57 
examples still to be found in excellent preservation, showing both how extensive its use in gardens has 
been and its lasting value in this climate. Whereas a terra-cotta or stone vase is liable to be much 
damaged by frost, and marble is for obvious reasons unsuitable for the garden, a leaden vase or statue 
may easily last for a couple of centuries, retaining its original form and taking a more charming colour 
as it increases in age. 
The making of leaden statues was undertaken largely in England during the latter part of the 
seventeenth and all through the eighteenth centuries, under such workers as Cheere, (whose brother, 
Sir Henry Cheere, was responsible for the figure of Flora at Longford Castle) and the Dutch modeller 
Van Nost, who towards the middle of the eighteenth century established himself in St. Martin’s Lane, 
and seems to have had a flourishing business. His stock principally consisted of classic subjects ; Flora 
and Bacchus, Venus, Juno, Neptune, Minerva, were all represented, as well as little leaden cupids, such 
as those at Wilton, known as “Lady Pembroke’s boys,” some of which are shown on Plate 19, and the 
very perfect series of groups at Melbourne Hall, known to have been supplied by Van Nost. Portrait 
statues in lead also are frequently to be met with, as, for example, those at Wilton and at Wrest, and 
the William III. in the courtyard at Houghton Tower, Lancashire. Of statuary groups in lead, perhaps 
the finest example is the Cain and Abel at Chiswick House, by Sheemaker, of which a replica exists 
at Drayton, Northamptonshire. The leaden slave, usually supporting a sundial or vase, s.eems to have 
been a veiy favourite subject, and is frequently to be met with. Copies exist at Enfield Old Park, 
Middlesex (see Plate 115); Melbourne, Derbyshire; Arley, Cheshire; Guy’s Cliff, Warwickshire; and 
Hampton Court, Herefordshire. These statues are sometimes picked out in colours or painted to 
imitate stone, and where this is the case, in order to carry the imitation even further, sand was 
frequently thrown on the wet paint, an attempt at deception quite unworthy of the artists who had 
executed the statues. Lead fountains, such as the Flying Mercury at Sion House, and the little Triton 
at Melbourne Hall, are sometimes met with. 
Plates 107 and 108 show various examples of lead figures, including a pair from the very fine 
collection of garden leadwork at Enfield Old Park, which date from the middle of the eighteenth 
century and remind us of the little figures in porcelain of the same period. They are four feet in height, 
and are probably the work of an English artist. A similar pair from a garden at Shrewsbury are now 
in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the Enfield collection there is a small Harlequin, a replica of 
which exists at Inwood, Dorsetshire. 
The cupid riding on a swan, and the figure of Bacchus, both shown on Plate 107, are from the 
garden laid out by William Kent at Rousham in Oxfordshire. The rustic figure of a shepherd 
playing on his flute, with one of his sheep lying at his feet, was placed in the garden at Canons Ashby 
by Sir Edward Dryden between 1708 and 1717. It is of a similar type to the charming series of rustic 
figures, shown on Plate 108, from Nun Moncton, an old Dutch house at the junction of the Rivers 
Ouse and Nidd, not many miles from York. On Plate 90 is shown a very fine lead figure from Belcombe 
Brook, Bradford-on-Avon. 
Several examples of lead vases are shown on Plates 109 and no. No. 1, on the latter, is one of a 
pair at Iford Manor, Somersetshire, and although of quite a different shape, it has a bas-relief figure 
subject, similar to the example from Penshurst (No. 4) and that at Drayton House, Northants (where 
one of the finest collections in England is to be found), which is shown with three other examples 
from the same garden on Plate 30; and these, no doubt, share a common origin. Of the further 
examples on Plate no, No. 2, without handles, has well modelled masks round the drum. No. 3 is 
one of a pair from Hampton Court Palace; they are 2 feet 3 inches high, and the little sitting figures 
