Ring-wood Manor 
borders. The four Istrian stone vases 
standing at the intersections of the principal 
paths are seventeenth century Venetian, and 
beautiful in shape and carving. 
Against the face of the hill is a retaining 
wall, its uniformity broken at intervals of 
eighteen feet by pairs of caryatids support¬ 
ing baskets of fruit and flowers. All are 
vide a constant succession of bloom. Roses 
and foxgloves and larkspurs and hollvhocks 
make a gay background, while the front, 
edged with biota aurea , is filled in with 
hardy azalea, blue juniper and box ; the grass 
between being thicklv sown with tulips, 
crocuses, daffodils and all spring flowers. 
The crescent-like curve of this bed is especi- 
THE POOL FROM THE WEST 
seventeenth century Venetian. The middle 
panel of the wall has an arch, which partly 
shelters a sixteenth century red marble foun¬ 
tain, carved with a procession of Tritons. 
Above it, a white marble baby, with tilted 
pitcher, plays water into the basin, and on 
either side are the original black marble 
caryatids, the others being clever imitations 
cast in cement. 
d he planting of the flower-bed in front of 
this wall has been cunningly devised to pro- 
RINGWOO D MANOR 
ally admirable. This whole sunk garden is 
shut in on the west by a hedge of blue Japanese 
retinispora, and on the east by hemlock, 
and between these and the front row of biota 
aurea are planted blue Colorado spruce, picea 
concolor , and other evergreens, mixed with 
double-flowering peaches, Japanese quinces 
and pink and white hawthorns. On the 
other side of this hemlock hedge is a long 
locust avenue, leading from the front drive to 
the top of an old-fashioned terraced garden. 
402 
