Chapter I: January

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A day in the heart of winter--I lie in bed--My books, my dogs--My daughter Bess--Flowers from Mentone--Cromwell's cabinet--My dog Mouse--The feeding of the birds--The recollection of the beautiful garden at La Mortola--The violets there--The Wenlock chimes--My curtain, its strange devices--Colouring borrowed from the macaws--All flowers not only have different shades but many colours--Mouse runs downstairs--Visitors call--The children get wet--The German governess's indignation--Bess offers to pay--Hals is carried off in Henry's dressing-gown--The next day--My friend Constance comes down and embroiders with me--Billy Buttons the robin--Bess and I visit the gardens--A word about canaries in an aviary--Discussion with Bess on saints--Auguste has cleaned Hals' suit--Burbidge walks with us--A talk about gardening--An old gardener's view of dogs--Constance has a chat with me--We talk on matters relating to the kitchen garden--Vegetables, and how to cook them--Constance's future quilt, designs from Gerard's flowers to be worked on old Shropshire hand-made linen--The servant problem--Bess's request--Nana on dogs--Alone in the chapel hall--Thomas à Kempis's book--The stone altar--The next day--The seed list--My future borders--Bess and I go sledging--Bess tries to understand what real poverty is--How to be happy a hard matter--Bess's offer of toys 1

CHAPTER II

_FEBRUARY_

The beginning of spring--The spring of the North--The story of St. Milburgha--Legends of her sanctity--Belief in the efficacy of the saint's water--Wishing Well at Wenlock--First spring flowers in the red-walled garden--I see starlings--The cock chaffinch--Hals' visit--"Sister Helen" in the mouth of babes--Bess's remorse--Constance's quilt from "Gerard's Herbal"--The peace of Wenlock--Bess and her future--The difficulties of education--An interview with Burbidge--How his brother was "overlooked"--I go to Homer--Beautiful view--The story of Banister's Coppice--The arrest of the Duke of Buckingham--The Duke's curse--Its effect upon the Banister family--A visit to an old cottager--A noble life, and unclouded faith--Nanny Morgan the witch--Her life and death--Bess returns--The first snowdrops of the year--A walk home in the gloaming 58