CHAPTER II 



HOW THE GARDEN WAS MADE 



My garden lies upon a slope facing almost due 

 south, and from the little paved walk that sur- 

 rounds the house I look down upon terraces and 

 over the roofs of pergolas that follow more or less 

 from east to west the waving bend of the hillside. 

 We are on the lower part of one of the highest 

 beacons of the South Downs, which goes by the 

 somewhat scriptural-sounding name of Mount Ca- 

 burn. This great hill, standing some 500 feet above 

 the sea, gives shelter from all northerly blasts, and 

 the only wind which works havoc amongst the 

 flowers is the boisterous south-west, which sweeps 

 round the corner of a more southerly range of 

 downs and leaps across a wide valley of marshland 

 to the foot of the garden. 



Had I to choose once more a position for a 

 garden, I should be in favour of one like this upon 

 a steep hillside, because it is comparatively easy 

 then to obtain variety and artistic effect. The 

 view from the lowest ground looking upwards is 

 totally different from what one looks down upon 

 from a height, and consequently the unexpected 

 has not to be created by means of innumerable 

 mounds, archways, and enclosures, which, upon 



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