2io 



brighten. The water seems to be a stagnated 

 pool, eating into its banks, and of a peculiar 

 color, not dirty, but cloudy, and dimly reflect- 

 ing the dun hue of the horse-chestnuts and 

 alders, which press upon the brink. The stems 

 of the latter, rising in clusters from the same 

 root, bear one another down, and slant over the 

 water. Misshaped elms and ragged firs are fre- 

 quent in the wood which encompasses the 

 hollow ; the trunks of dead trees are left stand- 

 ing amongst them ; and the uncouth sumach, 

 and the yew, with elder, nut, and holly, com- 

 pose the underwood ; some limes and laurels 

 are intermixt, but they are not many. The 

 wood is in general of the darkest greens, and 

 the foliage is thickened with ivy, which not 

 only twines up the trees, but creeps also over 

 the falls of the ground ; they are steep and 

 abrupt. The gravel walk is covered with moss ; 

 and a grotto at the end, faced with broken flints 

 and pebbles, preserves, in the simplicity of its 

 materials and the duskiness of its color, all the 

 character of its situation. Two little rotundas 

 near it were better away ; one building is 

 sufficient for such a scene of solitude as this, 

 in which more circumstances of gloom concur 

 than were ever perhaps collected together. 



Immediately above the alder grove is the 

 principal eminence in the garden ; it is divided 



