ROYAL GARDENS 



pillars, chains and arches, as bushes, as weeping-standards, 

 and on the boundary walls — make these two little divisions 

 of the garden delicious beyond compare. 



At the south-east corner of the kitchen garden. Queen 

 Alexandra's dairy calls for a word of special comment. In a 

 small enclosure stands a pretty little cottage building, and 

 around it are displayed many noteworthy examples of skilful 

 topiary-work. Shady trees and flower-bedecked lawns com- 

 plete a charming and picturesque scene. 



Space forbids more than a mere allusion to many other 

 features of this wonderful garden. Besides those already 

 mentioned are rose gardens, arbours, alleys, more examples of 

 bog and water gardens, a maze, collections of rare shrubs, 

 a vast number of special trees planted by royal and other 

 notable personages, interesting objects (such as a Chinese 

 temple or joss-house), to say nothing of the splendid conserva- 

 tories and all their gorgeous and beautiful inmates. These last 

 alone would require a whole volume to enumerate and de- 

 scribe in anything like completeness. Suffice it to say, the 

 gardens at Sandringham contain examples of every kind of 

 gardening practice. And not, as in many places, are one or 

 two things made specialities of, but in everything the best is 

 grown, and in the best manner cultivated. In all the beauties 

 and magnificence of the gardens the late King took, and 

 Queen Alexandra still takes, the greatest interest. Through 

 their beneficence the gardens have long been open to the 

 public, on Wednesday, in every week when no members of 

 the Royal Family are in residence. 



It is unnecessary to say that the grounds are perfectly 

 kept, or that they are laid out and cultivated with the most 

 consummate art — that art which conceals artifice. But 

 beyond all this, the result here shows that the work is done 

 in a spirit of enthusiasm and love for actual growing plants 

 and trees and flowers, with a depth of knowledge, a strong 

 artistic feeling for harmonies and contrasts of colour, and a 

 reverence for and obedience to the laws of nature, which 

 together have placed the Sandringham Gardens among the 

 very finest in the world. 



