Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/316

302 raining and chill, with a strong wind. Our landlord, however, fitted us out with waterproofs and umbrellas, and we sallied forth to see from under them the beauty and glory of the Enville Gardens rather veiled in mist. The gardener-in-chief took us over them with the greatest cordiality, and passed by no part of them without notice, though the wind reefed our umbrellas in spite of us several times while facing the beating rain. The grounds far exceeded our conception for extent and artistic embellishment, though we had heard glowing accounts of them. They must surprise even a visitor who has seen many of the ornamental parks of English noblemen. It is comparatively cheap and easy to plant and group trees of various foliage over a square mile of variegated surface, grazed by sheep and cattle. But to make acres of exquisite lawn, brooched with a thousand flower-beds and belted with choicest shrubbery, is a work of greater taste, genius, and expense. It is this peculiar feature that distinguishes Lord Stamford's grounds from any I have yet seen, and which makes them surpass even Lady Rolle's at Bicton. His flower gardens contain seventy-three acres, laid out in the most picturesque manner, with little lakes, fountains, and bouquets of trees, well supplied with rustic seats. All the flowers of all the zones are here in their glory, worked into the embroidery of miles of walks, skirted by walls of rhododendrons