112 



GARDENS OLD AND KEW. 



THE ENTRANCE TO THE WEST TERRACE. 



" Country Life.' 



Our illustrations serve to give as complete an impression 

 as can he obtained of the remarkable work of that great man 

 Sir Joseph Paxton, the notable and leading exponent of a 

 strong schotl of gardening, which sought its inspirations and 

 effects in the garden design of classic lands. It were idle to deny 

 that these gardens, generally, leave room for considerable 

 differences of opinion. Indeed, it may well be that the 

 succession of ten aces in which the original gardens at Chats- 

 worth were laid out had a special charm of their own, and that, 

 from some points of view, the new garden is less pleasing than 



THE GRtAT CONSERVATORY. 



the old must have been. That subject, however, is one into 

 which it is unnecessary to enter at any length. Suffice it to 

 say that the gardens, as they stand, are the best and largest 

 example of Paxton's method displayed on the widest and most 

 chniceworthy canvas, that they possess a defin te historical 

 value and interest, that they have a distinct quality and 

 character of their own, and that whatsoever may have been 

 lost in natural beauty or garden quaintness has its compensation 

 in the stately and appropriately magnificent scale upon which the 

 whole has b.-en conceived. Let us take as an example that 



..'_.. . ._ which is perhaps the most 



characteristic of all the views, 

 that of the South Walk. Here 

 is a broad and white sheet of 

 gravel glowing in the sun, its 

 level raised as it leaves the 

 house by a flight of stone 

 steps, flanked on either side- 

 by rhododendrons, which are 

 particularly good at Chats- 

 worth, and by two fine 

 statues there are more be- 

 yond. On either side is a 

 broad belt of lawn, shaven 

 close, and, again, fine forest 

 trees. The whole leads with 

 inexorable and inevitable 

 straightness to Flora's 

 Temple, which is partially 

 shrouded from view by the 

 cascade of the fountain. It is 

 not, perhaps, restful on a 

 smaller scale it would be in- 

 tolerablebut in this huge 

 manifestation it is emphati- 

 cally imposing ; and as one 

 looks towards the Temple, 

 with its splendid background 

 of trees, one seems almost to 

 be able to hear the roar and 

 the crash of the falling water. 



Luuntry Ltjf." 



