138 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



devotional idea may also be found in the arrangement of 

 windows in a few old houses of 300 years ago. 



The middle districts of England are rich in the natural 

 graces of Nature, but they offer many examples also of the 

 manner in which our ancestors fashioned their garden world. 

 In the villages some formal shape will start up from the hedge, 

 confronting us with a strange presentation of bird or animal 

 cut in box or yew. When we remember that the old English 

 idea of a garden was an enclosed place, we begin to see how 



Cleeve Prior is a s\v 

 garden. It stands high 



:et 

 in 



A SECTION OF THE YEW AVENUE. 



the hedge assumed its importance, what was the function of 

 the terrace.', and how necessary was tlu- pleached alley. They 

 afforded shelter from sun and wind, and gave that bounding 

 line which the eye craves, and the terrace by the house looking 

 out over the area below a pleasant resort at all times. Such 

 gardens as that at Cleeve Prior could not have been unknown 

 to Shakespeare, and we may certainly conceive that he was 

 thinking of Warwickshire and its borderland when he conjured 

 up his visions of quaint garden beauty. A garden like that 



we depict is especially valuable, because it embodies anciei.t 

 worth, and is the representative of the ideals of a former time. 

 The moods of the minds of old workers are here ; here is their 

 handicraft; in this garden they rejoiced. Here they tcok 

 their pleasure in the quiet life of a less bustling day than 

 ours, and they have left behind them the poetry of their 

 existence. 



place in which to find such a 

 the country amid a beautiful 

 range of hills, whose folds it 

 is delightful to trace for their 

 entrancing views and their 

 rare variety. The lofty per- 

 pendici.'-ir tower of the church 

 of St. Andrew, anciently a 

 possession of the Prior of 

 Worcester, is conspicuous 

 through the surrounding coun- 

 try, and looks down upon a 

 typical village full of the 

 sweetness of rural character. 

 A Norman doorway is below, 

 and there are tine features of 

 Early English buildings, and 

 much else that is interesting 

 in the church. You may 

 notice, too, in the village, 

 the quaint bird cut above the 

 hedge and the beehive yew at 

 the hostel of the King's Head. 

 Then by the rustic way you 

 come to the picturesque 

 entrance to the Manor House, 

 and notice an old montoir or 

 mounting-block, from which, 

 in heavier days than these, 

 men got astride their horses, 

 or took their ladies behind 

 them upon the pillion. Trees 

 overhang the way, and rise 

 in massive groups above and 

 behind the house, to which 

 the approach is up the flagged 

 way between the great and 

 lofty avenue of yews. Let 

 all hope, indeed, that these 

 noble relics of a former time 

 may long maintain their 

 vigour and delight genera- 

 tions yet to come. Uncertain 

 tradition says that the monks 

 of Worcester cut and trained 

 the avenue. However that 

 may have been, the sixteen 

 trees are a masterpiece of 

 garden handicraft, cut into 

 their billowy heads and 

 mighty shapes with subtle 

 skill heavy but not gloomy, 

 for there are transverse sec- 

 tions through which we gain 

 an outlook upon sunlit 

 stretches of grass and radiant 

 banks of flowers, catching 

 si Jit also of the quaint dove- 

 cote in the farmyard. Beautiful 

 is the porch at the end of the 



pathway, a lofty building of stone, with the motto " Dieu et 

 mon droit," and a chamber over the door, such as we see in 

 many houses of three centuries back. Mullioned windows 

 and lofty chimneys look out over the garden, and the gables 

 group with the splendid trees behind, while the quaint figure 

 that crests the porch peeps out above the yews. On either 

 side of the "Apostles' Garden" we have exemplifications 

 of other styles. The emerald lawn is simply delightful, 

 and makes a pleasant resort, indeed, when the spring 



"Ctnintry Life, 



