234 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



thick underwood, at least 30 foot high. The narrow winding 

 walks and paths cut in it are innumerable ; a woman in full 

 health cannot walk them all, for which reason my wife was 

 carry'd in a Windsor chair like those at Versailles, by which 

 means she lost nothing worth seeing. The walks are terminated 

 by Ha-hah's, over which you see a fine country and variety of 

 prospects every time you come to the extremity of the close 

 winding walks that shut out the sun. Versailles has indeed the 

 advantage in fountains, for there is not one in all this garden ; 

 but there are two very noble pieces of water full of fish, and 

 handsomely planted and teraced on the sides. In one part of the 

 wood, and in a deep bottom, is a place to which one descends 

 with horrour, for it seems the residence of some draggon ; but 

 there shines a gleam of light thro' the high wood that surrounds 

 and shades it, which recovers the spirits, and makes you sensible 

 a draggon would seek some place still more retired. This place 

 may be call'd the Temple of Pan or Silvanus, consisting of 

 several apartments, arches, corridores, &c., composed of high 

 thriving ews cut very artfully. In the centre of the inner circle or 

 court, if I may call it so, stands the figure of a guilt satyr on a 

 stone pedestal. ... I pass over the bowling-green, and large 

 plantations about the house, which are but young, but I must not 

 forget a bench or seat of the famous Edmond Waller's the Poet, 

 which is so reverenced that, old as it is, it is never to be 

 removed, but constantly repaired, like Sir Francis Drake's 

 ship. The present Waller is his grandson. All this fine 

 Improvement is made by himself or Aisleby, his father-in-law, 

 who had this house and the lands about it, in right of his wife's 

 joynture, but gave it up in the South Sea year to his Son-in- 

 law. There is a great deal more still to be done, which will 

 cost a prodigious sum, but this gentleman by marriage South 

 Sea and his Paternal Estate [is able] to do what he pleases." 

 After such a charming description it is pleasing to find that Hall 

 Barn has been but little altered ; and a seat bearing the poet's 

 name remains to this day. 



Lord Percival was a capital correspondent, and some other 

 letters to Daniel Dering give his impressions of the gardens 

 he saw on his tour about England in 1723, thus :^ — "To 



