171 



GARDENS OLD AND NH.IV. 



m 



work of Broun 

 still remains, 

 much has been 

 done since his 

 time to alter the 

 character of the 

 grounds. The 

 water paviliun 

 and the umbra- 

 geous clumps of 

 trees are in his 

 style, but near 

 che house are 

 things he would 

 scarcely have 

 approved There 

 is an excellent 

 pattern garden in 

 quaintbeds edged 

 with box, lull of 

 summer flowers; 

 there are yews 

 and other bushes 

 standing in 

 f o r m a 1 lines ; 

 there is regul.ir 



plan, ing in the garden, with excellent well-kept hedges. 

 Roses il.uirisli abundantly, and the arched rose bower is 

 delightful. The special features, however, are few, and we 

 shall leave the pictures to tell the whole tale of the richness 

 and beauty of the Longleat gardens. Upon their face may 

 be noted the influence of the changing ideas which have 

 inspired the garden designer. The terrace on the east front 

 is noteworthy, but otherwise the architect has had little to do 

 with the gardens. 



Longleat House, which is one of the greatest places in the 

 West, lies some four miles from Warminster in Wiltshire, and it 

 will give some idea of the extent of the magnificent domain if 

 Aesay that the entrance is about two and a-half miles from the 

 mansion. Upon the site of the house stood anciently a priory 

 of black canons of St. Augustine, founded about the year 1270 

 by Sir John Vernon, of which the church was dedicated to 



THE WATER PAVILION. 



bt. Radegund, 



a Queen of 

 France. The 

 church h a d 

 several altars, 

 but the priory 

 w as a small 

 establishm ent, 

 and in i 5 29, 

 having fallen 

 into decay, it 

 was dissolved, 

 and its revenues 

 transferred to 

 the abbey of 

 Cha r terhouse 

 Hento:i, twelve 

 miles a w a y , 

 wl'.ijh itself was 

 dissolved ten 

 years later, after 

 which the place 

 was sold by the 

 Crown to Sir 

 John Horse)'. 

 This new pos- 

 sessor alienated it almost immediately to A'.r. John Thynne 

 of Shropshire, after -.yards knighted, a. nephew of William 

 Thynne, who had published one of the earliest folios of 

 Chaucer. 



Sir John Thynne thus became possessed of the old 

 mansion-house and offices of the priory, with an orchard and 

 garden, covering perhaps 100 acres, but he bought neigh- 

 bouring land, and before 1550 had formed the greater part 

 of the estate. His wealth grew rapid'y, and he married 

 the only daughter of Sir Richard Gresham, the well-known 

 prince merchant of the time. He appears to have called in 

 his architect in 1568, and the building of Longleat went on 

 for many years, the expenditure being at the rate of about 

 1,000 a year, which would have to be multiplied many times 

 to indicate its value in money of our time. While the work 

 was in progress, in it,?*,, Queen Elizabeth visited him at 



HROM I HE NORlh-hAST. 



