it was a big garden : at the very back was an old tennis court , but no one in the house played tennis and the fence around the court had holes in it and the net had mostly rotted away ; there was an old rose garden , filled with stunted , flyblown rosebushes ; there was a rockery that was all rocks ; there was a fairy ring , made of squidgy brown toadstools which smelled dreadful if you accidentally trod on them .