42 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



Copyright, 



" PEMBROKE'S PRINCELY DOME." 



' Country Life" 



Cdfyrigkt. 



FOUNTAIN rtND STATUARY. 



' Country Lijc." 



Cof),ifl,t. 



THE PALLAUIAN BWDGE. 



try Ltje.' 



not be forgotten ; for there hutli 

 he (much to my Lord's cost and 

 his own pains) used such a deal or, 

 intricate setting, grafting, planting, 

 inoculating, railing, hedging, 

 plashing, turning, winding, re- 

 turning, circular, triangular, quad- 

 rangular, orbicular, oval, and 

 every way curiously and charge- 

 ably conceited ; there hath he 

 made walks, hedges and arbours, 

 of all manner of most delicate fruit 

 trees, planting and placing them in 

 such admirable art-like fashions, 

 resembling both divine and moral 

 remembrances, as three arbours 

 standing in a triangle, having each 

 a recourse to a greater arbour in 

 the midst, resemble three in one 

 and one in three ; and he hath 

 there planted certain walks and 

 arbours all with fruit trees, so 

 pleasing and ravishing to the 

 sense, that he calls it ' Paradise,' 

 in which he plays the part of a 

 true Adamist, continually toiling 

 and tilling. 



" Moreover, he hath made his 

 walks most rarely round and 

 spacious, one walk without 

 another (as the rinds of an onion 

 are greatest without, and less 

 towards the centre), and withal, 

 the hedges betwixt each walk are 

 so thickly set that one cannot see 

 through from one walk who walks 

 in the other ; that, in conclusion, 

 the work seems endless ; and I 

 think that in England it is not to 

 be fellowed, or in haste will be 

 followed." 



Plainly there was at Wilton a 

 rare example of the work of the 

 old garden-fashioner, with all its 

 hedged enclosures, its maze, its 

 quaint conceits, and its verdant 

 allegories. Perhaps there is a 

 timid vein of sarcasm in the Water 

 Poet's description of its extrava- 

 gance. Evelyn, who visited 

 Wilton in July, 1654, was not, 

 apparently, so much impressed. 

 He describes the garden, " here- 

 tofore esteemed the noblest in 

 England," as "a large handsome 

 plain," with a grotto and water- 

 works, which might have been 

 made more pleasant if the river 

 that passed through had been 

 cleansed and raised, for all was 

 effected by "mere force." "Ithas 

 a flower garden not inelegant," he 

 says. " But, after all, that which 

 renders the seat delightful is its 

 being so near the downs and noble 

 plains about the country contigu- 

 ous to it. The stables are well 

 ordered, and yield a graceful 

 front, by reason of the walks of 

 lime trees, with the court and 

 fountains of the stables adorned 

 with Caesars' heads." 



Many changes have passed 

 over the gardens at Wilton since 

 those times, and, perhaps, few of 

 the special characters desc r ibed by 



