THE GROVE, HIGHGATE 



occasions on which he fled to the garden ; there is a tradition 

 current on the spot, that his favourite haunt was a certain bosky 

 walk between the right-hand wall, and the evergreen oak shown 

 in my drawing. 



The gardens behind the Grove houses vie with each other in 

 charm. They have in common the great beauty of their situation, 

 and some of the larger ones No. 3 is not among these wander 

 down the slopes of the valley which the houses overlook : in the 

 days when land was not at a premium, and labour s was cheap, 

 when everything near London grew easily and well they probably 

 lost themselves on the hillside till they met a neighbouring garden 

 and accepted a boundary wall. Dr. Gillman's garden at the 

 present day does not continue over the crest of the hill if it ever 

 did so, it was no doubt simply as a kitchen-garden. ^ In any case, 

 the existing garden the picture of which was taken at the moment 

 in late afternoon when the sinking sun sent sharp shadows from 

 behind me was probably, then as now, a flower-garden only. It 

 is a long, comparatively narrow strip, set between two' high brick 

 walls. That to the left was not built yesterday : I should say 

 that a portion of it is older than the house itself the house that, 

 once red- brick like its neighbours, was faced with stucco in the 

 time of Dr. Gillman's successor. It was probably he who raised 

 the entire top story to the level of Coleridge's study window, 

 which Dr. Gillman, in order to give his friend and patient un- 

 disturbed quiet and a perfect view had had lifted higher than 

 the rest. In an engraving in " The Gillmans of Highgate," it is 

 shown standing tower-like by itself. In my illustration it is the 

 top window to the extreme right of the picture. But this was 

 not the only change made after Dr. Gillman's death ; the stone 

 steps leading to the garden from the drawing-room, were removed 

 from the centre of the verandah to their present position at the 

 extreme left of it. They are of a venerable age the feet of many 

 distinguished literary men have trodden and worn them down 

 and for twenty summers Coleridge must have used them daily, 

 supporting his hesitating steps by the iron railing. As for the 

 garden itself, as it is to-day, I can only say that of all the gardens, 

 little and large, that I have drawn that of No. 3, the Grove, 

 Highgate, though almost the smallest, is the sunniest and most 

 flowery. There is scarcely an inch of soil between the roots of the 



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