A GARDEN BY THE SEA 15 



the gravel - bed ? ' ' Lor' bless yer,' he replied, grin- 

 ning, ' I hadn't been here a fortnight afore I swopped 

 it for a pond ! ' He had, as a further explanation in- 

 formed me, and after an agreement with a neighbouring 

 farmer, removed with pick and barrow his sandy stratum 

 to the depth of three feet, wheeled it to the banks of an 

 old pond, or rather to the margin of a cavity where a 

 pond once was, but which had been gradually filled up 

 with leaves and silt ; and this rich productive mould he 

 had brought home a distance of two hundred yards, 

 replacing it with the gravel, and levelling as per con- 

 tract." 



That man's garden was a real living creation : it was 

 indeed a " great work." And it is in everything true 

 that great natural possessions, though they may render life 

 more comfortable and possibly more apparently success- 

 ful, yet make the battle the tamer and less interesting. 

 Indeed the greater the odds to be overcome, the more 

 magnificent will every victory appear, and the gardener 

 who creates a flowery Eden out of a piece of bare and 

 starving desert has scored a greater success than his who 

 but grows beautiful flowers and delicious fruits where 

 soil and site and surroundings have been entirely on his 

 side. 



I am writing in a garden which is as remarkable an 

 example of difficulties overcome as was the garden of 

 Dean Hole's navvy. Those who are familiar with the 

 sand-dunes or towans which form so pronounced a 

 feature of much of the northern coast-line of Cornwall, 

 will realize that these scarcely afford ideal spots for 

 easily made gardens. A thin coating of poor grass, 

 reeds, wild thyme and occasional sea-hollies form the 

 only drapery for the blown sand which makes up the 

 whole body of soil. 



Yet it was on such a spot that a friend of mine pitched 

 his camp, or rather built his cottage, and set to work to 



