GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



robe, for at midsummer it wears a new, and very lovely aspect. 

 The gardener has then rilled the space to the left with rows of 

 choice greenhouse plants, in bloom. All down the long vista, and 

 pendant from the glass roof, the cup-like blossoms of fuchsias 

 that have climbed all over it inside, soften the glare from the 

 hot sun which filters through them, making a cool green shade 

 that is very restful and agreeable to the eye. The fuchsia flowers 

 are purple and red, red and white, and white and purple ; and 

 they hang like myriads of silent fairy bells. " Heard melodies 

 are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter," sings Keats maybe 

 these bells do actually ring, or chime the hour, for ears that, 

 unlike ours, are not too dull to hear them ! 



One of the Misses Berry, those neighbours of Horace Walpole 

 who were his great friends, writing in her journal under date of 

 June 1st, 1813, says: "Drove with the Duke of Devonshire 

 in his curricle to Chiswick, where he showed me all the alterations 

 that he was about to make, in adding the garden of Lady Mary 

 Coke's house to his own. The house is down, and in the garden 

 he has constructed a magnificent hot- house, with a conservatory 

 for flowers, the middle under a cupola ; altogether it is three 

 hundred feet long. The communication between the two gardens 

 is through the old greenhouse, of which they have made a double 

 arcade, making the prettiest effect imaginable." It was this Duke 

 who also brought to Chiswick the beautiful gates, rumour of 

 which sent us forth as children on a futile voyage of discovery. 

 But besides his horticultural tastes, the sixth Duke of Devonshire 

 had a great interest in wild animals, and a love of Natural History. 

 He actually had a menagerie, of which his sister Harriet, Countess 

 of Granville, gives an amusing account. Among the animals 

 were " a few kangaroos who, if affronted, will rip up anyone as 

 soon as look at him ; elks, emus, and other pretty sportive death- 

 dealers playing about." " The lawn," we are told, was " beautifully 

 variegated by an Indian Bull and his spouse, and goats of all colours 

 and dimensions." 



Sir Walter Scott writes in his Diary on May 17th, 1828 : "I 

 drove down to Chiswick, where I had never been before. A 

 numerous and gay party were assembled to walk and enjoy the 

 beauty of that Palladian House. The place and highly ornamental 

 garden belonging to it, resembles a picture by Watteau. There 



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