188 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



the hill, win- 

 ning the ad- 

 miration of 

 the divine, 

 flowed a 

 goodly spring 

 of clear water, 

 then used for 

 the turning of 

 an ancient 

 mill. 



The seve > 

 teenth cen- 

 tury, notwi'h- 

 standing that 

 it was a ti i e 

 of civil war, 

 was a pros- 

 perous age, 

 and o ii t of 

 its prosperity 

 flowed a wave 

 of a r c h i - 

 tectural fer- 

 vour, \\ hich 

 covered the 

 land w i t h 

 noble domes- 

 tic structures. 



It was in 1665 that Sir EJmund Turner set about erecting a 

 new house where the old one at Stoke R chford had stood, 

 and in the next year two wings were added, which brought 

 the building into the term of a letter H. The good knight also 

 fitted up the old ch.ipel "in a very elegant style." Stables 

 were built in 1676, and were so contrived as to form ihe 

 west end of the garden. We can realise wlv.it such a house 

 would be. There would remain in its structure those evidences 

 of the taste of a former time, which lasted with viguir into the 

 seventeenth century, and linked with them woulJ be something 

 of a classic aspect, giving the special character that seems to 



THE SOUT1 



have belonged 

 to the age in 

 which it was 

 built. There 

 we^e formal 

 gardens, laid 

 out by the 

 skill and care 

 of the old 

 gardener, 

 with the tall, 

 well - clipped 

 hedges which 

 enclosed the 

 parterres, and 

 terraces to 

 adorn the 

 slope of the 

 hill. These 

 gardens re- 

 mained until 

 c o m p a r a - 

 tively recent 

 times in some 

 form, a n d 

 have very 



noble and 

 END. stately suc- 



c e s s o r s , 



f jrmed in accordance with the character of the land. On the 

 wooded slope of the opposite hill was a summer-house, 

 "which corresponded with the centre of the stables," while 

 the declivities on both sides afforded ample scope for an arrange- 

 ment, " in the Dutch taste," of terraces and flights of steps, 

 which then were general in gardens of importance. 



The successive members of the house of Tumor who 

 possessed Stoke Rochford doubtless adorned it, each to his 

 taste, under the changing influences of the times ; and still 

 there are visible evidences of love for tli2 old gardening in 

 those fine hedges and conventional arrangements of the terrace 



THII SUN;< CKOQUET LAWN. 



