WREST PARK 323 



book of sepia drawings of the house is to be found 

 at Wrest, containing a plan of the Garden as it was 

 about 1827 ; also a long account in manuscript 

 written in the form of a letter to a lady, by Lord 

 Grantham, afterwards Lord de Grey describing 

 exactly how he designed and built the present house 

 in the French style, taking his ideas chiefly from an 

 old French book he picked up for sixty francs on 

 one of the quays in Paris, and in which he found 

 some excellent designs. It is curious that the only 

 other Garden at all similar to the beautiful one of 

 Wrest is Melbourne, also partly laid out by Le 

 Notre, and which passed into the possession of the 

 late owner of Wrest, Lord Cowper, through his 

 mother. 



Coming out on the wide stone terrace of Lord 

 de Grey's new French house, its claim to the name 

 " Little Versailles " is very evident. For there 

 below stretches a delightful vista of Garden after 

 Garden quite a French motif, laid out in a series 

 of patterns and then in the distance the long water 

 with its broad transepts, which, skirted on each side 

 by magnificent trees and high Yew hedges, leads 

 up to the beautiful old Pavilion. The Pavilion was 

 erected by the Duke of Kent about 1710 from a 

 design by Archer, a favourite pupil of Sir John 

 Vanbrugh, the famous architect of Blenheim. 

 Circular in shape, built of brick with a lead dome, 

 it is a perfect example of a Garden house in the 



