J 



CLEEVE PRIOR MANOR, 

 WORCESTERSHIRE, 



OLD-&NEW THE SEAT OF 



MRS. HOLTUM. 



is a feature in tlie 

 j-ardens .it Oeeve 

 Prior in Worcesteislure 

 tli;it entiles them to a hijjh 

 place in the history of English j-.irdenini;. They are not. 

 indeed, unique, hut they have j-re.it claims upon the attention 

 of ill who would penetrate the ideas of our .mcc^turs as they 

 m.imtVsteJ in the externals of domestic life. That 

 t.iiii"iis ye\v avenue, so fantastically cut, aid representing, 

 it is said traJitionally, the twelve Apostles anJ the four 

 ^elists, is line ot the quaintest garden features in all 

 England. 



A m ist quaint idea, indeed, is this attrihuteJ t> the 

 " Pn - ' i -Jen," Kit it could not be to it alone. Cleeve 

 Prior lies on tle borders of Warwickshire, and is actually in 

 the Shakespeare country, within a mile and a-halt of Bid! rd. 



Thomas tell us in 



which a Ct-itain tradition ass.. i.it>-s 

 \vith the rev.lluu of the Hud. 

 N I-A soim-\\ hat further ninth in 

 the same county ot VVat\vuU, .it 

 Packwood, as Mr. Hiomtield anJ Mr. 

 their " h'nrm.il (iard.-n in lin^land." the Sermon on 

 the Mount is literally represented in clipp \J yew. "At 

 the entrance to the ' mou it.' .it the end of the ^.nden, 

 stand four tall yews ^ott. hi^h lor the lour evangelists, 

 and six more on either side for the twelve ap >stli-s. At 

 the top of the mount is an arKmr toimed in .1 tL-.\t 

 yew tree called the ' pinn.i V .! the temple,' which \\as 

 also supposed to represent Christ on the M Hint, overlooking 

 the evangelists, apostles, and the multitude Ivlow ; at 

 l.a-t this account of it uas ^iven by tl)e old gardener who 

 was pk-iwhin^ the pinnaJe of the temple." The like quaint 





1HE PUKCH. 



