GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



which had been hidden from view for thirty years. Never 

 have we seen more quaintly beautiful garden steps than these 

 nncient ascents at Packvvood. They are ingeniously built of 

 wedge-shaped bricks, giving them an unusual curve, like the 

 end of a spoon. 



Down the middle of the radiant space below the terrace 

 runs a long pathway, which passes, at its southern end, 

 through a most beautiful wrought-iron gate between tall brick 

 piers of remarkably picturesque and beautiful character. 

 The gateway is the entrance to another garden or orchard, 

 and to a world of pious symbolism and wonder. The old 

 Englishman loved to invest his house with something of the 

 spirit of divine things. It might be an inscription merely, or 

 some pious motto lifted aloft against the sky, or, perhaps, the 

 windows, by number, would speak of apostles and evangelists, 

 or the house, by its triple form, might tell of the Trinity. Out 

 into the garden went the same spirit, breathing the devout 

 ideas into the green things that grow. At Cleeve Prior, in this 

 same pleasant region of England, the twelve apostles and the 

 four evangelists are typified or exemplified in magnificent yew. 



on the Mount overlooking the evangelists, apostles, and the 

 multitude below; at least, this account of it was gi\vn 

 by the old gardener, who was pleaching the pinnacle of 

 the temple." The walk to the mount is a gentle ascent, 

 the apostle yews standing as we approach, interspersed with 

 Portugal laurels, and there is much box. It is sometimes 

 called the "multitude walk," because here are trees repre- 

 senting the multitude gathered together to hear the preaching 

 of our Lord, and the trees round the base of the mount may 

 stand for the apostles. The mount itself is ascended by a 

 spiral walk ^etw.'en old box trees, and the "tabernacle," or 

 summer-house, of yew is at the top. 



England would be richer if it possessed a greater number 

 of gardens like those of Packwood, speaking of the taste and 

 spirit of former times. Ruthless hands and inevitable decay 

 have worked together in their destruction, but we may hope 

 that ancient Packwood will long remain, with all its significance 

 of the past, and all the quaintness of its picturesque attractive- 

 ness. It was, doubtless, in old times, a garden of use as well 

 as of beauty and symbolism. There were spaces for the 



THE MOUNT. 



There is no sculpture of sacred figures as human, but merely 

 the symbolism of number and character in the mighty masses 

 of the well-clipped green. 



The creators of the garden at Packwood have gone a step 

 further, and have given us the Sermon on the Mount as a 

 wondrous and moving garden creation. Now the mjunt was 

 a constant feature in the media?v.il garden, but does not appear 

 to have been employed in a manner like this. We shall best 

 describe the green wonderland of Packwood by quoting what 

 Mr. Reginald Blomfield and Mr. F. Inigo Trnmas have to say 

 about it in their book, " The Formal Garden in England," 

 where they speak if old topiary triumphs. "The most 

 remarkable instance still exists at Packwood, in Wai wick- 

 shire," they say, "where the Sermon on the Mount is 

 literally represented in clipped yew. At the entrance to the 

 ' mount,' at the end of the garden, stand four tall yews, zoft. 

 high, for the four evangelists, and six more on either side for 

 the twelve apostles. At the top of the mount is an arbour 

 formed in a great yew tree, called the ' pinnacle of the 

 temple,' which was also supposed to represent (Christ 



kitchen requirements, while the lady would have her herbs 

 and simples ; and there was the constant hum in the summer 

 of the honey-laden bees. All along the south side of the 

 terrace wall there are still to be seen thirty small niches for 

 hives, two and two between the piers. A similar arrangement 

 exists at Riddlesden in Yorkshire, though in this case the cells 

 built in the thickness of the garden walls were for the nesting- 

 places of peacocks. The bee was a welcome guest in our old 

 gardens, and our ancestors were much skilled in the manage- 

 ment of hives. The many dials of Packwood add a good 

 deal to the quaint attractiveness of this moral garden of rare 

 and individual character. 



The owner thereof doubtless felt the human significance of 

 his sequestered old pleasaunce, and going out amid his trees 

 could say, like the Duke in "As You Like It," " These 

 ara counsellors, that feelingly persuade me what 1 am." 

 Fortunately the modern Englishman is privileged to see these 

 gardens, for, at due times and seasons, Mrs. Arton does not 

 exclude those who would breathe the spirit of their ancient 

 charms. 



