248 Notes on Gardens and Country Seats : — 



no doubt be added before the place is completed. In the 

 interior are some good-sized rooms, particularly the library. 

 Notwithstanding all this, we are of opinion, that, to produce a 

 house suitable to the situation, the cheapest and best way would 

 have been to pull the whole down and rebuild it. The views 

 from the house, on the entrance front, are singularly grand. To 

 the right, they command the park scenery, with its high hilly 

 outline of wood as the boundary, and the temple beforemen- 

 tioned seen rising from a wooded valley. To the left lies the 

 valley of the Kennet, several miles in width ; a rich hilly corn 

 country rising beyond. The principal view from the lawn 

 front forms a striking contrast to those already mentioned. In 

 this view we look down to a smooth grassy hollow, and up to the 

 wild woods of Sidon Hill. To the left of this, the Beacon Hill, 

 with its bold outline and bare surface, the latter partially con- 

 cealed by a wooded eminence rising from the valley right before 

 it, forms a fine contrast to the rich wooded scenery of Sidon. 

 This last-mentioned hill is ascended by a spiral drive, partly 

 open, and partly wooded, which terminates unexpectedly in a 

 triumphal arch, through which the eye looks down on the house, 

 the pleasure-ground, and the whole park, as on a map. The 

 substratum of this hill being chalk, the turf has the smooth 

 character belonging to the downs or pastures of chalky districts ; 

 and this circumstance, together with the wild manner in which 

 sloe thorns, junipers, and other native shrubs have risen up on 

 it, forms a remarkable contrast to the smooth polish of the 

 pleasure-ground, and its groups of rhododendrons and magno- 

 lias, below. From the east front of the house is seen, within the 

 pleasure-ground, upon a raised platform, a very handsome Pal- 

 ladian temple, roofed, and having a floor, but open on all sides. 

 It is a most impressive and delightful object, and is in correct 

 architecture, though now somewhat out of repair. This temple 

 (like the circular one on the border of the approach road) is 

 seen from many points of view in the grounds, and always with 

 excellent effect. 



" The beauties of this place are entirely the creation of the 

 last two Earls of Caernarvon, father and son. When Henry 

 George, the first Earl of Caernarvon of the Herbert family, 

 succeeded his uncle in 1769, the place consisted of a small 

 pleasure-ground on two sides (the east and south) of the man- 

 sion-house, and a long avenue of beech trees, included between 

 two quickset hedges, which connected the pleasure-ground with 

 Sidon Hill. This hill, which is now covered with the most luxu- 

 riant vegetation, had then only five beech trees, and a few ash 

 and oak. To the north of the house, a series of enclosed fields 

 and a rabbit warren extended to Milford Water, then subdi- 

 vided into three ponds, with the natural beech wood before- 



