EXAMPLES OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



Garden in garden, the road which connects to the carriage court through the gate-house is little 

 granite. used except by visitors. The opportunity was seized to make a cool recessed North 



garden overlooked by the billiard -room, to the formation of which the plan of the house 

 and the stable buildings lend themselves admirably. 



On the South front, the main object was to merge the house into the surroundings 

 without harshness or discord, and, looking South from the house, to secure a pleasing 

 composition with a rich yet harmonious foreground to the beautiful home landscape 

 beyond (111. No. 366). It was principally to secure the best results in this direction 

 that the two garden houses were erected to act as frames to the beautiful picture, the 

 fountain and figure being introduced to focus the interest surrounding the circular water- 

 lily pond. The wide circular paved walk is reached on three sides by steps leading 

 down to the pond. From the South side is a long flight of steps leading to the wall 

 garden (111. No. 266), one of the least expensive yet nevertheless most successful parts of 

 the domain, which is intended to mark the transition between the formal portion of, the 

 grounds and the landscape-garden and park, to which,, and to the lake, the curved 

 walk shown on the plan leads. 



On a steep decline to the East side, fully twenty feet below the house level, is the 

 old kitchen garden, which has been altered and improved beyond recognition. Being 

 both handy and accessible, it adds additional interest to the gardens, and promises 

 to be a much-sought-after pleasaunce ; it therefore received that attention which always 

 repays one when the useful and the pleasant are suitably combined. The range of 

 plant and fruit houses, the espalier (111. No. 313), the yew hedges and rose borders, 

 the wide borders of hardy perennials, the rough granite walls with slate-hooded coping 

 over which roses and other climbers are allowed to grow, the well-trained fruit trees and 

 borders of sweet herbs all give beauty and interest to the whole. 



GARDENS TO A CLASSIC RENAISSANCE MANSION. 



Seldom is a garden designer called upon to plan terraces and gardens to accord 

 with a house so unique as the one shown in illustration No. 415. The architects who 

 designed such houses as this have generally left some record of their intentions regarding 

 the gardens ; but whatever may have been planned, practically nothing has been carried 

 out, a short length of balustraded terrace being the only survival of a definite garden 

 treatment. In the park, however, a fine avenue of elms, evidently planted at about 

 the same date that the house was built, would seem to show that a garden and park 

 scheme had been prepared. There is also strong evidence, in the river-like lake shown 

 in illustration No. 259, that some capable follower of the landscape school had been 

 consulted at a later period, and it is probable that this gentleman set out the various 

 groups of trees in the park. 



Not only are the architectural merits of the house exceptional, but the site is also, 

 the gentle fall of the ground lending itself to that broad classic treatment which the 

 character of the mansion demands, while the views from the house across the beautiful, 

 well-wooded, undulating park, over the lake, and so forward to. the wooded higher ground 

 in the distance, provide quite a charming setting. Before Mr. Waring discovered the 

 house, it had long been unoccupied, like many originally first-class residences which' lose 

 caste, and must either suffer transformation, or stand tenantless and go the way of ruin. 

 A plan for cutting up the estate into building plots, including the destruction of the 

 house, had actually been prepared. 



To obtain an adequate idea of the lie of the ground, it is necessary to compare the 

 plan with the perspective view noticing the drop from the centre of the terraces to the 

 commencement of the central avenue, from which point there is a gradual fall to the lake 

 along it entire length, which extends some 150 yards. As the perspective view suggests, 



368 



