EXAMPLES OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



the intention being to lay out certain prominent lines which would grip the landscape, A Highland 

 and give a feeling of connection between the mansion, garden, and park, the summer- garden. 

 house and small temple marking the end of this formal treatment. This severe style, 

 while adding to the effect of the mansion, in no way detracts from the purely natural 

 treatment of the stream, each being helped by the sharp contrast. As will be seen from 

 the photographs, the terrace walls are solid, that is to say, there is no balustrade and 

 the walls are built of the local ragstone, the dressed work being confined to pillars, string, 

 coping and finials, thus allowing the planting of a large variety of climbers, which adds 

 so much to their charm. 



The freer or winding walks are very little seen from the formal part of the garden, 

 and pleasantly mark the rise, fall, and general contour of the ground. There was a 

 very important stipulation in their arrangement -viz., that a series of pleasant walks 

 should be provided over which a bath-chair could be wheeled, without steps or obstacles, 

 a point which should oftener be considered when laying out gardens on a broad scale. 



The stream has been a somewhat extensive piece of work, in connection with which 

 the skill of Mr. Pulham has been called into requisition. A part of this work, with the 

 little bridge marked 9 on the plan, is shown in illustration No. 261. In improving 

 this stream there were two considerations of a practical nature which had to be kept 

 in view : the first being to make the banks safe against spates or floods, and the second 

 to construct a series of pools for fish to sport in. As already stated, the sides of the 

 stream were previously supported by rough irregularly built walls, the bottom of the 

 stream being rough shaly rock, and the improvements were effected by removing the 

 walls and excavating a part of the rock, and by adding new strata, as shown in the 

 illustration just referred to, the result being much more in harmony with the surroundings 

 than the conduit which formerly existed. 



Ballimore is an ideal place for the formation of an arboricultural or botanical collec- 

 tion, a fact that has been recognised and pursued to full advantage by its owner, whose 

 collection of ornamental trees and flowering plants bids fair to equal that of any other 

 client by whom the writer has been retained. The beds and borders on the terrace 

 are planted with a choice collection of hardy perennials, florist's flowers and roses. The 

 walls are clothed with honeysuckles, clematis, climbing roses, wistarias, vitis coignetiae, 

 magnolias, and other hardy climbers. In the quiet pools there are choice nympheae 

 and other aquatics ; along the margins of the stream are bog plants such as iris, caltha, 

 and spiraea, and also large quantities of the choicer daffodils and other tubers, all of 

 which give promise of becoming naturalised and increasing. The terrace borders are 

 planted entirely with hardy perennials, and roses. The remaining portions of the 

 scheme are explained by the numbers and key on the plan. 



GARDENS ON A FLAT SITE. 



Little Onn Hall is situated about eight miles from Stafford, and three miles from the 

 village of Gnosall, which is the nearest railway station. The present mansion has 

 recently undergone considerable alterations and additions, a new entrance hall and billiard- 

 room having been added, and other portions of the house remodelled. The older por- 

 tions of the hall, built about 25 years ago, did not possess any very great architectural 

 merit, but the present completed building, which is in stone, has considerable character ; 

 the numerous gables, each furnished with crowfeet or corbie steps, the stone mullioned 

 windows, and the large climber-covered wall-space, making a very pleasing centre round 

 which to form a garden. 



The house covers a somewhat large area, the billiard-room, hall, and one end of the 

 drawing-room facing West, the drawing-room and dining-room having one side to the 

 South ; the latter room and also the library being lighted principally from the East 



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