GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



Protector, it is highly probable that he had all along been his 

 adviser as to the designing and planting of the grounds at Isle- 

 worth. According to a map extant a few years ago, there were 

 large walled gardens on the east and west sides ; the wall was con- 

 tinued along the south side, and in the angle where the walls 

 met was a high triangular terrace, doubtless erected for the enjoy- 

 ment of the fine river views thence obtainable, but which, when 

 the unfortunate Lord Protector was attainted for high treason, 

 was declared by his eneniies to be a fortification. A mound of 

 irregular shape on the south-east side of the house, now planted 

 with cedars, is by some people supposed to mark the site of this 

 platform or terrace. 



Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, made Sion her 

 temporary residence, and it is probable that the fashions in garden- 

 planning and floriculture prevailing under William and Mary, 

 and to a much later period, were for a time followed here, as at 

 Hampton Court. They were fashions against which, as we know, 

 Addison inveighed, and that Pope ridiculed when he wrote : 



" each Alley hath a brother, 



And half the garden just repeats the other." 



But whether or not London and Wise, gardeners, as mentioned 

 in an earlier chapter, to William III. and to Queen Anne, had 

 anything to do with the gardens at Sion, does not appear. A print 

 by H. Bush, dated 1737, and reproduced in Walford's " Greater 

 London," certainly looks as though they had. The pictured 

 garden is stiff enough to have rejoiced the heart of William of 

 Orange and probably also of George II., who, because its long, 

 narrow street reminded him of his native Hanover, is said to have 

 been so fond of Brentford that his coachman had orders to drive 

 slowly when he passed through the High Street, so that he might 

 enjoy its beauties. Bush's print shows a large garden between 

 the house and the river, bounded on the east by a wall with a 

 water-gate midway, and on the north and south by high hedges, 

 probably of yew. The wall is carried on diagonally in such a 

 fashion as to enclose a second garden, triangular in shape, and 

 intersected geometrically, in true Dutch fashion, with formal 

 walks. 



Colonel Balfour thought that these walls and hedges may quite 



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