NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



At Rydal Hall (Plates CIX. and CX.) there is another example of Mr. 

 Thomas Mawson's versatility as a garden-maker, an essay in formal 

 designing very different in character from the general run of his work, 

 but one which shows all his usual sense of proportion and grasp of 

 appropriate technicalities. The house is built on the slope of a hill 

 overlooking Rydal Water, and this slope has been converted into a 

 series of splendid terraces with excellently planned formal gardens 

 which have an ample measure of dignity and spaciousness of effect. 

 These terraces are not only fine features in the design, but they afford 

 many standpoints from which the beautiful country round can be 

 viewed under the pleasantest conditions. At the back of the house 

 is a romantic wild garden, a dell into which falls a stream with a 

 considerable volume of water. At the foot of the falls, a rustic, stone- 

 built tea-house has been erected ; and the dell, by the accentuation of 

 its natural beauties, has been made into an exquisite piece of land- 

 scape gardening with a character entirely its own. The contrast 

 between this wild scene and the studied, formal laying out of the 

 ground in front of the house is as striking as it is agreeable. 

 Sand Hutton Hall (Plate CXI.) looks out upon a lake which was 

 made by a former owner of the place and is in the midst of grounds 

 that have much beauty and picturesqueness of arrangement. There 

 is not much in the way of formal designing about the gardens, but 

 they are made gay by pretty flower beds, and there arc in them many 

 quiet nooks and many walks which wind through the shrubberies and 

 under the trees. The thatched pagoda is well situated and is a good 

 example of garden architecture of the rustic kind. The illustrations 

 of the cascade in Sefton Park (Plates CXII. and CXIII.) are worth 

 studying as instances of the way in which nature's wildness and 

 fascinating irregularity can be suggested by the deliberate contrivances 

 of the garden-maker who has a right instinct in the practice of his 

 art. The combination of rugged rock forms and tangled foliage in 

 this exquisite little bit of water-gardening is singularly well con- 

 trolled, and the result is one which in its general effectiveness and its 

 charm of detail could hardly be surpassed. Sefton Park, which is the 

 property of the Corporation of Liverpool, is one of the most valued 

 possessions of that northern city ; the extent of the park is two 

 hundred and sixty-nine acres; the land was acquired in 1867 from the 

 Earl of Sefton at a cost of over 260,000, and over 146,000 was 

 spent in laying it out. 



The garden of the late Mr. R. R. Mawson's house at Windermere 

 (Plates CXIV. to CXVII.) is not large, but it is of great interest as an 

 illustration of the application of Mr. Thomas Mawson's methods of 

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