GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
extended oblongs, and are all parallel with the river, each one being 
separated from its neighbour by a rather wide turf walk, as shown 
in the illustration. This arrangement, if formal, is effective ; but 
it was probably made entirely for convenience in the days when 
the Demonstrator, surrounded by a troop of students, moved from 
plot to plot, pausing at each to discourse and explain. Here are 
to be seen, among many beautiful growing things such as are 
found in most gardens that boast herbaceous borders, a few un- 
familiar, even uncanny-looking plants, survivals of the fittest 
perhaps among the medicinal herbs of former days; and the eye 
is quick to note that this sunny, cultivated corner—measuring, 
I believe, about four acres—is not altogether a normal garden. 
There are no trees of great importance except a magnificent and 
gigantic Ilex, or Evergreen Oak, of which Field and Simple, writing 
nearly forty years ago, make particular mention. It is a tree that 
now in a green and lusty old age, extends its giant arms farther 
afield than in its youth—while one huge limb stretches its lazy 
length unbroken upon the ground itself. There are few flowers 
to speak of—by which I mean that here nothing blossoms con- 
spicuously, nothing makes a floral show. There are no gay 
parterres, or gaudy ribbon borders; one feels instinctively that 
the plants are grown less for their blooms than for their uses, and 
that they themselves are intrinsically interesting to the students, 
whether they blossom and look beautiful, or not. At the lower 
end of the garden, near the Ilex, is the water-garden, consisting 
of some extremely picturesque ponds or pools, rich in aquatic 
vegetation. But in spite of the lack of gorgeous colouring, per- 
haps in consequence of the absence of luxuriant foliage, the garden 
is essentially sunshiny ; it is always full of the cheerful daylight : 
one receives on entering, and one carries away, an impression of 
sunlight even on a cloudy day. It is a charming oasis in the 
midst of much brick and mortar; but though it is nearly two 
hundred and fifty years of age, one could not describe it as old- 
fashioned, or old-English ; it has too much of space and air about 
it to be Jacobean ; too little of formality—though in a sense it is 
formal—to be Dutch ; nor are there present any of the clever devices 
by which the eighteenth century gardener simulated spaciousness, 
and made three acres appear to be twenty. Of the old green- 
houses the tanks alone remain; they may be seen in the garden. 
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