236 



A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



representations though they may be in many cases, the formal 

 garden, as they show it, has lost all its poetry; the pale tints 

 of the tender shoots of the beech hedge in spring, the soft 

 green of the sheltering yews in winter, the secluded alley, or the 

 woodbine-covered arbour, have no charm when set down in these 

 stiff lines of black and white. The garden at Ingestre was 

 described by a traveller, John Loveday, of Caversham, in 1732 : 



m^?^^ . ,-> :a?^F^^^7<^^'^^^^^m^^^^ 



T ^ VI 



INGESTRE, THE SEAT OF LORD VISCOUNT CHETWYND, FROM PLOT S 

 " STAFFORDSHIRE." FIRST EDITION, 1686. 



The house, he says, is situated on the side of a hill, " the Gardens 

 higher. They are large — laid out into the grandest walks between 

 the stateliest Trees imaginable. Hares in abundance about the 

 woody Garden, a Building erecting in the higher part for a 

 Prospect .... which together with the Church is represented 

 in Plot p. 299." The picture Loveday refers to is here reproduced 

 and illustrates in a striking manner how inadequate these designs 

 are to convey any idea of the beauties of the originals. 



