Mrs, Lawrence^ s Villa. 517 



but is greatly superior even to that picture of ideal beauty in 

 its noble foreground. The situation of the house at Broad- 

 lands, and the view from it, with the noble river forming the 

 boundary to the lawn beneath, and the meadows and finely 

 wooded hills beyond, form the very heau ideal of an English 

 country-seat. We were happy to find that, in all the places 

 above named, and in several others, our remarks on the edg- 

 ings of walks have been duly appreciated and acted on. — But, 

 lest we should be thought partial, or should forget some per- 

 son or place that ought to be mentioned in these rather hur- 

 ried introductory remarks, we shall now proceed to details; 

 premising that the whole of the remaining portion of these 

 notes was written, ready for the press, while on our tour, every 

 evening or the following morning : so that the remarks on 

 each place form an exact transcript of what we felt at the time 

 of seeing it. 



Mrs. Lawrence's Villa, Drayton Green. — July 9.7. This 

 place, of limited extent, and possessing no material advantage 

 except that of a dry soil on a subsoil of gravel, has been 

 rendered a perfect hijon of floricultural beauty by the exertions 

 and taste of Mrs. Lawrence. All the most rare and beautiful 

 hardy flowers and peat earth shrubs are here assembled, and 

 beautifully disposed in groups, in the natural or picturesque 

 manner, on the smoothest lawn ; interspersed with a few trees, 

 and decorated with fountains, statuary, vases, rockwork, awd 

 basketwork. There is a green-house full of choice articles ; 

 and there is not a plant that is not grown in the very highest 

 degree of perfection, or a scene that is not in the highest 

 order and keeping. Among the plants that struck us as pro- 

 fusely covered with bloom, and beautifully grown, were the 

 single and double Clematis florida, the yellow Chinese and 

 yellow Noisette roses, the Calandrinia grandiflora, Petunia 

 phoenicea and nyctaginiflora ; all the new fuchsias ; Saipiglos- 

 sis picta, atropurpurea, andBarclaya?^fit; Schizanthus pinnatus, 

 retusus, and Hookerz; Ferbena chamaedrifcMia, and others; 

 showy nicotianas, Zupinus mutabilis, and others ; Clark/«', 

 Maurandya Barc]aya?za ; jSalvia anguslifolia, with its exqui- 

 sitely blue blossoms ; ^nagallis Webbz<3«o, and others, &c. 



A straight line or row of shrubs, used as a screen, is suc- 

 cessfully varied by acute triangular projections on the turf, in 

 the manner of what mantua-makers call Vandykes (in allusion 

 to the style of shirt-collar usually found in Vandyke's por- 

 traits) ; the triangles are of irregular size, at different dis- 

 tances of from 3 ft. to 5 ft., and are filled with flowers. The 

 lawn here is one of the most beautifully kept we ever saw ; 

 and it is shaven with the mowing machine alone, with only 



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