no 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



JW-'V 



Copyright. 



THE RING POND. 



Life," 



roses, and the elaborate centre-pieces. Very beautiful too 

 is the cascade from the living rock, especially on a bright 

 summer's day. 



Non fitn-is lioniini ctniHngit attire Coriiit/iiim. Not every 

 man, nor every duke even, possesses so princely a domain as 

 Chatsworth, nor the great extent and variety of ground which 

 permits so many kinds of horticultural art to be shown 

 together this word "shown" is used deliberately, because 

 Chatsworth is emphatically a show place. It would be folly to 

 r e c o m mend 

 owners of houses 

 less imposing, 

 and of less abun- 

 dant space, to 

 imitate the style, 

 with itsfoun tains 

 and its temples, 

 and its French 

 and Italian 

 Gardens. But 

 none the less, 

 taken for ail in 

 all, Chatsworth 

 is splendid and 

 unique. We will 

 not say that the 

 formal garden of 

 the past, with its 

 terraces, which 

 Paxton is said 

 to have " de- 

 stroyed," may 



Copyright. 



not be 



'THE PALACE OF THE PEAK." 



regretted. But, when all has 

 been said, Chatsworth remains as the most splendid 

 example of Pax ton's ideas to be found in England or 

 in Europe, always imposing, valuable as an historical 

 monument, and endowed with a peculiar stateliness of 

 character. 



But even now the greatest and most characteristic glory of 

 the gardens remains unchronicled the pride of Chatsworth 

 and a truly splendid edifice of glass, not very beautiful perhaps 

 from without, but sti'l, on true Ruskinian principles, to be 



admired by reason of its absolute and complete suitability to its 

 purpose. It is approached through a rocky ravine, in which 

 everything is done on a grand scale ; its dimensions are, like 

 those of the famous house at Kevv, almost those of a cathedral, 

 and it is the very temple of tropical gardening. Let the reader 

 Consider the picture which is shown, and endeavour to read 

 into it, by effort of imaginition, a few significant figures. In 

 length it is 27/11., in width 12311., in height 67t't. Truly a 

 glorious winter garden, for the hsating of which six miles of 



hot-water pipes 

 are required anJ 

 used. The 

 carriage drive 

 does not end at 

 the entrance. 

 On the contrary, 

 for a highly- 

 favoured visitor 

 the great doors 

 will open, and 

 the drive may 

 be continued 

 through what is, 

 for all practical 

 purposes, a 

 tropical forest, 

 or the best of 

 many tropical 

 forests com- 

 bined. The 

 central walk is 

 fringed with bananas, planted, as almost everything is, 

 in the ground and not in pots, and at the north end 

 is a pile of bold rockwork, covered with a luxuriant 

 growth of creeping plants, in which Ficus repens flourishes 

 amazingly, and the euphorbia lends a dash of glowing 

 scarlet. 



Behind this rockwork, and screened by it, is a spiral 

 staircase leading to the gallery which goes round the transept, 

 and the memory of the aspect of the conservatory from that 

 gallery is a thing imperishable. Noble examples of palms and 



4 Country Life." 



