HATFIELD HOUSE 213 



yard on the north front of the House. On each 

 side of the central path lie large grass Lawns (edged 

 with stone) in which are cut Beds also with stone 

 edging. Well-designed stone Fountains are placed 

 in the middle of the central Bed, and stone Vases 

 stand at some of the corners of the grass Lawns, 

 very typical of the Elizabethan Flower-garden. 



The Parks were enclosed especially for " red and 

 fallow deer ' by Sir Robert Cecil, and in one of 

 them he planted the Vineyard, about half a mile 

 away from the House, and even in his day, as well as 

 afterwards, thought " surpassing rare." John Evelyn 

 mentions it in his Diary in 1643: "March n. I 

 went to see my Lord of Salisbury's Palace at Hat- 

 field, where the most considerable rarity besides 

 the House (inferior to few then in England for its 

 architecture) was the Garden and Vineyard rarely 

 well watered and planted." 



To reach the Dell, as it was often called 

 in the old days, it is necessary to take a 

 beautiful walk down the great Elm Avenue and 

 through many smaller ones (for the Park is a 

 perfect network of leafy lanes), and on amid the 

 Bracken and undergrowth till " the rarity " is 

 reached. It is enclosed on three sides with a 

 castellated brick wall, the entrance being through 

 a Garden House, which is apparently quite modern. 

 Across the wide gravel Terrace, down a flight of 

 stone steps, with banks of thick, glossy Laurels on 



