Motcombe House, StourJiead. S3 5 



August 28. Shaftesbury. — Towns may be divided into three 

 kinds : the most ancient, placed in situations not easily accessible 

 to an enemy, as on the summits of hills, such as this town ; in 

 situations favourable to the commerce of the middle ages, as on 

 the sea-shore or on rivers ; or in situations favourable to modern 

 commerce, or in flat countries which may be intersected by level 

 roads. Whatever else of good the reform bill may have done, 

 the disfranchisement, partially or wholly, of such towns as Shaftes- 

 bury cannot but be favourable to the morals and industry of the 

 people ; because it will oblige members of families who have 

 hitherto lived upon bribes, to apply themselves to industry ; and 

 when this is the case, such an inaccessible site as Shaftesbury 

 will soon be comparatively deserted. It is best fitted for forming 

 a magnificent country seat ; as there is a considerable portion of 

 table-land, the views from which on every side are varied and 

 extensive. It is curious to observe a remark in the road-book, 

 that one half of the inhabitants live by carrying water ! At the 

 inn where we stopped, the well was 120 ft. deep to the surface 

 of the water; but, by sinking this well 50 ft. deeper, and em- 

 ploying a small steam-engine, the whole town, the population of 

 which is between 2000 and 3000, might easily be supplied. We 

 were glad to observe a number of fields at the bottom of the 

 hill, subdivided into potato and cabbage grounds, for the people 

 of the town. 



Motcombe House, Lord Robert Grosvenor. — The situation is 

 flat and dull in the extreme ; because it is flat without water on 

 the ground, and without hills in the immediate vicinity ; in short, 

 a flat in the midst of a flat. Along the road there is an extensive 

 plantation recently formed, the weeds in which, such as docks 

 and thistles, both in full seed, were more abundant than the trees. 



Stoiirhead, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart. — This celebrated 

 place is so well known, that we shall make no attempt to de- 

 scribe it. Alfred's Tower is distinctly seen from Shaftesbury, 

 and, indeed, from the rising grounds for twenty miles round 

 on every side. Such towers are always sources of gratification 

 in a country ; they afford pleasure to every traveller, and in that 

 respect, thej' are altogether more noble objects than those tem- 

 ples and other garden buildings, which afford pleasure to, or, 

 perhaps, more correctly speaking, are seen only by, the occu- 

 pier or visitants of the place. Stourhead may be character- 

 ised as a fine specimen of country residences of the old school 

 of modern gardening, as well in the manner of laying it out, 

 as in the style of keeping it up. There is a good deal of 

 formality and quaintness mixed with fine natural features in 

 this place ; formality in the regular cutting of the undergrowths 

 and hedges of laurels, which, as a lady who accompanied us 

 observed, looked like beds of gigantic moss, and overgrown 



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