THE GARDENS OF BOUGHTON 



203 



statues have disappeared, and some may be seen adorning other 

 people's fields. The parterres are obliterated, and the intricate 

 walks can no longer be traced ; indeed time alone would have 

 rendered them an overgrown tangle. But the great avenues 

 still remain, still centre on the house, still point to the churches, 

 still converge on the ancient oak, still link up the ancient woods. 

 The canals are there, and would yet fall over the cascade were 

 the floodgates lowered. Many of the little trees which formed 



FIG. 138. Plan of the Ground Floor of Dyrham. 



curious patterns on the plans have grown into giants. Here 

 and there a path survives, following part of its allotted route, 

 enough to show that the original design was not merely a 

 visionary scheme but was actually carried out. 



Dyrham, in Gloucestershire, is another but somewhat smaller 

 house of this period ; it wai; built in 1698 from the designs of 

 "the ingenious Mr Talman," as Campbell calls him, for William 

 Blaythwayt, who was Secretary of State to William III. The 

 property had come to him some thirty years before by a 

 marriage with the heiress of the Wynters, whose ancient house was 

 removed to make way for the new one. The site lies towards 

 the base of a steep hill down which the road winds through a 

 park, presenting a bird's-eye view of the house for some time 

 before it is reached. The buildings stand on a level platform 

 contrived among the declivities of the park, and from a terrace 

 at the back a fine flight of steps leads down to the gardens. 



