After this, there being no more trees to pass, although
we had a hard business in cutting through the stump
and roots of one — I forget whether it was an Elm or
Ash — which blew down eight or ten years ago, we
employed the unglazed open pipes, laying them from
an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch apart, so as to take
any surface water that might reach them, and keeping
the spirit level going on every length to secure a shade
of a fall from one to the other. Further, we carted a
couple of loads of sandy loam, which we spread under
the pipes upon the clay, in order to provide a perfectly
level bed and to avoid displacement by the subsequent
expansion or contraction of that material. At about
half distance we came across one of the " leads " of the
Back lawn which I laid a dozen years or so ago, and
connected it with the drain by means of. a jointed pipe.
At length the whole thing was done and having placed
pieces of broken tile over the junction of each pair of



14.2 A GARDENER'S YEAR

pipes to keep the soil from silting into them in the
course of years, and fixed them all into position with
lumps of clay, we filled in the drain very carefully, arrang-
ing the last pipe so that it projects a foot or more, in
order to prevent the washing away of the wall of the pond.
