98 GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 



fitted it up in an elegant and even magnificent style ; 

 the rooms are lofty and of large dimensions ; the fur- 

 niture, which is modern, is of the most costly work- 

 manship, and the pictures at once display the taste 

 and the opulence of the owner. A charming green- 

 house, a cold bath, a succession house, and a pinery, 

 have also been added by that gentleman. The lawn, 

 which was formerly a narrow grass plot, has, within 

 these few months, been enlarged by late purchases 

 from the executors of the Honourable Mr. Shirley ; it 

 runs now almost the whole length of Cross Deep, and 

 being embanked at the bottom, forms a beautiful in- 

 flection parallel to the curve of the river. The top 

 of it is fashioned into a noble terrace several hundred 

 feet in length, from whence Richmond Hill is seen 

 rising like a verdant amphitheatre, out of the bottom 

 of a country finely diversified with wood. The slope 

 which declines gently towards the Thames exhibits a 

 charming and romantic prospect of that noble river, 

 the face of which is ever varying by the continual and 

 uninterrupted succession of objects that float upon its 

 surface. Meandering walks, everywhere shadowed 

 with flowering shrubs and evergreens, afford a cool and 

 agreeable shelter from the scorching rays of the 

 summer's sun, and being peopled by sylvan choristers, 

 who sport here undisturbed, add not a little to the 

 fascinating enjoyments of a situation that at once 



