132 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



The house is surrounded by a small and 

 picturesque Park, filled with many beautiful trees, 

 but the gardens are not extensive, being chiefly 

 of the same date as the present house. Traces of 

 older Gardens, though, still remain, testified to 

 by the masses of clipped Yew and Box in which 

 the Garden abounds. It is these beautiful dark 

 Yews and close-clipped Box hedges which, with the 

 Garden House, are the chief beauties of Beckett, 

 it being one of those Gardens possessing a beauty 

 of green instead of a glory of flowers. 



A large piece of ornamental water, already men- 

 tioned with the Garden House, lies close to the 

 Terrace of the house, nearly encircling the green 

 Lawns which surround it. This lake was made out 

 of what used to be a stream in Inigo Jones's time. 

 The alteration was made when the house was built 

 by the 6th Lord Barrington, and the present 

 Gardens were laid out from plans made by the 

 Hon. Thomas Liddell, vistas being cut in the trees 

 to allow the distant hills to be seen. 



On the far side of the lake there is a wood 

 or Wilderness, as it was called in the old days. 

 Long grass walks, clipped hedges of Laurel, 

 Box or Yew, and a beautiful green Bower 

 enclosing high Elms and Beeches are all rem- 

 nants of an older Garden. The large modern 

 Lawns which surround the House slope gradually 

 down to the water's edge, and are planted with 



