60 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



This bold walk and the shrub groups that break up the flatness of and 

 give distance to the fine expanse of lawn that extends to the waterside 

 are from the designs of Sir Richard Westmacott, who assisted the 

 Countess of Pembroke in planning the grounds. 



The second engraving shows well that portion of the house com- 

 manding the view of this broad walk, with its lawn and distant water, 

 whilst between the trees in the distance is seen the spire of Salisbury 

 Cathedral. Near the river a statue of Venus on the top of a column 

 stands in the centre of a little square formed by trees of the Italian 

 Cypress. The red Cedar was charming in some of the groups, its 

 branches laden with glaucous fruits, that appeared as a silvery sheen 

 cast over the tree. Yews, Hollies, and Evergreen Oaks, numerous and 

 fine, give perennial verdure to the grounds. Coniferous trees in 

 sheltered breaks and nooks are equally fine, a tree of Picea cephalonica 

 especially so, being nearly 100 ft. high, whilst many are growing with 

 great vigour. H. 



OFFINGTON. Offington is a very instructive garden, richly stored 

 and pretty too. Large collections are rarely in the hands of those 

 who have any thought for general effect, and no garden is more likely 

 to be inartistic than the one rich in plants, and it is rare to find a 

 pretty garden which is so full of beautiful things as this is. It is one 

 of those shore gardens in which there is much gain in point of 

 warmth and other conditions which allow the growing of plants 

 we have no chance of keeping in inland districts. The southern 

 and seashore district in one gives us all the conditions we could 

 desire for growing many more plants than are hardy in our country. 

 In this garden Major Gaisford has gathered together a host of rare 

 and beautiful trees, shrubs, and plants which, favoured by a genial 

 climate, give to the garden a distinct aspect. There is here an entire 

 absence of that conventional gardening which lays down hard, 

 geometric patterns where we should see the free and graceful forms 

 of shrubs and flowers. The house is nearly hidden by climbing plants, 

 and a grand old Ivy-embowered Walnut standing on an airy lawn. 



BULWICK. Rambling about Northamptonshire, and delighted 

 with its beautiful old houses, many of them, unfortunately, as bare of 

 flower-gardening as a deserted ship, it was pleasant to come to a real 

 garden at Bulwick, full of Carnations and many open-air flowers 

 arranged in various pretty ways, even the house being full of large 

 basins of Carnations some of them of one self-coloured kind a rare 

 pleasure. The flower garden was not one of those places which 

 astonish us by a showy display, but modest at first sight as regards 

 flower-gardening in immediate relation to the house, and the chiel 

 charm of the place was rather in various little side gardens and long 

 and pretty borders backed with Holly and other hedges, and; r giving 



