MONTACUTE 



MoNTAcuTE in Somersetshire, built towards the end of the sixteenth 

 century by Sir Edward Phelips, is another of that surprising number of 

 important houses built on a symmetrical plan that arose during the reign 

 of Queen Elizabeth. 



As the house was then, so we see it now ; unaltered, and only 

 mellowed by time. The gardens, too, are of the original design, includ- 

 ing a considerable amount of architectural stonework. 



The large entrance forecourt is inclosed by a high balustraded wall, 

 with important and finely-designed garden houses on its outer angles. 

 The length of the side walls is broken midway on each side by a small 

 circular pillared pavilion with a boldly projecting entablature, crowned 

 with an openwork canopy and a topmost ornament of two opposite and 

 joining rings of stone. 



The piers of the balustrade are surmounted by stone obelisks, and the 

 large paved landing, forming a shallow court at the top of the flight of 

 steps a hundred feet wide, that gives access to the house on this side has 

 tall pillars that now carry lamps, though they appear to have been 

 designed merely as a stately form of ornament. 



The forecourt has a wide expanse of gravel with a large fountain 

 basin in the middle. Next the wall there are flower-borders ; then the 

 wide gravelled path, and, following this, a broad strip of turf with Irish 

 yews at regular intervals. The general severity of the planning is 

 pleasantly relieved by the bright flower-border, the subject of the picture. 

 To right and left are openings in the wall leading to other garden spaces. 

 The one of these to the left, just behind the spectator as in the picture, 



55 



