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WILTON-ENGLISH TREES.

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layers all around, mingling gracefully with each other. Here and there, through irregular vacancies of cavernous obscurity, you perceive the large naked limbs which support all this magnifi'cence. For ages these fine trees grow in beauty, in strength, and in majesty. During another succession of ages the extremities begin to grow thin and perish, the head becomes bald, -the heart is sound still, but the limbs give way; they are paralysed and die, and the trunk alone continues to vegetate, while generations of men appear and die in succession. The beginning of this last state is the best to make a picture of, the second state is the best to look at for the picturesque beauties are not those of gay and flourishing nature.

I measured an evergreen oak (not a large tree naturally); it covered a space of seventeen paces in diameter, and the trunk was twelve feet in circumference. An elm was sixteen feet in circumference, and many appeared about equal. Beyond the water, which, before it spreads out into a stagnant lake, is a lively stream, you see an insulated hill covered with wood. We went to it by a very beautiful bridge. The view from that eminence is fine, and its slope would have afforded a healthier and pleasanter situation for the house. The deer came to the call, and ate leaves held to them;-too tame for beauty, as they lose by it their graceful inquietude and activity, and become mere fat cattle for the shambles. Deer are a good deal out of fashion, and have given way to sheep in many parks.

From Wilton we went to Stourhead. The inn, close to the grounds, is in a romantic little lane, buried in laurels and pine trees, with a picturesque little Gothic church, all grey and mossy. After dinner, we were conducted to the house of Sir

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STOURHEAD-DIGNITY OF SIR R. HOARE.

Richard Hoare. You go up a number of steps, too many by half, to the door, and enter a fine hall, leading to a large room in front, probably sixty by forty feet, and on each side fa wing connected with the hall, by a short gallery. These apartments are full of pictures, none of which are very remarkable. One of the ladies and myself having sat down a moment to look at a picture more conveniently, a young girl who showed the house, told us as civilly as she could, that it was the rule of the house not to allow visitors to sit down. This is a rule of which that gentleman (a rich banker) has the merit of the invention. We have not met with any thing of the sort anywhere else; and there really seems to be less reason for it out of London, and in a place rather out of direct roads.

The upper part of the grounds is very high, scooped out in the middle by a gentle descent, which becomes a deep dell or valley, where several springs unite to form the head of the Stour, -a rapid little river. The grandfather of the present possessor dammed up this valley, which became a little irregular-shaped lake, covering perhaps thirty acres; the outlet, a fall of about twenty feet; the whole surrounded with woody banks and sloping lawns. Three temples peep out of the woods, marking the best points of view. An easy path leads to these stations, round the lake, passing by several fine springs, issuing clear and cool from the bosom of the mountain, one of them in a grotto. There is certainly great beauty in all this; but the water of the lake is dull and muddy, full of reeds and aquatic plants, which mark its stagnation. The lawns are half covered and belittled by shrubs, planted everywhere, particularly endless tufts and thickets of laurels; beau

ARTIFICIAL LAKES-ALFRED'S TOWER. 201

tiful in themselves, but in too great profusion. The woods also are too close, resembling rather an American thicket. None of those magnificent single trees, so peculiar to English landscape, are to be seen here; in fact, I think there is as much done to spoil, as to adorn this fine spot. I have not yet seen an artificial piece of water that bore any resemblance to the water of a natural lake, always so clear; and it seems strange. Perhaps if the surface of a valley intended to be flooded, which is generally a rich soil, was first peeled off a few inches, or spade deep, according to the depth of the mould, aquatic plants would not be so apt to grow in the poor under-soil; worms and insects also would not meet with so much food as among the decayed sod and vegetable mould. The Serpentine River in Hyde Park is, I think, the clearest artificial water I have seen.

The highest part of these grounds is marked by tradition as the spot where the great Alfred raised his standard against the Danes, in 867; and the Hoares have erected there a stupendous triangu lar tower, 150 feet high, with a staircase to the top, where you may go and get as giddy as you please, and gaze at an immense prospect like a geographical map. There is a charm certainly, and a deep feeling of interest in the idea of treading the soil where such a man stood.

July 7.-After going the same round again this morning, we left Stourhead for Bristol, 37 miles of most beautiful country; a continual garden, full of gentlemen's houses and grounds, and of neat cottages, single, and in villages; too much chequered with inclosures for picturesqueness; but exhibit ing every appearance of prosperity. The road very hilly, but in perfect repair, and the horses

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GENTLEMEN'S HOUSES BRISTOL.

excellent, as we have found them everywhere, except in Cornwall and Devonshire. The multitude of gentlemen's houses, scattered over the country, is a feature quite peculiar to English landscape. The thing is unknown in France, where the country, at a distance from large towns, presents only farm-houses and peasants' cottages, and now and then a castle, old and neglected; but none of these houses which are the habitual residence of comfort and elegance. In France, the landed-proprietors have their houses in the nearest little town.

July 9.-Bristol. I rode this morning to a gentleman's, a few miles from town, to whom I had a letter, and I found a place, like all the others, neat, green, and shady. On one side, at a little distance from the house, was a sort of terrace of rocks, sixty feet high, at the bottom of which a rivulet was seen, winding over a broad expanse of black viscous mud; this was the Avon, which, at high water, fills the abyss level with the top of the rocks. On the other side of the house was a green slope, with a flock of Merino sheep grazing. In the distance the Severn, which is there an estuary.

Land in this part of the country rents at from 30s. to 40s. per annum, and sells at thirty years purchase.

As we get farther from London, I think I perceive more moderation in political opinions; fewer people speak of revolution, either to wish or fear it, or believe the people ripe for it. The party of which Cobbett is the mouth-piece, does not appear numerous out of the capital. The masterly caricatures of this Hogarth of the pen, so well known in America, are quite characteristic of the manners and government of England. Foreigners, who read some of the party publications which

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