KING'S WESTON, 

 GLOUCESTER, 



THE SEAT OF 



MR. R. NAPJER MILES 



GARDENS 

 OLD'&NEW 



T 



k HIS volume depicts and 

 describes several wardens 

 in the vicinity of Bath 

 and Bristol, that favoured land where many people have been 

 attracted to dwell, rich in great houses and beautiful examples 

 of gardenage, where there is a pictorial character in the 

 landscape and a generous richness in the soil that 

 are the chief elements in the beauty of a chosen part 

 of England. King's Weston is a remarkable house, in 

 a fine situation and amid very lovely surroundings, 

 in the neighbourhood of Shirehampton, commanding superb 

 views of the diversified, romantic, and gloriously vvooJed 

 country. The mansion dates from the year 171 1, and 

 has the solid classic qualities of the reign of Queen 

 Anne. The pleasant colour of the old B.ith stone, weathered 

 and mossy, lends a charm to the Corinthian pilasters, the 

 pediment, the cornice, and the crowning urns of the structure. 



An uncommon feature is found in the design of the house, for 

 the chimneys above are quite unusual in character, and 

 take an architectural form and grouping rare and effective. 

 We do not wonder at the classic proportions and harmonious 

 features of the st ucture when we learn that it is a work of 

 Vanbrugh. We do not know whether he designed it wholly, 

 but it bears the mark of his hand. The tough fighting man 

 who became an architect and then a dramatist, laid many a 

 heavy load on earth, as his punning epitaph says, but there is 

 some uncertainty as to his actual share in the design of certain 

 buildings. Castle Howard in Yorkshire, Blenheim, and 

 Greenwich Hospital were wholly or partly designed by 

 him. We therefore look at King's Weston with a good deal 

 of interest. 



But what will most impress the visitor to the house, and 

 the reader who sees our pictures, will be the extremely peculiar 

 manner in which Nature is tempted and encouraged to invade 



Copyright. 



Coun'ry Life.' 



THE WEST FRONT. 



