588 Classical Garden of the Mason School. 



Mr. Penn, some years ago, had designed to attempt an improvement in this 

 part of his grounds, by excavating and raising mounds of earth, making breaks 

 into the woods, &c. &c. ; but the uncertainty of producing an effect commen- 

 surate with the magnitude and expense of the undertaking deterred him for 

 the time from putting his plan in execution. 



The flower-garden lies to the westward of the house, and is formed upon 

 the plan presented to the reader of poetry by Mason, in the fourth book of his 

 English Garden. A number of busts, upon terms of antique shape, are inter- 

 spersed among trees and shrubs, each having an inscription upon a tablet in 

 front, selected by Mr. Penn, mostly from the works of the author to which it 

 is affixed ; those of Latin, Greek, and Italian having, for the benefit of the 

 unlearned in these languages, a translation upon a movable panel at the back, 

 which lifts into view. 



Upon first entering the garden, a walk of a considerable length, of an easy 

 sweep, presents itself to view, leading out of which, a little way along to the 

 right, is a recess containing about a quarter of an acre, ornamented by clumps 

 of shrubs and flowers upon a fine turf, surrounded by a gravel walk, by the 

 verge of which, appropriately placed, are the busts of Dante, Tasso, and Ari- 

 osto ; and, centrally, a plain green -pedimented summer-house, in which are 

 placed miniature busts of Montesquieu, Moliere, Racine, Boileau, Corneille, 

 Fenelon, Voltaire, and Rousseau ; all, with the exception of the two last, 

 being tastefully embraced hy branches of palm in basso relievo. Return- 

 ing asain to the principal walk, the eye is directed to the busts of Horace and 

 Maecenas ; and, next, to that of Mason, conspicuously placed ; retiring behind 

 which, by narrow walks through a thicket of shrubs, you are brought into a 

 broad walk, which Mr. Penn has classically designated the " Peripatetic's 

 walk." Bordering upon this, and other winding branches from it, are placed 

 the busts of Cicero, Seneca, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno. Turning 

 back, and proceeding along the principal walk, you are brought to the broad 

 part of the garden, facing which, and commanding a view of Windsor Castle, 

 is the Temple of Fancy, a Doric structure after the plan of the temple dedi- 

 cated to the Muses on the banks of the Ilissus, containing a bust of Shake- 

 speare. From here may be seen the busts of Anacreon, Pope, and Gra)'. 

 A little further on, beneath the branches of a magnificent oak, Petrarch is 

 placed. 



We are now brought to the termination of the principal walk, meeting 

 another at right angles, which, pursued a little to the right, brings us to a 

 bust of Waller (appropriate to the inscription taken from Akenside), opposite 

 an opening to the park. In a small recess we next come to an elegant urn of 

 Bath stone, dedicated to the Right Hon. Lady Juliana Penn, whereon Mr. 

 Penn, with a " filial respect and love," has attempted to record some of the 

 virtues of his amiable mother. The walk leads now, through a thick shrub- 

 bery, to the termination of the dressed part of the grounds and a bust of 

 Thomson, opening to the view a scene admirably contrasted by its wildness 

 with the one we have just left, and carrying the eye over to Windsor Castle 

 and Eton College. You may either pass on through a wicket-gate, and re- 

 enter opposite the bust of Virgil, or return a little and approach the same spot 

 by a walk within the boundary of the garden. From a seat here, surrounding 

 the base of an oak, is seen, in rather a romantic situation, overhung by a 

 " spreading beech," the ice-house, disguised by a wall of artificial rockwork, 

 presenting a cave- like appearance ; over one of the openings of which is in- 

 scribed the word " Tityri," associating it with the bust of Virgil, which is 

 near this spot ; the classic reader will readily enter into the spirit and mean- 

 ing of this. There is a pleasing variety and effect of seclusion from the dell- 

 like appearance of this part of the ground. The next object we come to is a 

 fine youthful head of Milton, modelled by Chenie from an original portrait. 

 After passing a glade commanding an angular view of the house, together with 

 an extent of park, we are brought to another portion of flower-garden, situ- 

 ated, as it were, in the centre of a wood enriched with rare shrubs and flowers ; 



