GARDENS OLD AN'D NEW. 



picturesque, and the high gables, embattled chimneys, and 

 mullioned windows have often attracted the pencil of the 

 artist. The new part is the kitcnen erected by Lord 

 Willoughby de Eresby, about 1816. Within, the house 

 abounds in curiosities, such as carved woodwork of the days 

 of Elizabeth and James. Spanish leather hangings, a screen 

 said to have been worked by Mary Queen of Scots, and 

 the coronation chair of George II. It would be no easy 

 task to find more beautiful carving and panelling than is to 

 be found at Gwydyr. This is not the only house which 

 Sir John Wynne built, for the site of another is pointed out 

 on the rock above, of which all has been demolished save 

 the chapel. The Wynnes of Gwydyr, who were of the 





an excellent feature, and are neighboured by rich herbaceous 

 borders. The floral glories of Gwydyr are conspicir.-us in our 

 pictures. Fragrance and beauty of colour combine to lend a 

 charm, which is the better appreciated because of the contrasts 

 in which the gardens abound. But, after all, from whatever 

 point of view we regard Gwydyr Castle, we recognise that 

 from its picturesque architecture and the neighbourhood of its 

 glorious woodlands it derives the greater part of its beauties. 

 Here things seem to flourish abundantly, and from early spring 

 to late autumn the garden is full of floral beauty. The 

 quaintness of the double row of clipped yews in the old 

 "Dutch" garden under the hill is undeniable, although its 

 formality may not attract every beholder. From the terrace 



:JB! 



THE GARDEN DOORWAY. 



Wynnstay family, held this place until the latter part of 

 the seventeenth century, when Mary, the heiress of Sir 

 Richard Wynne, married the Marquess of Lindsey, and 

 Gwydyr came to the family of Ancaster and to the 

 Carringtons. 



There is an old bowling green belonging to the place, 

 on an eminence opposite the entrance and within a few 

 hundred yards of the Episcopal Chapel formerly attached to 

 the summer residence of the Gwydyr fan ily, but this relic 

 of days that are gone does not now receive the attention 

 it once did. Its situation in the middle of a coppice is 

 beautiful indeed, and one can well imagine it in those Stuart 

 times in which our fathers loved the peaceful game, and 

 people the place with men who were as dexterous of eye and 

 hand as they were famous in public life. It is to be hoped 

 that, as we are learning to play once more, this fine stretch of 

 turf will again witness the skilful contests it knew so well 

 of yore. 



The magnificent woods are the real delight of the place, 

 and give it a distinction which is rare, but the garden is 

 particularly charming, with its bright parterres, clipped yews, 

 formal hedges, and cypresses, and the dark forest forms a fine 

 setting for the radiant glories of the flower-beds. There is 

 much form.ility, as in the circular garden of the forecourt 

 disposed about the sundial, but the formality takes a sweeter 

 character in the terrace, with its quaint steps and carved stone 

 vases. The grass steps at the end of the well-kept hedge .ire 



there are lovely views of the vale of the Conway, and the 

 visitor who has completed his survey of the immediate 

 surroundings may discover endless pleasures in the paths 

 through the woods. He may ascend through the upper walks 

 to the summit, and from Gwydyr-Ucha or Upper Gwydyr 

 may enjoy a marvellous prospect of a glorious region. Here, 

 over the entrance of the resting-place, is an inscription in 

 Welsh, which rightly describes it as " A conspicuous edifice on 

 the hill, towering over the adjacent land; a well-chosen 

 situation; a second paradise; a fa'r bank; a place of royalty." 

 One of the great charms of the wood is the waterfall of 

 Rhayadr-y-Parc-Mawr, which, in a romantic place near the 

 house, descends in a silvery cascade for a distance of 

 about one hundred feet. 



It is particularly pleasant, in a romantic region where 

 Nature takes its wildest forms, and where mountain and flood 

 are majestic in their untamed grandeur, to find a domain like 

 ( iwydyr Castle maintained by careful hands in the state of 

 cultivated perfection which our pictures disclose. The wood 

 and the rocky hill are seen to be the foil and contrast to the 

 sweeter charms of the garden, and the attraction of both is 

 enhanced by their variety of character. This, perhaps, is the 

 chief lesson to be learned from Gwydyr Castle that where 

 contrast ran be attained, the artistic character of a garden and 

 its surroundings will be greatly increased, and it is a lesson 

 which the visitor to Lord Carrington's attractive place will not 

 fail to make his own. 



