234 



GARDENS OLD AND NklV. 



Not for his own use, not for a present to the King, 

 did the founder of Winchester and of New College 

 acquire this stately house. He bought it with a view of 

 settling it upon his sister Agnes and her family, and in that 

 family, directly first and indirectly later, it h:,s remained ever 

 since. Thorn is Wickliam, grandson of Agnes, obtained 

 from Henry IV. in 1406 a licence to " crenellate his 

 house at Broughton," by which licence, in all proba- 

 bility, tlu 1 house 

 was raised to the * 

 dignity of a castle. 

 The said 'I liomas, 

 like many another 

 good man and true 

 of those stirring 

 days, when the 

 lives cf men were 

 often cut short, left 

 an heiress, whom 

 William, second 

 Lord Saye and 

 Sele, espoused. 

 And from the hands 

 of tli at family 

 Broughton lias 

 not departed. 

 Changes h a v e 

 been made in the 

 fabric, of course. 

 The embattled part 

 of the building, 

 early fifteenth cen- 

 tury, speaks of the 

 licence ''to 

 crenellate" se- 

 cured by Thomas Wickham. The Tudor windows of 

 the north front were added in r 544, and the ceiling of 

 the great hall and the oak-panelled drawing-room are of 

 the same period. 



In the days immediately preceding 

 Broughton witnessed the beginnings of a 

 William, secon 1 Baron Save, was "the 

 Purit-in Party " in the days of Charles 1., 



the Civil War 

 great movement. 

 godfather of the 

 and in his house 



took place many a secret mee'.ingof those wli > were dissatisfied 

 with the King's government. Hampden would come thither, 



and Pym, St. John, Lord Brooke, the tiarls of Bedford, 

 Warwick, and Essex, Lord Holland, and Nathaniel Fiennes. 

 Under the roof, too, is a great space, known as the Barracks, 

 where Lord Save and Sele's regiment of 1,200 men passed 

 the night before Hdge Hill ; and en the following dav Broughton 

 fell into the hands of the King. 



And now for the gardens, the beautiful framework 

 in which this antique architectural jewel is set. The subject 



is particular! y 

 pleasant, because 

 this is one of those 

 rare cases in which 

 the evolution of a 

 garden may be 

 followed, and the 

 all-pervading in- 

 fluence of dainty 

 and cultivated taste 

 may be traced. Of 

 the present o:cu- 

 pants of Broughton 

 it may be said that 

 they entered upon 

 their tenancy in 

 circumstances de- 

 m a n ding g r e a t 

 creativeskill. They 

 had to face deso- 

 lati )ii ; the space 

 appropriate to 

 gardens had been 

 a b s o 1 u t e 1 y 

 neglected, and a 

 rough pasture-field 

 ran up to the walls 

 of the house under the drawing-room windows. The best that 

 could be said of the situation was that it offered free scope 

 to the artist c imagin ition ; but the task to be achieved was 

 stupendous, the problem was of infinite complication. Never- 

 theless, in a few short years, and with the aid of but four 

 gardeners and a boy or t.vo, ureat things have been achieved, 

 and a long series of beautiful scenes has been created. In 

 some cases for example, in that of the rergola, which the 

 roses have not yet clothed completely it is plain that the 

 beaut:es of the future will surely excel those of the present ; but 



DAY. 



Copyright. 



'Country Lift-' 



THE SOUTH-WEST CORNER. 



