162 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



adopted heir of Edward Vaughan of Llwydiarth 

 Esquire, son and heir of Sir Robert Vaughan Knight," 

 who had been the second son of Owen Vaughan. 

 Edward Vaughan, soon after his marriage, became 

 Knight of the Shire for Montgomeryshire, and sat till 

 his death. He had a son and two daughters ; 

 but the son died a lad and one daughter child- 

 less, and on Sir Edward's death in 1718 Llan- 

 gedwyn, and eventually the other estates, went 

 to Anne, wife of Watkin Williams. Whether 

 the transformation of the Elizabethan house into 

 one of the style of Queen Anne's day was carried 

 out by Edward Vaughan or by Watkin Williams it 

 is difficult to say, as there are no written records, and 

 no dates appear on the fabric. The appearance is not 

 incompatible with the earlier years of George I., and, 

 as the ceiling in the dining-room has Williams- Wynn 



eighteenth 



requirements of the beginning of the 

 century. The result is certainly most agreeable, 

 combining classic symmetry and reserve of detail 

 with almost Gothic looseness and freedom of general 

 form in picturesque and engaging fashion. The 

 texture of the walling and roof, the mouldings of 

 the hipped gables continued as a guttering along 

 the eaves, the correct thickness of the original 

 sash bars, the simple yet stately proportions of 

 the pedimented doorway really too good to be 

 smothered by creepers all combine to make 

 Llangedwyn Hall a desirable and satisfying abode, 

 British to the backbone, sprung naturally from 

 the soil as the fit habitation at once comfortable yet 

 dignified, homely yet refined of that equally-native 

 product of our Isles, the country gentleman. Of 

 course, it owes quite as much to its setting as to its 



KITCHEN GARDENS. 



as well as Vaughan arms, it follows that some of the 

 work is posterior to 1718. The structure as well as 

 the site of the Elizabethan house was retained, but it 

 was wholly remodelled in its details inside and out, 

 and no casement windows, except in the garrets, were 

 allowed to survive. Its shape is irregular, and the 

 local belief that it was "built in the form of the letter 

 E in compliment to Edward Vaughan, its owner," is 

 amusingly ignorant in that such shape was out of 

 fashion long before Edward Vaughan's time, and 

 Llangedwyn is not an example of it. The recessed 

 portion to the left is twice the depth of that to the 

 right of the porch, which, moreover, in no way repre- 

 sents the short central limb of the letter E, but comes 

 out flush with the wings. Perhaps the original house 

 was of the design so general in the latter half of the 

 sixteenth century, and grew into the less symmetrical 

 form it now exhibits to meet the accommodation 



architecture, but these two qualities are not 

 independent, not a haphazard, but a co-ordinated 

 combination ; the site has largely influenced the 

 design, and the design has given feature to the site. 

 Perched and terraced on the steeply-rising ground, 

 there is no attempt made to bring a carriage-way to 

 the door a superfluous luxury which our great- 

 grandfathers never put themselves out to afford to 

 their womenkind but the short, straight avenue of 

 noble trees ends in an open space, where the cirriage 

 swings and sets down the visitor at the bottom of 

 the fine segmental steps, up which he must ascend 

 and cross a flowery terrace before he reaches the 

 threshold on to which, and on to the dial above it, 

 pours the southern sun. To the left of the house as 

 you face it, lies the stable-yard, almost mediaeval in 

 homely irregularity and unspoiled picturesqueness. 

 But to the right the whole space between the shaded 



