European Travel 97 



and girls and women with children, were playing. While 

 watching the cricketers, we were threatened with a shower, 

 and hastened back to look for shelter, which we found in a 

 pagoda, on an island approached by a Chinese bridge. It 

 was soon filled, as were the other ornamental buildings, by a 

 crowd of those who, like ourselves, had been overtaken in the 

 grounds by the rain; and I was glad to observe that the 

 privileges of the garden were enjoyed about equally by all 

 classes. There were some who were attended by servants, 

 and sent at once for their carriages, but a large proportion 

 were of the common ranks, and a few women with children, 

 or suffering from ill health, were evidently the wives of very 

 humble labourers. There were a number of strangers, and 

 some we observed with notebooks and portfolios, that seemed 

 to have come from a distance to study from the garden. 

 The summer-houses, lodges, bridges, etc., were all well con- 

 structed, and of undecaying materials. One of the bridges 

 which we crossed was of our countryman Remington's patent, 

 an extremely light and graceful erection. 



I obtained most of the following information from the 

 head working-gardener. 



The site of the park and garden was, ten years ago, a 

 flat, sterile clay farm. It was placed in the hands of Mr. 

 Paxton, in June, 1844, by whom it was laid out in its present 

 form by June of the following year. Carriage roads, thirty- 

 four feet wide, with borders of ten feet, and walks varying 

 in width, were first drawn and made. The excavation for a 

 pond was also made, and the earth obtained from these 

 sources used for making mounds and to vary the surface, 

 which has been done with much naturalness and taste. The 

 whole ground was thoroughly under-drained, the minor 

 drains of stone, the main, of tile. By these sufficient water 

 is obtained to fully supply the pond, or lake, as they call it, 

 which is from twenty to forty feet wide, and about three feet 

 deep, and meanders for a long distance through the garden. 

 It is stocked with aquatic plants, gold fish and swans. 



