494 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ December 27, 1877. 



time will obliterate the brave and generous title that is given 

 of him under the name of Sir Seadamore of Spenser's poem 

 of the 'Faery Queen.' " Sir William had two eons, John and 

 Barnabas, both of whom have engraved their names on the 

 hiBtory of their eountry. Barnabas was Governor of Hereford 

 when it was beseiged by the Scottish forces. He wss twice 

 summoned to surrender by the Earl of Leven, who received the 

 following spirited replies: — "I am not bound to give up the 

 King's garrison upon any summons or letters. ... I was set 

 in here by the Kms'i commend, and shall not quit it but by 

 special order from His Majesty the Prince." Ag»in: "For your 

 favourable profftr to the inhabitants of the city I shall return 

 their thanks and resolution that they intend to suffer with me. 

 ... I am sorry to think of it that two united nations should 

 so much differ, having paid once well for Scotland's friendship. 

 My Lord, I am resolved to endure all mines and storms which 

 shall be made against this piaoe, and doubt not by God's 

 assistance to render His Majesty a good account of it." 

 The city was not taken. John, the brother of Barnabas, was 

 great in a different way; he is referred to above e.s the " first 

 Lord Seadamore." He wm created Baron of Dromore and 

 Viscount Seadamore of Sligo by letters patent July 2, 162S. 

 He served his country as a diplomatist, and, if I am correctly 

 informed, was plenipotentiary at the Hague, and it wao doubt- 

 less from Holland that he obtained the breed of cattle that 

 has become so celebrated, also probably the plaDs for the 

 Dutch garden at Holme Lacy, which it is very likely — though 

 of this I have no direct information — he formed, and which 

 now eonititutos one of its prominent features. He was also 

 Ambassador to the Court of France. H« mu a loyal subject 

 of the King in troublous times, and paid the penalty of his 

 devotion by having hiB house burnt and his estates sequestrated 

 during the civil wars, but subsequently regained them. After | 

 having attended as a volunteer for the relief of the French ] 

 Huguenots at Boohelle he retired into private life, and then it ] 

 was that he devoted himself to the planting and grafting of 

 Apple treee, which resulted in his for the first time bringing i 

 the Bedsireak cider into request, which he raised to suoh per- 

 fection that Phillips in his poem "Cyder," speaking of the 

 Mask, a fine and delicate fruit, SBys : — 



" Tet let her tn the Redstreafc yield, that once 

 "Was of the sylvan kiod; uncivilised, 

 Of no TC-ard till Seudamore' s skilful hand 

 Improv'd her, and hy courtly discipline 

 Taught her the savage nature to forget ; 

 Henee called the ^codamorean plant vrhosa vnna 

 Who&ver tastes, let him with grateful heart 

 Bespect that ancient loyal houie," tfce. 



Cider made of this kind of fruit was frequently given, as a 

 present to foreign princes, by whom it ffm highly vslued. 

 Lord Seudamore died in 1671, and it is recorded of him that 

 " hs died a rare example of piety towards God, loyalty towards 

 his king, hospitality to his friends, eoonomy in bis family, 

 charity to the poor, and great munificence to the ebnrob, 

 upon which.it is known he bestowed above £10,000." A noble 

 epitaph. 



In 1716 the titles became extinct, and Holme Lacy descended 

 by a female heir to the Hon. Charles Howard, afterwards Duke 

 of Norfolk, who died in 1815, and the Duchess in 1820, and 

 leaving no i«sue the estates devolved upon Sir Edwyu Frances 

 Stanhope, Bart., the father of the present owner, as the lineal 

 descendant of Mary the wife of Sir Giles Bridges of Wilton 

 Castle, Lsdy Bryd^es having been sister of John, first Viscounir 

 Seudamore. Sir Henry Scuiamore Stanhope has thus not 

 only inherited the ancient name of Seadamore, but has 

 descended from the old family of Brydges, De Brugge, or 

 Brughes, Earls of Carnarvon aDd Dukes of Chandos. I make 

 no apology for thus gleaning a few facts relative to the history 

 of an old family, knowing that they will be perused with 

 pleasure, for nowhere than in Britain is honourable antiquity 

 held in greater respect, and by nooe more than gardeners and 

 horticulturists generally are the " old families " and old estates 

 of the country more greatly esteemed. 



Having referred to the family I may in the shortest possible 

 manner glance at the mansion, and then more felly describe 

 the externals of Holme Liey — the park, dressed grounds, and 

 gardens. The original mansion was supposed to have been 

 built within the last ten years of Henry Yfll , as appears by 

 the badges of Edward VI. when Prince of Wales, which were 

 found in the house. It was in a great part rebuilt by the 

 second Lord Seudamore in the reign of William III., and the 

 late owner, Sir Elwyn S;arihope, made extensive and costly 

 alterations. Although not so large as it formerly was the 



structure is extensive. It has three principal fronts. The 

 north and east fronts are nearly 200 feet in length, and the 

 south front 150. It is approached on the north by a terrace 

 700 feet long and 47 wide, and the south terrace is 800 feet in 

 length and 30 feet wide. The arrangements internally are 

 proportionally imposing. The entrance hall opens into a 

 gallery 90 feet in length, lighted by stained glass windows, in 

 which are depicted the arms of Bridges, Seudamore, and Stan- 

 hope. The principal rooms are of considerable dimensions, 

 and communicate with each other with folding doors to the 

 extent of 130 feet. The ceilings are extremely elaborate. The 

 portraits — by Vandyke, Sir Peter Lely, and others — command 

 attention, and the superb carvings of Grinling Gibbons are 

 both extensive and exquisite — such carving that led Wa!pol9 

 to say, " There is no instance of a man before Gibbons who 

 gave towoodtha airy lightness of flowers, and chained together 

 the various productions of the elements with a free disorder 

 natural to each species." There are aleo real fiowers and living 

 plants in every available position, which afford evidence that 

 the beauties of nature are cherished by Sir Henry and Lady 

 Seudamore Stanhope, and that their garden affords to them 

 real pleasure, as it assuredly receives their pergonal supervision 

 and solicitous c»re. 



The park at Holme Lacy merits special notice not so much 

 for its size as for its bold rugged beauty. It afforded the 

 standpoint for securing the view of the mansion (fig. 93), from 

 which, as is seen, the ground slopes to the water. Beyond the 

 water, as seen from the terrace, it again rises somewhat 

 abruptly, forming heavily wooded slopes to an open plsteau, 

 which commands extensive views of the surrounding country, 

 including tbe Black Mountains in Breconshire, the Ciee Hills 

 in Shropshire, the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, etc. A 

 great portion of this park no doubt consists of the primeval 

 forest. The giant Oiks of venersble' mein and with rugged 

 trunks suggest that they were there before even either De L^cy 

 or Seudamore won their spurs at the battle of Hastings. How 

 fertile is the soil of this forest-park is not more evident by the 

 size of the timber than by the luxuriance of the Fern (Bracken) , 

 which grows S to 9 feet high, and covers the ground by acres, 

 but chiefly as commanding attention are the trees. Let us 

 look at them. That esn the better be done since they are 

 named and have their dimensions duly registered. First is 

 the Tryeting Oak, a marvellous relic of olden times, a wonder- 

 ful example of the longevity and innate vigour of the British 

 Oak. It is not the trunk of this specimen that is imposing so 

 much as its wide-spreading head. Its measurement was taken 

 iu 1875, when the circumference of the trunk at 3 feet from 

 the ground was 29 feet 3 inches; at 4 feet, 27 feet 6 inches ; 

 and at the ground 34 feet. The branches extend in a hori- 

 zontal manner and from 72 feet from the trunk, and cover a 

 space of 1365 square feet, or nearly a qutrterof an acre, and 

 I the tree is estimated to contain 4000 feet of timber. Another 

 example, The Monarch, appears as healthy as a young tree. 

 : Its symmetry hai been somewhat injured by the wind, yet it 

 | is a dignified and majestic tree. Its stem at 3 feet girthed 

 ; 22 feet 3 inches when measured fouryears ago. Other equally 

 i notable specimens are the Norman, the Scudarnore, the Union, 

 ! the Seneschal, the Chieftain, the Warrior, the Baven's Oak, 

 the Earl King, tbe Queen Mab, grotesque by its rugged cor- 

 rugations; Bobin Hood, representing a gigantic leaning tower; 

 and the Weird Sisters, a Tew and Oak, so interlocked that one 

 of them has been embraced to death by the other. Other trees 

 than Oaks are similarly noteworthy. One of the Elms which 

 was measured in lS^ then girthed 22 feet 3 inches at 5 feet 

 from tbe ground, and reached a height of 104 feet. Larches 

 girth upwards of 12 feet and exceed 100 feet in height, and 

 Silver Firs have attained to nearly the same dimensions. 

 Except the Osks, which stand in solitary dignity and which 

 were " born to the soil" centuries ago, the other old forest 

 trees have been planted with considerable taste. They have 

 been arranged in groves, and the different hues of their masses 

 of foliage as seen from the mansion produce an excellent effect. 

 Their trunks also as we walk amongst them, grove merging 

 into grove — now Beeches, now Elms, now Chestnuts, now 

 Ash, now Firs — have an attraction of their own, and impart a 

 sylvan beauty to a singularly and variedly beautiful park. A 

 few Tews aho are of great size and have, like the Oaks, ap- 

 parently been growing for centuries. 



The present owner of Holme Laoy owes much to his an- 

 cestors, who have planted trees so freely yet judiciously ; 

 but he is not one of tbo*o who think tbe trees will live for 

 ever, and that no duty devolves upon them to sustain and 



