134 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



It was built by the marquis, whose family name is Grosve- 

 nor, at a cost of $180,000 (36,000). The designer was 

 Thomas Harrison, an architect of note, who formerly lived 

 in Chester.* 



By the side of the road we found an oratory, or small 

 chapel, building, and gardeners laying out grounds for a rural 

 cemetery. Beyond this we came to the great castellated edi 

 fice that I have before spoken of as the gateway to the park. 

 Such we were told it was, and were therefore surprised to find 

 within only a long, straight road, with but tolerable mowing 

 lots alternating by the side of it, with thick plantations of 

 trees, no way differing from the twenty-year old natural wood 

 of my own farm, except that hollies, laurels, and our common 

 dog-wood were planted regularly along the edge. After a 

 while we pushed into this wood, to see if we could not scare 

 up some of the deer. We soon saw daylight on the outside, 

 and about twelve rods from the road, came to an open field, 

 separated from the road only by a common Yankee three-rail 

 fence, which I had not expected to see in England ; very poor 

 it was too, at that. 



A stout boy, leaning heavily on the stilts, was ploughing 

 the stubble-ground (apparently a summer fallow}. We jumped 

 over and asked what crop the ground was preparing for. The 

 horses stopped of their own accord when we spoke. The boy 

 turned and sat upon the stilts-brace, and then answered 

 &quot; Erdnow.&quot; 



The same answer, or some other sounds that we could not 

 guess the meaning of, followed several other questions. The 



* The main arch spans two hundred feet, and its height is forty feet, 

 and there two dry arches, each twenty feet wide and forty feet high. 

 From the surface of the water to the road is over sixty feet. The parapet 

 walls are three hundred and fifty feet long, with a carriage-way and foot 

 path between, oftlairty fBt. 



