34 GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 



and a parlour fronting the parterre which, when the 

 doors are open, gives you a delicious prospect of the 

 whole ; on each side are five rooms more, adorned 

 with a very good collection of pictures ; and in the 

 division betwixt the hall and parlour, on each side, is 

 a staircase that leads you up to the gallery above, 

 containing the same number of rooms. His fine 

 octagon, for the entertainment of his friends at the 

 end of his green-house, I think, is too nigh his house, 

 and I think very much spoils the symmetry of it ; it 

 would have stood better and seemed more rural either 

 at his grotto at the west end of his parterre in his 

 wilderness, or at his mount at the west end of his 

 pleasure garden. He has as good a collection of fruit 

 of all sorts, as most gentlemen in England. His slopes 

 for his vines, of which he makes some hogsheads a 

 year, are very particular. Dr. Bradley, of the Royal 

 Society, who hath written so much upon gardening, 

 ranks him amongst the first-rate gardeners in England. 

 The Earl of Strafford's house, which lies next to Mr. 

 Johnstoun's, with its offices, are very noble ; his 

 gardens also spacious, but not so much to the river- 

 side, are adorned with several gilded statues and vases, 

 which make a very glaring appearance. 



A little house, which belonged formerly to Sir 

 Thomas Skipwith, and was improved and inhabited 

 by that great architect, the late Earl of Mar, with its 



