The walled garden consists of 3 ½ acres. The pine walk, one of the most notable features of Hamwood, was laid out in the 1860s. Hamwood had a unique design all of its own, and was not modelled on other gardens.
Constance Hamilton, who was qualified and worked as a gardening consultant, designed a number of the rockeries in Hamwood.
Along the walks in Hamwood there are lines of apple trees bearing excellent fruit. Charles Hamilton discovered in the 1860s that the soil locally was not suitable to having good crops of apples. So a trench two feet wide was excavated to required depth and the proper soil, brought from elsewhere, was substituted. This shows the trouble taken, and the resources devoted, to this gardening enterprise.
On 23 March 1880 Charles William Hamilton died at the age of 77 in 40 lower Dominick Street.
Charles Robert Hamilton succeeded his father in 1880 and moved into Hamwood. Born in 1846 he was educated, like most children of his class, at home by a governess. At the age of about 16 he went to Trinity to study law. Shooting was among one of his main interests. Unlike his children he did not take to hunting being " a bit fond of himself" as the major Charles Robert Francis (his grandson) recalls. He preferred the company of his friends in the Kildare street club of which he was a member. He also travelled a frequently, mostly to the continent. The garden as it stands today owes much of its beauty and splendour to him. He erected most of the glasshouses and hired a head gardener who had been trained at the famous Kew gardens in England, a reflection of the seriousness with which he took gardening.
In 1874 he married Louisa Caroline Elizabeth. He had ten children, Lillian Mary, Amy Kathleen, Ethel Grace, Constance Louisa, Charles George (who died at birth), Frederick Arthur, Henry John, Gerald Francis Charles (The heir to the house) and famous painters Eva and Letitia
Eva and Letitia Hamilton
Eva was born on 28 June 1876, followed by her brother Charles in 1877. Letitia,
known as May to her family, was born in July 1878. The artistic tradition was strong in
the family. Their great grandmother Caroline (nee Tighe) had been an artist specialising in
satirical and social sketches. Many of these
Sketches hung on the walls at Hamwood as Eva Letitia grew up. Their grandfather, Charles William Hamilton, who was the owner of Hamwood from 1857 to 1880 was an amateur artist.
The broader aesthetic sense of this family also found expression in development of the gardens at Hamwood, which had been commenced by their great grandfather in 1780. The garden at Hamwood provided much of the subject matter for the early work of both Eva and Letitia. Its existence must have heightened their aesthetic sense.
Eva, the elder sister, was the first to have her paintings