468 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



ton's recommendations were not followed, as the half nearest 

 Knutsford is yet nearly entire ; further on, the openings 

 made by time occur oftener, and when within from a quarter 

 to half a mile of the mansion, nearly half the trees have 

 been removed. At about a quarter of a mile from the man- 

 sion there is erected in it a very fine temple, after the Cho- 

 ragie Monument of Lysicrates, at Athens, and a gravel walk 

 fifteen feet in width, carried from thence through the remain- 

 der of the avenue, and ending in the Italian floral garden 

 designed and constructed by Sir Joseph Paxton, about eight 

 years since. 



About half way up this avenue on the east side and 

 twenty yards distant, is a circle of elms fifty yards in diame- 

 ter and about twelve feet apart ; standing on a knoll, they 

 are from one foot six inches to two feet six inches in diame- 

 ter at four feet above the ground ; in the centre are three 

 smaller ones, that are the remains of an inner circle. On 

 inquiring of the gardener what was the object or design of 

 this circle, I was told he did not know ; it is now called the 

 " Bull Ring." 



, I do not recollect of ever seeing anything of the kind in 

 the plans of old parks, and conclude it must have been de- 

 signed for a " half-way house," or a temple for the wood 

 nymphs. 



Mr. Repton objected to the draining or filling up of the 

 meer near the mansion, and recommended its improvement 

 and the creating of an arm from the lower meer up the val- 

 ley, so as to appear from the mansion to be a river connect- 

 ing the two meers, and gives his reasons for the same, but 

 they are too lengthy to be quoted here ; they may be found 

 with the sketches, showing the original and the proposed 

 effects in " Repton's Landscape Gardening," page 72. 



Many years since, the upper meer was drained because it 

 was thought unhealthy ; and the " yawning chasm," as he 

 called it, is growing up with trees from twenty to forty feet 

 in height. 



Some of Mr. Repton's plantations have entirely disap- 

 peared ; others are sadly mutilated, and probably some that 



