some fifty feet in diameter, which, unlike the majority of fountains 

 of earlier date, has no centre-piece. In place of the centre-piece 

 is a powerful jet, which, rising a hundred feet in the air, breaks into 

 finest rain, and, as the great basin is insufficient to catch the falling 

 spray, all the flowers in its vicinity are bedewed with moisture. 



Set back in the cypress hedge, and elsewhere about the parterre, are 

 box trees cut into whimsical shapes. It is marvellous what great variety 

 of form can be obtained by a gardener with some inventive genius and a 

 pair of shears ; his stock in trade is merely some bosses and ribs, flutings 

 and spheres, with perhaps a spiral or twisted form, which he has to 

 arrange as ingeniously as he may about a square or circular core. The 

 gardener of the older generation, with instinctive good taste, was able, 

 as a rule, to produce from these simple forms the most delightful 

 combinations, which give to the box an exquisite play of light and 

 shade certainly not possessed by the undipped tree. Any one who looks 

 at a well-considered piece of clipped work, such as that to be found in 

 this garden or at Levens and Barncluith, will hesitate to join with Pope 

 in the cheap witticism which he levels against topiary work in general. 



Playing at hide and seek among the rose-bushes and box-trees, or 

 reflected, like Narcissus, in the fountain pool, are many statues of gods 

 and goddesses, fauns and nymphs ; here Bacchus, wine cup in hand, and 

 Diana with her bow ; there the stately Juno and the simpering Venus ; 

 each placed upon a rococo pedestal of scrolls and spirals further adorned 

 with rude stone-mosaic. These statues would possibly impress more 

 favourably (for some of them are reminiscent of the antique) if they were 

 not quite so pronounced ; standing, as they do, against a setting of 

 deepest green, the eflfect is, to say the least, startling. It is useless to 

 disguise the fact. They are whitewashed ! They are made of hard 

 stucco, and in this respect resemble much of the garden decoration at the 

 Villa d'Este and other villas of the best period in the vicinity of Rome. 



The parterre is continued on a higher terrace, raised only a couple ot 

 feet above the first garden. A deep box hedge and taller flowers conceal 

 the union of the two sections. Here also stone seats are set back in 

 snug recesses of clipped box, the edging of the border curving upwards 

 in order to form the back and arms. In the centre a few broad steps 



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