GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



THE STABLES, SOUTH-EAST CORNER. 



Chancery, where it remained until it was purchased by Mr. 

 William Camfield towards the end of the eighteenth century. 

 It passed through the hands of other owners, and came 

 into the possession of the late Rev. John J. Saint of 

 Groombridge. 



The broad moat is the distinguishing feature of the place. 

 The main approach is by a bridge that spans it, leading to 

 two lofty gate-posts, topped by acorn-like adornments, and 

 clustered, like the bridge, with ivy. This brings us to the 

 entrance, and there is little space for gardenage between the 

 moat and the house. Nevertheless, the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the edifice is rich and glorious in its abundant flowers 

 and its wealth of greenery, and there are lawns and flowering 

 bushes, while on the east side a sundial has an appropriate 

 place." 



The grouping of the structure with these neighbouring 

 gardens is very fine, and the effect most beautiful. It is 

 a grand composition in colour, for the mellow brickwork 

 contrasts delightfully with the green things that grow there. 

 On the placid surface of the moat many are the charming 

 objects reflected, and the antique walls and lofty roofs, thus 

 doubled, form a picture not to be forgotten when seen with 

 the gardens and woods behind in the full prime of the leafy 

 month of June. The old brickwork, the ancient buttresses of 

 the walls, the gate-posts with their ornamental tops, the fruit 

 trees and flowering climbers, the splendid herbaceous borders, 

 and the sequestered ways, like that under the pergola to the 

 garden sent, are the features of truly delightful gardenage. 

 It is a 'summer garden that we depict, but Groombridge is 

 beautiful at all times of the yea', with charms that the town- 

 dweller wuuld scarcely suspect. Thus in the winter frosts 

 the old brickwork assumes a deeper hue, contrasted with the 

 deli:ate silver tracery of the boughs and the snow-ladtn 

 evergreens. 



The foliage is magnificent in character and variety, and 

 planting long ago bears its fruit now. Nothing could sir pass 

 the magnificent colour and form of the sylvan groups. 

 Parsing the bridge, and ascending the slope, the terraces are 

 reached, from which all may be surveyed. There are pleasant 

 ways by stairs and green slopes, where stone edgings mark 



the ascent, with vases full of flowers, and when we rench the 

 top, with the glorious trees behind us, there is an outlook over 

 the house, gardens, and water spaces which appeals most 

 powerfully to the imagination when its beauties are contem- 

 plated and the historic memories which make it famous are 

 recalled. 



In such a garden as this there is infinite charm because of 

 its great variety. There is the pleasant border by the old 

 brick and stone garden wall, with the huge buttresses, and the 

 vista beyond to the pergola. Look again at the moat, reflecting 

 the cultivated woodland, margined with a terrace walk, and 

 crossed by bridges thickly grown with ivy, while the moat 

 walls give kindly hospitality to many plants that root them- 

 selves therein. Then there is the pleasant fountain in the 

 north garden, where the triton blows upon a shell in a region 

 of summer flowers and evergreen bushes. The green slopes 

 by the water are a gteat feature, and water counts for much in 

 the character of the Groombridge gardens. Still more notable, 

 perhaps, is the prodigal growth of flowers in the long borders, 

 like those which margin the grass walk in the upper garden, 

 where the history of the year may be read. Here we think 

 the first snowdrop came, here colonies of crocuses, daffodils, 

 and narcissi also ; the blue gentians followed, and the colum- 

 bines, and the great globe paeonies, the dark blue monk's- 

 hood ; perhaps, the spiked veronica, and the meadow-sweet, 

 the lady's-mantle, and the evening primrose, and then in the 

 late autumn the tall-growing lilies, lancif'olium, it may be, or 

 auratum. 



The more stately part of the garden, with its trimmed 

 hedges of yew and laurel, recalls the days of Evelyn. He was 

 ever counselling and advising his friends. Thus, when he 

 went with his "brother Evelyn" to Wotton, it was to give 

 him directions about his garden. There a mountain, overgrown 

 with huge trees and a thicket, was to be removed, and the 

 moat was to be drained, which was done at no great cost. 

 Perhaps in these days Evelyn would not have recommended 

 the destruction of moats. At least we may congratulate our- 

 selves that, notwithstanding his opinion, Groombridge stands 

 where it did, with the moat to reflect the charms of its 

 architecture and its garden. 



