322 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



moving of the column itself originally placed in 

 view of the " Bath House," but moved to its 

 present position, near the Chinese Bridge, by the 

 Countess de Grey, in 1828. The inscription 

 runs thus : 



" These Gardens, originally laid out by Henry, 

 Duke of Kent, were altered and improved by 

 Philip, Earl of Hardwicke, and Jemima, Mar- 

 chioness Grey, with the professional assistance 

 of Lancelot Brown, Esq., in the years 1758, 1759, 

 1760-" 



The old house was built between 1655 and 1695 

 by the Countess of Kent, commonly called "the 

 good Countess," and altered by Philip, Earl of 

 Hardwicke, when he married the Marchioness 

 Grey, and again altered by her in 1795. 



It is of this building that Horace Walpole writes 

 in such condemnation : " Wrest and Hawnes are 

 both ugly places ; the house at the former is ridi- 

 culously old and bad." Walpole's taste is not always 

 to be trusted, as he considered the Garden at Wrest 

 "execrable too, but is something mended 'by Brown," 

 that arch-spoiler of Formal Gardens ! 



The present house was begun in 1834, in the 

 French style, by Lord de Grey, who, apparently 

 thinking the old house too unsatisfactory to alter 

 or improve in any way, designed and personally 

 superintended the building of a new house, changing 

 the site by moving it further back. An interesting 



