The Saint Paul globe., 1901-09-03
LOVE THEIR GARDENS.
Chelsea Pensioners Take Greatest
Interest in Their Little PIats.


When, at the end of the sirdar's long
journey, British soldiers and British Cit
iZens stood once again in Khartum one
observer drew picture of the deserted
palace where Gordon lived and died. and
which. even in it's desolation, showed
traces of the "Englishmans love for his
garden
That love survives in the quaintest.
most pathetic way in the old mems gar
dens at Chelsea hospital. says the Lon
don Daily Mail. Nearly everybody is fa-
miliar with the aspect of the hospitaT
itself, where the old soldiers in their
scarlet coats sit with their backs to the
walls and watch the shadows creep. over
the lawns of the quadrangelS,, but fewer
people know the old mems flower gar
dens.
1t is sequestered enclosure, and
from 1t until late years nothing could be
seen but the chimneys and gables of
the hospital. Nowadays the roofs of flats
peep inquisitively over the lime trees
and seem almost as discordant as the
jingle of the omnibuses but the charm
of the place has not altogether flown
with their advent, and the thrushes and
the blackbirds are as assiduous in their
visits as ever.
If one may judge by appearances the
old pensioners view these persistent
callers with less favor than more modern
innovations, for the most elaborate pre-
cautions are taken to warn them off
from the plots. ScarecrowS of the most
threatening character are planted in the
closely crossed and laced with string and
kites tails that it looks as if it had for
gotten to take a slatterniy head out of
curl papers.
The reason for all this care is that the
plots are proprietary: in the modest acre
are 1iS allotments, and each belongs to
some old soldier who at the end of his
Journey still loves to tend his garden
1t Is all his; he digs it: he sows it:
he shakes his head over the late frosts
or the rain which will not fall; and at
last, when sun and shine and cloud and
shower have brought forth the offspring
OF the year, he sits on the benches be-
side his garden, content with the sim
plest yet the most lasting and least un-
gratefui OF earthly pleasure-the pride of
the gardener
The enclosure where the allotments lie
Is between the place where Ranelagh
Gardens used to be and the crowded
burial ground OF old soldiers. The burial
ground Is closed now, and Ranelagh
Gardens with their gay arcades and
registering JolHty are forgotten; but the
quiet acre OF old mems gardens which
typify the halfway house where hhe
traveller rests before setting out on the
last journey.
AS VIII have been understood the plots
are not large, and on a twenty-foot Brit
lsh square individuality-es especially with
a military trainings less to be looked
Tor than uniformity. Yet old soldiers
who have slept out in the trenches OF
Inkerman and been scorefed on +oe
plains or India; or who have acquired
medals and rheumatism. among the yaJ-
4eyS OF sAbyssfnia, do. not come home
without some crotchets of their ownS
Consequently, within its limits each MOT
pears the impress of the man who made
This one, for instance. grows stocks
and southernwood and cherry-pfe. sweet
smelling things whose scent sets off tbeir
nomely featUreS and that other grows
noth1ng but lettuces and carrots and
nY1in
immature scale. One man marks thu
border of his domain with states. another
with corrugated iron; one of the most
decorative of them all is fringed with
scadop smells all of a row" Nearly all
preserve the old-fashioned iowers-l1Inins
ana larkspur, gillyf1ower and sweet pea.
Inere are great many little flags
Ioating over these tiny plots of British
territory. Nest of them. from their in
script1on date from recent occurrences in
South Africa, for old and grave as the
hospital is its veterans. battered In
their country's wars have Watcbf,,1
eye on the soldiers who are doing the
work which once they did Some Of the
decorations are less agricultural than
arTI9oNcuitural. aTI In few of the plots some
old tenant has built an arbor rooted will
IVY, and here, when the flowers bloom
ana the days grow warm, the old pen
sloner sits, grave and a little solitary.
ilStenlng-So it sometimes seems-fo
Times winged chariot drawing near"
But most Of them are more gregarious
than that, and in the summer evenings
assemble companionably together in the
imetree-shaded arbor at the center of
the garden. whence all the paths radiate
1t IS always shady there; just now IT is
sweet with the scent of hawthorn and
gay with the brief glory of the labur-
mum.
An English poet who interpreted a.
fancy conceived by French writer. has
imagined that the rose in its Young
beauty and freshness might believe that
1t must outlive the old gardener.
In the Old Mer's Gardens of Chelsea.
nospltal 1t IS sometimes the flower which
is the survivor. Not all the pensioners
nave gardens; they inherit them from
tnose who have died and left their handi-
work behind them. Near one corner, of
me enclosure is plot neatly set out
FROM the dahlias spring sticks timed
ment of the warning earwig He was ey-
identity careful man who planted this
garden. Was? Yes, ror he died this
spring. The flowers he had set and wa
tered and tended so carefully for i've
years viii never bloom in his eyes again
Inc old pensioner who keeps the neigh
borfng garden pronounced his epitaDh
lie was good gardener said he s'efld
the garden did well by him He was al
ways asthmatical-ike. and I don't think
he expected to live beyond the winter
But he bought the pinks from me and
planted them out very carefully. think
he was satisfied to know that thev'd
come up" And that's the true spirit OF
the good soldier and the good gardener
to SOW that others may reap In the
hospital the soldier-gardeners have been
near death so many times that it seems
8 small thing by the side of the faithful