CLASSIC PLEASURE GROUNDS 23 



in the ancient manner. In front of the portico is a sort 

 of terrace, embellished with various figures and bounded 

 with a box hedge, from whence you descend by an 

 easy slope, adorned with the representations of divers 

 animals in box answering alternately to each other, into 

 a lawn overspread with the soft I had almost said 

 the liquid Acanthus : ] this is surrounded by a walk 

 enclosed with tonsile evergreens, shaped into a variety of 

 forms. Beyond it is the Gestatio laid out in the form 

 of a circus, ornamented in the middle with box cut in 

 numberless different figures, together with a plantation 

 of shrubs, prevented by the shears from shooting up too 

 high : the whole is fenced in by a walk covered with box, 

 rising by different ranges to the top. On the outside 

 of the wall lies a meadow, that owes as many beauties 

 to nature, as all I have been describing within does to 

 art ; at the end of which are several other meadows and 

 fields interspersed with thickets. At the extremity of 

 this portico stands a grand dining room, which opens 

 upon one end of the terrace ; from the windows there 

 is a very extensive prospect over the meadows up into 

 the country, from whence you also have a view of the 

 terrace and such parts of the house which project for- 

 ward, together with the woods enclosing the adjacent 

 hippodrome. Opposite, almost in the centre of the 

 portico, stands a square edifice, which encompasses a 



1 Probably a kind of moss. 



