The Gardens of Newbattle Abbey 
been subjected to a good deal of change. 
Some parts of it, however, still retain the 
features of the French style, originally bor¬ 
rowed from Italy, prevalent in the time of 
Louis XIV, and which the celebrated French 
landscape gardener, Le Notre, did so much 
to popularize. Of this style probably the 
whole of this parterre originally partook. 
Immediately in front of the mansion is a 
panel consisting of scroll-work very charac¬ 
teristic of the period referred to, and on the 
further side of the parterre, on the inside of 
the yew hedge which forms its eastern bound¬ 
ary, a narrow strip of the same kind of dec¬ 
orative landscape work still exists. The 
scrolls are formed of box, cotoneaster mycro- 
pbylla, and yew ; and as was customary in 
this kind of work, the alleys are formed of 
colored gravel. 
At either end, the yew hedge on the east¬ 
ern side of the parterre is carried round the 
three sides of a square space which juts out 
beyond the boundary line of the garden, 
and in each ot these spaces stands a sun-dial 
of large proportions, and of very elaborate 
workmanship. (T his is illustrated on page 
147.) The two sun-dials are exactly similar 
in size and in all their details, and each arises 
from an octagonal base consisting of a series 
of five stone steps. The height of the dials 
is sixteen feet from the bottom of the shaft. 
The part above the shaft is octagonal, and it 
contains two tiers of oblong spaces on four 
of the lower of which the dials are placed, 
d'he other spaces contain initials, coats of 
arms, and crests of members of the house 
of Lothian. 
One of the most interesting objects in 
connection with Newbattle Abbey is “The 
Great Beech.” This noble tree, standing on 
the east side of the flower garden, and about 
one hundred yards distant from the front of 
the Abbey, forms a very striking feature in 
the landscape. It is one of the grandest 
beeches in the United Kingdom, and is of 
truly gigantic proportions. The total height 
of the tree is about 100 feet, and the spread 
of its branches is about 130 feet in diameter 
on the average. The bole is 17 feet in 
height, and girths at the narrowest part about 
19 feet. At a height of from 20 to 25 feet 
from the ground about a dozen large branches 
radiate from the main stem, and these, arch¬ 
ing over and forming a natural arbor about 
60 feet in diameter, reach the ground where 
they take root and again curve upwards and 
outwards, the longest of them being over 70 
feet in length. The age of the tree is un¬ 
known, but by estimation from measurements 
of the stem, which have been made at dif¬ 
ferent periods, it is believed to be from 250 
to 300 years at least. 
146 
