wilderness, with its jewel of a beautifully-wrought timbered dwelling
that had already stood for three hundred years.
In later days, when the whole of the Grantley property in the district
was sold, Great Tangley came into the market. Happily, it fell into the
best of hands, those of Mr. and Mrs. Wickham Flower, and could not have
been better dealt with in the way of necessary restoration and judicious
addition. The moat is now a clear moat again; and good modern gardening,
that joins hands so happily with such a beautiful old building,
surrounds it on all sides. There was no flower garden when the old place
was taken in hand; the only things worth preserving being some of the
old orchard trees within the moat to the west. A space in front of the
house, on its southward face, inclosed by loop-holed walls of
considerable thickness, was probably the ancient garden, and has now
returned to its former use.
The modern garden extends over several acres to the east and south
beyond the moat. The moat is fed by a long-shaped pond near its
south-eastern angle. The water margin is now a paradise for
flower-lovers, with its masses of water Irises and many other beautiful
aquatic and sub-aquatic plants; while Water-Lilies, and, surprising to
many, great groups rising strongly from the water of the white Calla,
commonly called Arum Lily, give the pond a quite unusual interest. To
the left is an admirable bog-garden with many a good damp-loving plant,
and, best of all in their flowering time, some glorious clumps of the
Moccasin Flower (_Cypripedium spectabile_), largest, brightest, and most
beautiful of hardy orchids.
Those who have had the luck to see this grand plant at Tangley, two feet
high and a mass of bloom, can understand the admiration of others who
have met with it in its North American home, and their description of
how surprisingly beautiful it is when seen rising, with its large rose
and white flowers, and fresh green pleated leaves, from the pools of
black peaty mud of the forest openings. But it seems scarcely possible
that it can be finer in its own home than it is in this good garden.
Beyond the bog-garden, on drier ground, is a garden of heaths, and,
returning by the pathway on the other side of the pond, is the kitchen
garden, a strip of pleasure-ground being reserved between it and the
pond. Here is the subject of the picture. The pergola runs parallel with
the pond, which, with the house and inclosed garden, are to the
spectator’s right. To the left, before the vegetable quarters begin, is
a capital rock-garden of the best and simplest form--just one long dell,
whose sides are set with rocks of the local Bargate stone and large
sheets of creeping and rock-loving plants. Taller green growths of
shrubby character shut it off from other portions of the grounds.
The picture speaks for itself. It tells of the right appreciation of the
use of the good autumn flowers, in masses large enough to show what the
flowers will do for us at their best, but not so large as to become
wearisome or monotonous. Roses, Vines and Ivies cover the pergola,
making a grateful shade in summer. Each open space to the right gives a
picture of water and water-plants with garden ground beyond, and,
looking a little forward, the picture is varied by the background of
roof-mass with a glimpse of the timbered gables of the old house.
The new garden is growing mature. The Yews that stand like gate-towers
flanking the entrance of the green covered way, have grown to their
allotted height, doing their duty also as quiet background to the
autumnal flower-masses. In the border to the left are Michaelmas
Daisies, French Marigolds, and a lower growth of Stocks; to the right is
a dominating mass of the great white Pyrethrum, grouped with pink Japan
Anemone, Veronicas and yellow Snapdragon. Japan Anemones, both pink and
white, are things of uncertain growth in many gardens of drier soil, but
here, in the rich alluvial loam of a valley level, they attain their
fullest growth and beauty.
[Illustration: BULWICK: AUTUMN