I - ] 



LEVENS HALL, 

 WESTMORELAND, 



THE SEAT OF ... 



MR. J. F. BAGOT. 



GARDENS 

 OLD-&NEW 



ATI'OPRIATELY does this volume contain an account 

 of the glorious garden depicted, because, among all 

 the famous gardens of England there is none to 

 ipare in its kind with (.evens. Here, in .1 glorious 

 part of Westmoreland, stepping int< tin- v.it >! 

 ancient gentility, did Colonel James Graham, (ir.ihmc. or 

 Graeme, younger brother of Sir Richard Graham of Netherhy. 

 and an astute courtier of Charles II. and James II., Create. 

 with the help of Beaumont, the disciple of I.e Ndtre. and tin- 



AN EARLY MORNING PICTURE. 



French gardener whom James had employed at Hampton 

 Court, a ple.is.umce ot the date and to ins mind, which 

 remains, well tended and maintained, just as it was lorim-d 

 :ib iut 2OO y . Nowhere can we tind anything so 



Interesting or quaint to tell of the outdo. r tast.- m the time. 

 Lord Stanhope, in his " History of England." where he writes 

 ot the change of character in tl>e gardens ot the da\ I 



' i III., specks thus of the steadfast charactei "t i.\,-ns: 



. "mplele has the change proved that at present, through- 

 out the whole of England, there 

 remains, p ( rhaps, v ar.el\ : 

 than one private garden present- 

 ing in all its parts an entire and 

 true sample of the old designs ; 

 tins is at the line <>ld seat ot 

 Levens, near Kendal. Tl) 

 along a wide extent ', t< 

 walks and walls, eagles ot holly 

 and peacocks of yew still find each 

 returning summer their wings 

 clipped and their talons pared. 

 There, a stately monument of the 

 oldprorm-noirs-suclias the French- 

 men taught our fathers, rather. 

 I should say, to build than plant 

 along which, in days of old. 

 stalked tin- gentlemen with peri- 

 wigs and swords, the l.i ' 



- and furbelows, ma\ 

 be seen to tins day." li was. 

 perhaps, scarcely correct to say 

 that the Frenchmen taught us all 

 this. For did not the spirit come 

 equally from Holland, to be 

 grafted upon a similar ch.i 

 already existing in the gardening 

 fashions here at home ? 



But before we describe the 

 garden it will be well to sav a 

 little about Levens ..n.i its old 

 possessors, for the principle we 

 wish to enforce is that Ivm- 

 garden are, or should be. inti- 

 mately associated, and that the 

 character i-f one correspond* with 

 the other. In the case of Levens 

 a good deal may properly be 

 attributed to the house and its 

 ssive ow 



The country surrounding 

 the mansion is \ ery line in its 

 character, richly varied and 

 'i, with green meadows and 

 the prospect of lofty fells ; and 

 the river Kent flows d <wn, with 

 a picturesque fall above the 

 " park Levens Force and man> 



