CHAPTER V 



ROOF AND BACK-YARD GARDENS IN THE CITY 



" High over roaring Temple Bar 

 And set in Heaven's third story." 



" O, green is the colour of faith and truth.*' 



When one comes to write of roof and back-yard gardens the 

 pen must run less glibly ; such oases in the dust and drouth 

 of towns are few and rare. The roofs of English houses 

 are not shaped well for gardening, and if there happen to 

 be a back-yard, it is often more like a well than a garden ; 

 not a dripping well lined with fern and soft with moss, 

 but a well walled round with smoke-black bricks, and 

 not much of a sky above it. Yet garden-lovers do make 

 their little plots somehow, even in London's heart, and 

 live there happily tending their flowers. In the broad 

 City thoroughfare that leads from Blackfriar's Bridge to 

 St. Paul's Cathedral stands a church among the shops 

 and marts — an old church built by Sir Christopher 

 Wren, Behind this building, up a narrow street — little 

 more than a passage — is a Rectory-house hemmed in at 

 back and sides with factories ; yet, hidden away in this 

 strange corner may be found a bower of greenery. Mrs. 

 Clementi-Smith, the Rector's wife, shall tell the story of 

 her City garden in her own words. We must imagine 

 it to be in the month of March. 



" The foreground of our garden consists of a bank of 

 rock work, interpersed by hundreds of the very finest 

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