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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 sur- 

 roundings — 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 examin- 

 ing estates within thirty or forty miles of London, but though 

 we found several that were in most ways suitable, it was 

 found impossible to find any that exactly fulfilled the re- 

 quirements 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 

 south-east, 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, and we got into it at Christmas, 1902, when we 

 decided to call it Old Orchard. 



