r i 



CLEVEDON COURT, 

 SOMERSET, . . 



THE SEAT OF ... 



SIR EDMUND H. ELTON, Bart 



GARDENS 

 OLD-&NEW 



THIS volume could open with no better illustration nf 

 English gardening than is found at Clevedon Court. 

 It is one of those places where the advocates of ri\ .il 

 schools may meet upon common ground. The 

 terraced character of the garden springs naturally, 

 in the soil ; not as in Dutch Amiens, in which, 

 e levi-l land, terraces were raised artificially ; fur we find 

 a pleasaunce whose terraces are the natural outcome --t 

 the gardener's art 0:1 the steep slope of the hill. Tin? formality is 





THE ASCENT TO THE TERRACES. 



MU li as appeals to ex. ..t divlain the help ( 



the florist nor of the coRectur of inu- speiimen trees. < >n the 



contrary, it claims ..II th.it the xxnrld ot cultivated Nature > m 

 appropriately bestow. The h.uk^iound <>t Miage is Miperh, 

 the various lexeN are charming, their bouquets l flower- 

 fair and fragrant, and Ivlmv -treUh the lawns, with their 

 trim flower -beds breaking into the lands*, ape features Ivv mid. 

 The garden, hy the nature "I t! .- cue, is arihiteitui.il, as all 

 'M gardens were, and it has features that arrest the eye and 

 ;i-e the imagination. Merc- is a place that 

 has reieixed hr.i.id and efteilixe treatment; 

 radiant colour, applied with hold ihar.utn an ! 

 \ et with a palette not too garish, finds its 

 counterpoise in the magiulueiit hill ot t. 

 and befits the mellow stonework and admirable 

 f i inns of that typical hnglish abode. 



The design at Cllex'edon embodies .it 

 least two oi the main distinctions of ,,|J 

 gardens. The place has sulvlixisimi and 

 change nt le\'el ; there are walls and he ' 

 umbrageous masses and line mdivulu.il t 

 and the appropriateness ot the cona-pium to 

 the house and the site will impress every 

 beholder, and gives to the gardens a ih.ii 

 of great and welc< me repose, and the design is 

 frank and altogether charming. The subtle 

 beauty of the place consists largely in the 

 purely domestic nature of the garden. Its 

 successive terraces belong, as we may s.iy, t , 

 cultured leisure, and afford soipe to all that 

 fancy may suggest in tin- distribution of flow, r- 

 beds or the character of borders. The o|j 

 bnglishman dearly loved such places. He 

 would, perhaps, have added the ch.i 

 inclosure, which is not noticeable at Clevedon 

 Court except as imparted by the terracing, but 

 his mind was attuned to the sequestered charm 

 of a verdant terrace, like velvet to the t- 

 with a festooned walk on one side and a wall 

 rising to the trees overhanging, and a well-cut 

 hedge on the other, beyond which was the 

 outlook over the p'easaunce of his pride. All 

 may sound very formal to unimagm.n 

 but Clevedon Court is a M.mding and visible 

 proof of the merit of an old garden nt closed 

 to the nurseryman, nor unr. t modern 



ideas, but based in principle upon the garden 

 character irf an earlier time. Happy indeed 

 is he who has such a sunny hilKide upon 

 which to work out his garden fancies as we 

 find at this sweet Somersetshire home, with its 

 rare surroundings, and the perfntly beautiftil 

 mansion as a centre-piece, though no place 

 lie out-side the J- mam of UK- gardener's skill. 

 This beautiful land of Somerset, by the 

 Severn s - many a noHe home and 



radiant garden within ius bounds. 



