EXAMPLES OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



An old 

 Tudor 

 Garden 

 restored. 



AN OLD TUDOR GARDEN RESTORED, REMODELLED AND ENLARGED. 



Of the many stately homes which adorn this county of great country seats, Rushton 

 Hall is one of the noblest, and, from the point of view of the antiquarian with an 

 appreciation for Architecture, certainly one of the most interesting and important, for it 

 still retains much evidence of the fine architectural style in which the great men of the 

 Tudor and Stuart periods built their homes, and in which they expressed so much of the 

 state and dignity surrounding their positions as peers of the realm. 



That part of the house situated at the S.W. corner, now converted into a library, 

 probably dates from mediaeval times, the elevation facing West being built in rough broken 

 coursed rubble and having small lancet windows. Rushton Hall was, however 1 , best known 

 to architects for its wonderful Jacobean strapwork carried out with much imaginative skill 

 by the clever stoneworkers of that time. At a rather later date the old L shaped main 

 facade seen in the perspective view, was converted into a square large enough to enclose 

 the formal panel garden shown on the plan. The later work is much more restrained 

 in character than the earlier parts, and has added enormously to the collective effect 

 of Rushton, the connecting corridor and raised terrace between the South and West 

 wings introducing a feature which is most happily conceived, allowing not only a fine 

 perspective view of the house, but at the same time admitting the morning sun. 



The present tenant, J. J. Van Allen, Esq., has carried out many alterations and 

 improvements, which, though destroying some of its ancient charm, have at the same 

 time modernised the house and made it more hygienically perfect. 



When the Author first visited Rushton there was no suggestion to the eye in the 

 undulating lawns of a terraced garden immediately round the house, but that such gardens 

 had at one time existed was amply proved by the outlying portions, such as Dydens 

 Walk, the Wilderness, and the Kitchen Garden, and when the foundations were dug for 

 the new terraces, the old walls, with their beautiful balustrades, pillars and stone urns 

 were brought to light, and records preserved. These old walls were curiously enough 

 within a few feet of the lines adopted for the new ones, the levels of the terraces being 

 approximately the same. Their destruction was probably suggested by Capability Brown, 

 or one of his intimates, who at the same time formed the lake and the landscape garden 

 beyond, and who also planted the clump of trees in the park. 



In destroying these gardens the object aimed at was to give a proper setting and 

 base to the mansion, and at the same time to weave the wilderness and later landscape 

 part into a well-connected and harmonious whole. This necessitated the large scheme 

 of terraces shown in the illustrations, and also the restoration of much, both in the old 

 formal scheme and the landscape gardens, which years of neglect had allowed to grow 

 out of recognition. The large lake covering many acres had silted up and become a 

 morass overgrown with willows and bogweeds, creating an unhealthy area partly covered 

 with shallow stagnant pools which under certain atmospheric conditions were offensive. 

 All this area had to be cleared out at great cost. This will give an opportunity for the 

 construction of the formal pond shown in the perspective view, which, at the time of 

 writing, has not been commenced. In the Park all the long vistas had been closed up 

 by trees of forty or fifty years' growth. These had to be cleared and other plantations 

 arranged to secure a continuity of effect. In the wilderness, the hedges by which the 

 different portions were surrounded had overgrown the glades, and in other parts had been 

 entirely removed. All that the Author attempted for these two sections of the scheme 

 was the restoration of the plan originally laid down. 



Rushton thus provides an example of the all too numerous English gardens where 

 re-planning has become necessary through the ruin wrought by succeeding fashions in 

 garden design, and by the neglect of the two outstanding qualities of the English garden, 

 viz., restraint and high keeping. 



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