BRAMHAM 



The gardens at Bramham in Yorkshire, laid out and built near the end 

 of the seventeenth century, are probably the best preserved in England or 

 the grounds that were designed at that time under French influence. 

 Wrest in Bedfordshire, and Melbourne in Derbyshire of which some 

 pictures will follow, are also gardens of purely French character. 



It is extremely interesting to compare these gardens with those of a 

 more distinctly Italian feeling. Many features they have in common ; 

 architectural structure and ornament, close-clipped evergreen hedges 

 inclosing groves of free-growing trees ; parterres, pools and fountains. 

 Yet the treatment was distinctly different, and, though not easy to define 

 in words, is at once recognised by the eye. 



For one thing the French school, shown in its extremes! form by the 

 gardens of Versailles, dealt with much larger and more level spaces. The 

 gardens of Italian villas, whether of the Roman Empire or of the 

 Renaissance, were for the most part in hilly places ; pleasant for summer 

 coolness. This naturally led to much building of balustraded terraces 

 and flights of steps, and of parterres whose width was limited to that ot 

 the level that could conveniently be obtained. Whereas in France, and 

 in England especially, where the country house is the home for all the 

 year, the greater number of large places have land about them that is 

 more or less level and that can be taken in to any extent. 



At Bramham the changes of level are not considerable, but enough to 

 furnish the designer with motives for the details of his plan. The 

 house, of about the same date as the garden, was internally destroyed by 

 fire in the last century. The well-built stone walls still stand, but the 



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