222 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



green of the sheltering yews in winter, the secluded alley, or the 

 woodbine-covered arbour, have no charm when set down in 

 these stiff lines of black and white. The garden at Ingestre was 

 described by a traveller, John Loveday, of Caversham, in 1732. 

 The house, he says, is situated on the side of a hill, " the 

 Gardens higher, They are large — laid out into the grandest 

 walks between the stateliest Trees imaginable, Hares in abun- 

 dance about the woody Garden, a Building erecting in the 

 higher part for a Prospect . . . which together with the Church 

 is represented in Plot p. 299." The picture Loveday refers to 

 ' is here reproduced, and illustrates in a striking manner how 

 inadequate these designs are to convey any idea of the beauties 

 of the originals. 



It has been said that it was the decadence of art in the 

 formal style which brought about its own fall, but it is difficult 

 to imagine anything more charming than some of the gardens 

 of the time of Queen Anne. Their chief characteristic was 

 the prevalence of long walks between cut trees, not exactly 

 hedges, but trees clipped up to a certain height, and allowed 

 to feather naturally at the top. A most curious example of this 

 is to be seen at Down Hall, in Essex. The trees are cut to the 

 height of sixty or seventy feet ; the path between them is 

 about fifteen feet wide, and seven hundred and eighty long, 

 and closes with a view of Hatfield Broad Oak at the end. 

 This garden was made when the place belonged conjointly to 

 Prior, the poet, and Harley, Lord Oxford. 1 Prior wrote a 

 humorous poem on the occasion of his first visit to " Derry 

 down down, hey derry down," as he called it. He expected to 

 find there 



"... Gardens so stately, and arbours so thick, 

 A portal of stone, and a fabric of brick." 



But on reaching his destination, the poet exclaimed to his 

 friend : 



" O Morley, O Morley ! if that be a hall, 

 The fame with the building will suddenly fall." 



To which he received the answer : 



" I show'd you Down Hall ; did you look for Versailles ?" 



1 Now the property of Capt. Horace W. Calverly. 



