OCTOBER. 213 



BOWOOD. 



Some four or five miles from the Chippenham station of the 

 Great Western Railway, and within two of Calne, one of those snug 

 market- towns with which Wiltshire abounds, is situated Bo wood, 

 the residence of the Marquis of Lansdowne. The country round this 

 celebrated place, though presenting no very decided characteristics, 

 is somewhat remarkable for its undulating surface, presenthig a series 

 of gently rising hills and deep valleys, diversified by an abundance of 

 wood and cultivated land ; but it is within the park itself that this 

 beautiful part of Wiltshire scenery is shewn to the greatest advan- 

 tage. Here nature has compressed within the space of two or three 

 miles her most lovely charms — hill and dale, wood and water — scenes 

 of sylvan and pastoral beauty are harmoniously blended together, 

 forming a frame-work to the mansion, and adjoining Italian gardens, 

 rarely surpassed. We need scarcely remind our readers, that the 

 pleasure-grounds, connecting as they do the mansion with the park, 

 partake in some degree of its undulating character. They consist of 

 some 80 or 100 acres, and are bounded on one side by a lake of 

 considerable extent, which occupies the valley below the mansion 

 and grounds, and which forms one of the principal features of the 

 park, and shews how completely the "ars est celare arteioi' was 

 studied in its formation and embellishment. The grounds were 

 laid out by the father of the present Marquis, about eighty years 

 ago, and contain numerous specimens of the more valuable trees at 

 that time introduced ; some of them have attained a large size. 

 There is a Hemlock Spruce seventy or seventy-five feet high; one 

 of the largest Stone Pines in England ; a quantity of Pinasters, 

 which form fine picturesque groups; TuHp trees, of large size, in 

 quantities ; while Cedars of Lebanon were planted in such profusion 

 that numbers have had to be taken down, to allow room for the 

 remainder. Besides the above, there is a fine Douglas Fir, forty 

 or fifty feet high ; Pinus insignis, thirty-one feet, and Red Cedars, 

 Cypresses, Hollies, Evergreen Oaks, and the more common kinds 

 of evergreen shrubs, in large quantities, and forming in winter both 

 shelter and variety. The laying-out of the grounds evinces great 

 taste, and is perhaps the best specimen extant of the school of 

 earlier English landscape gardeners, of which Mason, Wheatley, 

 and Price are the best exponents, presenting a succession of lawns 

 and glades, interspersed with openings, shewing views of the lake 

 and the richly-wooded hill beyond, and here and there a group of 

 richly-cultivated country, bounded by the rounded eminences of the 

 western chalk escarpment, wliich forms the horizon line to the east 

 and south. 



In the interior of the grounds a space of nearly six acres (which 

 w^as formerly a nursery garden) has been formed into a Pinetum, and 

 contains specimens of every introduced species of Coniferai. The soil 

 is a sandy loam; and though the plants are small, having been 

 planted only two years, they are making great progress, and will 



