ii6 Xant)9cape Hrcbitecture 



unfold to admit you in a deep hollow way blasted 

 in the rock, the stone walls of which are tapestried 

 with the most luxuriant vegetation. The carriage 

 rolls with a dull heavy sound along the smooth 

 rock, which old oaks darkly overshadow. Suddenly 

 at a turn of the way, the castle starts from the wood 

 into broad daylight, resting on a soft grassy slope; 

 and the large arch of the entrance dwindles to the 

 size of an insignificant doorway between the two 

 enormous towers, at the foot of which you stand. " 

 "Let your fancy conjure up a space about twice 

 the size of the Coliseum at Rome, and let it transport 

 you into a forest of romantic luxuriance. You now 

 overlook the large court surrounded by mossy trees 

 and majestic buildings, which, though of every va- 

 riety of form, combine to create one sublime and 

 connected whole, whose lines, now shooting upwards, 

 now falling off into the blue air, with the contin- 

 ually changing beauty of the green earth beneath, 

 produce, not symmetry indeed, but that higher har- 

 mony elsewhere proper to nature's own works 

 alone. " 



And describing the scene more fully he writes in the 

 same letter: 



"The first glance at your feet falls on a broad 

 simple carpet of turf, around which a softly winding 

 gravel path leads to the entrance and exit of the 

 gigantic edifice. Looking backwards, your eye 



