64 THE ADMIRAL'S TEA-PARTY 



pasturage. Only with the advent of the enclosure 

 of parks and large properties was this altered, and 

 even now to us who come after there remain the 

 traditional names of fields which show clearly which 

 member of the united community worked them. 



My way lies up the steep hill, past a square red- 

 brick Queen Anne vicarage, standing modestly 

 behind its high wall, over which hang branches of 

 fig trees. These in summer often tempt village 

 boyhood to deprive the Church of many righteously 

 owned fruits. The road, or " The Street," as it is 

 familiarly called, leads by a wide opening in a yew 

 hedge, which proclaims the entrance to what village 

 people name " The House," till a lovely, foreign- 

 looking belt of grey-green ilex-trees is reached. 



The vista I get on my right of the high, narrow 

 arch beneath a golden, globe-shaped clock-tower, 

 and beyond again to stone piers surmounted by 

 angry-looking griffins that guard the way reminds 

 me of carriage-folk and how we mostly think it 

 necessary to drive to a fancy-dress party. Perhaps 

 the present war, which has robbed great ladies of 

 their motor-cars and caused many a farmer to ride 

 his horse harder than usual, because the military 

 have purchased from his stables, may teach some 

 that their own feet are not always the worst means 

 of reaching their destination. To-night, as the 

 soft wind touches my cheek and the great ilex- 

 trees gently bend towards me, it seems that walking 

 is the ideal way of going to and from a party. 

 Particularly is this so if one is, as I am, about to 

 enter a fairy world. Prosaic, everyday life is left 

 behind, and I am speeding toward a childlike, happy 



