568 



Garden Calls : — Sandpit Gate, 



is said " that the quantity of muriate of magnesia being greater than is 

 usually met with, and its being conjoined with svilphate of magnesia and 

 sulphate of soda, render it su[)erior to Cheltenham water." * A rustic 

 pump-room {fig. l\4.), from a design by Mr. Mangles, has been erected 



over it; extensive walks, formed in the copse woods around it; and, hard 

 by, a spacious mansion, late the residence of Captain Forbes, R.N,, has been 

 opened as a hotel and boarding-house, on reasonable terms. The situation 

 being desirable in point of distance from London, and in a country afford- 

 ing abundant food for the botanist, and the lover of the picturesque, we 

 should hope it will succeed. As in the case of our Epinal hat (p. 559.), the 

 patronage of some distinguished person would be a useful beginning. Two 

 or three poor nobles of high fashion might have the run of the hotel and 

 spa for the summer, in consideration of their coming to the hotel in bad 

 health, taking the waters, and finding the greatest benefit from them. 



Sandpit Gate. Aug 4, — The effect on entering is very grand, and the 

 castellated lodge is not unsuitable to a royal forest. The eye, passing over 

 a portion of naked ground, looks down on descending groves, and rises 

 again to meet a horizon of hanging oak-woods ; all the mass is grand, the 

 minor parts bold and irregular, and the effect of the whole at this time 

 heightened by a cloudy sky, with occasional gleams of sunshine. The only 

 tree which appears planted by the hand of man is a variegated lioUy in the 

 foreground, tall, aged, but retaining its variegation. Near the gate are some 

 miserable-looking wooden hovels, containing the king's menagerie. This 

 was not the state-day for seeing the giraffe ; but we had a glimpse of the 

 noble animal through the large chinks of the weather-boarding of the old 

 barn in which he is lodged : he appears thin, sickly, and very inferior to the 

 giraffe of the Jardin des Plantes. 



Ascot Place, near Sunning Hill ; Miss Ferrard. Aug. 4. — The park here 

 has long been celebrated for its grotto, designed by the late proprietor, 

 Daniel Agace, Esq., and executed under his directions by one Turnbull, a 

 Scotch mason. It is in better taste than most grottoes ; and we do not 



* See the analysis of the water, with remarks, in the Quarterly Journal 

 of the Royal Institution for March, 1829, and in the Philosophical Magazine 

 for August, 1329. 



