SANDRINGHAM 123 



clearing of the grounds to the north of the house has really- 

 been an improvement. They appear more spacious and 

 uniform than before, and the house consequently stands 

 better and has a more stately aspect. And being partly 

 hidden by foliage at the south-west and south-east corners, 

 it still looks comfortably settled among its beautiful sur- 

 roundings. 



There are two main divisions in the Sandringham Gardens. 

 That containing the house itself is known as the West 

 Garden. It includes a most beautiful lake, the promontories 

 and higher banks of which are boldly planted with many fine 

 trees. Hundreds of choicest water-lilies float upon its surface. 

 Aquatic plants of almost every kind fringe its margin. 

 Clumps of bulrushes, loosestrife, saxifrage, lobelia cardinalis, 

 bamboos and grasses of numberless varieties, have been 

 planted with an artistic negligence which has encouraged 

 nature to help, and has nowhere defied her teaching. A 

 natural outcrop of stone in places round the lake has been 

 improved and added to with careful art. Rock gardens have 

 been formed ; in whose crevices and ' pockets ' innumerable 

 varieties of the fascinating and often minute plants that enjoy 

 such positions, live and thrive and plead for observation of 

 their almost microscopic beauty. A stream running in a 

 series of tiny cascades and pools through a most exquisite 

 dell, falls into the lake over moss-grown rocks. From every 

 side views across the water are very lovely. They embrace 

 peeps of lawn with splendid specimen trees, terraces, flower 

 borders and glimpses of the creeper-clad mansion between 

 feathery foliage of many a birch and willow. 



The western fa9ade of the house faces a long terrace- 

 walk, with grass banks sloping down to a formal and stately 

 parterre, whose beds are, in summer, filled with a striking 

 arrangement of scarlet and white flowers. The formality of 

 its straight and horizontal lines is corrected by upright trees 

 of golden holly and yew. A handsome bronze fountain in a 

 circular basin furnishes the centre. Still further west a fine 

 expanse of sunny lawn, fringed with an irregular belt of 



