160 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



celebrated in song. Not far away, beneath the shade of a 

 noble cedar, is Boatswain's grave, where his favourite 

 Newfoundland was buried. Many tilings have happened 

 since he last visited Newstead in 1813. In that generous 

 soil the trees planted after his time have thriven well, and 

 now we behold the beauties that spring from the judicious 

 planter's hand. Mr. Webb has moulded the gardens afresh, 

 and he and his daughters have watched them with judicious 

 care. Thus the fish-pond of the monks has now most 

 beautiful surroundings, and from every point of view 

 new charms are disclosed. Whether we traverse the delight- 

 ful native English garden, or survey the quaint features of 

 the French parterres, or gather bowlfuls of blossoms in 

 the garden assigned to Spain, or again examine the un- 

 familiar denizens of the tract of bamboos, or the multitudinous 

 treasures of the rock garden, we feel that true lovers 

 of Nature, possessed with a keen interest in its varied 

 forms and developments, have invested the abbey with its 

 charm. 



Newstead is mainly a garden of terraces, gentle grass 

 slopes, and broad mixed borders, in which countless varied 

 blooms have their home. The famous terrace is about 

 230) ds. long, and is reached by a flight of steps, with 



groundwork, for assuredly the box edgings are familiar in the 

 best English gardens, and it cannot be said that the tuberous 

 and other forms of summer Ivgonias, and the many bright 

 flowers that fill the beds, are in any way the monopoly of 

 France. 



There is something very quaint and delightful in the 

 Spanish garden, a modern development which is its 

 neighbour, or more truly a part of itself. Here again 

 we find red gravel and box edgings, these last developed 

 into veritable walls, 2ft. high and as many broad. They 

 enframe numerous varieties of bulbous flowers, which give 

 changing colour from spring to autumn, besides lupines, 

 annuals, and a host of familiar flourishing things. 



The Devil's Wood is approached from the terrace, but 

 the evil spirit has been exorcised, and instead of a 

 forbidding thicket of dism:il yews, we find ornamental 

 specimens of the tribe, well-kept hedges, open spaces of 

 grass, and quite a collection of beautiful crab trees. 



Our pleasant journeying at Newstead now brings us 

 to the Eagle Pond, which in character and setting 

 reminds us of a Dutch garden. Its shape imposes a 

 certain formality, which we find in the grass terrace and 

 square flower-beds, and a peculiarly charming feature is 



THE EAGLE POND. 



1 Countiy Life." 



moss-grown balustrades, and many shadowed seats for 

 those who enjoy its pleasures. You can scarce imagine a 

 more fragrant or entrancing report than this to linger in 

 when the shadows slowly lengthen, the thrush sings 

 from the apple bough, and the air is rich with the hum 

 of the laden bee. You may make much in your "study 

 of imagination " of a garden terracethe very place for 

 sober converse, light-hearted laughter, or any delight of 

 the open air as you survey these gentle grass slopes, 

 broad borders and beds of flowers, and the many features 

 of the garden that lies before. 



We have glanced at the grounds on the south side of the 

 house where these emerald lawns, shadowed by spreading 

 trees, fall to the margin of the lake. The gardens on the east 

 side are quite different. The creators of these seem, in a 

 manner, to have ransacked the earth for its treasures. They 

 have captured the garden delights of France and Spain, and 

 even have brought to Newstead the jungled growths of Far 

 Cathay. 



But, somehow, these various manners strike no dis- 

 cordant note in the harmonious character of the whole. 

 Here we are in the French garden, and, if there be any- 

 thing Gallic about it, this must, we think, be in the red gravel 



the happy marriage of the finest varieties of rhododendrons 

 with that magnificent flower, the Lilium auratum. 



Let us now pass through the tunnel beneath the 

 terrace to the bamboo garden, planted where the old 

 "stew-pond" was, and where these graceful and vigorous 

 grasses lift their feathery stems in fascinating contrast 

 to the dark shade of the yews. 



Then we come to the Alpine or rock garden, re- 

 modelled and replanted a few years ago, and reflecting 

 the loving care bestowed upon it. Here a thousand starry 

 gems have their home, reminding us of the upland Alpine 

 meadows, where such flowers overspread the ground like 

 i.'inve rich carpet. We linger, too, fondly in the rose and 

 carnation garden, where is the sweetest partnership of 

 colour and fragrance in the linking of our two fairest 

 hardy flowers. Go where we may in these garden?, there 

 is something to attract and charm, some delectable prospect, 

 some dainty garden imagining, some enchanting effect of 

 variety. We are led by our surroundings to recall the 

 former dwellers at the abbey, while we revel in the 

 delights created and fostered by their successors. But space 

 is exhausted, and so \ve conclude our account of the beauties 

 of historic, romantic, and charming Newstead. 



