THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



Most of the eighteenth century gardens have now disappeared, for the Dutch have long ceased to 

 cultivate their gardens in the old manner. Unhappily, in the early years of the nineteenth century one or 

 two English gardeners, following in the footsteps of Capability Brown, crossed over to The Hague and in 

 an incredibly short, space of time succeeded in completely demolishing nearly all the delightful old gardens 

 of the wealthier merchants that had been laid out in the style of Le Notre around the suburbs of The 

 Hague, Haarlem, Amsterdam and other important centres. If we would know something of their 



appearance, and something of the 

 design of their quaint gazebos, we 

 must examine the old Dutch garden 

 pictures that fortunately have been 

 engraved by the hundred, or else seek 

 out some old Delft panel or plate, on 

 which they are often painted with 

 all their quaintly fantastic roof forms, 

 with walls of intermingled brick and 

 stone. In the Ivyks Museum at 

 A m s t e r d a m t h e r e is a typical 

 eighteenth century summer-house, an 

 oblong building, with mullionecl 

 windows and a long sun-shelter upheld 

 by two large wooden swans. If I 

 have dwelt somewhat at length on the 

 Dutch gazebo it is because of the 

 influence this type of summer-house 

 had on the English examples illus 

 trated in this chapter. That, for 

 example, at \Yestbury Court, a 

 peaceful old manor house overlooking 

 the river Severn on the main road 

 from Monmouth to Gloucester, is an 

 excellent example of the gazebo 

 (Fig. i(&amp;gt;-|) ; on one side its windows 

 overlook an old-world walled garden 

 with lavender walks, and long, straight 

 canals bordered with prim hedges 

 of yew, while on the opposite side the 

 windows look on to the dusty high 

 road separated from the gardens by 

 a moss-grown wall broken here and 

 there by a dairroyec of delicately- 

 wrought ironwork. The example Irom 

 Beckington, (Fig. iW&amp;gt;), a small square 

 brick building with stone quoins and 

 a hnndsome pedimented doorway, is 

 in a similar position to the YVestbury 

 example, with one window over 

 looking the roadway and others the 

 bowling green and garden. 



A very favourite position for 

 a garden-house was at the end of 

 a long walk, enclosing a vista or 

 overlooking a bowling green, and many such examples might be noted. John Worlidge, writing in 1677, 

 advises that they should be placed at an angle of the garden with windows and doors commanding &quot; every 

 coast, the windows to be glazed with the clearest glass and to have screens of printed and painted sarcenet 

 for day use, and shutters of thin wainscot for night use.&quot; It is evident from this remark that the 

 garden-house was occasionally used by the master of the house for a day or two s retreat when he wanted 

 quiet. At Wilton House, terminating a long walk leading through the Italian garden is a stone summer- 

 house of two storeys, believed to have been designed by no less an artist than Hans Holbein. It is 

 indeed a beautiful piece of work. At Haddon Hall are the remains of a stone garden-house which 

 overlooked the bowling green. This had an outside staircase, by which spectators ascended to the flat 

 roof to watch the progress of the game or admire the scenery. Such buildings were generally fitted up 



i;v STEW-POND : KIXC, 



