GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



virgin forest in which, as yet, the footsteps of man have never 

 laid a trail, nor his axe hewed its way. It may be picturesque 

 it often is ; but with landmarks lost, flower-beds overrun and choked 

 by weeds, lawns, once trim, now rank and coarse, walks grass- 

 grown, hedges undipped, terrace-steps and balustrades (where 

 there is stone -work), moss-grown and mouldering, fountains 

 quiescent, pools half stagnant its picturesqueness is melancholy. 

 There is in such a garden an ever-present sense of loss and absence, 

 almost of death ; for too plainly has the tending hand been with- 

 drawn, the guiding mind removed. Like Lord Bacon, " I am 

 speaking now of gardens that are Prince-like " ; that even in 

 desolation may retain some beauty but, for the untidy small 

 garden, there is nothing good to be said ! Bacon, in that notion 

 of his of a " Prince-like garden," sets much store upon " Decent 

 Order" ; and although he advises that, in a large acreage, a portion 

 should be " framed as much as may be to a Natural Wildernesse," 

 this wilderness is to be deliberately planned, and not due to 

 neglect. " Order is Heaven's first law," and it is a sine qua 

 non in an enclosed garden, differentiating it from the field, and 

 the common land, which lie beyond its pale. But, because the 

 beauty of the " Greene Grasse kept finely shorne " is greatly 

 enhanced by contrast, wherever there are wide lawns to 

 be mown, as at Chiswick, Fulham, Lambeth and Sion, there 

 should be wild bits left of set purpose to be a playground, as 

 it were, for Nature, wherein she may riot and do just what 

 she likes. 



" Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too," says Cowper. 

 It is to the sixth Duke of Devonshire the gardens owe the very 

 beautiful conservatory which is shown in the illustration. It is 

 remarkable for its great length, and for having been the first 

 important work undertaken by Joseph, afterwards Sir Joseph, 

 Paxton, whose talent the Duke discovered when Paxton was a 

 mere boy in his employment. It is unnecessary to remind anyone 

 that Paxton, born in 1801 of quite humble parentage, rose from 

 the modest position of an under-gardener in the Arboretum at 

 Chiswick, to be superintendent of the Duke's gardens at Chats- 

 worth, and manager of his Derbyshire estates ; and that he designed 

 the palace of crystal in which was held the first great international 

 exhibition. 



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