CAS'lll \MIBY. 



'.he other side >f the arch is a glass-roofed 

 -house, and, lookm. . through the clear 



..lass, t'i ^ces the thousand flowers of the 



blossoming under it. The gardens beyond 



it, though they have been somewhat altered. 

 Tall pillars, with hcruKlic monsters in stone, rise up 

 in pairs side by side, and box hedges of immense size 

 and apparently of great age divide all the great garden 

 up into numbers of compartments, large and small, 

 each of which is a little floral Kden independent of 

 the others. The box hedges flanking the central walk 

 arc 90 thick and so wide that, seen from the gateway 

 summit, it looks as if a coach and four horses could 

 be driven along the top. But let us descend ami 

 visit these box-encircled retreats, each of which would 

 seem to be the very ,/omns ei penetralia of some 

 particular garden goddess in which she reigns quiet 

 and supreme, with nothing to think of or to do but 

 to transfer the gaze of her well-satisfied eyes from the 

 green walls of ner retreat to the flower-decked floor 

 or the sunny sky above. One of these garden courts 

 is sacred to carnations only. Another, and a much 

 larger one, is a surprise such as the visitor could 



r expect or imagine. It is laid out like a 

 drooping fern leaf, in which every leaf is made of .1 

 bed of different old-fashioned flowers. Usually the 

 leaf consists of only one kind of flower. But in 

 others every modern device is used to produce the 

 effects wished. The highest note is struck by 

 brilliant begonias. But all the rest of the beds arc- 

 planted with purple, grey, orange, crimson, green and 

 white, lavender, bronze, yellow and claret. There is 

 one little court bordered with yew, in which the 

 apple, mulberry, medlar and maple grow, and another 

 that is beautiful all the year round, but, perhaps, 

 prettiest in the very late autumn. An arcade of 



mellow ret! brick, part of what was the old garden 

 wall, divides it from a grove into whuh the eye ee 

 through the arches. Kach division with the arch 

 above it is covered with climbing roses or other 

 creepers, and at the foot of the dividing pillar* of 

 brick are small beds of bright flowers with a turf 

 border. On the other side is the tall green box 

 hedge, ami at intervals, set in the turf, masses .it 

 scarlet orange lilies of unusual sj/c and covered with 

 blossom. 1-argc I-'rcnch grey heliotropes also grow 

 against the brick arcade, and clematis and pale green 

 The rose garden has a pergola running 

 completely round it, and in the centre is a 

 well-designed summer-house, where it is possible 

 to sit encircled by ring within ring of roses, 

 the inner ones curtaining the sides of this pretty 

 arbour and filling it with perfume. A juniper tret- 

 full of fruit is one of the surprises of another box- 

 walled court. In others, again, are vineries and 

 hothouses, some of the latter of good architectural 

 design, and In-ehives (the IK-CS do not look too happy 

 in their "classic" bcchousc) and a long ami charming 

 old-fashioned Ivirder full of old-world Knglish 

 flowers. The large kitchen gardens are surrounded 

 by a high wall roofed with tile and with projecting 

 caves. This is excellent for the wall fruit. But it is 

 not easy to fix guttering along such a length ot wall, 

 and though the tiles (which are of the Dutch variety) 

 look picturesque, the drip tends to injure plants 

 below. The outer precinct is made by a large 

 arboretum, which, like the Persian "paradise" which 

 Xenophon's ten thousand ( ireeks saw In-fore the 

 battle of Cunaxa, is " filled with all kinds of trees," 

 though not "with all kinds of beasts," as that paradise 

 was. But not far oft" is the "Menagerie l.akc," on 

 which was formerly a large collection of foreign 



NEAR THE ROSERY. 



