202 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



THE GATE 



THE FORECOURT. 



letter to the Countess of Ossory (November 3rd, 1782), 

 written nearly twenty years after his characteristic eulogy 

 of Diavton, he says, " There is a modern colonnade, erected 

 ; by Sir John Germain, the pillars of which, according to his 

 usual ignorance, were at first, as Lady Suffolk told me, set up 

 with their capitals downward, supposing them pedestals." 

 But Walpole, when he wrote this, was old and afflicted with 

 the spleen, without "philosophy enough to stand stranger 

 servants staring at my broken fingers at dinner," ready to hide 

 himself " like spaniels that creep into a hedge to die," and he 

 wrote to the Countess: "Your new visitor, I hope, Madam, 

 has carried you to Dray ton ; it is a most venerable heap of 

 ugliness, with many curious bits." " Omnia miitantur, nos 

 t't nnitaiinii- in i.'/is," may we truly say of decrepit Walpole ! 



When Sir John Germain's first wife died she left Drayton 

 to him, but it embroiled him in legal difficulties. The Earl of 

 Peterborough tried to dispossess him, and, though the House 

 of Lords decided in his favour, actions wjre in progress until 

 lie died. They were thereupon dropped, because Germain's 

 widow came into possession by will, and the Harl of Peter- 

 borough had said that if she received the estate he vvoulJ 

 relinquish his claim. This lady was the " divine old mistress " 

 extolled by Walpole Lady Betty Germain who survived her 

 husband for fifty-one years, dying in 176;;, anJ was a friend 

 and correspondent of Swift, anJ a famous laJy of the lasl 

 century. She greatly prixed her possession, a:id left it to her 

 cousin, Lord George Sackville, third son of Lionel, first Duke 

 '4 Dorset, from 

 w h o m it has 

 descended to its 

 present owner, 

 \\lio pri/es and 

 cares for the 

 splendid place 

 as much as Lady 

 Betty ever could 

 have done. 



In the pas- 

 sage of all these 

 years it has, of 

 course, gone 

 through various 

 changes, but 

 Mrs. Stopford- 

 Sackville and 

 her late husband 

 made the pre- 

 sent arrange- 

 ment of t h e 

 formal garden, 

 assisted by 

 VsfielJ.in i.X4C>. 

 It was actually 

 a work of rebto- 



ration, and little is really changed since James I. and his Queen 

 visited the place in August, 1605. We have endeavoured, so 

 far, to suggest the evo'ution and perfect appropriateness of 

 the gardens. Tne formal paths, stately terraces, hedges of 

 hornbeam and beech, grass walks, avenues, and pleached 

 arbnirs are as when the cavaliers and dames of a former day 

 delighted in them. Tlv.3 piece of still water and the great 

 limes are most beautiful, and the antique air truly is about fie 

 place. There are three main divisions at three different levels. 

 The first, along the north side of the house, is a spacious lawn 

 bise:ted by a double row of well-grown lime trees, beyond 

 which again is a large parallelogram divided into four by high 

 palisades of elm, beech, and hornbeam ; within these are 

 ancient flower, fruit, -ind vegetable gardens. Here we find tlu 

 pljached alley. The whole is surrounded by a high wal', 



Cofyi ight. 



OLD HAMMERED IRON GATES. 



"Conr.try Ltft." 



FLEMISH GATES. 



admittance being gained through a pair of fine iron gates. The 

 next level, to which we descend by a flight of steps, is that of 

 the f< rmal garden. The general arrangement gies back to the 

 time of the third Lord Mordaunt (1584); the leaden figures 

 and vases are of rare excellence; and the terrace at the further 

 end, with i's terminal banqueting houses bearing the coronet 

 of ihe second Earl of Peterborough, its flights of steps and 

 splendid urns, is extremely fine, and separates the garden from 

 the mount or raised terrace, which looks over a ha-ha into the 

 park. At a still lower level is a third parallelogram, divided 

 by a fingle row of lime trees into water and kitchen gardens, 

 and beyond again is the bowling green, with its splendid iron 

 gate bearing the cypher of Mary Duchess of Norfolk. 



Our pictures 

 will enable many 

 to appreciate the 

 beauties and in- 

 terests of Dray- 

 ton, which was 

 great in Stuart 

 times, was ex- 

 tolled by Horace 

 Walpo!e in the 

 last century, and 

 of which a 

 modern writer 

 has said that, 

 "if it yields to 

 Burghley in uni- 

 form magnifi- 

 cence and to 

 A 1 1 h o r p in 

 pictorial riches, 

 yet ex. els them, 

 and all the 

 county houses, 

 in the wealth 

 and sublety of its 



Cauntry Lift." arlistiC 3Ild IlJS- 



toric charms." 



