ISO 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



THE LAWN AND ITS FLOWER BORDER. 



offers at every step a fresh development of the first plan ; not 

 the beauty of a plain building magnificently ornamented, but 

 the miracle of a living organism, the creation of an art in its 

 very flower. 



The great charm of the gardens lies not so much in the 

 variety and rarity of shrub and flower though there is an 

 abundance of both but in the perfect way in which, they 

 have been adapted to, and harmonise with, the architecture of 

 the house. This is well shown in the illustration where a 

 long grass alley, running the whole length of the garden and 

 flanked by a yew hedge, sweeps one side of the house and on 



tlu otiier is raised to a terrace, which leads to the entrance 

 door. Unfortunately, the hand of the "improver" was at 

 work here nearly a century ag->, with the result that almost 

 all the windows of the first and second stories were then 

 deprived of their mullions, though, fortunately, one side of the 

 house has been spared to vindicate its original beauty and to 

 act as a deterrent to further vandalism. 



The best view of the house as a whole is that in 

 the picture taken from the meadow, access to which is 

 obtained from the garden through an iron gate and down 



a flight of sbne steps. 



Copyright 



Country I.i.c." 



THE TERRACE WALK. 



The waters of the fish-pond, 

 which hardly appears in this 

 view, are seen lower down. In 

 "Skelton's Oxfordshire" is an 

 engraving which shows the upper 

 pond of the two before the 

 ground above had been raised 

 into a lawn, and when it sloped 

 gradually down to the water's 

 edge ; and at the end of the lower 

 pond, shown in the illustration, 

 the old arrangement still 

 remains. 



One of the most conspicuous 

 features of the place are the yew 

 hedges, which form the main 

 lines in the design, and divide off 

 the garden into different parts. 

 The north garden, with the foun- 

 tain in the centre, is separated by 

 a hedge of this kind, as well as 

 by a wall of goodly dimensions, 

 from the orchard and rose garden 

 he ow it, and from the west front 

 by a terrace, flanked by another 

 wall and the ubiquitous yew 

 hedge beyond. 



From the north garden is 

 obtained the best view of the 



