By the Rev. J. EB. JTackson. 309 
of Longleat was absolutely necessary. The stream itself was 
nothing but a watercourse, large enough for driving the old Priory 
mill, but insignificant in appearance, when passing through spacious 
grounds close to a spacious mansion. In the artificial Dutch garden 
the brook had been enlarged a little into a straight canal and fish- 
ponds, as seen in Kip’s view; but when these were abolished, the 
problem was how to give greater expansion to the water. Various 
plans were considered, and the one adopted, (at a prodigious ex- 
pense, as Cowper’s introduction prognosticates,) was to produce 
the idea of a large river flowing through the demesne, widened by 
serpentine lines into a lake. 
The Viscount Weymouth, by whom this alteration was made, 
was a Lord of the Bedchamber to George III. (1760), Master of 
the Horse to Queen Charlotte (1764), and Lord Lieutenant of 
Ireland (1765). In 1789 he was created Marquis of Bath, and 
in September of that year he had the honour of receiving as 
guests, at Longleat, the King, Queen, and Princesses, with a 
suite of forty persons. Their Majesties arrived here on Monday 
14th, and departed Wednesday the 16th; there is a minute ac- 
count of their reception in the appendix to Sir R. C. Hoare’s 
history of Warminster. The King was just recovering from one 
of his dangerous illnesses, and was on his return to London from 
sea-bathing at Weymouth. Upon this occasion 125 persons slept 
in the house; nine dinners or luncheons were provided every day, 
besides the grand one; three oxen, six fat bucks, and seventeen fat 
sheep, game, poultry, fish, fruit, and all the good things that could 
be thought of, formed the bill of fare. 30,000 people crowded into 
the park to wave their hats and shout. His Majesty went up to the 
top of the house, and remarked of the view, that notwithstanding 
the trite description of the grandeur and beauty of Longleat it very 
far exceeded any idea he could possibly have formed of it. 
The first Marquis of Bath died in 1796. The nobleman who 
then succeeded, was the late Lord Lieutenant of the county of 
Somerset, the grandfather of our noble host. Before speaking of 
any changes and improvements in house and grounds, or elsewhere, 
on the property over which he presided for forty-one years, it will 
yar 
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