188 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



might have used and made others enjoy. The gardener, in 

 short, must be a cosmopolitan. His work is to accept and 

 select, and to invest his garden with character and adornments 

 appropriate to soil and situation, so that it expresses 

 an individuality. So shall the garden, as Schiller says, 

 be Nature invested with a soul and exalted by Art. 

 It shall be the place where the man expresses himself 

 h his own conception of Nature adapted to his needs 

 or his inward likings. Whether it be a walled enclosure, 

 with openings like the gates of a Roman camp, or a 

 great pleasaunce upon a terraced slope, or merely a 

 homely garden, there shall be individuality in it. It 

 may be a place where the strawberry-bed neighbours 

 the roses, and where he wanders among apples, cherries, 

 plums, medlars, and filberts, with a multitude of flowers, 

 small and great, in their company. This would be an 

 individual garden. And so, at this beautiful West Country 

 seat, we find personal character in the floral adornment 

 of the solid masonry. 



And we see at King's Weston that this idea of welcoming 

 the garden in the very approaches to the house is not 

 confined to one flight of steps, or to one side of the house, 

 but is borne out in a free and delightful use of plants and 

 flowers in pots and boxes. The care which is devoted every- 

 where to wall and water gardening is excellent testimony 

 to the love of flowers which has beautified this old 

 place. Tin.- rectangular pond garden is gloriously fes- 

 tooned upon its walls, and, in combination with borders 

 of hardy flowers, there is an abundance of moisture- 

 loving plants, of the beautiful things that will grow and 

 flourish in the crannies of walls bordering water, while 

 the water itself is made rich in a plenteous growth of 

 lovely water-lilies. This garden, in fact, is a perfect 

 study in this special class of gardening. Especially 

 charming is Ihe view of the old garden-house, with the 

 ivy-wreathed wall, and the brilliant broom, and the lilies, 

 irises, poppies, and ornamental garden thistles, to name 

 no others, reflected in the glassy sheet. There is a world 

 of beauty in gardening like this, giving radiance and 

 sweetness combined. And such gardening at King's Weston 



Copyright. 



THE GARDEN STEPS. 



" C.miicry Li,c.'' 



is wholly in keeping with the character adopted nearer 

 the dwelling. 



The garden dates from the same period as the house, 





wIMBBHiilRM^^^K^S^H^^^^RHC 



THE ECHO WALK. 



