SION 
mansion as it stands now is, externally, what it has been for 
generations. Had it been otherwise, the fascinating chain of 
historical associations would inevitably have been broken—and 
Colonel Balfour might have been unable to say, as he does say : 
‘Plain as is the whole exterior, it has about it a quiet dignity 
which well befits the dwelling of an English gentleman. The quality 
of repose has almost ceased to be sought for in modern architecture, 
and we seem now to lack the courage of simplicity. It is there- 
fore with a sense of peaceful satisfaction that our eyes turn away 
from the more troubled and tumbled facades of modern edifices 
to such old-fashioned houses as Syon, which still possess something 
of a monastic calm.” 
These words were written over thirty years ago, but the “‘ monastic 
calm,” the air of detachment from the outside haunts of men, 
lingers about the place still; and the quality that most strikes 
a visitor is the. absolute quiet and aloofness of Sion. It speaks, 
as the writer above quoted, has said, “‘ of the palmy days of the 
classical revival of the eighteenth century, but its classical character 
is touched to some extent with medievalism. . . . The romance 
of the Gothic period, outliving the structure in which it was ex- 
pressed, has impressed upon this particular work of Adam an 
unique quality.” . . . Of course the reference here is to the in- 
terior, which alone bears traces of Adam; but the idea expressed 
applies to some extent to the grounds outside, where romance 
also lingers ; and this because imagination, working under certain 
“conditions and in certain moods, is easily led back to the past in 
the actual scene of events that were picturesque, and of episodes 
that were poignant, all the more that the river, the silent 
highway to all these events, the silent witness to all these episodes, 
remains unchanged, or nearly so! 
What the gardens were like in the years when the “ Daughters 
of Sion ” lived there one does not know, but the Protector Somerset 
seems to have been at considerable pains to lay them out. He had 
a botanical garden here, superintended by the celebrated Dr. 
William Turner, author of the first ‘‘ English Herbal,” and often 
spoken of as the “ father of British botany.”” Turner was Dean of 
Wells and physician to Edward VI. He was also Somerset’s 
physician, and though his principal work, the “Herbal,” was not 
published until the year before the attainder and death of the 
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