HISTORICAL GARDENS 291 



of such slow and stately growth. The Preachers' Court 

 and the smaller Pensioners' Court are like college quad- 

 rangles, with that perfect turf that England alone pro- 

 duces. The smooth surface is broken only by the 

 regular intersecting gravel paths, and one row of mul- 

 berry trees some seventy years old. The red-brick 

 buildings have a venerable appearance, although they 

 do not carry the weight of centuries with dignity, like 

 the "Wash-house Court," the hall, the library, or the 

 brick cloister, and the delightful old walls with their 

 deliciously-scented fig-trees. The whole place has a 

 medieval look and feeling, and teems with ghosts and 

 recollections of the monks of the early peaceful days, 

 and their courageous successors at the Dissolution. The 

 pious founder, as the chorus of the old Carthusian 

 melody says, must not be forgotten : — 

 " Then blessed be the memory 



Of good old Thomas Sutton, 



Who gave us lodging, learning, 



As well as beef and mutton." 



Of the shades which surround these peaceful green 

 courts none appear more real than that of Colonel 

 Newcome. The guardian will point out the room in 

 which he died, or his pew in the chapel, as if he 

 belonged to history as much as Wray, who bequeathed 

 the old books in the " Officers' Library," or any of the 

 well-known pensioners. With such true and pathetic 

 touches has Thackeray drawn the character of Colonel 

 Newcome that fiction has here become entwined round 

 the walls almost as closely as fact. 



Further eastward is an open piece of ground, which is 

 hardly a garden ; but as it is green, and took the place of 

 what was known as the Artillery Garden, it may claim a 



