68 MARCH 



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

 it, of the house of Netherby, to whom L evens 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 Bel- 

 linghame crest, as well as those engraved with that 

 of Graham. 



Minute details of the works undertaken by Beau- 

 mont have been preserved in letters from the 

 steward Banks 1 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 (Beaumont) 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 carpenters 



i It is a coincidence that the present steward at Levens is 

 named Banks. 



