CONCERNING LAWNS 351 



drifted away ; then indeed he will recover his 

 power, and slowly, patiently, unhasting and un- 

 resting, day and night, year by year, century 

 after century, he will labour to sink away brick 

 and stone beneath the surface and cover it all with 

 a deep rich mould and a mantle of everlasting 

 verdure. 



Then we have the earthworms inhabiting heaths 

 and all sandy soils throughout the land. They are 

 no better than the London earthworms. One day 

 last autumn I found the gardener at the house in 

 a pine wood where I was staying at Ascot digging 

 potatoes. I took a spade and went to him and 

 started digging for worms at his side. There was 

 a magnificent crop of potatoes, as it has been 

 everywhere this autumn of 1918, but the earth- 

 worms we turned up were few in number and very 

 poor specimens. " It is useless," said the gardener, 

 " to look for a big worm here — I never see one. It 

 is the sand that starves them." 



I am not sure that this is a sufficient explana- 

 tion : in the rich soils in these highly cultivated 

 gardens in this heath and pine district where 

 wealthy people have their homes, the worms, one 

 would think, must find sufficient nourishment. It 

 is more probable that their poor condition is due 

 to something inimical to earthworms in the sand 

 itself. 



On the chalk, where the soil is thin, as in the 

 sheep-walks, the earthworms are comparatively 

 small in size, but vigorous and quick in their move- 



