220 



MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



are decorated with fine vases, statues, and 

 fountains. A pretty effect is produced by 

 avenues of Portugal laurels, grown with sin- 

 gle s'tems and round heads, like the orange 

 trees that always border the walks of the gar- 

 dens of the continent ; and the Duke men- 

 tioned, in passing, that the Prince and Prin- 

 cess BoRGHESE, who had been guests at 

 Chatsworth but a few days before, had really 

 mistaken them for orange trees. But one 

 point where the Italian gardens of Chats- 

 worth must always be finer than any in Ital}', 

 is in the carpet of turf which forms their ground 

 •^ork. The " velvet turf" of England is 

 world-wide in its reputation ; but no one, till 

 lie sees it as it is here — short, tufted, elastic 

 to the tread — can realize that the phrase is 

 not a metaphor. A surface of real dark green 

 velvet of a dozen acres, would scarcely soothe 

 the eye more, by its look of softness and 

 smoothness, than the turf in the Italian gar- 

 dens at Chatsworth. 



But the crowning glory of Chatsworth, is 

 its fountains. In a country where water is 

 always scarce, a situation that affords a pretty 

 stream, or a small artificial lake, is a rarity. 

 But the whole of the hill, or mountain, 

 that rises behind the house and pleasure 

 grounds, is full of springs, and has been made 

 a vast reservoir, which is perfectly under 

 command, and fulfils its purposes of beau- 

 ty as if it were under the spell of some 

 enchanter. If you will suppose j-ourself 

 standing with me on the upper terrace of 

 the Italian gardens that morning, behind you 

 rises up the palace, stately and magnificent ; 

 all along its front of 800 feet, those gar- 

 dens extend — a carpet of velvet, divided by 

 broad alleys, enriched by masses of the rich- 

 est flowers, and enlivened by fountains of va- 

 rious forms, sparkling in the sunshine like sil- 

 ver. Before you, also, stretches part of these 

 gardens — a part in which the principal feature 

 is a mirror-like lake, set in turf, and overhung 



by a noble avenue of drooping lime trees — 

 beyond which you catch a vista of the distant 

 hills. 



Out of this limpid sheet springs up a foun- 

 tain, so high that, as you look upward and 

 fairly hold your breath with astonishment, you 

 almost expect it, with its next leap, to reach 

 the sky ; and yet, with all this vast power 

 and volume, it is so light, and airy, and beau- 

 tiful, and it bursts at the top, and falls in such 

 a superb storm of diamonds, that j'ou will not 

 be convinced that it is not a production of na- 

 ture, like Niagara. This is the Emperor 

 Fountain — the highest in the world ; about 

 the height, I should say, of Trinity Church 

 spire.* It is only suffered to play on calm 

 days, as the weight of the falling water, if 

 blown aside by a high wind, would seriously 

 damage the pleasure grounds. 



As the eye turns to the left, the wooded 

 hill, which forms the rich forest back-ground 

 to this scene, seems to have run mad with 

 cataracts. Far off among the precipices, near 

 its top, you see waterfalls bursting out among 

 the rocks, — now disappearing amid the thick 

 foliage of the wood, and then reappearing 

 lower down, foaming with velocity, and 

 plunging again into the dark woods. To- 

 wards the base of the hill stands a circular 

 water-temple, out of which the water rises. 

 It gushes out as if from the hydrant of the 

 water gods, and, running down a slope, falls 

 at the back of the gardens down a long flight 

 of very broad marble steps, that lead from the 

 water-temple to the edge of the pleasure 

 ground, so as to give the effect of a water- 

 fall of an hundred or more feet high. This 

 wealth of water, as if some river at the 

 back of the mountain had broke loose, and, 

 after wild pranks in the hills, had been forced 

 into order and symmetry in the pleasure 



* The height of Ihe Emperor Fountain is 2G7 feet. The 

 next liigheft fountains in the world, are one at Hesse Cassel, 

 190 feet; one at St. Cloud, 160 feet; and the great jet at Ver- 

 sailles, 90 feet. 



