The gardens that adorn the ancient home of the Sidneys are, as to the
actual planting of what we see to-day, with repairs to the house and
some necessary additions to fit it for modern needs, the work of the
late Lord de L’Isle with the architect George Devey, begun about fifty
years ago. It was a time when there was not much good work done in
gardening, but both were men of fine taste and ability, and the
reparation and alteration needed for the house, and the new planting and
partly new designing of the garden could not have been in better hands.
The aspect and sentiment of the garden, now that it has grown into
shape--its lines closely following, as far as it went, the old
design--are in perfect accordance with the whole feeling of the place,
so that there seems to be no break in continuity from the time of the
original planting some centuries ago. Such as it is to-day, such one
feels sure it was in the old days--in parts line for line and path for
path, but throughout, just such a garden as to general form, aspect, and
above all, sentiment, as it must have been in the days of old. For when
it was first planted the conditions that would have to be considered
were always the same; requirement of shelter from prevailing winds;
questions relating to various portions, as to whether it would be
desirable to welcome the sunlight for the flowers’ delight, or to shut
it out for human enjoyment of summer coolness--all such grounds of
motive were, just as now, deliberated by the men of old days, whose
decisions, actuated by sympathy with both house and ground, would bring
forth a result whose character would be the same, whether thought out
and planned to-day or four centuries ago.
So it is that we find the old work at Penshurst confirmed and renewed,
[Illustration: “GLOIRE DE DIJON,” PENSHURST