wilderness, with its jewel of a beautifully-wrought timbered dwelling 

 that had already stood for three hundred years. 



In later days, when the whole of the Grantley property in the district 

 was sold, Great Tangley came into the market. Happily, it fell into the 

 best of hands, those of Mr. and Mrs. Wickham Flower, and could not 

 have been better dealt with in the way of necessary restoration and 

 judicious addition. The moat is now a clear moat again ; and good 

 modern gardening, that joins hands so happily with such a beautiful old 

 building, surrounds it on all sides. There was no flower garden when 

 the old place was taken in hand ; the only things worth preserving being 

 some of the old orchard trees within the moat to the west. A space in 

 front of the house, on its southward face, inclosed by loop-holed walls of 

 considerable thickness, was probably the ancient garden, and has now 

 returned to its former use. 



The modern garden extends over several acres to the east and south 

 beyond the moat. The moat is fed by a long-shaped pond near its 

 south-eastern angle. The water margin is now a paradise for flower- 

 lovers, with its masses of water Irises and many other beautiful aquatic 

 and sub-aquatic plants ; while Water-Lilies, and, surprising to many, 

 great groups rising strongly from the water of the white Calla, commonly 

 called Arum Lily, give the pond a quite unusual interest. To the left is 

 an admirable bog-garden with many a good damp-loving plant, and, best 

 of all in their flowering time, some glorious clumps of the Moccasin 

 Flower [Cypripedium spectabile), largest, brightest, and most beautiful of 

 hardy orchids. 



Those who have had the luck to see this grand plant at Tangley, two 

 feet high and a mass of bloom, can understand the admiration of others 

 who have met with it in its North American home, and their description 

 of how surprisingly beautiful it is when seen rising, with its large rose 

 and white flowers, and fresh green pleated leaves, from the pools of 

 black peaty mud of the forest openings. But it seems scarcely possible 

 that it can be finer in its own home than it is in this good garden. 



Beyond the bog-garden, on drier ground, is a garden of heaths, and, 

 returning by the pathway on the other side of the pond, is the kitchen 

 garden, a strip of pleasure-ground being reserved between it and the 



9 B 



