This is very uncommon.
So we went out to where the orchard is, at the other side of the moat.
There were gooseberries and things on the bushes, but we did not take any till we had asked if we might.

Alice went and asked.

Mrs Pettigrew said, 'Law! I suppose so; you'd eat 'em anyhow, leave or no leave.' She little knows the honourable nature of the house of Bastable.

But she has much to learn.
The orchard slopes gently down to the dark waters of the moat.

We sat there in the sun and talked about dragging the moat, till Denny said, 'How DO you drag moats ?' And we were speechless, because, though we had read many times about a moat being dragged for missing heirs and lost wills, we really had never thought about exactly how it was done.
'Grappling-irons are right, I believe,' Denny said, 'but I don't suppose they'd have any at the farm.' And we asked, and found they had never even heard of them.