90 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



the pleasantness of the seate, the goodnesse of the 

 soyle, or the other delicacies belonging unto it, it 

 rests unparalleled by anie in those partes" (p. 124). 

 This same park, magnificently embellished with 

 woods and gardens, was " improved " away by 

 the " landscape-gardener " Brown, who altered the 

 grounds. 



Cobham, near Gravesend, still famous in horti- 

 cultural annals as Nonsuch is for its apples, was the 

 seat of the Brookes. The extent to which fruit was 

 cultivated in old time is seen by the magnitude of 

 the orangery at Beddington House, Surrey, which 

 was two hundred feet long ; the trees mostly 

 measured thirteen feet high, and in 1690 some ten 

 thousand oranges were gathered. 



Ham is described with much gusto by Evelyn : 

 " After dinner I walked to Ham to see the house 

 and garden of the Duke of Lauderdale, which is 

 indeed inferior to few of the best villas in Italy 

 itself ; the house furnished like a great Prince's, the 

 parterres, flower-gardens, orangeries, groves, aven- 

 ues, courts, statues, perspectives, fountains, aviaries, 

 and all this at the banks of the sweetest river in the 

 world, must needs be admirable." 



Bowyer House, Surrey, is described also by 

 Evelyn as having a very pretty grove of oaks and 

 hedges of yew in the garden, and a handsome row 

 of tall elms before the court. This garden has, 

 however, made way for rows of mean houses. 



At Oxford, where you would have expected more 

 respect for antiquity, the walks and alleys, along 



