54 



G.4RDF.NS OLD AND NEIV. 



THE GARDb'N PLAN. 



honoured ; for the dancers carried on their shoulders reindeer's 

 heads, and bore the arms of Welles, and of Paget and Bagot, 

 the great landowners hereabout. The whole district was more 

 or less covered with wood, but was chiefly enclosed at the 

 beginning of the last century. In Queen Elizabeth's time the 

 forest was twenty-four miles in circumference, and in 1658 

 contained 47,150 trees, besides hollies and underwood 



The Meynells claim descent from the great Norman baron 

 Hugo de Grandmesnil, who, with his brother, founded the 

 abbey of St. Evroult. The sons of Hugo went to the Crusade, 

 but are believed to have displayed cowardice at Antioch. 

 Hugo himself is said to have died at Leicester in 1093, and 

 Orderic says that his body, preserved in salt, and well sewn 

 up in an ox-hide, was conveyed to Normandy and buried by 

 tin- abbot and convent on the south side of the chapter house 

 at St. Evroult. Gilbert de Mesnil established the stock from 

 which the family at Hoar Cross are descended, and Williams, 

 Hug is, Roberts, Richards, and others succeeded one another 

 in the long line of descent. Hugo of Langley Mesnil repre- 

 sented his county in five Parliaments under Edward III., and 

 his son, another Hugo, was raised to the dignity of the B.ith 

 for his services at Cressy and Poitiers. Gerards, Ralphs, and 

 Johns follnued, and Godfrey Mesnil, or Meynell, had a son 

 Charles, who fell in the cause of the Stuarts. Charles's 

 brother, Francis, an opulent banker, was the father of Godfrey 

 Meynell, and grandfather of Lyttelton Meynell, from whose 

 second son Hugo came the Meynells of Hoar Cross. That 

 gentleman, like several of his ancestors, was High Sheriff of 

 his county in 1758, and it was his son, Hugo, who married the 

 heiress of Temple Newsam. The latj Mr. Hugo Francis 

 Meynell Ingram was well known for his public spirit and great 

 position among the lan.le.l gentry of England, and his v, idow, 

 who now holds the estate, was the d.i lighter of the first Lord 

 Halifax. 



The house at Hoar Cross was built at a good period, 



in which the spirit of Tudor and Jacobean domestic archi- 



re was \\.-ll underwood, and the lofty gables, cupolas, 



chimneys, and mullioned windows are all excellent in style 



and ex.'jution. The gardens have an unusually varied and 

 everywhere beautiful character. A pleasing fancy has directed 

 the arrangement, and has invested the several parts of the 

 grounds with singular attractions On one side of the house 

 broad lawns extend for ;~,ome distance, shadowed by fine trees. 

 On another hand are steep descents leading to well-hedged, 

 enclosed spaces, radiant with a varied wealth of (lowers, and 

 delightful throughout the year. Then, again, there is a formal, 

 planned garden, based upon the principle of the square, with a 

 fountain for the centre-piece, and well-kept beds and geometrical 

 paths filling the space. There is enough here, indeed, to 

 charm the most fastidious in every line of gardening. Perhaps 

 nothing, however, is so attractive as the grand hedges of yew, 

 which are kept in superb order, and in denseness of growth 

 could scarcely be excelled In some places they are cut as 

 with embattlements ; in others they are pierced as with 

 loopholes ; but everywhere they are as fine as we could well 

 wish them to be. The hedges give that character of enclosure 

 which was so much valued in former times, though it may be 

 remarked that in this varied pleasaunce the broad expanses 

 are consonant with the modem spirit also The pleached walk 

 of lime is one of the finest examples in I n .land of that class of 

 work, and may be commended as well worthy of imitation. 

 The garden at Hoar Cross is, indeed, a pre-eminently satis- 

 factory piece of work. It is manifestly the outcome of real 

 love for the garden, and of a right conception of one great 

 school of garden design. Mrs. Meynell Ingram has multiplied 

 her enclosures, as we see such features depicted in many old 

 garden plans, and as we find them in some antique pleasaunces 

 that remain. Her success should be an encouragement, for it 

 shows that the character of an old garden can be won within 

 the space of a few years. It is, indeed, no small thing that 

 such a garden as Hoar Cross should be a crea ion of modern 

 times. 



The Staffordshire gardeners have ever been famous lor 

 their skill in handling trees and bushes to decorative advantage. 

 Old Dr. Plot, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and professor 

 of chemistry in the Univet Uy of Oxford, who e " Natural 



