Natural History in the English Counties, 491 



* Where, all unseen, the cavalier 

 May pour his love in maiden's ear. 

 And kiss the hand he loves so dear,* 



" The main portion of the garden is divided, by luxuriant hedges of privet 

 and beech intermixed, into eight sheltering compartments, in which are 

 arranged, after the system of Linnaeus, the several classes of plants. The 

 neat and appropriate manner in which these are laid out in beds, intersected 

 by minor walks, and affording, at each progressing step of the visitor, new- 

 objects of admiration, can only be estimated by inspection. Suffice it here 

 to state, that the collection is copious, and comprises all the rare tribes and 

 varieties in every class of Linnaeus, beginning with the second and ending 

 with the twenty-fourth. The health and vigour of the plants, numbers of 

 which are delicate to rear, * bearing,' as they do in their alternate seasons, 

 * their blushing honours thick upon them,' is the highest testimonial of the 

 taste and liberality of the proprietors, and of the skill of Mr. Shepherd, 

 the superintendent botanist. Their several tribes and species are distinctly 

 labeled on small white boards, thus affording to the botanical student the 

 utmost facility in his researches. In the borders the shrubs and flowers are 

 placed, indiscriminately, in a pleasing variety; and the attention of the 

 lounger is often arrested to examine some hitherto unobserved, beautiful, or 

 extraordinary relative of the numerous family of Flora. The collection 

 also embraces many varieties of mosses, and creeping shrubs, and grasses ; 

 and we never beheld richer specimens of the Paedni^ and the genus Z>el- 

 phfniura. 



203 



" We now return to the conservatory. In front is a spacious walk, on 

 each side of which are placed commodious garden seats. Close to this, and 

 between it and the main compartments of the garden to the south, is a rich 

 grass-plot, decorated with shrubs and trees at each end, and in the middle 

 beautified by an extensive oval pond, full of pure water, and partially over- 

 grown with the yellow and white water-lily, the bulrush, and other rarer 

 aquatic plants. The enchantment of this delightful little sheet of vvater is 

 such, that it is found necessary to encircle a considerable space round its 

 margin with an almost invisible wire fence, to prevent the banks from being 

 trodden in. The pond abounds with the silver and gold fish, which, at this 

 season, when they are about casting their scales, are either purely scarlet or 

 gold coloured, white and glittering like silver, or present a motley appear- 

 ance of both. Here are also tench and carp (some of the former two or 



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