LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
207 
dane abode, the history and character of which is ever exciting an 
association of ideas of events, and customs, and opinions of other days, 
particularly to the antiquary, or to the man of studious habits. 
I returned to Fairfax Hall much gratified with my visit to this 
unique residence, and full of reflections on what the abbey once was, 
when governed by a lordly abbot, attended by a number of canons, 
monks, and other clerical orders, besides seculars and servants, all 
supported by princely revenues for the practice of devotion, for dissemi¬ 
nating true religion, for relieving the poor, and sheltering the weary 
pilgrim—all long ago suppressed, and fallen into other hands. 
Some of the most extensive estates, and many of the most splendid 
private mansions in this kingdom, are the remains of those ancient 
ecclesiastical establishments. Some are converted into noblemen’s 
palaces, others are baronial halls, and very many are now only farm¬ 
houses ; but wherever such vestigia are met with,—whether those of an 
abbey, monastery, or priory,—there we are sure to find three valuable 
concomitant circumstances—namely, a fine situation, rich land, and 
pure water. 
I mention this as a striking proof of the extreme care which was 
bestowed in fixing on eligible sites for those establishments, and of the 
great cost, which was voluntarily subscribed, for completing their erec¬ 
tion, and bestowed in their endowments. To found and endow a reli¬ 
gious house was, in those days of bigotry, considered as the highest 
instance of Christian zeal, and the most excellent mark of Christian 
duty. 
But these establishments introduced indirectly a few national im¬ 
provements, of which the advantages are enjoyed at the present day. 
Ornamental gardening was introduced by the Italian monks, and many 
fine varieties of orchard and wall fruit, as well as methods of culture, 
were brought over by the natives of France and Germany. The Italian 
or Dutch style of landscape gardening was first executed in the gar¬ 
dens of colleges, and in those of ecclesiastical corporations. The avenue, 
the clipped evergreen hedge, the geometrical parterre, the terraced 
gardens, with flights of stairs in the open air, were all designed by 
foreigners, and from thence copied into the private residences of the 
nobility and gentry in different parts of the kingdom. The remains of 
some of thes§ topiary gardens still exist; but not being approved by 
modern taste, are rapidly disappearing. 
Several of the French pears and grape-vines introduced about that 
time— i. e. during the reigns of the Seventh and Eighth Henrys-—are, 
in all probability, still in our collections, and certainly many of our 
culinary and medical plants. 
