L 204 j 



MELBOURNE HALL, 



DERBY, . 



THE SEAT OF 



EARL COWPER, K.G, i 



GARDENS 



OLD-&NEW 



surveyed 

 bear the 



WE have now to describe 

 a. place which holds 

 an important position 

 in the history of English 

 gardening. We have 

 already many gardens that 

 marks of an earlier time long 

 alleys and shad nvy walks beneath sombre yew.?; 

 quaint courts with their mossy terraces, where peacocks 

 spread their plumes in the sun ; the strange and curious 

 cutting of the trees. We have been able to note the 

 growtli of new tastes, and the breaking away of 

 barriers, and have glance J at the work of the landscape 

 gardener. 



We have seen also the fruitful love of flowers which has 

 filled our m<>dern gardens with splendour and variety that 

 the old gardeners never knew. But this survey has so far 

 given us merely a glimpse of the grand or stately style 

 associated with the name of Le Notre. There could, in the 

 nature of things, be comparatively few examples of it, for the 

 creation of great intersecting or radiating avenues formed of 



forest trees was an achievement not 

 many could contemplate. Not to 

 go abroad to the land from which 

 the new spirit came, we have a 

 classic example in the great gardens and 

 park of Hampton Court, partly arranged 

 by London and Wise under the personal 

 supervision of William III. Here a long svater-piece and 

 splendid avenues bespeak the new taste of a remarkable 

 time. It is to this time and this school that the lovely 

 gardens of Melbourne belong, and they may be described 

 as a complete illustration, on a comparatively small scale, 

 of the manner of Le Norre as it was developed in 

 England. Be it observed, however, that these noble 

 avenues, dense hedges, and stately lengths of formal 

 water do not preclude nay, perhaps they demand the 

 wealth of floral beauty that the modern gardener should 

 know so well how to bestow. 



But, before we say anything in detail of the character 

 of this interesting place, it will be well to learn a little of 

 the history of the great house and its farmer possessors. The 



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THE LAKE AND BIKDCAGE. 



1 Country Lijc." 



