GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



part of it may appropriately be 

 quoted : 



"I stood upon a lawn whose 



greensward spread 

 Sniooth-lev.-lled by the scythe; two 



mulberry trees 

 Bc-vond it stretched their old and 



folia}; 'd arms ; 

 TV acacia quiver' cl in the wind ; the 



thick 

 And deep-leaved laurel darken'd the 



recess 

 Of massive buttresses ; the mansion's 



walls, 



Grev in antiquity, were tapestried o'er 

 With the fix's downy leaves, and roses 



climb'd 

 Clustering around the casement's 



gothic panes. 

 With terraces and verdant slopes, 



where pines 

 Arch'd their plumed boughs, and fruits 



espalier-trained 

 Were uiix'd with myrtles and with 



arbute-trees, 

 The scene behind look'd sylvan ; 



higher rose 

 The bounding hill, whose turfy paths 



were track'd 

 1'p the bare herbage, gnarled with 



scattt r'd crags 

 And topt with straggling fir, or 



chestnut broad : 



A sweet, yet solemn landscape, for it spoke 

 (If sacred home." 



It \vas tlie poet's successor, Sir Arthur Hailam Elton, win 

 did much to make the place more beautiful by judiciously 

 laying out the "rounds and planting trees on the hills. In his 

 time Tennyson, Hailam, and Thackeray were frequent visitors 

 to Clevedon Court. Old friendship existed between the Eltons 

 and the Hallams, and Henry Hallam, the historian, had 



Copyright. 



THE WEST FRONT. 



" Country Life." 



married Sir Charles Elton's sister. It will be remembered how 

 Tennyson refers to the Hallams' burial-place in the churchyard 

 at Clevedon : 



"The Danube to the Severn gave 



The darken'd heart that beat no more; 

 They laid him by the pleasant shore, 

 And in the hearing of the wave." 



The hand of taste, inspired by the love of the beautiful. 



' 



"Country Lift, 



"THE PRETTY GARDEN.' 



