Garden Calls. 557 



Art. IV. Calls in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, BerJcshire, Surrey, 

 Sussex, and Middlesex. 



London to Flitwick House. July 22, — It happens that the most dh-ect 

 route from Bayswater to Flitwick House is by secondary roads and lanes, 

 so quiet and rural, that such a proprietor as the Duke of Bedford, riding 

 along them, might fancy himself on his own estate. As we passed Cannons, 

 at Edgeware, the magnificent and truly aristocratic idea of the Duke of 

 Chandos recurred to our mind, viz. that of having a straight avenue from 

 his house here to his house in Cavendish Square, a distance of above nine 

 miles, entirely on his own estate. Had he lived but a few years longer, it 

 is said he would have realised the idea, as he had succeeded in purchasing 

 every thing necessary but a small spot at Paddington. We can conceive 

 something of the feelings of a man thus desirous of isolating himself from 

 general sympathies, and of the kind of enjoyment which results from being 

 looked up to and flattered, and from the conscious possession of great 

 power ; but we cannot conceive that this species of happiness is at all to be 

 compared with that which would be sympathised in by the whole of human 

 nature; with that, for instance, of a man cultivating his own acres, and 

 happy in his wife and children. At the same time, the enjoyment produced 

 by every natui'al feeling depends so much on its cultivation, that any state 

 of existence may yield happiness by being made the most of; and, without 

 some degree of cultivation, no state, either of riches or poverty, will yield 

 much. Notwithstanding the beau ideal of an English yeoman or an Ame- 

 rican farmer's manner of life, there are few states of existence duller or less 

 enviable than that of an ignorant man and woman working hard on their 

 own farm. To the uncultivated who know any thing better, such a state 

 can only be rendered bearable during a certain period of life, from the in- 

 terest which man, in common with all animals, takes in bringing his off- 

 spring to maturity. By the time that work is completed, such parents as 

 those to whom we. have alluded will have become habituated to dullness. 



To return to Cannons and the Duke of Chandos : what must strike every 

 one as the most remarkable feature in the character of this duke, is his 

 regulated magnificence; his employing the best calculators to ascertain ex- 

 actly to what extent he might carry his annual expenditure without exceed- 

 ing his income, and how that income might be expended so as to produce 

 the most brilliant effect. The magnificence of the house is still talked of by 

 the old people in the neighbourhood. The principal staircase consisted of 

 blocks of Italian marble, 20 ft. long, and the hand-railing was of silver. This 

 house has long since been pulled down, but the lodges at the entrance gates 

 still exist, and are so ample in their dimensions, and commodious within, as 

 to have been let, at different times, as country-houses, to gentlemen of the 

 rank of esquires, magistrates, and ofScers in the army and navy. The duke 

 had a horse-patrol, which perambulated the boundaries of the park, b}' night 

 and day ; a body-guard ; a band of music for general purposes, and one or 

 two eminent musicians for joining them on grand occasions, and leading the 

 church music. That the whole establishment should have been broken up 

 at his death is looked on by some people as a visitation of Providence, for 

 certain alleged irregularities in the mode (in the army, and by marriages) by 

 which he acquired his immense fortune ; we know of nothing on record, 

 however, that indicates him to have been less honest than other menof like 

 rank in his time. Perhaps, indeed, he maybe considered as superior to his 

 contemporaries; not only in having made such an immense fortune, but in 

 having spent it with so much magnificence and liberality. We would much 

 rather see such an establishment as Cannons demolished, than such a one 

 as Blenheim kept up to the ruin or injury of creditors, and to the protec- 

 tion of disgraceful conduct from its natural consequences. We should be 



