60 



GARDENS OLD AND NhW. 



76, and whose probity, goodness, and ingenious character are 

 extolled ; and another records the virtues of his son Thomas 

 Fetherstone, who died at the age of 81, in 1714. This Thomas 

 was a good son, a fond husband, an excellent father, and a 

 man elegant in various studies and sacred exercises, whose 

 Mberality built the north aisle of the church to be the resting- 

 place of himself and his posterity. It is of good brick, but is 

 not well in keeping with the rest of the structure, which is 



THE MULTITUDE WALK. 



said to have been in pan erected ia expiation by Nicholas 

 Bromc of Baddesley Clinton, who, in fit of violence, had 

 slain the parish priest there, becaus t> as an old gossip hath it, 

 he found the cleric "chucking his wife under the chin." 



Packwood House is an ancient structure of the half- 

 timbered architecture so common in the forest districts of 

 Warwickshire, now covered with rough-cast, and it has much 

 excellent brick. Its outlines are picturesque, and its features 

 largely belong to Stuart times, there being wainscoted rooms 



on the ground floor with carved chimney-pieces of good 

 character. The wing on the north of the entrance, containing 

 the domestic offices, is of the splendid brickwork so character- 

 istic of the place, with moulded cornices and several mural 

 sundials. This portion of the structure appears to belong to 

 the reign of William III. or Anne, and to the same date may 

 be ascribed the old brick stables, which are exceedingly 

 interesting, and have very massive oaken stalls and fittings. 



There is an excellent 



sundial also on the lawn 

 facing the park front of 

 the house, which bears the 

 date 1660, and the arms 

 of Fetherstone on the 

 gnomon gules, on a 

 chevron argent, between 

 three ostrich feathers of 

 the second, as many 

 annulets of the first. 



The date on the sun- 

 dial brings us to the date 

 of the garden, which may 

 perhaps be ascribed to 

 John Fetherstone, who 

 died ten years later, 

 tho ugh no doubt his 

 ingenious son, Thomas 

 Fetherstone, being both a 

 builder and a student, 

 took pains that its style 

 and character should be 

 maintained. On the other 

 hand, it is possible that 

 the garden may even be 

 earlier, and that some of 

 its features may belong to 

 Elizabeth's reign. It was 

 one of those places, in the 

 words of William Morris, 

 "well fenced from the 

 outer world," and filled 

 with the quaint spirit of 

 the age, wherein the old 

 English gentleman might 

 say: 



" Society is all but rude 

 To this delicious solitude." 



The quaint and rare 

 old garden at Packwood is 

 like that Sir Henry Wotton 

 described, " into which the 

 first access was a high 

 walk like a terrace, from 

 whence might be taken a 

 general view of the whole 

 plot below." It is sur- 

 rounded by brick walls, on 

 the inside of which are 

 raised terraces, with square 

 summer-houses at the 

 corners, an arrangement 

 analogous to that at neigh- 

 bouring Kenilworth, as 

 described by Laneham, 

 who wrote an account of 

 the pageants there, 1575. 

 Could anything exceed 



the chant in picturesque beauty of form and colour, 

 of this old brickwork ? Wherever you turn you finJ 

 ancient walls vested with ivy, clinging to tlum some- 

 times in too fond an embrace. Grown rank and strong, its 

 huge arms are intertwined with the brickwork, which 

 they have loosened, and in part overthrown, and its very 

 trunks have crept through the walls. Our artist, searching for 

 constructive features, thrust his arm into the dense evergreen 

 growth, and discovered by good fortune a beautiful stone vase, 



