THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Apeil 6, 1858. 
and separated from the highway by a dense belt of 
plantation, the stream, owing to being dammed back, 
swells into a large irregular lake, which forms a fine 
feature when seen from the elevated ground in the 
sunshine, especially when taken in connection with the 
nicely grouped timber in the park. The principal ap¬ 
proach passes over a stone bridge, at the extremity of 
the lake, which bridge has a fine effect in the land¬ 
scape, when peeps of it are seen through the foliage of 
the trees. 
The direct communication, at present, from the 
kitchen garden to the mansion, over the rising and un¬ 
dulating ground of the park, is by means of a narrow 
undressed walk. This walk, I understand, was made 
by the late Lord Dacre, and (though still having a firm 
bottom) the sides and the centre, too, in many places, 
are now grown over with the grass of the park. It 
would have been an easy matter to line out the sides, 
and give to it a somewhat artistic and modern appear¬ 
ance ; but, I was given to understand, that the late 
lord would not allow it to be done, and, in this instance, 
would present a lesson (would we only take it) to those 
gardeners, who are never satisfied unless their walks 
present at their sides a trim outline of raw earth, 
whatever the circumstances of the case. A new walk 
has several times been staked out, and never yet been 
made, though I know of no possible objection to such 
an arrangement; but made, or unmade, had I a voice 
in the matter, I would wish a part, at least, of the old 
walk to remain as it is, and even look upon every bit of 
grass on it as sacred. 
On leaving the kitchen garden, there is nothing to 
interfere with any style of walk or road; but, on getting 
over the brow of the rising ground, you are among the 
remains of what must have been a splendid grove in 
the days of Queen Bess, such as the skeleton of an 
Oak, which, I regret, I did not measure, but large 
enough around and within its hollow bleached walls 
to form a hardy fernery, for many of our amateurs; 
other Oaks, telling that they had witnessed some 
hundreds of summers ; Spanish Chestnuts, some rather 
vigorous still, but showing the marks of age, and all 
proclaiming what kind of quarters they had got, that 
enabled them to measure, at two feet from the ground, 
from fifteen to twenty-five feet in circumference. Line 
groups, at no great distance, of full-grown bonnet¬ 
headed Scotch Firs, contrasting nicely with the varied 
foliage of deciduous trees ; but which Firs we generally 
associate more with the wild and picturesque, than the 
artistic ; and nearer the house, a fine old Oak, still 
retaining a few green boughs, though containing within 
it many a pound of lead, from having been used as a 
target for rifle practice. Who, when surveying such 
denizens of the olden time, in the midst of other park 
scenery, would like to have a luxuriating amid the 
ancient periods rudely interfered with, by observing at 
his feet the marks of the edging-iron and clipping-shears 
of the gardener of the day ? Tastes will ever differ, 
and it is well they do. On once visiting an old ruin in a 
wilderness of a wood, I found that enthusiasm for the 
antique had taken the direction of trimming the Ivy, 
that was hanging from the mouldering walls, making 
neat little pathways among, and even removing the 
long grass from, the moss-covered stones ! If there is 
anything in the association of ideas, most men would 
have preferred the absence of all this neatness, even if 
they had to pick their way up to the knees in herbage, 
and to receive some compliments from stinging Nettles, 
which never seem more at home than when revelling 
amid the wrecks and ruins of man’s magnificence. 
Though doubting of my correctness, I shall suppose 
that the entrance front of the mansion faces the north, 
the opposite side the south, the stables and offices will 
be clustered on the west, and another park, or garden, 
front of the mansion, will stand to the east. Though 
I have frequently looked in upon my neighbour, Mr. 
Cox, at the kitchen garden, I have seldom got as far 
as the house. On my first visit many years ago, the 
house and offices were distinguished for their massive 
unadorned simplicity, there being nothing at all in the 
way even of ornamental gardening, with the exception 
oi some v alls and beds in a sort of wilderness of wood 
and shrubbery, to the south side of the offices. On my 
last visit, on the same day I called at the Node, I 
found that great changes and improvements had been 
enected. A belt of evergreens had been planted in 
iront oi the offices, so as to comparatively throw them 
into the shade; a new direction had been given to the 
main approach; and a large landing square of gravel 
formed in front of the house ; an architectural artistic 
appearance had been given to the mansion itself, by 
surrounding the roof with an elegant parapet, forming 
a stone terrace for the landing place, and separating 
that from the gravel, by a wall and open stone balus- 
tradmg. That wall and balustrading are carried east¬ 
ward, past the mansion, between thirty and forty yards, 
and then turned at a right angle southwards, and taken 
as far that a parallel line from the south-east corner of 
the balustrade would leave thirty or forty yards between 
the south front and the boundary there, which, instead 
of being a balustrading, is a sunk fence, or ha-ha. 
From that south-west corner, another sunk fence is 
taken at right angles with the other going direct south ; 
and,, as is now the fashion, a straight walk goes along 
the inside of the fence within two or three feet of it, 
that fence and walk being seen from almost any part 
of the inclosed space, and from almost every window, I 
should suppose, on that side of the mansion. 
This enclosed space is devoted to lawn and flower¬ 
beds, and though the groundwork has been admirably 
managed, there is a want of satisfaction about the whole, 
arising chiefly from the opposite facts, that too much, 
or too little, has been done in the way of walls and 
balustrading. 
1. To render this enclosed space in unison with the 
parapeted style of the mansion, and to preserve unity 
of expression, the open balustrading should be con¬ 
tinued along the top of the sunk southern boundary, 
and then across to the south-west corner of the mansion. 
There would then be an uniqueness in the whole 
enclosed space, which would be perfectly independent 
of any, and whatever was attempted beyond it, in the 
way of ornamental gardening. 
2. This balustrading need not be so high, as to in¬ 
terfere with the view beyond; but, in the present case, 
the view does not seem to extend more than 150 yards 
over the park, until it reaches a natural boundary; 
and many, if there was not a balustrade, would have 
preferred taking in that part, in preference to forming 
a deep sunk wall; and turning that space into rough 
ornamental ground, with groups of evergreens, and 
specimens of the Pine tribe, &c., and this, at any rate, 
would have avoided the mistake of forming the long 
sunk wall, with the gravel walk on its top, on the west 
side of this paddock, and leaving a considerable open 
space between that walk and the wilderness of wood 
and shrubbery, already referred to. 
3. Leaving the main enclosed space as to its arrange¬ 
ment just now, and merely mentioning that the walk 
on the south side is something like five yards from the 
sunk fence ; and, so far, free from the objections to the 
wall, and walk close to it, that start in a direct line 
southwards, and at present terminate in nothing at¬ 
tractive ; and supposing that these walls are to remain 
as they are, and the balustrading is not to be con¬ 
tinued, then the next great improvements would be, 
the continuing the main walk westwards into the 
shrubbery and wilderness ; the planting a mass of 
