GARDENS IN LITERATURE 



Walk are three Descents by many stone Steps in the 

 middle, and at each end, into a very large Parterre. 

 This is divided into Quarters by Gravel-walks, and 

 adorned by two Fountains and eight Statues; at the 

 end of the Terras-walk are two Summer-Houses, and 

 the sides of the Parterres are ranged with two large 

 Cloisters, open to the Garden, upon Arches of Stone 

 . . . paved with Stone, and designed for Walks of 

 Shade, there being none other . . . from the middle 

 of this Parterre is a Descent of many Steps flying 

 on each side of a Grotto that lies between them, into 

 the lower Garden, which is all Fruit-Trees ranged 

 about the several Quarters of a Wilderness which is 

 very shady; the Walks here are all green, the Grotto 

 embellished with Figures of Shell-Rockwork, Foun- 

 tains, and Water-works . . . very wild, shady, and 

 adorned. . . . The sweetest Place, I think, that I 

 have seen in all my Life . . . the remembrance of 

 what it is too pleasant ever to forget. ..." 



There is more in the same vein; of terraces floored 

 with lead and stone, and other odd contrivances, little 

 fitting with our conception of a garden, but very allur- 

 ing and delightful as the old baronet speaks of them. A 

 hundred years later we get a totally different impression, 

 when Hazlitt bursts forth in praise of certain Tea- 

 Gardens in Walworth, the which he knew in childhood : 



" I see the beds of larkspur with purple eyes," he 

 cries, "tall hollyhocks, red and yellow; the broad sun- 



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