GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



the third Lord Holland. I have not penetrated to the arbour, 

 for the path to it is very narrow, its length some five or six hundred 

 feet, and the curious, clipt yew hedges, walling it in on either side, 

 are sixteen feet high, making it mysterious and impressive, but 

 somewhatjuninviting for a solitary stroll. The lovely open glades 

 and lawns, across which the bold brown rabbits fearlessly scud, 

 playing hide-and-seek with one another, are more to my taste, 

 and the beautiful Italian flower-garden with its fine maidenhair 

 tree-fern, its straight grass walks, and exquisite classic vases, 

 and with flower plots gay with yellow wall-flower in spring, and 

 scarlet with geraniums and salvia in late summer, are infinitely 

 more attractive. 



Kent had a great acreage to deal with at Chiswick, and he made 

 it still larger by the adoption of a plan not new to English gardeners, 

 where the maze had long been a feature. Into his shrubberies 

 and plantations of laurustinus, rhododendron, and other flowering 

 shrubs, he introduced a network of walks which, by continually 

 twisting, and turning, and doubling back, made the most of a 

 small area, and induced a pleasant sense of seclusion, awaking 

 that sustained interest and curiosity in the path one follows, 

 that one never can have in the long lane which has no turning. 



From all this it will be realized that Kent was the first to intro- 

 duce into this country the charming combination of the Italian 

 with the English garden. He did not altogether abolish conven- 

 tionality, for the true Italian garden has much of it. Obelisks, 

 and bridges, and balustrades ; classic temples, vases at regular 

 intervals, and statuary galore, were made use of by him. But as 

 a modern writer says, " Kent was the first in English gardening 

 to vindicate the natural against the artificial. Banishing all the 

 clipped monstrosities of the topiary art in yew, box, or holly, 

 releasing the stream from the conventional canal and marble basin, 

 rejecting the mathematical symmetry of ground plan then in vogue 

 for gardens, Kent endeavoured to imitate the variety of nature, 

 with due regard to the principles of light and shade,and perspective/' 



There can be no doubt but that, whatever his deficiencies as a 

 decorator and painter, and however questionable his claim to be 

 an architect, as a landscape-gardener he stands in the first rank. 



Of very conspicuous interest is the Inigo Jones gateway ter- 

 minating the gravel walk that runs at the north side of the Chiswick 



170 



