PRIVATE GARDENS 339 



genus Collinsonia was named after him — and he must 

 have been pleasant and good besides, for his biographer 

 says to him was attached "all that respect which is due 

 to benevolence and virtue." He was in correspondence 

 with leading men in America, and was constantly receiv- 

 ing seeds and plants, and his own garden contained " a 

 more complete assortment of the orchis genus than, 

 perhaps, had ever been seen in one collection before." 

 No doubt some found their way to the gardens of his 

 friend, Lord Holland. How astonished they both would 

 be could they peep for a moment at the orchids dis- 

 played in the tents of the Horticultural Society's shows, 

 which have been allowed to take place in the park 

 where Cromwell conversed .? At this time the gardens 

 must have been considerably remodelled, as the taste 

 for the formal was waning, and the " natural " school 

 taking its place. One of the pioneers of the natural 

 style, Charles Hamilton, assisted the new design. His 

 own place, Painshill, near Cobham, in Surrey, embraced 

 all the newest ideas, groves, thickets, lakes, temples, 

 grottos, sham ruins, and hermitages. A contemporary 

 admirer, Wheatley, says of Painshill, it " is all a new 

 creation ; and a boldness of design, and a happiness of 

 execution attend the wonderful efforts which art has 

 there made to rival nature." No doubt this adept in 

 the new art would introduce many changes. The 

 *' Green Lane " was a road shut up by Lady Holland, 

 and Hamilton is said to have suggested turfing it. He 

 appears to have been fond of woodland glades and turfed 

 the shaded walks in his own creation, so it seems very 

 likely that the idea of grass was his. In the Green Lane, 

 Charles James Fox, son of the first Lady Holland, who 

 closed the road, loved to walk, and still the Green Lane 



