ON GARDENS 247 



27 Aug., 1678. I tooke leave of the Duke, and 

 din'd at Mr. Hen. Brouncker's, at the Abby of 

 Sheene, formerly a monastery of Carthusians, there yet 

 remaining one of their solitary cells with a crosse. 

 Within this ample inclosure are several pretty villas 

 and fine gardens of the most excellent fruites, espe- 

 cialy Sir William Temple's (lately Ambassador into 

 Holland), and the Lord L isle's, sonn to the Earle of 

 Leicester, who has divers rare pictures, and above all, 

 that of Sir Brian Tuke's by Holbein. 



After dinner I walk'd to Ham, to see the house 

 and garden of the Duke of Lauderdale, which is 

 indeede inferior to few of the best villas in Italy 

 itselfe ; the house furnish'd like a greate Prince's ; the 

 parterres, flower gardens, orangeries, groves, avenues, 

 courts, statues, perspectives, fountaines, aviaries, and all 

 this at the banks of the sweetest river in the world, 

 must needes be admirable. 



Hence I went to my worthy friend Sir Henry Capet 

 [at Kew] brother to the Earle of Essex : it is an old 

 timber house, but his garden has the choicest fruit of 

 any plantation in England, as he is the most industrious 

 and understanding in it. 



