When I was  a little boy, a horse chestnut tree was planted at the back of the garden. It took a lot of time to grow, a few centimetres a year , between two big stones. One day, it was moved to another place in the garden near the well. At the time, there  was no running water and a pump played the role of a tap. But some houses of the neighbourhood had not the privilege and  the well had many visits. The water  that overflowed from the buckets spread over the rim of the well. When it was not sunny, the  place around the well used to become quickly soaked and three stones were set not to walk in the mud.

To avoid this “marouillage” next to our estate, my grandfather build a cement device. The water was drawn by a pipe to the depth of the ground, near the roots of the horse chestnut tree.

When people used the well, water was brought to the chestnut tree, which started to grow from spring to spring.  Now it is a beautiful   tree that spreads generously its foliage and gives a fresh shade in summer and round horse chestnut in autumn.

Hubert PERRY-GIRAUD

Marouillage :idiomatic and archaic word meaning a tiny swamp