between London and Cheshunt. 513 



where scarcely any grass will grow ; and the effect when parties walk on these 

 terraces backwards and forwards, especially during the evening or night, is to 

 fill the air with the most delightful fragrance. We can state this from our 

 own experience when forming one of an evening party at the Signor di Negro's, 

 in Genoa, in the summer of 1819. 



South Lodge ; Webber, Esq. — This place has been celebrated byWhately 



for its temple of Pan, and by George Mason for the successful imitation of the 

 picturesque appearance of a by-lane by the Earl of Chatham. As the former 

 author, in 1771, mentions South Lodge as in the occupation of Mr. Sharpe, it 

 is evident that the Earl of Chatham must have left it some time before; so 

 that this picturesque lane was probably formed nearly a century ago. As we 

 expected, we could neither see nor learn any thing of it ; and, indeed, we 

 question much if anything at South Lodge exists as it was in the time of the 

 Earl of Chatham, with the exception of the situation of the house and of the 

 larger trees. The house has undergone various changes, and the temple of 

 Pan no longer exists, nor does any one know where it stood. There is, 

 however, a fine old Palladian bridge, like that at Wilton, but of wood, gra- 

 dually undergoing decay; a large piece of water at the bottom of the park, 

 with islands ; and in the pleasure-ground a more than usually picturesque lake 

 of upwards of an acre, with its margin and islands so admirably planted and 

 placed, as from no point of view to give an idea of the extent or outline, and 

 yet every where to preserve breadth of effect in looking from the walk on the 

 water. The secret of this, as every garden artist knows, or ought to know, 

 is to place the islands in the sinuosities, and never in the middle, as is too 

 frequently done. The park, or demesne, here occupies an immense sloping 

 bank, one third of the way down which is placed the house, and above 

 it are the kitchen-garden and shrubberies. In the latter are some good 

 plants, especially cedars, silver firs, hemlock spruces, deciduous cypresses, 

 and American acers, all of which, unless we except two or three ever- 

 green oaks, must have been planted since the days of Lord Chatham. 

 Among the trees in the park we observed Z?etula papyracea, 65 ft. high, 

 with an immense arm from one side 36 ft. in length, and another arm 

 from the opposite side 35 ft. in length ; the diameter of the trunk, at 3 ft. 

 from the ground, is 2 ft. 2 in. It has been grafted on a common birch, and 

 the scion and stock seem to have accorded very well together ; since they are 

 of the same thickness at the point of union. There are some very large 

 Cornish elms near the house ; a variegated Quercus pedunculata 50 ft. high ; a 

 broad-leaved Quercus Plex 70 ft. high, and the willow-leaved variety of the 

 same dimensions, both standing on hillocks, which sets them off to great 

 advantage ; a silver fir 100 ft. high, with a trunk 2 ft. 10 in. in diameter; a 

 deciduous cypress 70 ft. high, sending up numerous knobs, or knees, as they 

 are called in America, from the roots, as at Syon ; A^cer saccharinum 40 ft. 

 high, and various others. The park is disfigured with some round and oval 

 clumps of 12 or 15 years' growth, which have never been thinned, — some 

 of those " elegant forms, the oval and the circle," which, according to Sir 

 Henry Steuart, are the most generally pleasing forms that the landscape- 

 gardener can adopt in laying out plantations. 



" If masses," says Sir Henry, " must be planted in parks, in order to get 

 up wood for future single trees and detached groups (which, without the 

 interposition of the transplanting, they must be), it is plain that they will 

 continue in existence for five and twenty, or five and thirty years, before 

 they can be cut out -with proper effect. What shape, I would ask, can lie 

 adopted with such distant objects in view, more generally pleasing than 

 that of the <ircle or the oval, or some modification of it ? " And again : 

 " It is to be hoped, that there is discernment enough in our present race of 

 artists, to see the propriety of adopting or restoring those fine figures, the 

 oval and circle, as certainly the best for temporary and large detached 

 masses of wood." {Planter's Guide, 1st ed., p. 422.) It is difficult to 

 account for the above passage in the writings of a man of undoubted taste., 



Vol. XV. — No. 1 14. m m 



