GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



Country Ltje. 



BEECH ARCHES IN THE FRUIT GARDEN 



Copyright. 



AN ARCH OF MOUNTAIN ASH AND CLEMATIS. 



"Cuunlry Life." 



a turbulent race through tne 

 rocks, with foam and angry roar, 

 to silent shallows shadowed by 

 overhanging trees. Ancient oaks 

 and mi.'hty beeches c eem to 

 carry us back to a distant day, 

 and the picturesque " peel " 

 tower, about which the house 

 has grown, reminds us of turbu- 

 lent times, when the Scots were 

 wont to sweep down and carry 

 off flocks and herds times 

 marked, within many a mile of 

 the border country, by these grey 

 old peels, standing generally 

 solitary, or converted to the 

 humble uses of the farm. The 

 garden at Levens, therefore, 

 finds its contrast and background 

 in a singularly picturesque anJ 

 romantic region. Each is the 

 foil to the other. The garden 

 gains by its relationship with 

 the varied scenery of its sur- 

 roundings, and these offer greater 

 enjoyment when we pass out to 

 them from amid the well-shorn 

 hedges and quaint garden features 

 of the ancient pleasaunce of the 

 Grahams. 



Levens came by purchase, 

 in the reign of Henry II., to 

 the hands of Henry de Redman, 

 or Redmayne, and during the 

 ownership of the place by his 

 family the original rugged tower 

 of Levens was built, and it is 

 probable that Alan de B-llingh un, . 

 of Burnside and Hilsington, 

 Treasurer of Berwick and 

 Deputy-Warden of the Marches, 

 who bought the estate from the 

 Redmans in 1487, remodelled 

 the place. The Bellinghams 

 held Levens about 200 years. 

 Their memories linger about 

 it, and there still remain their 

 badges of the bugle and the deer, 

 while in a window of the inner 

 drawing-room, painted round a 

 shield of arms, is the dog Latin 

 inscription : 



" Ainicus Aniico Alanus, 

 Belli^er, Belligero BelHnghaiuus." 



James Bellingham, Alan's 

 great-grandson, afterwards 

 knighted by James I., practically 

 invested Levens with its present 

 character, and he doubtless had a 

 quaint formal garden, with trim 

 walks and hedges, if without the 

 wealth of topiary work which it 

 has to-day, for his pleasure. We 

 know that he had a bowling- 

 green, for the very bowls with 

 his crest remain. Before his 

 time the great hall of the house 

 stretched, with an open roof, 

 westward from the tower, but he 

 remodelled it entirely, and to him 

 is due much of the lavish and 

 beautiful adornment of the struc- 

 ture, with its rich panelling, rare 

 and elaborate mantels, armorial 

 glass, badges of the Tudors and 

 of his own house, the mullioned 



