GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



Copyright, 



THE COURTYARD. 



"Cuuntrv Li/I.' 



Copyright. 



DELTON CHURCH, FROM THE ITALIAN GARDEN. "Country Lift." 



(.affright. 



" Country Lijt.' 



WATERFALL IN WILDERNESS. 



rural pursuits. Although the neighbour- 

 ing village of Sysson is said to be the 

 original of " Willingham,"Belton might \\ r ell 

 have been that village in which Jeannie 

 Deans, on her long walk to London, 

 discovered "one of those beautiful scenes 

 so often found in merry England, where the 

 cottages, instead of being built in two 

 straight lines on each side of a dusty high 

 road, stand in detached groups, inter- 

 spersed not only with oaks and elms, but 

 with fruit trees." 



The older house of Belton, and the 

 surrounding estate, were bought from the 

 trustees of the Pakenham and another 

 family by Richard Brownlow, Esq., 

 Prothonotary of the Common Pleas in the 

 times of Elizabeth and James. Apparently, 

 succeeding owners added to the estate, 

 and it was not until 1690 that Sir John 

 Browrilow, fourth Baronet, the Protho- 

 notary's great-grandson, procured licence 

 to enclose, in Belton, Londonthorpe, and 

 Telthorpe, a park, about which he built a 

 wall some five miles in circumference. 

 Within it stands the house we depict, 

 which was erected between 1685 and 

 1689, Sir Christopher Wren being the 

 architect. It is in the somewhat familiar 

 form of the letter H a central block with 

 bold transverse wings. In the high roofs 

 and many windows there is a strong 

 mark of the French style of the time, 

 which was reproduced so much in Holland, 

 but Belton House bears also the evidences 

 of another famous hand, that of Wyatt, 

 who did good work at the place nearly 

 a hundred years later. William 111., 

 during his Northern progress after the 

 death of Queen Mary, v sited Sir John 

 Brownlow at Belton. The Baronet had 

 planted very largely and judiciously, but 

 there seems to be little knowledge of the 

 gardens he had laid out about his mansion, 

 though, doubtless, they were in the formal 

 taste of his time. 



A later Sir John Brownlow, created 

 Viscount Tyrconnel in 1718, made many 

 improvements at Belton, began the fine 

 library, and laid out gardens of great 

 extent and magnificence. These no longer 

 remain, a natural treatment of the land 

 having replaced most of the trim yew 

 hedges, straight alleys, and formal grass 

 plats. The fine brick triumphal arch near 

 the eastern gate, known as the Belmont 

 Tower, which affords a magnificent view 

 from its crest, was built in 1750. Four 

 years later Belton passed to Sir John Cust, 

 Speaker of the House of Commons, in the 

 right of his mother, who was the sister 

 and heiress of Lord Tyrconnel, and Sir 

 Brownlow Cust, who succeeded, was 

 created Lord Brownlow shortly after his 

 father's death. It was he who employed 

 James Wyatt to alter and improve the 

 house. The cupola and balustrade were 

 removed, the drawing-room was made 

 much more lofty, and other improvements 

 were carried out. At about the same time 

 alterations were effected in the pleasure 

 grounds, into which the landscape spirit 

 was more largely infused, and smiling 

 wood and hill replaced some arrangements' 

 of the bygone time. But Belton owed 

 much to the foresight of its earliei 



