261 



GARDENS OLD 4\<D 



filled then the 

 sylvan valley 

 \v i t h their 

 raucous cry, and 

 spread their 

 glories on the 

 terrace walls as 

 in these days. 

 Certainly the 

 place became 

 beautiful, with 

 attractions to Mr. 

 Packer's mind. 



It has been 

 stated that when 

 livelyn returned 

 from Italy 

 enraptured with 

 the classic taste, 

 he persuaded his 

 friend to rebuild 

 the house ot 

 Groombridge in 

 that style. 

 It does not 



seem, however, to possess very much of the Italian character, 

 though the portico and loggia are Ionic, tor the roo f s and 

 windows are very much in the Dutch character. It may well 

 be that Evelyn's advice was sought in regard to the arrange- 

 ment of the grounds. He went to Groombridge in July, 1652, 

 and heard a :-ermon at Mr. Packer's chapel there, and in his 

 diary describes the house as "a pretty, melancholy seat, well 

 wooded and watered," and lie records the fact that the chapel 

 had been built by Mr. PackerS father in remembrance of the 

 return of Prince Charles safely out of Spain. 



Evelyn recorded another visit to Groombridge in August, 

 1674, which seems to explain his view of the melancholy 

 character of the seat. " I went to Groombridge to :-ee my old 

 friend Mr. Packer ; the house was built within a moat, in a 

 woody valley. The old house has been the place of confine- 



THE NORTH GARDEN. 



mentof the Duke 

 of Orleans, taken 

 by one Waller 

 (whose house it 

 then was) at the 

 battle of Agin- 

 court, now de- 

 molished, and a 

 new one built 

 in its place, 

 though a far 

 better situation 

 n ad been on 

 the south of the 

 wocd,on a grace- 

 ful ascent. At 

 some small dis- 

 tance is a large 

 chapel, not long 

 since built by 

 Mr. Packer's 

 father, on a 

 vow he made 

 to do it on 

 the return 

 of King Charles I. out of Spain, 1625, and dedicated to 

 St. Charles, but what saint there was then of that name 

 I am to seek, for, being a Protestant, I conceive it was not 

 Borromeo." 



It is pleasant to associate John Evelyn with this lovely 

 place in the region of England he knew and described so well. 

 It is something, indeed, of classic ground that we tread in the 

 beautiful terraced gardens of old Groombridge, and though 

 Evelyn would have liked a site on the hill, few will question 

 that the place gains much by the ancient moat spanned by its 

 three bridges on the north, east, and west. Mr. Packer was 

 buried in Groombridge Chapel, and was succeeded in posses- 

 sion by his son John, and then by his grandson Philip. The 

 last-named died unmarried, when Groombridge Place came to 

 his sisters as co-heiresses, and was vested in the Court of 



1MB NORTH BRIDGE. 



