HYLAND
In the immediate precincts of the house Brown removed
patterned walks and terraces, supplanting them with
sweeping, undulating lawns and a ha-ha. North of Syon
House, orchards and vegetable gardens were relocated
to make way for Brown's remarkable 'Syon Pleasure
Ground,' embellished with "every foreign shrub, plant and
flower which may be adopted by the soil of this climate,"
and "the choicest trees and plants from all quarters of the
globe." Presiding over this exotic array he had erected a
statue of the goddess Flora on a 55 foot Doric column.
The 'productive' gardens, now oriented to the south,
accommodated new crops: stove houses were built for the
cultivation of pineapples, a hot wall built for the growing of
vines, and in one of these buildings was nurtured the first
tea plant to grow in Europe in 1773.
