i68 



ROYAL GARDENS 



The artificial type of water garden comprises large foun- 

 tains and their basins, and formal lily-tanks. They are nearly 

 always included in the Italian style of garden design. Owing 

 to their frank artificiality, their position in the garden is not 

 solely dictated by natural laws. Nor is it a matter of supreme 

 importance that all the surroundings of a pond, probably 

 edged with dressed stone in formal lines, should be designed 

 with implicit obedience to nature's teaching. Though, of 

 course, no part of a garden should be allowed to go directly 

 contrary to them ; and it is probable that in this case, formal 

 ponds though they be, they will look better when placed in 

 the lower parts of the garden rather than in the higher. 



In the old Pond Garden of Henry VIII. at Hampton 

 Court, and in the new one at Kensington Palace, water plays 

 a most important part. The former has an oval tank with a 

 ' splay ' fountain in the middle of its lowest level. The light 

 is caught on small and very slightly curved sheets of falling 

 water with a curious and rather fascinating effect. The new 

 Pond Garden at Kensington Palace, with its oblong water- 

 tank and fountains playing in old lead cisterns, is described in 

 Chapter VII. Another charming water garden of the arti- 

 ficial type is the Lily Garden at Bagshot Park. A small 

 circular retreat, surrounded by rhododendrons and overlooked 

 by cypresses, yews and conifers, has for centre a round and 

 formal tank enclosed in a bower of roses. The little pond is 

 planted with extremely choice water-lilies. The garden is 

 entered, beneath rose arches, by three brick-paved paths, which 

 meet in an annular walk, also paved with old red brick, around 

 the centre pond. In each of the three spaces of lawn between 

 the radial paths is a narrow, curved water-tank, whose shape 

 follows the general circular plan. These segmental tanks are 

 fringed with London pride and iris, while on the surface of 

 the water float leaves of many beautiful lilies. The effect 

 of the whole is quite beautiful and decidedly original. At 

 Claremont there is, in the middle of Princess Charlotte's 

 Garden, a large round fountain basin. This is most effectively 

 surrounded with Dorothy Perkins roses on short iron pillars 



