504 Notes of a Gardening Tour in 1833. 



sunk, has established a charity school in the building which Mr. 

 Mortimer used as a manufactory, and in which all children are 

 educated who choose to attend. 



Aug. 30. — Wardour Castle ; The Earl of Arundel. — This place 

 takes its name from the very fine ruins of the original castle; 

 but the modern mansion is a plain Grecian edifice with wings, 

 without a portico to its main entrance, and not only objectionable 

 as a piece of architecture, but as unconnected with the grounds 

 either by mural appendages, or sufficient woody scenery. It 

 contains a Grecian chapel, which is much admired; but, for 

 our own taste, we have never seen a chapel either in Italy or 

 England in that taste which can be compared with those in the 

 Gothic manner. The situation of the house, though not marked 

 by nature, is yet good with reference to the whole place, and the 

 surrounding scenery as seen from it. Looking from the garden 

 front, there is a very nobly wooded ridge, nearly a mile in length, 

 which forms the boundary to the landscape on the left, and to the 

 right other woods, corresponding in extent, though on less ele- 

 vated ground. At the bottom of the wooded ridge is seen the 

 ruins of the ancient castle, and, in front, a lawn of great extent 

 leads the eye to an artificial river. The fine feature of the 

 place is the terrace walk or drive, a mile in length, on the side of 

 the wooded ridge. It is as fine a thing of the kind as is to be 

 met with any where ; and being open to the south and south- 

 west, and completely sheltered from the north and north-east, it 

 forms an admirable winter walk, or drive. It has been ori- 

 ginally planted with oaks, silver firs, elms, beeches, hollies, 

 and some other trees, with a general under-growth of laurel ; so 

 that in the winter season it must be particularly cheerful. The 

 views from it, down the steep grassy slopes between the trees to 

 the ruins, the modern house, the extensive lawns, and the water, 

 (here seen to the greatest advantage), or over the trees to the 

 distant country, with the hills in the horizon, are grand, varied, 

 and interesting. In these views, Fonthill, and the tower at 

 Stourhead, are striking objects. The soil is perfectly dry, con- 

 sisting of a mixture of sand and peat, in which every thing, es- 

 pecially laurels, seem to grow with astonishing luxuriance. The 

 laurels are, indeed, too conspicuous objects, and in many places 

 they form a line much too formal along the upper edge of the 

 walk. An attempt has been made to remove this formality by 

 introducing rhododendrons here and there in the margin, which 

 is so far good ; but the only effective method is to open glades 

 of turf, and to exhibit these glades stretching far up the steep 

 sides of the hill. The great beauty of a regular, broad, and 

 avowedly highly artificial, walk of this sort, consists in the con- 

 trast produced by the irregularity of the scenery on each side of 

 it. The descent from this terrace to a grotto, and thence to the 



