NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



'N this volume is continued the record of the 

 beauties of English gardens which was com- 

 menced last year. The amount of material 

 available is so large that, even with the most 

 careful selection, it could not all be included 

 in a single book that would not be of impos- 

 sibly unwieldy proportions. A division into 

 sections was necessary to enable such a wide 

 subject to be dealt with in a proper manner, 

 and to permit the adequate illustration of those places which are 

 worthiest of attention. So, as the previous volume was limited to 

 the gardens in the South and West of England, the present one has 

 to do with those which are to be seen in the Midland and Eastern 

 counties, a district quite as rich in historic houses as that which 

 lies south of the Thames, and as full of significant examples of the 

 gardener's art. In this part of England are such lordly pleasure 

 grounds as those of Eaton Hall, Chatsworth, Welbeck Abbey, 

 Clumber Park, Belvoir Castle, and Wrest Park, as well as a host of 

 others less extensive but not less deserving of admiration, and not 

 less entitled to be ranked as instances of artistic ingenuity. 

 Certainly the second series of garden pictures now given will be as 

 valuable as the first to everyone who either desires to study the 

 technicalities of garden-making by the aid of representations of 

 actually existing gardens or who wishes simply to satisfy an aesthetic 

 taste by looking at charming reproductions of fascinating subjects. 

 The student and the art lover will equally appreciate the advantage 

 of making comparisons between the methods of different exponents 

 and of understanding what a wide diversity of processes can be em- 

 ployed in the production of perfectly legitimate results. For this 

 comparison there are available gardens laid out long ago by famous 

 designers and preserved almost without alteration to the present day ; 

 others which have undergone successive rearrangements to bring 

 them into agreement with changing fashions or with the taste of 

 new owners ; and others, again, which represent the work of modern 

 garden-makers striving to carry on an ancient tradition or to create 

 a new one likely to be accepted as authoritative. 

 The intention which has directed the choice or these illustrations 

 from the mass of suitable subjects that have called for consideration 

 has been to show chiefly what may be defined as the pictorial suc- 

 cesses of gardening, the instances in which the details of a rightly 

 planned design have come into absolutely correct agreement. It is 



xxi 



