LAYINO OUT GARDENS. 



61 



ments. Desonnding from the corridor, whicli is here inclosed by glass, a 

 broad flight of steps leads to the central path, which intersects the lowest 

 level of the gardens. The compartment on the right is occupied by three 

 rows of choice deciduous trees and American pines, skirted under the retaining 

 wall on the north by an irregular clump of rhododendrons. The compartments 

 run off at an obtuse angle, leaving room for an octagon-shaped compartment 

 in the centre of the walk, of 70 feet, a circular basin occupying its centre, 

 filled with scarlet geraniums, out of which rises an elegant tazza for flowers. 

 The two compartments under the south corridor are intended for rock-works ; 

 the further compartment on the right is laid out as a maze, and planted 

 with yew and hornbeam. At each extremity of the ante-garden, as this 

 is called, a gravel walk, under the retaining wall of the first terraces, enters 

 the principal garden beneath the bridge to the walk alongside the canals, which 

 is on the same level as the ante-garden. 



148. Keeping to the central path, however, a gently sloj^ing bank of a 

 foot and a half in the turf, with a similar rise in the gravel, leads to the prin- 

 cipal garden. From this spot the best view of the terraces and conservatory 

 is obtained. The cross-walk on either hand looks across the bridge and 

 terrace upon the most ornamental facade of the principal corridor ; and the 

 front view shows the ascending steps at the middle and end of the central 

 walk, terminating in the circular embroidei'y garden and the large central tazza. 

 Beyond it, in due time, will appear the grand cascade, which is to supply 

 all the other basins, surmounted by the memento of the Great Exhibition, 

 on which Mr. Durham is now occupied ; the conservatory beyond, with the 

 steps, and the principal architectural terraces, rising on the right and 

 left of it, closing the view, 



149. On the immediate right and left, a broad verge of twelve feet, is 

 planted with Portuguese laurels, thirty feet apart, descending by grass ramps of 

 three feet, leads to a grass .^g, ^^_ 

 promenade and a sunken 

 diagonal flower-bed, sur- 

 rounded by a 6-inch stone 

 kerb, arranged in a very 

 elegant embroidery pat- 

 tern of dwarf box and 

 variously -coloured path 3 

 of red, buff, blue, black, 

 white, and yellow, — geo- 

 meti'ical beds of shrubs 

 and low-growing trees, 

 planted singly, which 

 form a distinguishing fea- 

 ture in the garden, occu- 

 pying the fui-ther extremity of the compartment. Beyond the trees, another 

 grass ramp leads down to the level of the canal. The opposite bank of each 



