Ashridge Park. 28 J> 



Sebright, possessing much science and great experience in these 

 subjects. 



Oct. 14. Berkhampstead to Wobum. — We went from Berk- 

 hampstead to Ashridge Park along an excellent new road which 

 leads across the country to Dunstable, and was formed, as we 

 were told, chiefly, or entirely, at the expense of the late Earl of 

 Bridgewater. Various other roads leading to Ashridge were 

 made by the same patriotic individual, who, in this respect, may 

 be said to have displayed a similarity of taste with his ancestor, 

 the celebrated Duke of Bridgewater, the friend and patron of 

 Brindley, the engineer. We entered the park by a very elegant 

 Gothic lodge, built of rubbed white stone and black flints. No 

 one is allowed to enter or go out by this or any other of the 

 gates, without having his name and address put down in a book 

 kept by the porter. An excellent approach road, the length of 

 which is reckoned by miles, leads over an even surface,and through 

 a stately grove, composed chiefly of beech trees, to the house. 

 Every variety of effect is produced that can result from a varied 

 disposition of the trees ; and groups, thickets, scattered trees and 

 bushes, ferns, furze, hollies, thorns, glades, recesses, and natural 

 vistas, succeed each other in endless variety. These were inter- 

 spersed with abundance of red and fallow deer in some places, and 

 horses and cattle in others. No distant prospect, nor any striking 

 object, meets the eye till we are within half a furlong of the house. 

 This grand and irregular pile is seen to very good advantage 

 from this and the Dunstable approach. The two prominent 

 features in the outline are, a square tower near one end, and a 

 lofty spire with a clock at the other. From the two approaches 

 mentioned, these two features fall into perspective in such a way 

 as to form one pile, or group; but when the edifice, or, rather, 

 assemblage of edifices, is viewed directly either from the entrance 

 or garden front, it appears thrown into two groups. Though it 

 does not, when so viewed, form so good a whole, yet it gives an 

 ideaof grandeur and magnificence to an ordinary observer, which, 

 perhaps, would not be produced by the foreshortening of an 

 angular perspective view. 



We first went to see the kitchen-garden, which is upwards of 

 a mile from the house. On our way to it, we descended to a 

 hollow surface, and passed through scenery of a more open and 

 varied description than that of the Berkhampstead approach. The 

 timber trees were, if possible, grander than before : both oaks 

 and beeches had straight clean trunks, often, we have little doubt, 

 50 ft. or 60 ft. high. 



The garden is situated on a steep bank, facing the south-east; 

 the walls appear to have been built between forty and fifty years; 

 but the hot-houses and pits seem of more recent construction. 

 We found the head kitchen-gardener, Mr. Torbron, advantage- 



