IS 
up to the yew alley, at the end of which is the quaint old dial known as the Turk's Head. 
The principal part of the gardens is the parterre, shown on Plate 15, in which the beds are 
marked by high box edgings, whose sober green colour serves to effectually set off the gorgeous masses 
of flowers. A broad grass walk continued past the front of the house leads between high yew hedges 
to a delightfully cool spot known as Diana’s Pool, where the quietude is broken only by the sound 
of the rippling water as it enters the pool. The walk continues further and is terminated by a 
fountain pond, from whence a pretty vista is obtained through the whole length of the gardens. 
On the west side the parterre is bounded by thick yew hedges, and in the centre a broad 
walk, bordered with flower-beds, divides the two orchard gardens. A sketch showing this walk from 
the fountain in the centre of the parterre is given on Plate 14. 
The two orchard gardens are arranged as pleasant retreats, laid out with small grass walks; an 
arrangement well worthy of notice, as making good use of the orchard, a part of the garden not always 
esteemed at its full value. A similarly effective arrangement of orchard garden is to be seen at Earlshall 
(Plates 86, 87). 
WILTON HOUSE, WILTSHIRE. 
PLATES 16, 17, 18, 19. 
1 NY account of the gardens surrounding Wilton House would be incomplete without 
at least a passing reference to the famous garden laid out here by Isaac de Caux 
towards the middle of the seventeenth century. The designs for this garden are 
fortunately still preserved and were published in a series of twenty-six copperplates 
about the year 1645. De Caux also published a full description of the gardens, 
reference to which has already been made in the Historical Note at the commence¬ 
ment of this work. 
These Wilton gardens were amongst the most celebrated in England, and more than one con¬ 
temporary writer has left glowing accounts of their beauties. Evelyn, who visited them in 1654, writes : 
“The garden heretofore esteemed the noblest in England, is a large handsome plaine, with a grotto and 
waterworks, which might be made much more pleasant were the river which passes through cleans’d and 
rais’d, for all is effected by a meere force. It has a flower garden not inelegant . . .” 
There are now but few vestiges of this famous scheme left; lawns cover the site of De Caux’s gay 
parterres; the River Nader, shown on old engravings as quite a small stream, is now a river spanned 
by a fine Palladian bridge, designed by J. Morris. Here and there a column, or a sundial such as that 
on Plate 116, may still be seen, and opposite the orangery are certain pieces which formed part of the 
fountains in the old garden. A grotto, probably designed by Inigo Jones, and now used as a school- 
house, formed one of the attractions in former days ; but beyond these few relics nothing remains of 
the great scheme which in its time ranked with such gardens as Theobalds, Hatfield and Nonsuch. 1 
A plan of the gardens was published by J. Rocque in 1745, at which date the original garden of De 
Caux had ceased to exist; but one can easily trace the outline of the great parterre. This plan also 
1 A brass statue formerly in the garden is now at Houghton, and is said to have been by John of Bologna. It was a present 
to Sir Robert Walpole by Robert, Earl of Pembroke (Catalogue of the Houghton pictures, 1752). 
C 
