OLD ENGLISH GARDENS 



177 



proaches daily, and, with the aid of a 

 field-glass. I managed to see something 

 of the daily round. The grass which 

 surrounded the burrow was at the com- 

 mencement of my observations quite 

 short, and although I satisfied myself of 

 the existence of two entrance shafts, 

 each with a clear perpendicular drop of 

 about nine inches, I could find no trace of 

 anything in the nature of a run leading 

 up to them, nor did I ever see the mice 

 move more than a couple of inches away 

 from them. They would often sit at 

 about this distance to sun themselves, 

 and, at intervals, performed their toilet, 

 but, at the slightest sound or movement 

 on my part, even though I was a dozen 

 yards away from them, they would 

 whisk about and vanish. I discovered 

 later that they turned, flung themselves 

 at the shaft, and dropped down it almost 

 in one motion, and I have no doubt that 



this first clean drop often saves them 

 from their enemies. A weasel, for 

 example, though he could dive as quickly 

 as the mouse, would waste a moment at 

 the bottom in turning and getting his 

 hind legs clear. So long as the grass 

 remained short the mice never ventured 

 to feed outside (no doubt they had a store 

 in the burrow), but once it began to grow 

 they commenced their characteristic sur- 

 face runs, and presumably fed along them. 

 These runs, when freshly made, are difficult 

 to follow. They can best be traced by 

 lowering and bending the head so as to 

 catch the shadow of the displaced grass 

 at a suitable angle. The run itself is 

 usually on and not below the surface, and 

 is completely screened by the lower 

 portions of the grass-stems. By inserting 

 a finger gently within it one is quickly 

 convinced of its protective character, 

 for one's finger becomes invisible. 



Douglas English. 



OLD ENGLISH GARDENS 



By H. H. THOMAS 



SOME gardens are like certain gardeners : 

 they seem to be born, not made. And 

 the old English garden is one of them. 

 It would not be an easy matter to say 

 how an old English garden should be 

 made, for its most treasured attribute, 

 its chief characteristic, is an indefinable 

 charm — a charm so elusive that it is 

 difftcult to account for, and altogether 

 beyond the power of the garden-maker 

 to create. It has been said that in 

 the making of a garden Time plays an 

 all-important part, and in an old 

 English garden Time plays the most 

 important part of all : " touching crude 

 colours to restful tones, glaring effects to 

 subtle" harmonies." There is an old- 

 world atmosphere about the old English 

 garden, an enchantment born of the 

 happiest association of leaves and flowers, 

 and these are beyond the power of man to 

 furnish except in harmonious working 



23 



with the softening, mellowing touch of 

 Time that clothes even the commonest 

 flowers with a halo of charm. It is strange 

 yet it is true that one may spend days and 

 hours in the most magnificent of gardens,, 

 planted with the costliest flowers which 

 make brilliant colour masses that are the 

 despair of the artist faithfully to portray, 

 yet no appeal is made to that susceptibilit}' 

 to the presence of the beautiful in Nature 

 which exists in all of us : the galaxy of 

 colouring is wanting in subtle association, 

 a sense of artificiality is all-pervading. 

 One realises that the garden lacks that dis- 

 tinctive, that indescribable charm born 

 only of clustering blossoms which have 

 lived and loved together for many years. 

 It is as though one compared the home life 

 of the happy, thrifty cottager, the fond 

 ties that exist between fatiier. mother, 

 sister and brother, linking one to another 

 in a firm, close-cleaving affection, har- 



