56
THE GARDENS OF WARLEY PLACE.
by carp of great age. These ponds date from the time when
Warley Place was the sanatorium of Barking Abbey. Here we
find two picturesque pools fed by natural springs which rise in
the hill-side. They show very little diminution in the water
level, even in the dryest summers. There are many rare trees
and shrubs round these pools, but there is no sense of artificial
arrangement; they look as though placed there by nature, and
a king-fisher darting across the water completes the illusion. A
most interesting feature is an Alpine hut, fitted with its mountain
furniture and herdsman's gear, which is sheltered amongst the
bays. It was brought from Bourg St. Pierre, where it had
witnessed the passing of the First Consul Buonaparte and his
army in that memorable May of 1800 when he crossed the Alps
by the Great St. Bernard pass, and descended into the Val
d'Aosta on his way to occupy Milan.
Many British plants are naturalised on the borders of the
ponds. The "Saracen's Consound" (Senecio saracenicus) from
the banks of the Dee, Campanula macrantha from Thirsk, Mimu-
lus aureus from Fountains Abbey, and some plants of Mimulus
luteus collected near Ware on the occasion of an Essex Field
Club expedition up the river Lea. Doronicum pardalianches from
Devon, and Cladium mariscus are amongst the many interest-
ing British plants. In the water and at its edges are many of
our British aquatic plants brought to Warley from their native
habitats.
Ascending the sharp incline by the nut-walk, we skirt an old
red-brick garden wall, thick and high enough to withstand a
siege, but which now serves the peaceful purpose of sheltering
some fine Camellia bushes, which grow well and produce myriads
of blossoms, appearing to be equally indifferent to hot summers and
biting winds and late frosts. A Camellia reticulata planted some
ten years since, when about twelve inches high, has now reached
nine feet high, and bears thirty or forty splendid blossoms. It is
probably the only plant known to have flourished so luxuriantly
away from the West Country. On the same wall is a fifteen-year-
old Lapageria, which produces some forty or more flowers, and
has ripened seeds. Here also are Ampelopsis striata, Carpen-
taria californica, Azara gillesii, and Stuartia pseudo-camellia,
while flourishing in the border is a thick mass of Lomaria magel-
lanica, and in addition to all the Hepaticas some fine Dodecathcons.