WELSU VANDALS.
A very different sort of reappearance, recorded in one of the loveliest bits of Britain, is of the water crowfoot on the Rheidol near Aberystwyth. It is, of course, a common enough plant, but its flourishi g is taken by local botanists (who are remarkable for accuracy as well as zest) as sign that those fouled waters are repurified. That invading plant, the monkey flower, which has recently taken captive North Devon ditches and the banks of the Lea—to speak of what I have myself seen—is also blossoming in great profusion on the Rheidol. These happy facts are recorded at the same moment RS the destruction of one of the most charming little gardens in my memory. Local authorities, devotees, it appears, of another sort of music than "the music of flowers," have just dug up and destroyed the little sunk garden in the castle. I have associated it in memory with the Knot garden at Stratford. It has been destroyed just when the shrubs were at their best, in order to provide a site for a Pierrot troupe. It seems that Aberystwyth, unlike London, objects to the rus, or hortus, in tube. However, the restoration of those lovely rivers—and incidentally of the home of the Welsh poppy—is more than compensation. Nevertheless the garden was a gem, of more value, one would have thought, than any common amusement.
* * *
Previous page
