36 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



of Lord Leigh, and you are in 

 another world entirely. Here all 

 is the stately splendour born of 

 new ideals great lines of win- 

 dows, tall Ionic pilasters, support- 

 ing the deep cornice and long 

 balustrade. The monks had their 

 herb garden by the cloister, where 

 simples and old-world flowers 

 grew. Now at Stoneleigh we find 

 a stately terrace flanking the 

 majestic pile and overlooking the 

 river, with gardens planned and 

 adorned in the taste of Italy and 

 France, smooth - shaven lawns 

 adorned with the trees of many 

 climes, and umbrageous native 

 woodlands full in the view. In 

 the neighbourhood of the house 

 the garden has rightly assumed 

 its character. 



The imposing mansion was 

 built by Hdward, Lord Leigh, and 

 the gardens were laid out about the 

 year 1720. The site of the abbey 

 had been granted in 1539 to 

 Charles Brandon, Duke of Suf- 

 folk, and after passing through 



the hands of several members of his family, had fallen to 

 William Cavendish, who sold it to Sir Rowland Hill and Sir 

 Thomas Leigh, aldermen of London. Sir Thomas Leigh was 

 Lord Mayor when Elizabeth came to the throne, and rode 

 before her when she entered the City to be proclaimed at 

 St. Paul's. His wife was the niece of Sir Rowland Hill, his 

 patron, and when he grew wealthy, as a merchant adventurer, 

 drawing profit from beyond the seas, he secured Stoneleigh for 

 his own, and the remains of the abbey were embodied in a 

 building of Tudor and Stuart times that was very picturesque 

 and attractive. Another Sir Thomas Leigh, great-grandson of 

 the first, was loyal to the Royal cause, and received Charles I. 



Copyright. 



THE GREEK VASE. 



' Country Life." 



"with right plenteous and hospitable entertainment," when 

 the unfortunate monarch, with 6,000 horse, was marching to 

 Nottingham, and found the gates of Coventry closed against 

 him. 



The changes that have passed over Stoneleigh since that 

 time, its development into a palatial house of classic form, and 

 the taste of successive owners, have dictated the character of 

 the terrace gardens. The beautiful Avon, broadening out into 

 a lake-like expanse just before the house, implied the 

 arrangement. 



Horace Walpole inveighed against the terrace, and the 

 balustrades that "defended these precipitate and dangerous 



CofyrigHI. 



' Country Lite." 



THE ITALIAN GARDEN. 



