Page:The food of the Gods - A Popular Account of Cocoa.djvu/104

Rh the works into these beautiful grounds, and on a summer's day few prettier sights could be found than the numbers of white-robed girls who stream across in the dinner-hour to revel in the sunshine of the open fields, or sit in groups beneath the shady trees, enjoying a picnic lunch. A little further along the road the trees and the rhododendron bushes sweep backwards, leaving an open space, where a smooth lawn reaches to the front of a fine old mansion, for many years used as a home for some fifty of the work-girls whose own homes are at a distance, or who have no home at all. The fruit gardens and vineries belonging to "Bournville Hall" are used for the benefit of work-people who are ill.

Turning back again, we find on the other side of the road a magnificent pavilion, the Coronation gift of the firm to their employees, which overlooks the broad level stretch of one of the finest cricket grounds in the Midlands. Away in the hollow beyond, the Bourn forms a picturesque, shady pool, part of which is used to make a capital open-air swimming bath for