GARDENS OF THE STUARTS 



195 



proposed to write a book about them, so his observa- swaiiow- 

 tions are deserving of especial attention. Of Althorpe 

 and Cassiobury he speaks with admiration, but does not 

 describe in such detail as the gardens at Swallowfield. 

 These were " as elegant as 'tis possible to make a flat 

 by art and industry and no mean expense, my Lady 

 being extraordinarily skilled in the flowery part, and my 

 Lord in diligence of plant- 

 ing, so that I have hardly 

 seen a seate which shews 

 more tokens of it than what 

 is to be found here, not only 

 in the delicious and rarest 

 fruite of a garden, but in 

 those innumerable timber 

 trees in the ground aboute 

 the seate to the greatest 

 ornament and benefit of the 



place. There is one orchard of one thousand golden 

 and other cider pippens, walks and groves of elms, 

 limes, oaks, and other trees. The garden so beset with 

 all manner of sweete shrubbs that it perfumes the aire. 

 The distribution also of the quarters, walks, and parterres 

 is excellent ; the nurseries, kitchen garden, full of the 

 most desirable plants ; two very noble orangeries, well 

 furnished ; but above all, the canall and fishponds, the 

 one fed with a white the other with a black running 



WROUGHT IRON GRILLE : DRAYToN 



