Barrow Court 
THE LILY POOL AT BARROW COURT 
Looking IVestward 
blossoms of the Piptanthus Nepalensis. From 
both these courts broad flights of steps lead 
down about five feet to the tennis lawn, which 
has been leveled up from the hillside by means 
of a retaining wall and stone balustrading. 
At the southern end of this balustrade is 
a small pavilion exactly opposite the trellis 
court and connected with it by an iron rail¬ 
ing with stone gates and piers in the center. 
This ironwork makes a fine semicircular 
sweep and encloses the southern end of the 
tennis lawn ; and the intermediate stone 
piers, twelve in number, which stiffen the 
railing, are carried up as terminal figures, 
sculptured to represent the twelve months 
of the year. January is in the semblance 
of a young girl, who passing through the 
successive stages of life ends in December as 
the elderly matron. This is a pleasing con¬ 
ceit strictly on the lines of the symbolical treat¬ 
ment of garden statuary which was so often 
resorted to by the earliest garden designers. 
Due east of the tennis lawn is a small yew 
alley, and further on are the lime walks which 
enclose two small shrubberies containing 
yews, abores irtal , red and white mays, lilacs, 
gorse, pavia flava , white and yellow broom, 
briar and guelder roses, juniperus fragrans , 
svringa, the very fine white spirea confusa and 
the fragrant rhus cotinus , a planting which in¬ 
sures color either in bloom, leaf or berry for 
eleven months out of the twelve. A single row 
of alternating limes and dwarf hollies bounds 
these plantations on all sides. Still further 
eastward is the apple orchard and a high wall 
divides it from the lime walks, with pavilions 
north and south and a striking architectural 
feature in its center. On this wall grow co- 
toneasters of all kinds, forsythia suspensa , 
white clematis and genista andreana with its 
generous yellow bloom. The northern pavil¬ 
ion tallies in all respects with that on the tennis 
lawn, while the southern one, with its enclosed 
forecourt, ball-topped piers and fine lead vases, 
is a good finish to this end of the garden. 
Away on the other side of the house 
there is a charming iris tank, part of the 
older work, making with its surroundings 
and in the setting of a misty English after¬ 
noon a perfect study in the color values of 
gray-green iris, a silvery oak-fence and the 
warm, dull yellow of the walls and tithe-barn. 
6 
