NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



emptiness. The view of the terrace and steps shows a good treat- 

 ment of ground on different levels and has a richness of detail that 

 is by no means displeasing. The French garden at Hewell Grange 

 (Plate LXXIV.) will appeal to students of styles, for it is a more 

 than ordinarily elaborate specimen of complicated designing. When 

 viewed as a whole it makes some suggestion of restlessness but this 

 is probably because the style adopted, with its multiplicity of small 

 forms, contrasts so definitely with the larger masses and severer lines 

 of the more traditional English work. The repetition of the small 

 arches in the boundary hedges is curious and ingenious. One of 

 the main facts in the design is the great fountain and basin to which 

 the centre walk leads. 



The gardens of Hoar Cross (Plates LXXV. and LXXVI.) are about 

 thirty years old, and were designed by the owner, the late Mrs. 

 Meynell Ingram. They prove what can be done with the severer 

 kind of formality when it is not allowed to become too ponderous 

 and rigid, and when it is not permitted to degenerate into extrava- 

 gance. The massive clipped hedges which surround the geometri- 

 cally planned garden in Plate LXXV. are topiary work of the 

 best kind, solid and trimly kept and obviously well fitted for their 

 purpose of providing shelter to the space they enclose. The East 

 Garden is not so definitely geometrical in treatment and has a 

 certain gaiety of manner which is quite acceptable both for its own 

 sake and because it makes a useful contrast to the formal manner 

 in which other parts of the grounds are planted. Among the more 

 remarkable features of Ingestre (Plates LXXVII. and LXXVIII.) is 

 the Long Terrace, which has a length of nearly a quarter of a mile. 

 The use of arches and pillars of yew to break at intervals this vast 

 stretch of straight path is judicious, the monotony of an unduly 

 prolonged vista is avoided, and the arches themselves are worth 

 noting as instances of the way in which clipped trees can be made 

 to fulfil a sort of architectural function. Placed as they are at the 

 top of each of the low flights of steps which occur along the 

 walk, they amplify what would be without them a not sufficiently 

 explained detail of the design. The formal garden on the north 

 front of the house is not on a very large scale, but it is neat and 

 judiciously proportioned and derives some quaintness of effect from 

 the small pyramidal trees which emphasise its geometrical design. 

 A modern garden of a reasonably ambitious kind is to be seen at 

 Little Onn Hall (Plate LXXIX.). The rose garden illustrated is 

 from the design of Mr. Mawson, who has wisely avoided an undue 

 amount of line contortion in the forms of the beds and has kept to 



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