OCTOBER 55 



cellent word-rendering of sea-sounds. Then : ' In the pools 

 and tiny basins there are a thousand fairy creatures, 

 whose motions you may watch even as you lie reposing 

 green and thread-like tentacula issuing and retreating, 

 purple atoms spinning round and round in some strange 

 dance which is the beginning and end of their existence, 

 gorgeous anemones and many a tiny shell, delicately 

 built and cunningly coloured : 



Slight, to be crush 'd with a tap 

 Of my finger-nail on the sand, 



Small, but a work divine, 

 Frail, but of force to withstand, 

 Year upon year, the shock 

 Of cataract seas that snap 



The three-decker's oaken spine 

 Athwart the ledges of rock.' 



In mentioning these books I mean no slight on any 

 that I am not fortunate enough to know. I have kept to 

 the same rule which I found necessary with the old 

 garden-books of only naming those that I not only 

 know, but possess. 



October 20th. I have been very busy here hollowing 

 out new rockeries and digging deep holes, eight to twelve 

 feet deep, and throwing up the sandy earth on either side, 

 so making slopes and mounds of earth. Small narrow 

 paths lead into these hollows, and instead of catching the 

 water at the bottom, as I did before, I keep the bottom 

 dry, and sink petroleum barrels level with the ground to 

 catch the water as it runs down the paths when rain 

 falls, or after watering with a hose. In the tall walls of 

 sandy earth every sort of aspect is to be found, little 

 hollows are made, and all kinds of treasures can be 

 planted on the flat or the slope. By making holes in the 

 sandy walls, and helping to fix the plants with a mixture 

 of cow-dung and clay, they adhere quite well on the steep 



