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of Tipperary, ‘which were laid out in the reign of Charles II. 
They lie principally on the gentle declivity of an hill, refting on 
terraces, amd filled with 
“ ftatues thick as trees.” 
A long fifh-pond, fleeping under “ a green mantle” between two 
rectilineous banks, appears in the midft. And in one corner 
ftands a verdant theatre (once the fcene of feveral dramatic ex- 
hibitions) difplaying all the abfurdity of the architecture of gar-. 
dening.. 
Tus did our anceftors, governed by the falfe tafte which they 
imbibed from the Englifh, disfigure, with unfuitable, ornaments, 
the fimple garb of nature.. 
In the reign of Charles I. gardens became the care of the 
legiflature, and an act was paffed in the tenth year of his reign 
to protect their productions. This act is entitled, dx A to 
avoyd and prevent divers mifdemeanors in idle and lewd perfons in 
barking of trees, Fc. Nor were they unworthy the care of the 
legiflature if they refembled, in general, Lord Chichefter’s gar- 
den at Carrickfergus, as I find it defcribed by an anonymous 
traveller, whofe inedited account of his tour in Ireland in the 
year 1634 is now in my pofleflion. “ The onely grace of this 
“ towne (fays my manufcript) is the Lord Chichefter’s houfe, 
“ which is a verye ftatelye houfe, or rather like a prince’s pa- 
“ Jace ; whereunto there belongs a ftatelye gate-houfe, and grace- 
full terrace: and walke before the houfe, as is att Denton, my 
. “ Lord 
