Till-: HOrsiC AND ITS FOUTPMFXT. 



189 



IRON GATES AND RAILINGS. 



Jcnn I ijon iiiai His \\ nrk The \nrcllv &amp;lt;&amp;gt;i His Tccliiiii/iii The (irctilcst Designer of Iran, , 



in I^n^/ii/it/ An Injustice to If is Mcinnrv. 



T! 1 F arrival ol the Prince and Princess of Orange in loSo was a momentous event in the history 

 ol Fnglish smithcraft, for soon alterwards we hear for the first lime of a famous craftsman and 

 designer, M. Jean I ijon. He was a Protestant and apparently a Frenchman, but came over 

 presumably with his great patrons, whence it may be concluded that lie was a Huguenot 

 relugee in Holland. lie may have worked there, lor main engravings of the great Du ch 

 chateaux show lolly and impressive iron screens to torecourts and gardens, but neither there nor in 

 France is his name recorded. He came to settle and to work, and before the close of jfxjo had leiidered 

 two bills |or work executed at Hampton Court, the first lor six iron vanes and a rich balcony. &quot; Imelv 

 wrought in leaves and Scrollwork,&quot; and the second for the garden screen with two pairs of great iron 

 gates and two other little gates on each side, eight square pillars of ornaments, twelve panels and ten 

 pilasters between them &quot; tor the circle of the Fountain darden al Hampton Court.&quot; The two bills came 

 to /..So and ,755 /s. respectively. The Fountain darden was the semi-circular garden on tin 1 east or 

 principal Iroiil, lormed at 

 the expense ot (he Hom&amp;gt; 

 Park by Charles II.. and 

 which Fvclyn saw being 

 finished, in idS&amp;lt;). The 

 great gates and pillars are 

 the still existing &quot; I. ion 

 dates,&quot; which closed the 

 two broad walks which 

 were continued as avenues 

 in the Home Park, and 

 the panels and pilasters 

 are the famous screens. 

 which alter three removals 

 have been re-erected on 

 their old foundations in 

 the Privy darden by the 

 Office of Works, in the 

 belief that this was their 

 original position. T h e 

 Fountain Gar d e n was 

 originally small, and the 

 high and rich screens 

 were valuable as shutting 

 it out from the public 

 gaze. There has been 



much misunderstanding as to the original position of the screen ; but it is quite clear, first, that it 

 was completed in i(&amp;gt;t)o ; secondly, that, it was not in the Privy Garden when the Oueen diet! in ifxjj. 

 because Sutton Xicholl s remarkably clear engraving of this in i(&amp;gt;&amp;lt;)5 does not show it there ; and 

 Gibson describes the Hampton Court Garden in 1691 as a large plat &quot; environed with an iron palisade 

 round about next the park, laid out with walks,&quot; etc. &quot; The Fountain Garden &quot; was the then new 

 garden with live fountains and three broad, radiating walks, two of which led directly to and were 

 continuous with the avenues in the Home Park, and required large gates to close them, while the third 

 led straight to the long-water. The Privy Garden was not taken in hand till some years later ; it over 

 looks the river and did not need such a screen, and never could have comprised large carriage gates and 

 wickets, which would have opened on to the foreshore, and for which there is no room. .Air. Law 

 in his exhaustive account of Hampton Court states, on the authority of the gardener Switzer, that 

 little work was done at Hampton Court between the death of the Oueen in 1694 and the burning of 



12. I ANKI. IN (i \RIJKX SC UKKN AT HAMl IMX COURT liY TIJOU. 



