completed. John Bridgeman, a guest in that year, wrote “the waterworks and fountains are much beyond anything I ever saw, the cascade has two falls of water which concludes in a noble Bason (sic).” The Powis water garden lasted just over 100 years, and was dismantled by 1809, on the advice of William Emes. Emes, who trained under Capability Brown, swept away the formal parterres and proposed the demolition of the terraces by explosives. The Earl rejected his advice regarding the terraces, although the lowest two were reduced to earthen banks, but permitted the replacement of the water garden with the Great Lawn. The water garden had comprised a series of pools and fountains, interspersed with flower beds and decorated with any array of statuary, a number of which, such as the Fame and the Hercules were relocated to different sites on the estate. The Terraces Four of the terraces remain, the last two having reverted to banks of earth covered with shrubs. Each is 150m in length. The Top Terrace is planted with a range of yew trees, a distinctive feature at Powis. Originally tightly clipped in the form of obelisks, they have grown into an array of amorphous shapes. The 14 “tumps” on the Top Terrace, and the hedge at its eastern end, were planted by the 2nd Marquess in the 1720s. The darker Irish yews elsewhere in the garden date from the following century. Below is the Aviary Terrace, the site of a bird house, which is decorated with four statues of shepherds and shepherdesses by Van Nost. They were once painted in colours, but are now treated with a uniform grey weather-resistant paint. The third level is the Orangery Terrace, which houses an orangery. When built this was heated and was open to the elements, but in the early 20th century the arcade was enclosed with windows and a door case moved from the main entrance to the keep in the Outer Courtyard. A lead statue of a peacock on this terrace came originally from Claremont, Robert Clive’s country house in Surrey. The last remaining terrace is the Apple Bank. Helena Attlee, in her The Gardens of Wales, notes the varied planting styles, sub-tropical on the Top Terrace, Mediterranean on the Aviary Terrace, and British double-herbaceous borders on the Orangery Terrace. Later work William Emes, aside from the destruction of the water garden, did make improvements