SITUATION, SOIL, CHAP. 



38. It will be seen, that I make but one entrance into 

 the garden, as at a ; because this entrance, which is a 

 door-way in a hedge, is a somewhat difficult affair : 

 hedges cannot be joined to wood work, as brick work 

 can. There must be posts and a door-frame : and, if 

 great pains be not taken, there will soon be a gap where 

 these join the hedge. This will be the weak part of the 

 fortification. There must be a bridge over the ditch j 

 and that which serves the garrison equally serves the 

 besieger ; therefore, this door ought to be well guarded 

 on the top and on the sides by stout pieces of wood pro- 

 jecting in every direction from the top and sides of the 

 door, and well guarded with tenter-hooks. Prevention 

 is better than cure : " lead us not into temptation," is the 

 most sensible of all possible prayers : you inflict no 

 hardship by removing temptation j but you inflict great 

 hardship in the pursuit of compensation or punishment : 

 let the whole neighbourhood be convinced that forcible 

 entry into the garden is not to be accomplished without 

 infinite difficulty : and that is a great deal better than all 

 the steel-traps, spring guns, and penal laws in the world. 

 It is better to have sentry-boxes and sentinels in them 

 than to resort to the steel-trap and spring-gun system j 

 and, for my own part, mortified as I should be at spo- 

 liations committed in the garden, I would submit to 

 them, and even to the destruction of the garden itself, 

 rather than disgrace my premises by such terrific threats. 



39. The door-way at a lets you into a short path to 

 another door-way in the wall at b. Through these door- 

 ways the materials naturally go for the making of hot- 

 oeds ; and, therefore, the hot-bed ground, d, is the first 



