peesident's address. 13 



waste, broken only by partial patches of cultivation." " The scene 

 peopled/' he continues, " by the feudal lord in chase of the stag, 

 with his train of half-naked serfs, or the monks of Durham, 

 with their black hoods and scapularies, wandering under cliffs 

 overshadowed by giant yews, which ^ cast anchor in the rock,' 

 or pealing their anthems in deep glens amid the noise of woods 

 and waterfalls. 



" 'Sonantes — inter aquas nemorumque noctem.' " 



Of its present condition, the same writer gives the following 

 graphic description: — "Mr. Burdon* found the estate, after a 

 century and a half of non-resident proprietors, waste and unen- 

 closed, the chapel in ruins, and not a vestige remaining of the 

 mansion-house. He enclosed and improved the lands, rebuilt the 

 church from the ground, and erected a mansion-house, not less 

 remarkable for the beauty of its situation than for the simple ele- 

 gance of its structure."t "To the present proprietor," he further 

 states, "Castle Eden is indebted for much both of useful and orna- 

 mental improvements — in particular, that, without in any degree 

 injuring the romantic character of the place, the wild beauties of 

 the dene have been rendered accessible by a road carried for three 

 miles from the Castle to the mouth of the dene, on the coast." 



"If," continues Surtees, "I have attempted no description of the 

 dene itself, it is for a reason the reader will easily suggest — that 

 it is impossible to convey, in common language, any adequate idea 

 of a ravine four miles in length, varying through its whole extent 

 with the wildest scenery of wood, rock, and waterfall, and ter- 

 minating on the ocean. I will only add that the dene affords 

 some of the rarest and most beautiful plants which inhabit the 

 northern counties. Bloody Crane's-bill, Geranium sanguineum, 

 near the east end of the dene, Ox>Tirys muscifera ; Lily of the 

 Valley, Convallaria majalis, fl. May 17, 1849; Paris quadrifolia ; 

 and, if not totally extirpated by the rapacity of collectors, the 

 rare Lady's Slipper, Cyi:>ri'pedium Calceolus, 



* The late Rowland Burdon, Esq. 



t A graceful addition to these has recently been made by an ample range of conserva- 

 tories, from the designs of Julian Hill, Esq., one of the well-known family of Hills, who 

 have, in various departments, been foremost among the promoters of improvement of 

 the present time. 



