The grounds themselves were not originally of any special beauty. 

 All the present success of the place is due to good treatment. Adjoining 

 the house, at the northern end of its eastern face, is a winter garden. 

 Looking from the end of this eastward, is a sight that carries the mind 

 directly to Southern Europe ; an avenue of fine Ilexes, and, at the end, a 

 blue sea that might well be the Mediterranean. Passing to the left, 

 before the Ilexes begin, is a walk leading into a walled inclosure of about 

 two acres. Next the wall all round is a flower-border ; then there is a 

 space of grass, then a middle group of four square figures, each bordered 

 on three sides by a grand yew hedge that is clipped into an outline of 

 enriched scallops like the edge of a silver Mentieth ; a series of forms 

 consisting of a raised half-circle, then a horizontal shoulder, and then 

 a hollow equal to the raised member. 



The genial climate admits of the use of many plants that generally 

 need either winter housing or some special contrivance to ensure well- 

 being. Thus there are great clumps of the blue African Lily [Agapan- 

 thus) ; and Iris Susiana blooms by the hundred, treated apparently as an 

 ordinary border plant. 



The picture shows a portion of a double flower-border in another 

 square walled garden, formerly a kitchen garden, and only comparatively 

 lately converted into pleasure-ground. Yews planted in a wide half- 

 circle form a back-ground to the bright flowers and to a statue on a 

 pedestal. The intended effect is not yet finished, for the trellis at the 

 back of the borders is hardly covered with its rambling Roses, which 

 will complete the picture by adding the needed height that will bring it 

 into proper relation with the tall yews. There is a cleverly invented 

 edging which gives added dignity as well as regularity, and obviates the 

 usual falling over of some of the contents of the border on to the path ; 

 an incident that is quite in character in a garden of smaller proportion, 

 but would here be out of place. A narrow box edging, just a trim line 

 of green, has within it a good width of the foliage of Cerastium. The 

 bloom, of course, was over by the middle of June, but the close carpet of 

 downy white leaf remains as a grey-white edging throughout the summer 

 and autumn. 



Though this border shows bold masses of flowers, it scarcely gives an 



I02 



