66 THE ADMIRAL'S TEA-PARTY 



approach who are indirectly associated with it, 

 for one is the mother of a garden student and the 

 other is her friend. I am, however, congratulated 

 as being the only everyday " grown-up " who is 

 privileged to witness the revels. I almost wish 

 that a kind Fairy would quickly come with her 

 wand and convert me from my essentially modern 

 appearance into a Fairy Prince or Ugly Goblin, 

 so that in taking part in the fun I could have the 

 assurance of being quite in keeping. It is dis- 

 tressing to feel one may be a prosaic blot in the 

 midst of fairies. 



The small red-brick farmhouse stands a little 

 way back from the lane and is partly hidden by a 

 thick quick hedge. It is rather like a doll's-house, 

 for in the centre is a very tiny projecting porch, 

 above which a wee stone niche holds the date 1 760 

 and the initials of the original possessor. On 

 either side, on each floor are two windows and 

 three gable ones are in the high, sloping roof. The 

 door and windows are very small, with leaded 

 lights in the latter, and at either end of the house 

 is a tall chimney, which by its shape denotes the 

 age of the building. Against one is a big pear tree, 

 which has seen better days when some skilled 

 eighteenth-century gardener trained its branches 

 in outstretched horizontal lines. At present its 

 limbs are overgrown with lichen and in places 

 have snapped the ties that once held them. 



Seen in the half-light of evening, the house re- 

 minds me of Alice in Wonderland and the picture 

 in that delightful book where Alice's large, ungainly 

 hand is seen thrust out of the cottage window, 



