along the south wall in summer came, there can be little doubt, from Holland. So the Queen diverted herself when her cold and ungrateful husband was taking enjoyment with Elizabeth Villiers and his Dutchmen. She lived chiefly in the "Water Gallery," a small house looking upon the river, busying herself with her needle and among her china; and "giving," says Burnet, "her minutes of leisure with the greatest willingness to architecture and gardenage."
The last work for the decoration of the gardens which we can ascribe to William and Mary together is the set of thirteen iron gates or screens (more strictly, twelve screens and a gate), which form the finest specimens of wrought ironwork that can be seen in England. They were at first intended to screen the private gardens from the river path; now one stands in the Long Walk, two are placed in the Queen's Guard Chamber, and the rest may be seen in the South Kensington and Bethnal Green Museums. Mr. Law[1] has shown that they were designed by Jean Tijon, though they were partly executed by a Nottinghamshire man, Huntingdon Shaw. The extraordinary delicacy of the work, the rich elaboration of the design, and the variety of the foliage represented, make the work unique. The main features of the work are of course classical, and they link the art of the Renaissance to that of the famous decorative period which marked the latter part of the eighteenth century in England; but their originality and variety are among
- ↑ Vol. ii. pp. 54, sqq.
