 

 golden-headed fennell has been courageous enough 

 to sow itself there and become established ; but all 

 the same the eye that knows can detect the glare 

 of white chalk, and seeing it I recall to mind the 

 sound of the pick as it fell at regular intervals, 

 hewing down the hard rock to form this sheltered, 

 hidden garden. 



Those were days when the shadeless chalk 

 slope had to be worked by strong lime-pit workers, 

 when the windows of the house looked down upon 

 bare earth, for there had not been time for any 



