stone is wrought into lace-like fretwork of arabesque, whereof the chief
features are her coronet and the initials of her name.
A spacious forecourt occupies the ground upon the western--the main
entrance front. It stretches the whole length of the house, and projects
as much forward; its outer sides being inclosed with a wall that bears
in constant succession an ornament of a _fleur-de-lys_ with tall
pyramidal top, a detail imported direct from Italy, from the Renaissance
gardens of earlier date. Such an ornament occurs at the Villa d’Este at
Tivoli, crowning a retaining wall. The entrance to the inclosed
forecourt is by a handsome stone gateway. This gateway forms the
background of the picture, which shows one of the well-planted flower
borders that abound at Hardwick, and that strike that lightsome and
cheerful note of human care and delight that is so welcome in this place
whose scale is rather too large, and somewhat coldly forbidding, in
relation to the more ordinary aspects of daily comfort.
Indeed--for all the good planting--the long wall-backed flower border
facing south, whose wall is in part of its length that of the house
itself, looks as if, in relation to the great building towering above
it--its occupants were still too small, although they include flowering
plants seven to nine feet high, such as Gyneriums and the larger
herbaceous Spiræas. A well-directed effort has evidently been made to
have the planting on a scale with the lordly building, but the items
want to be larger still and the grouping yet bolder, to overcome the
dwarfing effect of the towering structure. In such a place the
Magnolias, both evergreen and deciduous, would have a fine effect,
though possibly they would hardly thrive in the midland climate.
Within the forecourt, along the wall parallel to the house and furthest
from it, this need is not so apparent. In the subject of the picture,
the Honeysuckle, the magnificently grown purple Clematis upon the wall,
the Mulleins, Bocconia and Japan Anemones, are in due proportion; the
Tufted Pansies and Mignonette bringing their taller brethren happily
down to the grassy verge. Approaching the pathway from the right,
stretch some of the long loose growths of one of the two large Cedars
that are such prominent objects in the forecourt garden.
The main open spaces of this garden repeat in flower beds on grass the
big E.S. of the self-asserting founder. It is not pretty gardening nor
particularly dignified. No doubt it is only a modern acquiescence in the
dominating tradition of the place. Even making allowance for, and
retaining this sentiment, a better design might have been made,
embodying these already too-often-repeated letters. Moreover, the
servile copying of the lettering in its stone form only serves to
illustrate the futility of reproducing a form of ornament designed for
one material in another of totally different nature.
There is some excellent gardening in a long flower-border outside the
forecourt wall. Here the size of the house is no longer oppressive, and
it comes into proper scale a little way beyond the point where the broad
green ways, bounded by noble hedges of ancient yews, swing into a wide
circle as they cross, and show the bold niches cut in the rich green
foliage where leaden statues are so effectively placed.
By the kindness of the owner, the Duke of Devonshire, Hardwick Hall,
illustrating as it does a distinct form of architectural expression with
much of historical interest, is open to the public.