NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



bits of wild nature into reasonably ordered pleasure grounds. 

 Frequently the north country houses are built upon the edge of a 

 glen, which by judicious adaptation is given all the charm and interest 

 of a well-planned garden, and often a natural stream is used to 

 supply happily placed lakes and pools, or is itself treated as an 

 important factor in the design. Fine lawns, diversified by well- 

 proportioned shrubberies, are found in many gardens, and herba- 

 ceous borders arranged with a due sense of colour-effect are much 

 favoured. One characteristic of the northern gardens must be noted 

 the ingenious application of all sorts of materials for paving the 

 footpaths and walks so as to obtain a dry surface and yet one which 

 will be pleasantly in keeping with its surroundings. 

 In all these details there is evidence enough that the garden-makers, 

 even when they have to avoid the formalities of a set design, do not 

 by any means relax their efforts to deal with the problems of their 

 art in an individual and intelligent manner. They seek to give 

 character to their work, to make it right in feeling and effective in 

 its results, and they show much readiness of resource in the way 

 they adapt themselves to the exigencies of the position in which they 

 may happen to be placed. The northern gardens, indeed, illustrate 

 what may be called the impressionist style of gardening the style, 

 that is to say, which is fixed not by tradition, nor by regular rules of 

 design, but by the necessity of responding to the suggestions of a 

 particular locality or a special phase of nature. 



The garden which comes first in this series of illustrations is at 

 Bishop Auckland, the palace of the Bishop of Durham (Plate II.). 

 The palace, a dignified building with a fine chapel, stands on the top 

 -of a hill which slopes steeply to the south and east, and the ground 

 round about it is laid out in broad lawns bordered with shrubberies 

 and surrounded on two sides by a walled walk, from which extensive 

 views of the country beyond are obtained. 



<- Blagdon, the seat of Viscount Ridley (Plates III. to VII.) , is a place 

 -with many striking features, to which important additions are being 

 made from Lady Ridley's designs. The house is approached from 

 the main road by a bridge, flanked at each end by colossal marble 

 statues, which crosses a deep, narrow valley. On the south side of 

 the house is a large terrace lawn, and on the western side a steep 

 slope leading to the grounds beyond. On the eastern and western 

 sides of the large lawn are rectangular beds, well spaced and filled 

 with various kinds of flowers ; and at the southern end is placed a 

 colossal bronze statue. Among the special features of the gardens 

 are the rectangular lily pond and the new circular rose garden, both 

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