XIV. 



GARDENS OLD AND NEIY. 



investing it with something more of the work 

 of creative fancy. They are own brothers 

 to the dial, to the trellised pergola, where we 

 seek the summer shade, and the balustrade, 

 where the roses cluster, and fling out their 

 fragrance in the sun. Many people will 

 exclaim with Charles Lamb, when they 

 encounter some garden monitor of the 

 fleeting hours, "What a dull thing is a clock, 

 with its ponderous embowelments of lead or 

 brass, its pert or solemn dulness of com- 

 munication, compared with the simple altar- 

 like structure and silent heart-language of 

 the old dial ! " Such things as the gate and 

 the dial belonged to the sweet sequestered 

 and enclosed gardens of our seventeenth- 

 century sires, and they have a right place 

 also in our own. 



But the enclosed garden did not give 

 complete content. Something more was 

 needed than stately seclusion to an age that 

 had learned to look much abroad upon a 

 newly opening world, and garden design, 

 under the influence of Italy and France, 

 soon began to admit an outlook through some 

 beautiful clairvoyee, or along the twilight 

 vista of an elm or beechen avenue, to what 

 lay beyond. The great exemplar of garden 

 work in the new manner was the famous 

 Frenchman, Andre le Notre, the creator of 

 the celebrated gardens at Versailles, 

 Chantilly, St. Cloud, and Meudon, and of the 

 terrace at Fontainebleau. Planting began 

 now, as an extension of the garden, to form 

 a scheme of which the house was generally 

 the focus, though sometimes a column or a 

 temple became the centre of the arrange- 

 ment. Great avenues stretched through the' 

 park into the neighbouring woods, while in 

 the lower grounds there were formal waters, 

 circular basins, or long, still canals, sheltered 

 on every side, and reflecting mighty elms 

 and beeches, which spread their leafy canopies 



gardens of that time. Those noble iron gates fashioned overhead, and often a classic temple or leaden deities or 



under the hammer of that man of fame, the smith, were heroes stood at the margin. Hampton Court is, of course, 



hanging between lofty piers, 



with balls or sculptured 



animals on the top. They 



are found still in the gardens 



of Italy, France, and Spain, 



and are numerous yet in some 



of the gardens of England. 



The smith, like the builder, 



has been a powerful auxiliary 



of the gardener. Force and 



character are added by the 



work they have done together. 



The labour of the Continent 



was at our service, and the 



native worker found ample 



scope for his skill. Look ax 



that glorious Spanish gate, 



at the gates of Ragley, Comp- 



ton Beauchnmp, Tissington, 



Norton Conyers, and many 



other houses of olden times, 



and you will see what the 



united skill of the worker in 



iron and stone or brick can 



do to add to the beauty and 



interest <>f our gardens. Such 



gates as these are fitting 



entrances to the realm of 



tvauty within. They mark 



its enclosure as a beautiful > Country Lije." 



garden nobly guarded, THE GARDEN STEPS AT CHARLTON HOUSE 



CnfytiKl:t. 



GARDEN ARCHITECTURE AT CLIFTON HALL, NOTTINGHAM. 



" Country Life." 



