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SHRUBLAND PARK, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK, 

 The Seat of Sir William Middleton, Bart. 



The flower-gardens at this place have of late years acquired great 

 celebrity, and the alterations recently in progress being now completed, 

 we have great pleasure in presenting our readers with a short descrip- 

 tive notice of them, for which we have tlie permission of Sir William 

 Middleton. 



The mansion and gardens are so intimately blended together, both 

 from situation and design, that our sketch of the grounds would be 

 imperfect did we not devote a few lines to describe the mansion, as each 

 affords evidence of great taste in design (and execution also) ; and we 

 should not be doing justice to the liberal proprietor of Shrubland and 

 his estimable lady, if we omitted informing our readers that Shrubland 

 is the work of their own creation — the designs for the gardens and 

 parterres, we understand, as well as the main features of the mansion, 

 having been laid dowm by themselves. A residence for a considerable 

 period in Italy appears to have embued both Sir William and Lady 

 Middleton with the spirit of the great Italian masters in architecture 

 and gardening, which they so well knew how to combine. And they 

 have thus been enabled to carry out at Shrubland the purest designs of 

 the Italian school, as exhibited in the palaces and villas near Rome. 

 True, we cannot assimilate our climate and scenery to that of the south 

 of Europe ; but, notwithstanding, Sir William has been wonderfully 

 successful, and without question has formed a very perfect copy of 

 Italian gardening ; and, taking into consideration the great superiority 

 of English gardens, as regards floral embellishment, Shrubland must 

 far outvie the best gardens of Italy, though we must yield in com- 

 parison to her glorious climate — her groves of Orange, Myrtle, and 

 Bay, and the classic associations of her Villas. 



First, then, the mansion is situated on the brow of an eminence, 

 which rises abruptly from the general level of the country to the west, 

 which is overlooked by the commanding position on which the house 

 stands. Within these few years great alterations and additions have 

 been made to- the exterior of the house, under the direction and from 

 the designs of that eminent architect. Sir Charles Barry. From the 

 south \ving rises a lofty campanyle tower : the view from the upper 

 story of this comprises a wide extent of country, and affords a bird's- 

 eye view of the magnificent gardens below ; we may also add, that the 

 entire designs of the upper and lower terraces, and adjoining grounds, 

 are seen to best advantage from this elevated position. 



The situation of the house and ground immediately in front was 

 extremely well adapted for displaying the Italian style of gardening. 

 As before noticed, the ground on which the mansion stands shelves 

 rapidly to the west, and forms naturally a steep woody bank: advantage 

 has been taken of this position to form two grand terrace gardens — the 

 lower one being some seventy or eighty feet below the upper one, with 

 which it is connected by a noble flight of stone steps, leading from a 

 pavilion which forms a centre of the balustrade, the boundary of the 

 upper terrace, and directly opposite the centre of the mansion. 



