I 7 8 



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT 



ORANGERIES. 



The Onnigcrv a Northern Dcricc Wren s Work at Kensington The Value of Thick Sash-bars 

 Exuberance of Treatment Permissible The Orangery of a Dream. 



THE orangery is essentially a Northern type of building. In Italy and the South o! Europe 

 generally the orange tree is accustomed to winter out of doors ; but when it began to be 

 imported into more Northern latitudes, winter housing was found to be a necessity. It is 

 reputed to have been introduced into England by Sir Thomas Gresham, and he is shown in a 

 contemporary portrait with an orange in his hand. But it seems more than probable that 

 las reputation for having done so has grown out of a momentary whim of the painter, who no doubt felt 

 tlie need of this colour note in a scheme of general sobriety, for it is certain that. oranges were imported 

 and grown in England long before his time. As early a writer as Necham refers to their growth in a garden 

 at Holborn, and in 1480 it is on record that ten oranges could be procured in London for a silver penny. 

 By the year 1600 they must have been extensively cultivated, as at the end of the seventeenth century 

 a writer of the time gives a yield of Carew s orangery at Beddington as being upwards of ten 

 thousand oranges, the trees being one hundred years old at that time. The building at Beddington 

 as two hundred feet long and, contrary to the usual custom, the trees were planted in the ground and 

 not in tubs. 



At Versailles is an orangery of magnificent proportions It lies to the south of the Parterre du 

 Midi, between two long 

 flights of marble stairs and 

 fac es the Piece d eau des 

 Suisses. It is vaulted in 

 side, and the Doric columns 

 and entablature that form 

 the front aie of trulv colossal 

 dimensions. 



In this country there 

 is probably no liner orangery 

 than that at Kensington 

 Pala.ee. Coming, as it does, 

 irom the hands of Wren, one 

 would naturally expect 

 much ; but it is wonderful 

 to see how by dint of simple, 

 ju&amp;gt;t proportions and relief 

 lie has invested a plain 

 oblong with so much in 

 terest. Since it is in the 

 public part of the gardens, 



thf-re is no reason t&quot; de- 200. -AT L&amp;lt;&amp;gt;\&amp;lt;; I.EAT. 



scribe it further ; but set 



back, as it is, among the trees, the building might easily escape the notice of. the passer-by in the Broad 

 Walk. Happily, the ground in front of the Palace, till lately used for garden frames and manure, has 

 now been laid out again in a formal manner as a fit approach to the orangery. 



Orangeries were rising in many directions while William III. and Anne were at work at Kensington, 

 and it is to this period that the fine, if reserved, example at Apethorpe belongs (Fig. 202). It was 

 erected by the sixth Earl of Westmorland and stands on the west terrace, facing full south. It is 

 of so simple an architectural character that it depends largely for effect on the thick sash-barring, which 

 has luckily escaped the nineteenth century plate-glass rage, now, fortunately, subsiding. In the manner 

 of this old example, but much more ornate and full of its own individuality, is the new orangery at 

 Hestercombe designed by Mr. Lutyeris (Fig. 203). He was fortunate in persuading his client to revert 

 to this valuable form of garden architecture, and he has seized his opportunity with delightful result. 

 The Longleat orangery (Fig. 200) again shows the importance of adequately framing the great glazed voids. 

 Here it is carried out with wood mullions of considerable substance, each subsidiary section being 



