129.—Lead Pipe Head from Bramshill.
Plate XXXVIIIa.
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. Steps to Terrace.
Plate XXXVIIIb.
Claverton, Somerset. Terrace Wall.
Gardens.
This is not the place to enter into an elaborate account of gardens, but they touch the subject under discussion so far as this—that there was a certain amount of architectural design bestowed upon them in the shape of terraces, flights of steps, balustrades and garden-houses. The view of Montacute shown in Fig. [48] gives a good idea of the manner in which the house was set off by a formal garden enclosed by stone walls and balustrades, which were emphasized at the angles by garden-houses, and along their lengths either by gateways or some kind of special object, such as the quaint kind of temple, which serves no purpose but to vary the monotony of the balustrade. The well-known terrace at Haddon is as good an example as can be found of the fine effect of a raised walk approached by a broad flight of steps, and protected by an arcaded balustrade (Plate [XXXVIII].). The detail is quite simple, there is no particular effort visible, every thing seems to be there because it is wanted, but the whole effect is extremely picturesque. At Claverton, near Bath, are the remains of a fine house and garden, of which a long terrace wall is also illustrated on Plate [XXXVIII]. Here the straight length is broken by the large gate-piers, which rise some twelve feet high before tapering off into the universal obelisk. Claverton must have been a splendid example of Jacobean work, judging by the illustrations in Richardson's Elizabethan Architecture, but unhappily little of it now remains. At Gayhurst, in Buckinghamshire, there are a number of quaint stone piers flanking the main approach, set a few yards apart (Fig. [130]), the space between them being filled in with cut yew hedges. Hedges do not enter into the scope of the present work, but they were much in vogue, as were also pleached alleys and the green shaded walks so much desired by the Noble Gentleman in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of that name. With arches in walls we have more concern, and have already dealt with them in dealing with the approaches to the house; but an additional example from a garden at Lingfield, in Sussex, is illustrated in Fig. [131]; and another from Highlow Hall, in Derbyshire, on Plate [XXXIX].
