DECEMBER. 285 



STOKE PARK. 



All who have travelled along the once great London road bet veen 

 Slough and Burnham, cannot have failed to remark this white stone 

 edifice rising up from amongst the trees a little to the north of 

 Slough, and close to the well-known village of Stoke, in the church- 

 yard of which lie the remains of our favourite poet Gray. Stoke 

 Park was once the residence of the famous William Penn, the founder 

 of Pennsylvania; and it has remained in the possession of his de- 

 scendants ever since, until within these last five or six years, when 

 it became the property of the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, M.P. 

 The house, a modern building, with a dome-shaped observatory on 

 the top, and ornamented at the sides with long rows of fluted Doric 

 columns, stands on a gentle eminence near the centre of a noble 

 park, which is well- wooded, chiefly with Oak, and contains a numer- 

 ous herd of deer. A fine piece of water winding round the valley 

 at the bottom of the rising ground on which the house stands, with 

 its raised stone bridge, over which the south approach passes, and 

 little cascades half hid among trees, serves to set off the grounds to 

 much advantage. Part of the old family residence (bearing date 

 1555) still stands, and is inhabited. One or two of the rooms, with 

 their ancient furniture, are, we understand, preserved in their original 

 state. 



This fine place is gradually increasing in interest. The improve- 

 ments in the park, grounds, and garden, within these five years, have 

 been very extensive. Round three sides of the mansion a grass ter- 

 race, between thirty and forty feet in width, has been formed, with a 

 walk in its centre fifteen feet wide, terminated at each end by a 

 flight of stone steps, which leads to the adjoining pleasure-grounds. 

 Between two wings of the mansion, a conservatory has also been 

 formed, the roof of which is a ridge-and-furrow one, and the floor 

 wood, both in the style of the late Crystal Palace. 



Several acres have been added to the pleasure-grounds, and laid 

 out in clumps of shrubs with grass vistas between them. Pinuses 

 have been planted in several of these openings, and they are doing 

 remarkably well. The soil here being gravel to within a few inches 

 of the surface, before any thing could be planted, the gravel had 

 to be all sifted, and good mould carted and mixed with what passed 

 through the sieve. Nevertheless, the several specimens of Pinuses 

 which are dotted through the grounds, are very promising, and have 

 made good growth for the time. The following are the heights of 

 a few of the principal : Picea pinsapo, 8j feet ; P. nobilis, 8 feet ; 

 P. Fraseri, 14y feet; P. cephalonica, 13^ feet; Pinus Douglasi, 

 26 feet; P. patula, 15 feet; P. insignis, 15 feet; Abies Menziesia, 

 13 feet; Cedrus deodara, 24. A few flower-beds are also scattered 

 over the lawn ; but the frost has now done its work among the 

 plants, and preparations are making for their winter and spring de- 

 coration. 



