DAWN OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING 223 



Prior lived here for many years, and designed new gardens, 

 and these alterations, which Lord Oxford carried out, included 

 the present principal garden, with box hedges in the Dutch 

 style, and the long wall of clipped hornbeams. Another 

 charming example is at Bramham, in Yorkshire. -"^ The ground- 

 plan of the garden is like any figured in Switzer's books. The 

 house was burnt many years ago, and never restored, but 

 the gardens have been kept up in their original state, as they 

 were laid out by Mr. Benson. He was Ambassador to Spain, 

 and Queen Anne gave him a grant of land on Bramham Moor. 

 After he had built a house and made gardens round it, she 

 paid him a visit there, and created him Lord Bingley. Along 

 the house is a terrace, and in front of it a grass parterre. From 

 thence are seen vistas through the beech and hornbeam woods 

 beyond. From the northern end of the terrace a straight walk 

 between high-cut hedges runs westward, and leads at once 

 into the most entrancing maze of long walks diverging from 

 each other at regular angles. At the end of some there is a 

 small summer-house, a seat, or statue, or monument. From 

 the ends of the walks furthest from the centre the view ranges 

 over the open country beyond. The garden stands above the 

 level of the park, therefore the terrace-wall which divides 

 them has all the effect of a sunk fence. But the most delightful 

 part, perhaps, is where the avenues are wider, where the walks 

 skirt the edge of the canal, and the tall trees are reflected in 

 its silent waters. There is an open space laid out as a " French 

 garden." In this case it is an oval slope of grass, with large 

 flower-beds in a regular pattern ; a summer-house overlooks 

 this garden, and to the back of the summer-house there is a 

 broad bowHng-green, surrounded by trees, among which are the 

 walks. At the opposite end of the oval garden there is a basin 

 and " cascade," and a short distance from this point the path 

 rejoins, at its southern end, the terrace which runs in front of the 

 house. The effect of this garden at Bramham on a fine autumn 

 day, with the slanting beams of the evening sun seen through 

 the long vistas shining on the golden-brown foliage of the trees, 

 is truly beautiful, and leaves an impression never to be forgotten. 

 There is a contemporary description of such a garden in a 

 ^ Belonging to ilr. Lane Fox. 



