ST CATHERINE'S COURT, 



SOMERSETSHIRE. 



M 



\ \ V arc the beautiful houses and gardens 

 in the county of Somerset ; but there is 

 hardly one within its own borders, or, 

 indeed, within the length and breadth of 

 England, whose charm of ancient beauty and of lovely, 

 restful pleasure-ground, can rival that of this delightful 

 place. It lies among hills, not far from Bath ; house, 

 and still more ancient church, in close companionship. 

 ( )f old it was church property, St. Catherine's being a 

 dependence of Bath Abbey. The house is of late 

 Tudor date, with Jacobean addition and alteration, 

 the porch dating from the reign of Charles 1., and to 

 :his time belongs the main part of the garden structure. 

 The chief garden front is to the west, where the 

 ground rises steeply close to the house. Natural 

 conditions so nearly like those of many of the Italian 

 villas demanded a like treatment. Here, therefore, 



we have a purely Knglish garden with, what to many 

 would apjH-ar to be, Italian features. But it remains 

 a purely English garden, beiause there is no striving 

 after Italian mannerism, MH h as we see in maru of 

 the large gardens attached to English houses of the 

 Jasxical type. The pure Italian garden cannot In- 

 completely naturalised in England. A near adaptation 

 could only be possible on our most Southern shores, 

 where, strangely enough, it has never been attempted. 

 But at St. Catherine's Court, house and garden are 

 in closest sympathy. The first broad view shows the 

 noble stone stairway rising westward to terrace after 

 terrace, Hanked at the base by giant sentinel yews, of 

 simple cone shape, that rise to the roof-level of the 

 house and above it. Arriving at the entrance porch, 

 with the church standing Hist aiross the garden fore- 

 court to the right, one looks up across the rising 



THt CAKKIACk 



