5 JULY 1946, Page 14

In My Garden Being on a slope, I am benefiting

by the wet, although the strawberries could do with more sun. Salads and-new potatoes are already taken up. The'wet has brought on a bay tree that I planted last year under a stone wall. It began with two leaves. Now it is a foot high and thick with shoots and leaves. I think of Edmund Spenser's lines in a letter to his friend, George Bilchaunger, in 158o : " Thrice happy Daphne: that turned was to the Bay Tree, Whom such servauntes serve, as challenge service of all men. Now farewell Bay Tree, very Queene, and Goddesse of all trees, Ritchest perle to the Crowne, and fayrest Floure to the Garland."

Hexameters in a garden! I am in danger of becoming, literary, so will