GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



servants' wing was added at a later date, precisely in the 

 same architectural style. There was once a moat about the 

 house, which the Pitchford brook and the pond above the 

 house supplied ; and there was no doubt a sweet and radiant 

 garden, much to the owner's mind. Just as now, there 

 were splendid trees surrounding, whose forest brothers had 

 furnished the material for the building, and there were 

 neighbouring houses of note, wherein dwelt men of mark in the 

 shire. 



Within the mansion the rooms were panelled with 

 oaken wainscot, as they still are, though now more recent 

 portraits are framed into the walls. They were troublous 

 times for many, to whom moats were no safeguard, and the 

 builder of Pitchford Hall, or his successor, was careful to 

 construct a secret hiding-place, where priest or fugitive 

 might be secure. It is a chamber of considerable size, 

 as hiding holes go, approached through a sliding panel, 

 well concealed, by a ladder through a closet floor. The 



slope to look over the ancient homestead and all the gardens 

 and pleasure grounds that lay thereabout ! There exists an 

 old plan of the garden, made in 1680, which shows that the 

 house was even then in the tree. Many have been the 

 fashions of such places. There was the well-known arbour of 

 Erasmus, where he ate as if in the parden itself, for the very 

 walls were shrubs and flowers, and whichever way he looked 

 he had the garden before him. We remember also thesurmier 

 resting-place of Sidney's " Arcadia," which was " a square 

 room full of delightful pictures made by the most excellent 

 workmen of Greece." Then we think of the more stately 

 summer-house of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh at Theobalds, 

 where, in a semi-circle, were twelve Roman Emperors in white 

 marble, and a table "of touchstone," and above cisterns of 

 lead for fish or for bathing in the summer. But which of 

 these could have the simple charm of the shadowy retreat held 

 safe in the arms of the Pitchford tree ? 



And what kind of garden do we survey from this pleasant 



THE KITCHEN GARDEN 



house was shaped, as our illustrations show, like the letter 

 E, the straight side being towards the church, though 

 it was built long before Elizabeth could be flattered by such 

 a plan. 



Among the Ottleys who possessed Pitchford, Sir Francis 

 of the name deserves to be mentioned as the loyal governor of 

 Shrewsbury in the Civil Wars. Their descendants continued 

 to possess it until the year 1807, when on the death of the last 

 of the name, Mr. Adam Ottley, it passed to the late Lord 

 Liverpool, grandfather of Colonel Cotes, as next-of-kin. 

 I Hiring Lord Liverpool's ownership the fine and characteristic 

 old place was carefully maintained, and he had the honour of 

 welcoming her late Mijesty within its walls, who, as Princess 

 Victoria, visited it, accompanied by the Duchess of Kent, 

 in 1832. 



A very tine view of the house is obtained from the summit 

 of the avenue leading to Pitchford village, and a delightful 

 prospect of the glorious old place lies also before the visitor 

 who is privileged to ascend to that sweet old summer-house 

 held secure in the arms of the mighty lime. What a delightful 

 fancy created that rare resting-place, lifted aloft on the breezy 



altitude, or enjoy as we traverse the pathways ? There are 

 fifteen acres of the pleasaunce, and the pictures disclose what 

 they are. It is a dear old garden of pleasant scents and radiant 

 prospects, with many a bloom to crown the successive seasons 

 of the changing year. There are magnificent old trees, fine 

 ornamental specimens, and yew hedges, and everywhere 

 flowers, filling with radiance even the kitchen gardens them- 

 selves. 



On one side the land slopes down to the house ; on 

 the other it slopes away where grass terraces break the 

 descent to the pleasant margin of the Pitchford Brook, where 

 are walks and solitudes delightful to explore, and whence it is 

 charming to look back to the beautiful old house we have left. 

 But perhaps, after all, the rarest charm will be found in 

 the great and grand old trees which tower up with sub- 

 limity, and spread below their wide expanse of shade 

 the "old patrician trees" of that favoured land. There 

 is beauty and charm, however, wherever we go, and with 

 most pleasant thoughts of the good old English house and 

 fair domain do we forsake the lovely surroundings of 

 Pitchford Hall. 



