SCOTTISH GAKDENS 



something stronger than contempt ; but viewed from 

 afar in this way nothing could be more beautiful 

 than those great pools and channels of soft rose 

 interrupting the surrounding verdure. 



The beauty of this garden is greatly enhanced by 

 its unison with the castle perched above it, which, 

 originally built by the Dalzell, Earl of Carnwath, 

 was sold in 1647 to James Hamilton, second son 

 of John of Orbiston, who built wings to the old 

 keep. Too many similar houses either have been 

 abandoned for more commodious mansions and been 

 suffered to moulder in dishonoured neglect, or have 

 been unskilfully and inharmoniously enlarged to meet 

 the requirements of modern households. Dalzell 

 Castle has escaped both these indignities. The 

 original keep, grimly and massively defensive, with 

 walls seven feet thick, received large additions in 

 the picturesque style of the seventeenth century. 

 Imminent was the danger of disfigurement when it 

 was determined to make it yet larger in the mid- 

 Victorian era an affluent period which was so fatal 

 to many a historic pile ; but the late Lord Hamilton 

 was gifted with a nice judgment in matters structural 

 and decorative, and also had the rare advantage of 

 co-operation with R. W. Billings, who, for three whole 

 years, devoted his rare knowledge and skill to enlarg- 

 ing and beautifying the old house, leaving it so that 

 neither antiquaries, aesthetes, nor landscape gardeners 

 can find foothold for a single unkind comment. 



The castle occupies a site close to the Roman 



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