Birds were thick in the wood and trilled love songs, or twittered and sang low in the hour before their bedtime, filling the twilight with clear adorable sounds.

The fairy-tale cottage was whitewashed and its broad eaved roof was thatched.

Hollyhocks stood in haughty splendour against its walls and on either side its path.

The latticed windows were diamond-paned and their inside ledges filled with flourishing fuchsias and trailing white campanula, and mignonette.

The same flowers grew thick in the crowded blooming garden.