House 
Vol. V 
and Garden 
January, 1904 No. 1 
SOMERSETSHIRE, ENGLAND 
January December 
Designed by F. INIGO THOMAS 
R OUND about the Avon Valley and the 
cities of Bath and Bristol there are large 
upland tracts, backed on the south by the 
Mendip Hills and on the north by the less 
bare and breezy Cotswolds, which seem by 
their tat land and soft and kindly climate to 
invite the husbandman and gardener—a 
countryside where nature gives in full and 
grudges not. This district, too, though it 
only really borders Somersetshire, has in a 
subdued and milder form some of that 
special charm which the county gets from its 
variety of configuration—its flattest of flat 
meadowlands ribbed by hills that alternate 
from gentle wooded slopes to such bleak and 
heathery tops as Exmoor. Thus at Barrow, 
though it is but a few miles from Bristol and 
has the city in sight, the gardener’s work is 
easily done. 
It not so hoary in being as in repute, Bar- 
row Court is in no sense a modern place, for 
the manor belonged to a Norman bishop 
years before William Rufus had its disposal 
at his pleasure; and a priory and a nunnery 
flourished here for centuries until Henry 
VIII dissolved them. Then the manor be¬ 
came but a large farm, and the yeoman thereof 
built himself a house alongside the church, 
where the present building stands ; but of the 
old structure nothing remains save the bare 
walls, a window or two, some ceilings and 
chimneypieces and the front door. Of what 
has been done at different times in the way 
of restoration and repair to both church and 
house it will suffice to say that it is in good 
taste, suitable to style and period. 
The present interest which attaches to 
Barrow Court, however, is chiefly concerned 
with the gardens. These with their archi¬ 
tectural pieces are practically all the work of 
Mr. F. Inigo Thomas. Previous work of 
course there was—the lily pool, the iris tank 
Copyrighted IQ03 by Henry T. Coates & Co. 
I 
