LITERARY WORK, ETC. 227 



About the year 1899 our house at Parkstone became no 

 longer suitable owing to the fact that building had been going 

 on all around us and what had been pretty open country 

 when we came there had become streets of villas, and in 

 every direction we had to walk a mile or more to get into 

 any open country. I therefore began to search about various 

 parts of the southern counties for a suitable house, and as 

 this was almost impossible to obtain, I endeavoured to induce 

 a sufficient number of friends to join together to buy a small 

 estate which we could divide between us, so as to secure the 

 benefit of pleasant society and picturesque surroundings — to 

 create, in fact, a kind of very limited garden-city, or rather 

 garden settlement. With one or two friends interested in 

 the project, I spent a good deal of time examining estates 

 within thirty or forty miles of London, but though we found 

 several that were in most ways suitable, it was found impos- 

 sible to find any that exactly fulfilled the requirements of 

 the parties most interested or to raise the necessary funds for 

 the purchase. We then returned to the search for a house 

 or land for ourselves, and after almost giving up the attempt 

 in despair, we accidentally found a spot within four miles 

 of our Parkstone home and about half a mile from a station, 

 with such a charming distant view and pleasant surroundings 

 that we determined, if we could get two or three acres at a 

 moderate price, to build a small house upon it. 



After a rather long negotiation I obtained three acres of 

 land, partly wood, at the end of the year 1901 ; sold my 

 cottage at Godalming at a fair price, began at once making 

 a new garden and shrubbery, decided on plans, and began 

 building early in the new year. The main charm of the site 

 was a small neglected orchard with old much-gnarled apple, 

 pear, and plum trees, in a little grassy hollow sloping to the 

 southeast, with a view over moors and fields towards Poole 

 harbour, beyond which were the Purbeck hills to the right, 

 and a glimpse of the open sea to the left. In the foreground 

 were clumps of gorse and broom, with some old picturesque 

 trees, while the orchard was sheltered on both sides by patches 

 of woodland. The house was nearly finished in about a year, 



