"At the Sign of the Rainbow."
A weekly column in the Kettering Reminder, written under the pseudonym "Boy Blue," that stared in either late July or early August 1924 and ended on November 19. Baldwin (pp. 53-55) writes that "in his column consisting of several paragraphs on various topics H.E. commented on just about anything that struck his fancy, but the themes that run through the articles are soccer, nearby villages, and the presence (or absence) or local cultural events." Baldwin transcribes four extended passages, including the following (which he notes matches closely the description of the garden in "Alexander" and in The Vanished World):
"I must tell you a little bit about her and her garden, although she must be over eighty now. She is wrinkled and tottering and can scarcely hear, but I think if you asked her kindly she would let you into the quiet garden of hers so that you might spend your holiday in a deep peace. NO! this is not Devon or Sussex, but so near to me that I can walk in half an hour. Listen! Peaches and hollyhocks smothering the high walls; grass not too tidy; the shadow of a church; a great pear tree bowed down with soft, gold fruit; foxgloves and pinks and -- a seat that was built for one but would (I know) hold two. Yes! All that is in the proudest little borough in Northamptonshire. Let you into the secret? Some day, perhaps." (August 6, 1924, p. 2).
No copies available for examination. In The Reminder - An Illustrated Weekly (Kettering: T. Beaty Hart).