54 
flight of fourteen steps leads to a grass platform, and a gravel path runs to right and left, descending 
on either side to the lower garden by flights of steps. The balustrade is formed of stone panels 3^ inches 
thick, pierced with open work of alternate lozenges and ovals, with engaged balusters to the piers. 
The house is a few years later in date than Claverton, but a similarity is noticeable between the 
masonry detail of the two places, which are only a few miles apart. 
The terrace at Bramshill is on the east side of the house, overlooking the park. It is 135 feet long 
by 25 feet broad. Down the centre is a narrow strip of turf with stone flags on either side, used as a 
bowling-lawn. At either end of the terrace is an arbour, as shown on Plate 97. The elevation on 
Plate 98 shows the terrace as it was originally arranged, with the balustrade along the entire front, but 
now only fragments remain. At either end steps lead to the level of what was formerly the garden. 
Plate 95 is a view of the terrace at Brympton Manor House in Somersetshire. It is about 30 feet 
broad, and 5 feet above the level of the garden in front of the house, and is said to have been built 
early in the last century, but the house itself is considerably older. There is a broad central flight of 
steps, and at either end two smaller flights are arranged at right angles to the terrace. The piers 
support urns of different designs, with the exception of one which carries a sun-dial with gnomons on 
the sides of a square die. 
The arrangement of the steps at Clifton Hall, Nottingham, is rather an unusual one. On plan it 
takes the form of a hexagon, which is intersected by the balustrade. The piers are ornamented with 
statuary, those in the centre supporting cupids. A similar arrangement of stairway is to be seen at 
Drayton Hall, Northamptonshire, though here the steps are circular, and altogether on a smaller scale. 
Plate 100 shows an arrangement of steps in three flights leading from a terrace ; at Ven House, Somerset¬ 
shire. The piers to the balustrade are surmounted with handsome stone vases, and the stairway, with its 
old mossy stonework, forms quite a beautiful picture, overshadowed by the spreading branches of a grand 
old walnut tree. 
On Plate 101 is a view of a terrace at Hadsoe, with a fountain at the foot, and stairways at either 
side; the whole forming a pleasing architectural composition, surrounded as it is with very beautiful 
foliage and dark yew hedges. 
GATEPIERS. 
PLATES 101, 102 and 103. 
N nearly all old garden schemes, much attention was lavished on the gateways 
giving admittance to the various enclosures, and often, when every other vestige of 
the garden has disappeared, these remain, solitary survivors of the many details of 
all they enclosed and which surrounded them. Of the many different types of 
gatepier the most familiar is the square pier of brick or stone surmounted by a 
stone ball, either with or without a necking. Such a one is shown on Plate ioi, 
from Bulwick Hall, Northamptonshire, and on Plate 102 from Penshurst. This 
latter is of brick, 12 feet high to the top of the cornice, with piers on either side. It is placed in an old 
wall, and forms the entrance from the park to the stables. The gateway from Iford Manor illustrated 
on Plate 102 has stone piers, 10 feet 9 inches apart, supporting heraldic lions, the crest of the 
Hungerford family, who formerly owned the house. The piers are 2 feet square, and 9 feet 9 inches to 
the top of the cornice. The piers from the Botanic Garden at Oxford are in the walls surrounding the 
