and new work added of a like kind, such as will make use of the wider 

 modern range of garden plants, while it retains the dignity and grandeur 

 of the fine old place. 



The house stands on a wide space of grass terrace commanding the 

 garden. On a lower level is a large quadrangular parterre, with cross paths. 

 In each of its square angles is a sunk garden with a five-foot-wide verge 

 of turf and a bordering stone kerb forming a step. The beds within, 

 filled with good hardy plants, have bold box edgings eighteen inches high 

 and a foot thick, that not only set off the bright masses of flowers 

 within, but have in themselves an air of solidity and importance that 

 befits the large scale of the place. They represent in their own position 

 and on their lesser scale somewhat of the same character as the massive 

 yew hedges, twelve feet high and six feet through, that do their own 

 work in other parts of the garden. 



These grand yew hedges and solid box borders have responded well 

 to good planting and tending, for the late Lord de L'Isle knew his work 

 and did it thoroughly. Not only was the ground well prepared, but for 

 several years after planting the young trees were provided with a surface 

 dressing that prevented evaporation and provided nutriment. This was 

 carefully attended to, not only in the case of the yews but of the box 

 edgings also. 



The cross-walks of the parterre do not meet in the middle, but sweep 

 round a circular fountain basin, in the centre of which stands a statue of 

 what may be a young Hercules, brought from Italy by Lord de L'Isle. 

 The slender grace of the figure might at first suggest a youthful Bacchus, 

 but the identity in such a statue is easily established by looking for one 

 or other of the characteristic attributes of Hercules ; these usually are 

 the lion's skin, the upright-growing hair on the forehead, the poplar 

 wreath or the battered, flattened ears. But the statue stands too far 

 from the walk to be exactly identified. 



That the nearer portions of the garden are on the same lines as the 

 older planting is shown by an engraving in Harris's "Kent," where the 

 parterre is, now as then, bounded by terraces on two of its sides, the house 

 side and that of the adjoining churchyard, to which access is gained by a 

 beautiful gabled gateway of brick and stone, the work of Tudor times. 



83 



