PENSHURST 



The gardens that adorn the ancient home ot the Sidneys are, as to the 

 actual planting of what we see to-day, with repairs to the house and 

 some necessary additions to fit it for modern needs, the work of the late 

 Lord de L'Isle with the architect George Devey, begun about fifty years 

 ago. It was a time when there was not much good work done in 

 gardening, but both were men of fine taste and ability, and the reparation 

 and alteration needed for the house, and the new planting and partly new 

 designing of the garden could not have been in better hands. 



The aspect and sentiment of the garden, now that it has grown into 

 shape — its lines closely following, as far as it went, the old design — are in 

 perfect accordance with the whole feeling of the place, so that there 

 seems to be no break in continuity from the time of the original plant- 

 ing some centuries ago. Such as it is to-day, such one feels sure it was 

 in the old days — in parts line for line and path for path, but throughout, 

 just such a garden as to general form, aspect, and above all, sentiment, 

 as it must have been in the days of old. For when it was first planted 

 the conditions that would have to be considered were always the same ; 

 requirement of shelter from prevailing winds ; questions relating to various 

 portions, as to whether it would be desirable to welcome the sunlight for 

 the flowers' delight, or to shut it out for human enjoyment of summer 

 coolness — all such grounds of motive were, just as now, deliberated by 

 the men of old days, whose decisions, actuated by sympathy with both 

 house and ground, would bring forth a result whose character would be 

 the same, whether thought out and planned to-day or four centuries ago. 



So it is that we find the old work at Penshurst confirmed and renewed, 

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