PALMERSTOWN 



The Earl of Mayo's residence in County Kildare, Ireland, lies a few miles 

 distant from the small market town of Naas. The house is of classical 

 design, built within the nineteenth century. Around it is extensive 

 park-land that is pleasantly undulating, and is well furnished with hand- 

 some trees both grouped and standing singly. In the lower level is a 

 large pool with Water-lilies, and natural banks fringed with reeds and the 

 other handsome sub-aquatic vegetation that occurs wild in such places. 



There was an older house at Palmerstown in former days, whose 

 large walled kitchen garden remains. It is a lengthy parallelogram, 

 divided in the middle into two portions, each nearly a square, by a fine 

 old yew hedge with arches cut in it for the two walks that pass through. 

 The paths are broad, and some width on each side has been planted as a 

 flower border, giving ample space for the good cultivation and enjoyment 

 of all the best of the hardy flowers, so willing to show their full growth 

 and beauty in the soft genial climate of the sister island. 



It is a place that shows at once the happy effect of wise and sure 

 direction, for Lady Mayo is an accomplished gardener, and the inclosure 

 abounds with evidences of fine taste and thoughtful intention. One 

 length of border is given to Lavender and China Rose, always a delightful 

 and most harmonious mixture. There is a length of some twenty yards of 

 this pleasant combination — the picture shows one end — with a few groups 

 of taller plants, such as Bocconia, behind. Fruit-trees, trained as espaliers, 

 form the back of the border, or sometimes there is a hedge of Sweet Pea. 

 Vegetables occupy the middle portions of the quarters. The flower- 

 bordered paths pass across and across the middle space, with others about 



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