MARCH 55 



profusion of decoration had its rise in rivalry with the 

 neighbouring squire of Sisergh, 1 and contributed to 

 the insolvency which forced Alan Bellingham to part 

 with his beautiful home in 1690. 



In that year the property passed into the hands of 

 Colonel Graham, or Grahme, as he used to write it, 

 of the house of Netherby, to whom Levens owes its 

 pre-eminence among the gardens of England. Not 

 elsewhere except, it may be, at Hardwicke remains 

 such a perfect display of the lost topiary art. Graham 

 employed Monsieur Beaumont, who, as is recorded 

 upon his portrait at Levens, laid out Hampton Court 

 gardens for James n. There was a garden at Levens 

 before the arrival of Beaumont, probably in the 

 Elizabethan style, with 'rare figures of composures,' 

 knots and pleached alleys ; for on the green there still 

 remain bowls bearing the Bellinghame crest, as well as 

 those engraved with that of Graham. 



Minute details of the works undertaken by Beaumont 

 have been preserved in letters from the steward Banks - 

 to his master, dating from 1699 to 1703. In the autumn 

 of 1701 he records a great storm, which ' hath done great 

 damedg in the garden a mongst trees, bemun (Beau- 

 mont) is very much disturbed about is trees, he wants 

 stakess for them.' It is satisfactory to know that his 

 wants in this respect were supplied, for he ' made the 



1 The tapestry lining of one of the rooms at Sisergh was bought in 

 1891 for South Kensington Museum, and when it was taken down, was 

 found to conceal a beautiful oak panelling. 



2 It is a coincidence that the present steward at Levens is named 

 Banks. 



