148 Whately's Observations on Windsor Castle, 



it would no longer be disgraced by the wall which now con- 

 fines and disfigures it; and the still greater blemish in the 

 prospect occasioned by the neighbourhood of the town might 

 by degrees be corrected, if every vacant space which could 

 at any time be purchased were planted with trees, to conceal 

 the buildings, and interrupt their contiguity. 



It would be a further improvement of the scene, if the 

 steeps immediately below the terrace were covered with a 

 thicket extending the whole length of the hill, and continued 

 to different distances upon the plain. On the surface of a 

 wood in such a situation, great varieties might be produced 

 by massing the several tints of green ; and if the trees and 

 the shrubs were also arranged in forms of unequal growth, 

 an appearance of irregularity might be given to the ground. 

 The bare formal slopes would be converted into a rich fore- 

 ground to the picture, and the precipice be softened into a 

 broken and extended declivity. 



But the greater effect of this plantation would be from 

 below. It would there be a hanging wood with all the towers 

 and all the spires of Windsor Castle rising above it. The 

 scenes exhibited betAveen the groves of a lawn, with such a 

 noble boundary on one side, and bordered by the Thames on 

 the other, would be the most magnificent in the garden. 



A garden admitting so much variety of disposition would 

 be fully adequate to the mansion ; and yet this spot, both in 

 extent and in character, is the least of the immediate append- 

 ages to the castle ; for the Great Park, though not contiguous, 

 is so clearly connected by its avenue, so near in prospect from 

 the terrace, and so full in sight all the way which leads to it, 

 that it always appears to be within the domain ; and it is, in- 

 deed, the domain of a palace ; all the parts are on a great 

 scale; the eminences are considerable hills, the valleys are 

 broad ; the lawns are spacious ; the woods are full of the largest 

 trees ; and the composition of the several scenes is, in general, 

 equal to their dimensions. Few improvements are wanting, 

 and they must be in a style both grand and simple. The 

 most obvious is, to restore the head, and make some little 

 alterations in the form, of the Virginia Water, which would 

 then have the semblance of a beautiful river. In some other 

 vale, about which the rising grounds are steep, and where the 

 soil is always strong, the occasional currents from the hills 

 might be collected into a vast lake, which should fill all the 

 bottom. Some distinijuished situations should also be chosen 

 for buildings ; and the sublimest ideas of architecture would 

 not be misapplied on such objects as these scenes would re- 

 quire. The noblest temples of ancient Greece and Rome 



