22 4 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



assumed more dignified and beautiful forms than 

 they commonly display in other places. 



The grounds and gardens are level, but 

 supremely beautiful, and command many views, not 

 the least pleasing being that through a great vista 

 which discloses in the distance the noble spire of 

 Salisbury Cathedral. There are splendid groups of 

 ancient trees, with cedars planted about the year 1631, 

 and older even than the monarchs of Warwick and 

 Goodwood. They were, in fact, probably the earliest 

 cedars planted in England. It is pleasant to fancy 

 that, under an ancient ilex on the lawn, Sir Philip 

 Sidney may have reclined when he here wrote his 

 " Arcadia." The more recent features of the gardens 

 are due to the influence of the classic spirit in 



The hand of Holbein is in the garden pavilion, 

 originally the porch of the house, and removed here 

 by Wyatt. We cannot forget that here ShakespLare 

 with his troupe enacted his plays before James I. ; 

 Ben Jonson and Massinger are associated with the 

 house, and Philip Sidney paced the garden groves 

 and conceived and wrote " Arcadia," while George 

 Herbert mused in its halls when he walked over 

 from his neighbouring parsonage at Bemerton ; here 

 we encounter Charles I., who " did love Wilton above 

 all places, and came there every summer," the garden 

 front of the house being built by his advice, according 

 to Aubrey. 



Wilton, quiet as it is in these days, is a place 

 that has seen a great deal of history, having been the 



THE ILEX AND THE FOUNTAIN. 



garden design, and Sir Richard Westmacott had much 

 to do with the planting of the groups of shrubs. His, 

 too, is the broad walk on the east front, terminating 

 in a seat clustered with yew. It was during the 

 time of Catherine, Countess of Pembroke and 

 daughter of Count Woronzow who died in 1856, 

 and whose noble monument is in that interesting 

 Lombardic church at Wilton that Westmacott's 

 advice guided in part the disposition of the gardens 

 which Mr. Latham's pictures depict in such admirable 

 manner. Many are the memories that inspire the 

 visitor to the classic house of Wilton : 



Pembroke's princely Home, where Mimic Art 

 Decks with a magic hand the dazzling bowers. 



capital of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and having 

 possessed such importance that it gave its name to the 

 shire. Here Alfred defeated the Danes, and here, 

 later on, came Sweyn, wreaking vengeance and 

 burning the place to the ground. King Stephen 

 entertained the idea of building a castle at Wilton 

 that he might overawe the rebellious burghers ot 

 Sarum ; but the Earl of Gloucester, who had assembled 

 an army for the Empress Maud, set fire to the place 

 and drove out the King. Wilton was then a 

 prosperous and busy town, but it lost its importance 

 owing to the diversion of the great western road. 

 The original monastery which stood here owed its 

 foundation to Alfred, although there had been an 



