There were several lead foundries in London early in the eighteenth 

 century for the making of these garden ornaments. The foremost was 

 that of John Van Nost. Mr. Lethaby in his book, on Leadwork tells us 

 that this Dutch sculptor came to England with King William III. ; 

 that his business was taken in 1739 by Mr. John Cheere, who served his 

 time with his brother. Sir H. Cheere, who made several of the Abbey 

 monuments. The kneeling slave, bearing either a vase, as at Melbourne, 

 or a sundial as in the Temple Gardens in London, and in other pleasure 

 grounds in different parts of the country, was apparently a favourite 

 subject. The figure, not always from the same mould in the various 

 examples, but always showing good design, was evidently of Italian 

 origin. Towards the end of the century, designs for lead figures 

 became much debased, and such subjects as people sitting round a 

 table, painted like life, could not possibly have served any decorative 

 purpose. The natural colour of lead is so good that no painting can 

 improve it. In Tudor days it was often gilt, a much more permissible 

 treatment. 



In the old days there was probably a parterre at Melbourne, now no 

 longer existing. The figures of kneeling slaves were possibly the centre 

 ornaments of its two divisions, on what is now the upper lawn. This 

 portion of the garden is rather liberally, and perhaps somewhat 

 injudiciously, planted with a mixture of conifers, put in probably 

 thirty to forty years ago, when the remains of good old garden designs 

 were not so reverently treated, nor their value so well understood, as now. 

 Some of this planting has even strayed to the banks of the Great Water. 

 The pleasure ground of Melbourne is a precious relic of the past, and, 

 even though the ill effects of the modern planting of various conifers 

 may be less generally conspicuous there than it is in many places, yet it 

 is distinctly an intrusion. The tall trees inclosed by massive yew hedges, 

 the pools and fountains, the statues and other sculptured ornaments, all 

 recall, with their special character of garden treatment, the times and 

 incidents that Watteau loved to paint. Such a picture as his Bosquet de 

 Bacchus, so well known by the engraving, with its gaily-dressed groups 

 of young men and maidens seated in the grassy shade and making the 

 music of their lutes and voices accompany that of the fountains' waters, 



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