416 Notes on Gardens and Country Seats : — 



in the Palladian style of course, with a centre, and two wings 

 joined by segmental corridors ; a most unsuitable style, according 

 to modern ideas, for a baronial residence in the centre of an 

 ancient forest. This house has for some years past been under- 

 going renovations, and receiving additions in the same general 

 style; but we regret to say that we never in the whole course of our 

 observation met with any thing more unsatisfactory, either exte- 

 riorly or within. The chief fault lies in the works having been 

 begun apparently without any general plan. In whichever way 

 the exterior elevation is viewed, it is without grandeur; and 

 within there are some parts, such as the hall, plainly finished 

 even to meanness, and lighted by sloping sashes, exactly like 

 those of a hot-house; and some small rooms finished in the 

 most gorgeous style, with the most elaborate inlaid floors of 

 different- coloured woods, and carved doors and wainscoting, 

 and highly enriched cornices and ceilings. There is no large 

 room yet finished ; the walls of the library are built, but those 

 of the dining-room are not commenced, and, in our opinion, they 

 never should be, for it is beyond the power of man to make a 

 good whole of this house. The principal bedrooms not only 

 have low ceilings, but, to aggravate this evil, the windows do not 

 reach to above two thirds of their height, so that they never can 

 be properly ventilated. The small size of the windows, also, 

 makes the rooms appear gloomy and dark, and this, contrasted 

 with their gorgeous French furniture, gave us more the idea of 

 princely tombs (such as we have seen in the vaults of Peters- 

 burg and Konigsberg, covered with rich furs and velvet, and 

 with a pi'ofusion of gilding), than of cheerful sleeping-rooms. 

 There is nothing that takes away from the idea of habitableness 

 and enjoyment so much as overlaying things with ornament. 

 Coming out of these rooms, one is really quite astonished at the 

 meagre finishing of the hall and principal staircase. There is 

 a wing containing a Doric conservatory, the columns hollow, 

 and their flutings filled in with glass ; the triglyphs and other 

 parts of the frieze are also filled in with glass : conceits most 

 unhappily at variance with Doric simplicity and elegance. Ad- 

 joining this, but not joined to it, and evidently an after-thought, 

 is an architectural orangery with an opaque roof, higher than 

 the other, and sufficiently discordant with it to harmonise with 

 the rest of the place. It is not yet finished, and, were it not for 

 the sake of Mr. Burns's fine orange trees, we should be tempted 

 to wish it never may. There is a terrace connecting these ap- 

 pendages with the main body of the house, from which a flight 

 of steps descends to the flower-garden. 



We refer our readers, for the plan of this garden, to VII. 

 138.; in which they will find the forms of the beds, and the 

 plan and position of the terrace and orangery just mentioned. 



