CHAPTER XI 



TRENCH GARDENS 



When village lads and lasses search for violets 

 amongst the moss-grown banks of narrow country- 

 lanes, we know that spring has really come at last. 

 It is a late one this year in spite of false hopes that 

 were raised in the earliest months, and the pear 

 blossom that promised to be out before its usual 

 time has had an unkind setback owing to the 

 blustering, cold east wind that swept over it. A 

 smock-frocked shepherd was amongst the first to 

 draw my attention to the injury that apparently 

 had been done to the fruit blossoms. He told me 

 that his window overlooked a neighbour's garden, 

 and how each morning it was a pleasure to him to 

 watch the flowers expand, until one day the petals 

 suddenly turned brown and he knew that frost had 

 come and hurt them. 



Whilst talking with him I thought I would ask 

 the origin of curious marks that abound upon a 

 slope of the downs facing south. Raised banks 

 in the shape of squares and oblongs are symmetric- 

 ally arranged upon the steep hill-side and in the 

 centre and at either end are two narrow banks that 

 run down side by side into the deep valley below, 

 reminding one much of the narrow roadways that 



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