SION 



mansion as it stands now is, externally, what it has been for 

 generations. Had it been otherwise, the fascinating chain of 

 historical associations would inevitably have been broken and 

 Colonel Balfour might have been unable to say, as he does say : 



" Plain as is the whole exterior, it has about it a quiet dignity 

 which well befits the dwelling of an English gentleman. The quality 

 of repose has almost ceased to be sought for in modern architecture, 

 and we seem now to lack the courage of simplicity. It is there- 

 fore with a sense of peaceful satisfaction that our eyes turn away 

 from the more troubled and tumbled fa?ades of modern edifices 

 to such old-fashioned houses as Syon, which still possess something 

 of a monastic calm." 



These words were written over thirty years ago, but the " monastic 

 calm," the air of detachment from the outside haunts of men, 

 lingers about the place still ; and the quality that most strikes 

 a visitor is the absolute quiet and aloofness of Sion. It speaks, 

 as the writer above quoted, has said, " of the palmy days of the 

 classical revival of the eighteenth century, but its classical character 

 is touched to some extent with medievalism. . . . The romance 

 of the Gothic period, outliving the structure in which it was ex- 

 pressed, has impressed upon this particular work of Adam an 

 unique quality." ... Of course the reference here is to the in- 

 terior, which alone bears traces of Adam ; but the idea expressed 

 applies to some extent to the grounds outside, where romance 

 also lingers ; and this because imagination, working under certain 

 conditions and in certain moods, is easily led back to the past in 

 the actual scene of events that were picturesque, and of episodes- 

 that were poignant, all the more that the river, the silent 

 highway to all these events, the silent witness to all these episodes, 

 remains unchanged, or nearly so ! 



What the gardens were like in the years when the " Daughters 

 of Sion " lived there one does not know, but the Protector Somerset 

 seems to have been at considerable pains to lay them out. He had 

 a botanical garden here, superintended by the celebrated Dr. 

 William Turner, author of the first " English Herbal," and often 

 spoken of as the " father of British botany." Turner was Dean of 

 Wells and physician to Edward VI. He was also Somerset's 

 physician, and though his principal work, the "Herbal," was not 

 published until the year before the attainder and death of the 



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