Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

irds; stones and rocks abounded and it was not entirely innocent of weeds - but the
house and garden would always remain dear to the heart of those who knew them
best. The materials used in the building of the house were 'Langdale green' stone and
cream roughcast, and the many green-slated gables gave the house its name. Inset
on the west front between the two main gables was a carved stone dated l929 with
the initials of Freda and Cuthbert Woods. Delicate pink Clematis montana and appleblossom
japonica almost covered the south wall: yellow and fragrant white jasmine
and coral red japonica flourished together on the east wall and in winter and spring
the north wall was bright with red Cotoneaster berries and yellow jasmine and
Forsythia.
Most of the garden was hilly. The ground rose behind the house to a knoll,
covered by a glade of larches, scots firs and pines, bounded to the south by an
irregularly shaped lily-pond overhung by willows. (In the mornings rabbits gathered
on the grassy knoll; they also frequented the vegetable garden and so Mr Woods
used to shoot them from the bathroom window with his shotgun!). To the north lay
the "little garden", where flowers, shrubs, heather, cuttings and herbs were all found
growing together. On two sides of the house the ground fell steeply, but a
semicircular walled terrace, enclosing a rose garden was built up on the westward
side; and on the north side there was a terrace bordered by a low, sloping Cotoneaster
hedge. The paved and walled-in rose garden was formal in design: box-edged rosebeds
and box balls formed the pattern around a stone sundial; and a mass of
honeysuckle flowered freely over the low wall. A flight of wide stone steps, flanked
by a beech hedge, wound down from the terrace, where azaleas, Berberis and a
flowering Pyrus tree grew beneath the high terrace wall. A group of five yews was
planted in the grass beyond. On the south side of the house, bordering the drive,
rhododendrons formed the background to a rock garden, and to the west of the drive
a walk led to the meadow through a grove of birches, rowans, lilac, holly and shrubs.
Much of the garden was wild, intersected by grassy paths and flights of stone
steps, one such flight leading to a stone stile in the western boundary wall. Apple
trees, crab-apple, double cherry, hawthorn, azalea, Japanese maple, birches, rowans
and sweet-briars were planted in the meadow, which was always rich in wild
flowers in Spring and Summer before the hay was cut. There was a small plantation
of birches, rowans and shrubs on the western boundary and in the swampy ground
in the north west corner; willow and dogwood grew by the lower pond.
One of the greatest attractions of the garden was a stream, which tumbled down
a little glen near the northern boundary in a series of falls and cascades. Flowing
underground through the field above, it entered the garden in a pool, out of which a
waterfall emerged; an arched and cobbled stone bridge spanned it. There was a
pump under the bridge and when dry spells were well advanced Bill and I took
turns some days pumping water into the upper pond for the goldfish and water
lilies.
Beneath a large oak it was dammed to form another pool and fall - a single
stepping-stone here forming the bridge. Dippers were often to be seen in the stream
in the garden, or on a stone at the root of an oak tree. Lower down the stream could
be crossed by a single flagstone, below which was another large pool. Facing south a
summerhouse overlooked the pool, beyond which lay the lower pond.
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