l\ I KODUCTIOV 



XXXV. 



< t;-' we have already referred to as reputedly 

 df' earlier date, hut the admirable halustradirigs, 



u.i\s.ind Icadwork .it Newton Ferrers (pace 195) 

 compose .1 picture which enables us to realise the 

 |x>st Restoration method* of rmxlcrjtc gardening, 

 though originally there would have Ixren Icvs grass 

 .iiul more extensive and elaborate embroidery and 

 clipped work. Of' much the same date, but strongly 

 contrasted, owing to complete difference of site and 

 liKality, is the charming formal water garden at 

 Wcstbu- vcrn (page-- xv. xvi.). It preserves 



>riginal character in a marked degree, although 

 the contemporary house, which appears in Kip's 

 view, is gone and a new one built, which, unfor- 

 tunately, incorjHiratcs the old two-storeyed pavilion 

 and so mars the design and proportions. This 



ion, which appears on the right of our smaller 

 view, stands at the end of a long narrow canal 

 and looks down its full length both from the 

 open .treading which occupied its original lower 

 storey and from the enclosed room above. Beyond 

 the canal it had an outlook on to the country through 

 a removed section of the garden wall where, between 

 two piers, surmounted with great stone pine cones, 

 was set a clairvovit or open iron grille, at this time 

 a favourite device tor carrying the view beyond the 

 garden enclosure. Another of these with fine urns 

 on the piers will be seen in our larger view occupying 

 a position beyond the head of the great T-shaped 

 canal, in the midst of which stands a Neptune in 

 lead. Flanking the broad grass marge of this canal 

 is a yew hedge, lofty and wide, giving great 

 dignity and calm to the scene. The gravel walk 

 along the flower-bordered wall ends in another 

 charming hut smaller and singlc-storcycd pavilion. 

 A larger garden but of somewhat the same character 

 is that at Bicton (page 255). It is of great beauty, 

 but with more appearance of modernity and upkeep. 

 Repton would have classed both these last gardens as 

 being of that Dutch type which he told his readers 

 had ousted and destroyed the previous Italian 

 methods. As a matter of fact, it was neither Italy 

 nor Holland, hut France, which most powerfully and 

 permanently affected Knglish gardening mcthcxls 

 throughout the formal period. We have seen that it 

 was mainly translations and adaptations of French 

 works which formed the Knglish tcxt-rxx>ks on 

 garden design and garden culture ; and that even the 

 canal system was not a Dutch novelty imported by 

 William III., is realised when we remember that the 

 Long Canal at Hampton Court dates from early in 

 Charles II. 's reign. Charles and the exiled Cavaliers 

 had had abundant opportunity of watching the 

 expansion of French gardening, and we have already 

 seen how Charles's life-long friend, John F.velyn, 

 visited and noted the characteristics of the great 

 places around Paris. As early as 1644 he notices 

 the very extensive nature of the style as shown 

 at the Luxemburg Palace, the home of (iaston 

 d 'Orleans. Its gardens were "an Knglish mile in 

 compasse." The parterre garden in box embroidery 

 is " rarely design \\ and accurately kept cut." The 

 fountains arc " built after y* old Roman magni- 

 ficence." " I'cdcstalls for potts and statues " line 

 the walks, and the terrace has balusters of white 

 marble. All this shows finish, but beyond this 

 section we also get the feeling of extent. The walks, 

 " exactly fairc and long," are planted with limes and 

 elms, and there is a " grove of tall elmcs cutt into a 



starr every ray being a walke. . . . The rcM of 

 the ground is nude into several! incloiurcs (all hedge 

 workc or rowes of trees) of whole fields, mead. 

 boscages, some of them containing divers .ukcrs." 

 Such was a garden made under l^iuis XIII., though 

 that monarch hail recently died and his boy of five was 

 King when Kvelyn saw it. But it was in no w.i\ 

 iomp.tr.ible either in si/e or sumptuoiisness to those 

 which, whet) the boy grew up and became If (ir,m,/ 

 id 



fi were laid out for him at Versailles by 

 l.e Notre, who also, at Chantilly, Meudon ami 

 St. Cloud, worked on almost as large a scale for 

 Louis's great courtiers. There was nothing specially 

 original alxut l.e Notre exiept si/e. lie passed 

 from the idea of a garden to that of grounds. I l< 

 w.is prepared, with his wide and extended alleys, 

 his prolonged avenues of clipped trees, his nu/cs and 

 thickets and o|H-n sp.ues, to occupy a vast .urcage, 

 and his fountains and pavilions, his parterres and 

 his knots, were multiplied and enlarged to give 

 ilue proportion to the entire picture. But the 

 geometry and formalism were so complete that the 

 creations of himself and of his imitators had a great 

 similarity, all the more so as the prime object ot the 

 ilesigner was not to make use of and add point 

 to natural features, accidents and peculiarities, but 

 rather to sweep them away at great iost in order to 

 have, as far as possible, a level and featureless plain 

 on which to work out their mathematical problem. 

 It is certain that Le Notre did not accept Charles's 

 invitation to come over in JHTSOII to lay out his 

 intended Hampton Court gardens ; but there is no 

 doubt that he inspired the design, and that it was 

 put into the hands of French gardeners. Like many 

 of Charles's building schemes, it never was perfected 

 in his reign, but was given a larger extent and more 

 pronounced Dutch feeling under William III. It 

 was then that the great semi-circular cast garden 

 was laid ou - , at first elalxirately knotted and with 

 much statuary and topiary work, then simplified, 

 but in its main features respected even by I-ancelot 

 Brown, who was gardener with a resilience here 

 for many years. Our pictures (page xxix.) show, 

 however, that the clipped yews of former days 

 arc now allowed their natural growth. We 

 include in this volume two places which were, 

 when originally laid out in Queen Anne's time, 

 among the largest and most complete Knglish 

 examples of It sii/f I* \&rrf, and which have, to a 

 very considerable degree, retained this character 

 down to our day. Bramham (page 227) has 

 wholly cast aside Rca's confined ideas, and its 

 scheme extends over 1 20 acres without including 

 the avcnucd and vistacd park which is brought 

 into the design. At first the garden is archi- 

 tectural, with vase-set terraces and stone-girt pools 

 of elaborate form and dignified presence. Then we 

 pass to the great alleys, with their tall cut beech 

 hedges radiating into the much-prized /><i//fifois t ind t 

 beyond these again, to noble avenues, whose tall trees 

 in one case shadow and guard the canal, which, like 

 the much more modest one at Westbury, is T-shaped. 

 Still larger and more elaborate is Wrest (page 2.17), 

 with its seven miles of walks. Although much of its 

 original formalism was afterwards serpentined by 

 Brown, it remains the largest and completes! example 

 of the grand manner, before the cry for Nature 

 created a revolution in taste. It is therefore of 

 extreme interest, as well as of great beauty ; of greater 



