296 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



Worsley, Eaton, Trentham, Castle Howard, and Teddesley, 

 designed by Nesfield, all laid out between 1845 and 1858. 

 The gardens of Osborne House, the favourite resort of Queen 

 Victoria, were also laid out in the Italian style about this 

 time. They were designed by the Prince Consort, who was 

 assisted by Professor Griiner, of Dresden ; the situation of the 

 ground sloping down to the Solent is particularly suited to the 

 style. Sir Joseph Paxton, gardener to the Duke of Devonshire 

 at Chatsworth, and weU known as the editor of the Magazine 

 of Botany, was the architect of the building of the Great Exhibi- 

 tion, for which he was knighted ; and he afterwards laid out the 

 gardens at Sydenham in an Italian style, when the structure was 

 rebuilt there as the Crystal Palace. But the taste must not be 

 judged from this crude example, as many charming gardens of 

 a stiff Italian design were made by him. Besides those already 

 quoted, Harewood is a fine example. It was planned by Lady 

 Harewood, and the designs for the fountains and stone balus- 

 trades were made by Sir Charles Barry. The laying out of 

 Shrublands^ was begun by Sir William Middleton about 1830, 

 and is therefore one of the earhest of the Italian gardens. 

 There is in front of the house at Shrublands a wide terrace 

 with flower-beds like that at Harewood, but without foun- 

 tains ; from it long flights of steps lead to a semicircular 

 terrace garden below. 



To produce vivid colouring seems to have been the chief 

 aim for many years. The greater the blaze of flowers, the 

 more was the garden admired. A perfection of this style was 

 reached at Trentham, when the garden was described in 1859 

 as a " starthng mass of Geraniums and Calceolarias." In an 

 Essay in 1825 Morris^ advocates the plan of " bedding out,' 

 which was then quite in its infancy. " The beauty of the flower- 

 garden, in the summer season," he writes, " may be heightened 

 by planting in beds some of the most freely-flowering young and 

 healthy green-house plants. Where there is an extent of 

 green-house, a sufficient quantity of plants should be grown 

 annually for this purpose, and should be sunk in the beds about 

 the middle or end of May. The following are among the 



^ In Suffolk, belonging to Lord de Saumarez. 



^ Essay on Landscape Gardening. By Richard Morris, 1825. 



