The Stately Homes of England

by Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt; S. C. Hall

The Upper Terrace Garden, Italian Garden, and Lake.

The great features of Trentham are, as we have before said, its grounds and its matchless lake. To these, however, we have but little space to devote, though a bare enumeration of their points of beauty would fill a volume. To the park the public are, thanks to the liberality of the Duke of Sutherland, and which is one of the innate features of himself and the noble family of which he is the head, freely admitted. The gardens and pleasure-grounds (which, until the great alterations made some years ago, was simply a sheep pasture railed off from the park) can only, however, and very rightly, be seen by special permission. To these we must devote a few words. The principal or south front of the house—two charming views of which we have given on pages 45 and 46—looks across the grounds and lake to the distant wooded hills skirting the horizon, and crowned in one place by the colossal statue of the first duke, to which we have already alluded. A part of this view, as seen from the windows of this front, we have depicted in the accompanying engraving. First comes the Terrace (not included in our view), studded with statues and vases; next, the Terrace Garden, with its central fountain, its grand bronze vases and sculptures, its flower-beds laid out in the form of a letter S for Sutherland, its recessed alcoves, and its Grecian temples, containing marvellous examples of antique sculpture; next, beyond, come the Italian Gardens (approached by a fine semicircular flight of steps), about ten acres in extent, with their parterres and borders and sunk beds, their statues, fountain, and busts, and their thousand and one other attractions; then the Lake Terrace, with its balustrade, its line of vases, its magnificent colossal statue of “Perseus and Medusa” (which cost its noble owner £1,600), its descending steps for landing, its boat-houses, and other appliances; then, next beyond, the Lake, eighty-three acres in extent, on which sailing and rowing boats and canoes find ample space for aquatic exercise; then the Islands—one of which alone is four acres in extent, and the other a single acre—beautifully planted with trees and shrubs; and, beyond this again, the woods of Tittensor, with the crowning monument. To the left are the grand wooded heights of King’s Wood Bank, a part of the ancient forest of Needwood, and consequently the remains of the old hunting-grounds of the Kings of Mercia; and, to the right, the American Grounds, planted with a profusion of rhododendrons and other appropriate shrubs and plants; while the Italian Garden is skirted on its east side by a deliciously cool and shady trellised walk—a floral tunnel, so to speak, some two hundred yards long, formed of trellised arches the whole of its length, overgrown with creeping plants and flowers, and decorated with busts, ornamental baskets, &c., forming a vista of extreme loveliness.

Near this is a pleasant glade, having the Orangery, now the Bowling Alley, at its extremity; and near here is the iron bridge—one hundred and thirty years old, and one of the chefs-d’œuvre of the old Coalbrookdale Works—crossing the river Trent, which flows through the grounds. Standing on this bridge, the view both up and down the Trent is strikingly beautiful. Looking up the stream, the “solemn Trent” is seen crossed by the old stone bridge, while, to the left, a view of the house is partially obtained through the trees, the original course of the river, before it was altered, being distinctly traceable, and presenting a broader surface and a more graceful sweep than at present. Looking down the stream, the view is more charming still, and embraces the river, the lake (into which, until a few years back, the Trent flowed), the islands, the American and other gardens, and the wooded heights that skirt the domain.

Crossing the bridge, a little to the right is the Conservatory, filled with the choicest trees and flowering plants, and kept, as all the rest of the gardens and grounds are, in the most perfect order. In front of this Conservatory is a pretty feature—the poetical idea of the late duchess—consisting of the names of her daughters (the sisters of the present Duke of Sutherland) planted in box on a ground of white spar. The words as they appear are—

ELIZABETH LORNE.
EVELYN BLANTYRE.
CAROLINE KILDARE.
CONSTANCE GROSVENOR.
VIRET MEMORIA.

Thus the “memory” of the four daughters of the late duchess—viz. the present Duchess of Argyll, the Lady Blantyre, the Duchess of Leinster, and the Duchess of Westminster—is kept “ever green.”

The Gardener’s Cottage.