Few people are aware of the existence of a garden stocked with fruit and flowers in one of the busiest parts of the City of London. It is a secret, fascinating place, in which have been discovered Roman remains of unique interest.
In the poster-covered hoardings in Fetter Lane a little door gives access to the garden, which runs at the back of Nevill's Court. The land is owned by the Goldsmiths' Company, who rent it to Mr. H. S. Gordon, a mining engineer, at a nominal sum.
Mr. Gordon showed me his garden, writes a Daily Chronicle" representative. Virginia creepers and jasmine are blossoming; tobacce has been planted, there are cherry trees and gooseberry bushes, ripe red currants and old fashioned flowers.
"When I came to live in the City," he said, "I thought it would be more interesting to have a garden than to play golf, but I never dreamed that I should make so many dis" coveries. Chance digging produced fragments which led me to suppose it might be worth while to sink a shaft and explore. This I did, and most of my discoveries have been made at a depth of 12}ft. below th: London gravel and just above the London clay. Nearly all the digging has been done with my hands, so that I should not miss the smallest article. It is very unusual to find Roman remains outside the City walls, but I have discovered Roman glass and Upchurch pottery."
Mr. Gordon showed me the glass which is of string pattern, with delicate tints.
Abbey tokens used by monks, clay pipes of all ages, bits of rosaries, rings, chains, several hundred years old, have been found. A book clasp of the fifteenth century, buckles 800 years old, an Elizabethan medicine pot, pieces of leather binding, a cobalt enamel seal of the sixteenth century, titles, and a doctor's measure, identified by experts as Florentine, are among the treasures which this land has yielded.
was the finding of roots of corn.
A specially interesting discovery "Qld books tell us of an abbot's farm round Bayard's Castle, at Blackfriars Bridge," Mr, Gordon remarked. "It extended over several acres, and it is probable that here the abbot grew his corn." answered. "They are only waste. My father and mother are buried here, but I couldn't tell you which are their graves."
Recreation of any kind is barred. The younger folk spend their spare time (which is limited) in visiting old and sick people. They read nothing but the Scriptures.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.