and new work added of a like kind, such as will make use of the wider
modern range of garden plants, while it retains the dignity and grandeur
of the fine old place.
The house stands on a wide space of grass terrace commanding the garden.
On a lower level is a large quadrangular parterre, with cross paths. In
each of its square angles is a sunk garden with a five-foot-wide verge
of turf and a bordering stone kerb forming a step. The beds within,
filled with good hardy plants, have bold box edgings eighteen inches
high and a foot thick, that not only set off the bright masses of
flowers within, but have in themselves an air of solidity and importance
that befits the large scale of the place. They represent in their own
position and on their lesser scale somewhat of the same character as the
massive yew hedges, twelve feet high and six feet through, that do their
own work in other parts of the garden.
These grand yew hedges and solid box borders have responded well to good
planting and tending, for the late Lord de L’Isle knew his work and did
it thoroughly. Not only was the ground well prepared, but for several
years after planting the young trees were provided with a surface
dressing that prevented evaporation and provided nutriment. This was
carefully attended to, not only in the case of the yews but of the box
edgings also.
The cross-walks of the parterre do not meet in the middle, but sweep
round a circular fountain basin, in the centre of which stands a statue
of what may be a young Hercules, brought from Italy by Lord de L’Isle.
The slender grace of the figure might at first suggest a youthful
Bacchus, but the identity in such a statue is easily established by
looking for one or other of the characteristic attributes of Hercules;
these usually are the lion’s skin, the upright-growing hair on the
forehead, the poplar wreath or the battered, flattened ears. But the
statue stands too far from the walk to be exactly identified.
That the nearer portions of the garden are on the same lines as the
older planting is shown by an engraving in Harris’s “Kent,” where the
parterre is, now as then, bounded by terraces on two of its sides, the
house side and that of the adjoining churchyard, to which access is
gained by a beautiful gabled gateway of brick and stone, the work of
Tudor times.
The old churchyard has its own beauty, while the church and a fine group
of elms are seen from the garden above the wall, and take their own
beneficent place in the garden landscape.
The rectangular fountain, which, with its surrounding yew hedges, and
the grass walks also inclosed by thick yew hedges, divides the two
portions of the kitchen garden, are also parts of the old design, added
to by the late owner. The yew hedges beyond the fountain pool have been
set back to allow width enough for a handsome flower-border on either
side. Water Lilies grow in the pool and the flower-borders display their
beauties beyond, while the fruit trees of the kitchen garden show above
the thick green hedges as flowering masses in spring, and in later
summer, as the taller perennials of the border rise to their full
height, as a thin copse of fruit and leafage. The turf walk and
flower-border swing outward to suit the greater width of another
fountain-basin at the end. This has straight sides running the way of
the main path, and a segmental front. Instead of the usual rising kerb,
there are two shallow stone steps, the upper one even with the grass,
the lower half way between that and the water-level. Except that it is
less of a protection than something of the parapet kind, this is a most
desirable means of near access to the water; welcome to the eye in all
ways and allowing the water-surface to be seen from a distance. It is
pleasantly noticeable in this pool that the water-level rises to the
proper place. Nothing is more frequent or more unsightly than a deep
pool or basin with straight sides and only a little water in the bottom.
If the height of the water is necessarily fluctuating it is a good plan
to build the tank in a succession of such steps; they are pleasant to
see both above and under water, and in the case of an accident to a
straying child, danger is reduced to the smallest point.
The picture shows one of the flights of steps from one level to another.
To the left two handsome gate-piers and a fine wrought-iron gate lead to
a quiet green meadow. Near by and just across it is the Medway, with
wooded banks and groups of fine trees. The old wall is beautiful from
the meadow side; its coping a garden of wild flowers. Above it is seen
the clipped yew hedge with its series of rising ornaments, rounded in
the direction of the axis of the hedge, but flat on
[Illustration: THE TERRACE STEPS, PENSHURST