High Coxlease^ Lyndhurst. 



15 



enchanted at least one eager boy, " Can you tell the slot of a brocket from a stag ? " 

 Obviously It is the place for brockets. If, however, we must stand upon the letter 

 of the law. High Coxlease, though in the world of the New Forest, is not of it. It is 

 the freehold of the Crown, and leased to the owner of the house which the illustrations 

 show embowered in its trees, but it has nothing to do with the true forest land. The 

 planting of High Coxlease is also modern, as the forest goes, for it was done with the 

 rest of the property somewhere about 1830. The plantation was made to some 

 purpose, for it has a finely mature aspect, and no more clearing was allowed than 

 seemed absolutely needful for 

 house and garden . The picture 

 of the entrance front shows 

 the drive fringed with bracken 

 and the roof framed in foliage, 

 and, indeed, it is impossible 

 to make anything like a 

 general survey of the house 

 save through a foreground 

 broken by trees. This setting 

 of the wild has been respected 

 in a wise spirit. As the 

 ground slopes southward the 

 lawn is bounded by a retaining 

 wall, beyond which a delightful 

 rock and water garden has 

 been made. The water itself 

 makes a home for many of 

 the beautiful hybrid water- 

 lilies evolved by the genius 

 of M. Latour Marliac. The 

 introduction of these dainty 

 flowers, embracing as they 

 do a wide range of colours, 

 has completely revolutionised 

 the art of water-gardening 

 in this country, and has 

 given it fresh scope and 

 purpose. The accompanying 

 picture shows how well they 

 thrive at Lyndhurst. In the 

 rather flat rock garden which 

 frames the pool, choice ex- 

 amples of interesting saxifrages 

 with encrusted leaves find a congenial place, and their silvery foliage makes 

 an attractive feature during those winter months when other plants are at 

 their worst. Many another pilgrim from the Upper Alps flourishes in this 

 rockery, while elsewhere in the garden some rare sorts of daphne are 

 obviously favourites. Such surroundings demand a house which has simplicity for 

 its dominant note, and no less can be said of the building which Professor Lethaby 

 set there in 1901. Plain white walls and chimneys, red roofs, a lead-covered porch 

 of curiously interesting shape, and gables of moderate pitch — these are elements always 



FIG. 17. — IN THE ROCK AND WATER GARDEN. 



