528 Notes on Ga7'dens and Coiintry Seals. 



displayed, the more remarkable, because there appeared to 

 be no want of workmen or of materials. 



There are three classes of persons who build or plant : 

 those who have taste enough to form their own designs; those 

 who have little taste, but employ artists ; and those who are 

 without taste, and who concoct their plans with working me- 

 chanics, or some other persons in their employ. Three fourths 

 of all the building and gardening done in the country is exe- 

 cuted in this last manner; and hence it is that we despair of 

 any very great improvement in matters of taste till a know- 

 ledge of its principles shall become generally diffused : till 

 gardeners shall understand the principles of design in garden- 

 ing, as well as they now do those of culture: till masons, 

 bricklayers, and carpenters shall be as familiar with the com- 

 position of forms and lines, as they now are with the cutting 

 and fitting of stones, or the trussing of roofs; and, finally, till 

 masters and mistresses, and the whole mass of society, under- 

 stand the general principles of composition, both in architecture 

 and landscape. 



Stoke Park, J. Perm, Esq. — This is a very interesting 

 place on many accounts. Its present possessor is the grand- 

 son of the celebrated Penn, the founder of the state of Penn- 

 sylvania ; and, had this gentleman's father not been a royalist, 

 his income from his American possessions, we are informed, 

 on the best authority, would now have exceeded six hundred 

 thousand pounds a year. Stoke Park is also interesting, as 

 being the scene of Gray's " Long Story," and of his cele- 

 brated " Elegy in a Country Churchyard." The yew trees 

 immortalised by the poet are still in existence ; but most of the 

 " rugged elms " have been cut down. What we principally 

 regretted, however, Vt'as the removal of nearly all the old 

 Elizabethan mansion, which is said to have been one of great 

 architectural beauty. Gray was buried in the churchyard ; and 

 near it, in the grounds, there is a plain massive pedestal, sur- 

 mounted by a sarcophagus, erected to his memory. On the 

 four sides of the pedestal are four appropriate extracts from his 

 Elegy. There is also a monumental column in the park, to 

 the memory of Sir Edward Coke, the celebrated lawyer. The 

 grounds consist of a considerable extent of table land, from 

 which an irregular winding slope descends to the south. 

 This slope is very gentle ; but it is still sufficient to give the 

 walks along the brow, and especially the house, commanding 

 views of Windsor Castle and the adjoining country. The 

 grounds were first modernised under the direction of Mr. 

 Repton, about the time when he and Mr. Main were laying 

 out those of Chalfont House : but they have been since 



