Warwick and Leamington (page 1/4)

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In the Jephson Gardens, Leamington

“Enter the Jephson Gardens now by this eastern end, and go right through to the Parade, and to the Pump Room and Gardens across the Parade. These handsoe Gardens take their title from the celebrated Dr. Jephson, who for many years was a resident of Leamington and made it his home, living in the elegant stonehouse at the corner of DaleStreet called Beech Lawn – making Leamington and himself famous at the same time.

“Here, in these fair Gardens, is the very receptacle of Nature in the middle of a town – a sanctuaryfor birds, an extended bed of roses in June, an ornamental lodge at each end, broad stretches of turf, sweet flower-bordered pathways, a lake with an island and a swannery, secluded glades, sloping woodland walks leading down to the river, a Corinthian temple with statue therein of Dr. Jephson, and a quite Oriental bandstand with a glass-covered auditorium where high-class concertas are held in the summer months. There are but few places in England which can boast of so perfect a beauty-spot, so fair a haunt of the Muses. The town is indebted to the Willes family, of Newbold Comyn, an ancestral estate at the extreme eastern end of the Holly Walk, and especially to the late Edward Willes, [more...] [$]

Front cover of “Warwick and Leamington”

All of the colour plates from this book are online here, including a higher-resolution version of the cover picture, Leycester Hospital. [more...] [$]

The Parade and Pump Room, Leamington

“Crossing the gay Parade from the Jephson Gardens just at its very gayest here, the Grand Pump Rooms and Baths, erected in 1813 at a cost of £30,000, and greatly enlarged and improved since, stand before us, with their imposing colonnade supported by Roman Doric pillars, their spacious gardens, with a picturesque kiosk for the band in the centre, and a shady avenue of lindens, extending from east to west, on the North. Though the former glory of the Pump Rooms, when Royalty and the fashionable world of England were wont to sip their morning glass of spa water [more...] [$]

Leycester Hospital

These buildings mostly date from the 1570s; the site previously belonged to the Guild of the Holy Trinity and St George which was formed in 1383. The BBC has a panoramic tour. This building has been used as a setting in a number of television films, including Pride and Prejudice. [more...] [$]

Guy’s Cliffe Mill, Warwick

Let all fair pilgrims note the postern door in the stone wall of the Cliffe grounds, near the picturesque Saxon Mill, with its decorative wooden balcony, where John Ruskin loved to linger, listening to the soft music of the mill wheel; for through that door, on 25th November 1773, “the divine Sarah” [...] [more...] [$]