JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t January 8, 1874. 



noticed in onr pages by Mr. Keane, and it is not surprising 

 that such a fine old place, so near London too, shonld receive 

 BO much attention ; but now that the Princess of Liechten- 

 stein's splendidly iilnstrated work' ha3 brought it so pro- 

 minentlv before the public, it may be useful to reproduce some 

 of Mr. Keane's notes on the gardens, to appreciate the beauties 

 of -which, however, the summer, not the winter, is the proper 

 season. The flower beds, of course, are now no longer bright 

 with many hues and beautiful combinations of flowering and 

 fine-foUaged plants ; bat even in their present more sombre 

 state, from tueir neatness, and being set in smooth green 

 sward or well-kept Box edgings — some fifty years old — they 

 are pleasing to the eye, and afford a good idea of how effective 

 snch beds skilfully planted must be when i.t their best. 

 Conifers, save some fine old Cedars, are but le>f, for the 

 London smoke is destructive to them as to many other plants, 



though Holland Park is not more exposed to it than other 

 places at a greater distance from the densely-peopled portions 

 of London. Still it is well known to travellers by the Great 

 Western road that if there is a fog, it is always at its thickest 

 at Holland Park, and gardeners in the country know little of 

 how smoke-begrimed is a plant after such fogs as we had in 

 the end of last year. Besides, Holland Park is slowly but 

 surely becoming engirdled with houses, and as time goes on 

 the bonds will grow tighter still. The old Elms, in which the 

 rooks love to congregate, and other deciduous trees, are now 

 gaunt and leafless, but in summer form noble masses of 

 verdure. 



We will now quote from Mr. Keane, but it must be faoTne in 

 mind that he wrote in summer. 



The grounds of Holland House are entered from the hi^ih 

 road between Kensington and Hammersmith, and the approach 



HOT.UND HOUSE — WEST rEOST. 



is through an avenue of Elm trees. Before the south front is 

 a large square bowling-green terrace, bounded by balustrades 

 adorned with flowers in vases and Orange trees, and in the 

 centre with a large basin fountain. Before the east front is 

 the carriage square. 



Before the north front is a terraca walk 200 yards long by 

 5 feet wide, with a colossal statue of Charles James Fox, which 

 overlooks it from the highest point. Parallel with the east side 

 of these grounds runs a long broad walk under a grove of fine 

 old Elm trees, called Louis Philippe's walk, from the circum- 

 Bt-ince of the King of the French having visited Holland House 

 and grounds at the time it was made. The ground rises on 

 all sides to a beautiful knoll in the park, crowned with an old 

 and picturesque Cedar of Lebanon. Fine old Cedar and other 

 trees creep-up the slopes, and form groves around the base 

 and along the v.Uley — not thick groves of gloom, but groves in 

 which the forms of the trees are fully developed, and, being 

 planted at various distances apart, producing glades of pleas- 

 ing landscape scenery. 



Before the west front of the house (of which the accompany- 

 ing is a representation) is a flower garden, a rich parterre and 

 beautiful pattern, the walks brimful of gravel, and the beds 

 overflowing with all the most choice and best sorts of flowers. 



• Holbiml House. Ej- Priacesa ilirio Liechtenstein, ilicmillan 4 Co. 



It is arranged in the best manner to give the pleasing variety 

 the contrast, and the distinctness of colours which are clearly 

 and expressly defined throughout the composition, and is seen 

 to advantage when the whole is overlooked from the terrace, 

 surrounded by balustrades, on the top of the banqueting room. 

 It is protected on the north side by a wall, and on the west by 

 the ruins of what had originally been a stable, which is now 

 made, by the stables having been arched with masonry and 

 covered with Ivy, to resemble a ruined aqueduct. 



Of the portion called the Dutch garden we are enabled, 

 through the courtesy of Messrs. Macmillan, to give a view 

 taken from the south-west side, outside the Ivy-covered arches 

 referred to. The bust seen in the engraving is that of Napo- 

 leon I., opposite to which is an octagon marble basin, and 

 next the wall the embowered seat of Rogers the poet, with these 

 lines over it — 



" Here Rogers sat, and here for ever dwell 

 -VTitll me those pleasures that he aings so well.*' 



The whole of this section of the garden is enclosed by a dwarf 

 Box hedge. Outside of the arches is a small terrace garden 

 in Box, and beyond it, on a lawn, several Apple trees, on 

 which the Mistletoe is flourishing. 



The Lily Pond garden is simple in design, with an oval pond 

 surrounded by four Lshaped corner beds, and the pond in 



