580 Notes on Couutty Seats mid Gardens. 



wings or lodges to the right and left of the entrance to the court ; and be- 

 yond these, on the steep sides of the hill;, are the terraced gardens and walks 

 among the rocks and aged yew trees which surround the house, except on 

 the entrance side. On a platform facing one of the fronts, there is a curious 

 raised warden, with a canal bordered with masonry, and containing a fountain 

 in the form of a duck, doubtless coeval with the building. Near the kitchen 

 entrance we observed, against the wall, a case of about ■i ft., containing an 

 overshot water-wheel, supplied by a 5- in. pipe of water used for turning the 

 roasting-jack. It is impossible, as it seems to us, not to be charmed with 

 this place. 



Alton Towers, — We had only time to take a hasty glance at what may be 

 called the enchanted valley, and to see a new flower-garden recently taste- 

 fully designed and most scientifically laid out by Mr. Forsyth, in one of the 

 courts of the Abbey. The valley, in the time of the late Lord Shrewsbury, 

 had a peculiar charm, from the great number of objects, all of an artificial and 

 singular or grotesque character, in so romantic a situation, and from the trees 

 and shrubs being either small, or cut or clipped into artificial shapes. 



Whoever recollects this valley, as it was in 1825, so as to be able to 

 compare it in his memory with its present state, must acknowledge that 

 there is a wonderful difference between what it is now and what it was then. 

 Now, the question is, whether this difference is an improvement, or the con- 

 trary ? Decidedly, in our opinion, it is for the worse. The gardens have 

 lost one character without gaining another. The trees and shrubs have 

 grown too large for the terraces, walks, walls, and buildings ; and, being no longer 

 cut or clipped into shape, they seem to have no accordance with the artificial 

 objects. The whole has the appearance of a scene allowed to run wild from 

 neglect, not fi'om age or decay ; and this, notwithstanding the highest keeping 

 of the walks, flower-beds, and every thing that depends on the gardener. 

 When a place becomes wild from total neglect, or from age or decay, we 

 become reconciled to it, as the result of inevitable circumstances, as, in 

 short, the fate of all things ; but, when we see one part of a scene in the 

 highest style of keeping, and in a particular character, intermingled with a 

 part of a character totally opposite, we are dissatisfied with the discordance 

 of the impression made in our minds from its want of unity. In theory, we 

 have always been an advocate, where the ancient style of gardening is 

 adopted, of subjecting the trees to geometrical forms, as well as the ground; 

 and no circumstance has ever occurred, within our experience, to convince 

 us that we were practically right, equal to the state of the grounds at Alton 

 Towers. We ascribe no fault to any one for this state of things, which has grown 

 up insensibly with the seasons, and which a person living on the spot is not 

 nearly so likely to be impressed with, as an occasional visiter. 



The stoves, green-houses, and conservatories were in most beautiful order : 

 in the latter, Mr. Forsyth is introducing borders, of Lycopodium complana- 

 tum about 6 in. broad along the walks, which have a remarkably good effect, 

 and being the " resemblance " of verges in the open garden, " in some other 

 thing which becomes the image " of them, it may be considered on Q. De 

 Quincy's principle, as truly artistical, and completing the allusion to nature in 

 the open air. These verges are sometimes planted at once in the soil where 

 they are to remain, and at other times on pieces of loam and dung about 

 the length and breadth of a brick, and kept in a glass frame till wanted, when 

 some hundreds of yards of edging can thus be laid down in an hour or two. 

 Bv means of these bricks, also, repairs can be made momentaril}'. No edging 

 is better adapted for growing in the shade and in heat. The works con- 

 nected with the house are going forward under the direction of Mr. Pugin, 

 a most fortunate circumstance for Alton Towers, as far as Gothic architecture 

 is concerned. 



Trentham Hall. — May 25. The road from Alton Towers, by Cheadle, is 

 at first hilly and romantic, and afterwards rich and varied. The alterations 

 and additions to the house at Trentham are far advanced, and they have had 



