Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/322

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
308
Walks in the Black Country

without money and without price, he has instituted a noble race, in which he leads the runners for a prize well worthy the highest nobility of England.

In addition to these general and gratuitous admission days, fêtes have been produced in these gardens on a scale equal to those of Versailles. On one occasion 250,000 variegated lamps illuminated the walks, shrubbery, flowers, and plants. About 60,000 persons were present, who came from parts as distant as London. Leeds, and Liverpool. The conservatory showed every line, curve, and cornice of its structure, and appeared a vast prism which coloured the branches of the oaks and elms. The fireworks were of infinite variety, but the water view of the lakes was the masterpiece of the scenery. A three-masted frigate and a gunboat had a kind of naval action and poured into each other shot and shell of coloured fire. A pigeon of living flame flew backward and forward over the scene, and every device of pyrotechnic genius was called into requisition to make a fascinating spectacle.

The Enville Gardens are as full an illustration of the artistic culture and grouping of flowers as can be found in England. But side by side with the development of all this culture and floral susceptibilities has progressed, pari passu, the cultivation of the human community of the village and neighbourhood. The results produced in this