EXAMPLES OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



from his unsuccessful journey to Birmingham, and, when one visits the actual scene of A new 

 the incident, the association, instead of being rudely dispelled, as is so often the case, is country 

 immediately heightened in a most delightful manner. There are still the old stocks in 

 which malefactors and unfortunates were so often confined, and which carry us back 

 with a rush to the days of beadles in cocked hats and overflowing self-importance, and 

 there are the old houses and coaching inns with scarcely a modern feature pronounced 

 enough to dispel the illusion, and over all lies that peaceful and wholly undefinable charm 

 which belongs exclusively to the old coaching town. 



Considering the nature of the task before the designer, such surroundings could not 

 fail to be most inspiring. The new domain to be created, standing as it does less than 

 a hundred yards from the centre of the little ' town, with its rather less than a thousand 

 inhabitants, is still screened from it sufficiently so to prevent any clashing of new and 

 old until the former shall have been clothed, by Nature and the hand of Time, with that 

 beauty which it is so impossible to create, but which we may do so much to promote 

 or conserve with their help. 



DEWLROSE GARDEN 



i I 



FIG. 393. 



The situation is, however, unique in another way, for the windows of the mansion 

 overlook such a stretch of typical English rural scenery as not one in ten such places 

 can boast. As will be gathered from the plan and illustrations, the ground slopes away 

 sharply from the main garden front of the house and, from the terraces which this has 

 given occasion for, one looks across an open valley to rising ground beyond, which is 

 beautifully timbered, and right and left along great vistas of valley and rolling country. 



Such sweeping views and open prospects, while they are worth any sacrifice, naturally 

 make sheltered parts of the garden more difficult to obtain, and so, in a case like this, 

 we have a dual task : to make the most of the open views and falling ground, and at 

 the same time to prevent bareness and give gardens which shall be acceptable in all 

 weathers. How this has been done will be seen on examining the plan in detail. 



The original approach was from Dunchurch, as marked near the top left-hand corner 

 of the plan, but, since the entrance and lodges shown were built, the drive has been 

 extended towards Rugby, and terminated in the pair of estate workmen's cottages 

 given in illustration No. 25. The necessity for placing the main facade and entrance 

 arch of the stables on the drive, and the contours of the ground, have together indicated 



345 



