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gardens on the south-west side of the house, and about midway is an oblong enclosure some 300 feet by 
40, known as the Alcove walk. Here, on either side of a gravel walk, are flower-beds, divided into little 
plots by substantial yew buttresses, as shown in Plate 39. At the end of this walk is a stone summer¬ 
house, and on the south side of the enclosure is another smaller garden, with curiously shaped yews 
(Plate 39, lower half), and at one end a small rose garden overlooked by a picturesque summer-house. 
Close adjoining is the bowling-green, 180 feet by 54, sunk about two feet, and circular at one end ; 
and behind this is a wilderness with a hexagonal-shaped maze, shown to a large scale on Plate 122. 
The south-west corner of the garden is laid out as a rock-garden. 
BELTON HOUSE, GRANTHAM, LINOS. 
PLATES 40, 41, 42, 43. 
ELTON HOUSE lies about three miles north of Grantham in Lincolnshire, in the 
midst of a large park, and is approached by a drive down an avenue of magnificent 
elms. The grounds of the present building partly occupy the site of the former 
Manor-house, of which the gate piers to the entrance forecourts are all that now 
remain. These are in the north wall of the rose garden, and the present con¬ 
servatory probably occupies the site of the original house, which, together with the 
surrounding estate, was purchased from the trustees of the Packenham family by 
Richard Brownlow, Esq., Prothonotary of the Common Pleas during the reigns of Elizabeth and 
James I. Succeeding owners added to the property, and it eventually came into the hands of Sir John 
Brownlow, the fourth baronet, who built the present house, which is said to have been designed by Sir 
Christopher Wren, between the years 1685 and 1689. In 1690 a license was obtained to enclose the 
park, round which a wall was built some five miles in length. The garden was laid out about the year 
1700, and this design is shown in a view by Badeslade, unfortunately without a date. The plan 
reproduced on Plate 41 is taken from Campbell’s “Vitruvius Britannicus,” and is probably a few 
years later than Badeslade’s view. 1 
It is an interesting study in garden arrangement of the period, and shows the house approached on 
its south side through two courtyards. A carriage drive traverses the first court, and the second has 
paved pathways leading to the flight of steps in the centre of the house, which give access to the Salon. 
On the right hand of the entrance courts is the bowling-green, and on the opposite side the pheasant-yard, 
wood-yard, and the various household offices. On the west side of the house a flight of steps leads into 
the flower garden, a small enclosure rather more than 100 feet square; beyond this, arranged centrally 
with the house, was the great pond, about 250 yards long, with, on either side, two large groves or 
bosquets in the French manner of Le Notre, which at this date had not long been introduced into 
England. Many of the trees now existing in this part of the garden were no doubt originally part of 
these groves. John James, in his “Theory and Practice of Gardening” (1712), gives many designs for 
groves very similar to these at Belton, but examples are now rarely to be met with. 
The parterre occupied an oblong space about 400 feet wide by 650 feet long, and was divided by 
1 It differs from Badeslade’s plan in several respects, principally in the arrangement of the forecourt, which Badeslade shows as 
one large courtyard with an oval grass plot. The grand canal shown in Campbell’s plan does not exist in that of Badeslade, and its 
position is occupied by a broad gravel walk in the centre of which is an obelisk. The groves on either side, however, agree in both the 
plans. The parterre shown on Campbell’s plan is indicated by Badeslade as a plain grass plot. 
