208 TRENCH GARDENS 



find a home. In short, this small garden, so simple 

 to construct, is one that should commend itself 

 to those who live in exposed positions where 

 wind is a disturbing element. A few steps hewn 

 out of the chalk lead down to it, and there is room 

 for two chairs and a table, so that it forms an 

 ideal stronghold for those who search for undis- 

 turbed peace. 



We have two other " trench gardens," but these 

 were laid out long before the war began ; one, long 

 and narrow, measuring about fourteen feet in 

 width by seventy feet in length, was thought of 

 when we wanted to give a home to twelve clipped 

 bay trees. I was fortunate enough to see these 

 on the morning they arrived from Holland, as 

 they stood on the pavement in a street near 

 Covent Garden Market, and I thought they would 

 do admirably in some large Italian orange-pots 

 that we had in the garden. In height and shape 

 they resemble orange trees, and, as they are 

 placed formally in pairs to outline the two longest 

 sides of this garden, have often deceived experts, 

 who thought that, by some magic, the terra-cotta 

 pots and orange trees had all been brought from 

 Italy. Small birds find convenient, dense shelter 

 within the close foliage, and in the recesses of the 

 chalk-banks, hidden behind passion-flowers and 

 Jersey Beauty rose, small tits build nests that only 

 sharp-eyed boys and girls discover. This garden 

 is a very sheltered, shady one, for the chalk rock 

 that was hewn from one side, in order to make the 

 level grass-walk upon which the great orange-pots 

 stand, was heaped up to the south higher even 



