# XI: The Searching of the Gardens explained — The House on the Borderland

> Chapter companion for The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.

## What happens

On the ninth day after the attack, the narrator decides to venture outside with Pepper to search the gardens. He inspects the damage around the house, including the study door and the fallen copingstone, finding no trace of the slain swine-things. The next day, he explores the Pit, which has transformed into a chasm filled with turbid water, and discovers a cleft with a hole like an arched doorway. He concludes the gardens are free of the creatures.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Madness

The narrator's cautious exploration and obsessive scrutiny of the grounds highlight his solitary vigilance and psychological strain.

### The Supernatural and the Unknown

The inexplicable disappearance of the swine-things' remains and the transformed Pit suggest supernatural forces at work.

## Character check-ins

### The Recluse

Ventures outside to search the gardens and the Pit, observing changes and assessing danger.

### Pepper

Accompanies the narrator, sniffing and nosing about, showing no uneasiness, indicating the gardens are safe.

### The Swine-Things

No longer present in the gardens; their remains under the copingstone have vanished without trace.

## Key lines

> How slowly the time went; and never a thing to indicate that any of the brutes still infested the gardens.

Time passed slowly with no sign that any of the creatures remained in the gardens.

_Sets the tense, expectant mood as the narrator prepares to venture out._

> I found that the wood was covered with a network of scratches, crossing and recrossing one another, in inextricable confusion.

The door was covered in a chaotic pattern of scratches.

_Evidence of the swine-things' previous attempts to enter the house._

> I had seen several of the brutes struck down beneath it, with such force that they must have been literally driven into the earth; and now, not a vestige of them was to be seen—not even a bloodstain.

The creatures crushed under the stone had vanished without any trace, not even blood.

_Highlights the mysterious and supernatural disappearance of the swine-things._

> My first impression, that there had been a land slip, was, I began to see, not sufficient, of itself, to account for all the changes I witnessed.

A simple landslide could not explain all the dramatic changes to the Pit.

_Suggests a more profound, possibly supernatural transformation of the landscape._

## Links

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