GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



extended oblongs, and are all parallel with the river, each one being 

 separated from its neighbour by a rather wide turf walk, as shown 

 in the illustration. This arrangement, if formal, is effective ; but 

 it was probably made entirely for convenience in the days when 

 the Demonstrator, surrounded by a troop of students, moved from 

 plot to plot, pausing at each to discourse and explain. Here are 

 to be seen, among many beautiful growing things such as are 

 found in most gardens that boast herbaceous borders, a few un- 

 familiar, even uncanny-looking plants, survivals of the fittest 

 perhaps among the medicinal herbs of former days ; and the eye 

 is quick to note that this sunny, cultivated corner measuring, 

 I believe, about four acres is not altogether a normal garden. 

 There are no trees of great importance except a magnificent and 

 gigantic Ilex, or Evergreen Oak, of which Field and Simple, writing 

 nearly forty years ago, make particular mention. It is a tree that 

 now in a green and lusty old age, extends its giant arms farther 

 afield than in its youth while one huge limb stretches its lazy 

 length unbroken upon the ground itself. There are few flowers 

 to speak of by which I mean that here nothing blossoms con- 

 spicuously, nothing makes a floral show. There are no gay 

 parterres, or gaudy ribbon borders ; one feels instinctively that 

 the plants are grown less for their blooms than for their uses, and 

 that they themselves are intrinsically interesting to the students, 

 whether they blossom and look beautiful, or not. At the lower 

 end of the garden, near the Ilex, is the water-garden, consisting 

 of some extremely picturesque ponds or pools, rich in aquatic 

 vegetation. But in spite of the lack of gorgeous colouring, per- 

 haps in consequence of the absence of luxuriant foliage, the garden 

 is essentially sunshiny ; it is always full of the cheerful daylight : 

 one receives on entering, and one carries away, an impression of 

 sunlight even on a cloudy day. It is a charming oasis in the 

 midst of much brick and mortar ; but though it is nearly two 

 hundred and fifty years of age, one could not describe it as old- 

 fashioned, or old-English ; it has too much of space and air about 

 it to be Jacobean ; too little of formality though in a sense it is 

 formal to be Dutch ; nor are there present any of the clever devices 

 by which the eighteenth century gardener simulated spaciousness, 

 and made three acres appear to be twenty. Of the old green- 

 houses the tanks alone remain ; they may be seen in the garden. 



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