A GARDEN DIARY 155 
Marcu 28, 1900 
H AD we embarked upon a little stone house, 
instead of a little red-brick one, should 
we, I wonder, have had the energy to bestow 
upon ourselves a small flagged and_stone- 
walled garden as an adjunct to it? I doubt it. 
For one thing flagged gardens are, I imagine, 
costly affairs. Moreover I have never myself 
seen a new one that appealed to me as quite 
satisfactory. An old, grey-walled, and grey- 
flagged garden, as part of an old, grey farmhouse, 
or manor, is one of the most ideal possessions 
that the heart of man could sigh after. Like 
most other ideal possessions, to have it, it is, 
unfortunately, necessary as a rule to have been 
born to it. 
Be this as it may, I have never ceased to 
rejoice that we had the energy to embark at 
once upon our little red-brick garden. The 
comfort of knowing that there is always one 
spot sure to be clean, sure to be dry, sure to be 
a satisfaction to step into, even in such weather 
