276 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



Cofy light. 



THE HORNBEAM WALK. 



1 Com 



Life.' 



Now Hardwick Hall was manifestly inhabited by 

 those \vho loved the luxury of light and were not afraid 

 to admit it. 



" Hardwick Hall 

 More "lass than wall." 



So runs the rhyming couplet of the Derbyshire people, 

 who perhaps shared the dislike of earlier Bacon to houses 

 "so full of glass that one cannot tell where to come to 

 be out of the sun." But, in addition to the wealth of 

 glass, we are impressed with another peculiarity of 

 Hardwick. The place is very distinctly aggressive. 

 There, lifted aloft upon every tower, are the initials 

 " E. S.," to challenge all comers and to remind them 

 of that very masterful woman, " Bess of Hardwick," the 

 famous Countess of Shrewsbury, who built, not this house 

 alone, but old Chatsworth as well, if the inscription on her 



monument in All Hallows, Derby, may be believed, and also 

 Bolsover Castle and the manor house of Oldcotes. It is not to 

 be gainsaid that there is something of dreary vastness about 

 the great chambers of Hardwick. From the huge windows 

 you survey the forecourt, where planted large in the grass in 

 glowing carpet beds are the inevitable initials, and, beyond 

 them, the gatehouse, and the wall with its pinnacles, and 

 outside again the old hall of Hardwick mouldering to pic- 

 turesque decay, for it was not good enough for Elizabeth 

 Countess of Shrewsbury to dwell in. We have so often 

 in these pages enforced the necessity of carrying the spirit 

 of the house into its garden, that it would ill beseem us to 

 question the good taste of those who cultivate these 

 gigantic initials, since they appear so prominently in the 

 structure itself. On the contrary, we shall maintain that 

 they have their right place in the garden of a house 



THE GREEN WALK FROM THE SOUTH. 



"Country Life.' 



