Hints for the Improvement of the Town of Southampton. 589 



a gravel walk surrounds it, by the side of which, at about equal distances, are 

 placed Newton, Locke, and Bacon ; pursuing the walk from this last, you 

 suddenly come upon Spenser and Chaucer ; and, lastly, a handsome stone 

 urn, dedicated by Mr. Penn to his cousin, the Honourable Richard Thomas 

 Dawson, son of the late Viscount Creraorne. 



Having now perambulated the flower-garden, there is little more to interest 

 the attention. The walk to the church and shrubbery adjacent to the church- 

 yard deserves, however, some little notice. The walk leads through a wilder- 

 ness of thorns, and, crossing an artificial waterfall by a wooden bridge, shortly 

 after enters the park; by crossing which, either upou the grass or by fol- 

 lowing the carriage road, at a distance of about 200 yards, we come to what 

 is called the church shrubber}', which commands a private entrance to tlie 

 church through a neat small cloister ornamented with painted glass. The 

 shrubbery has several chairs, interspersed with inscriptions from the " Long 

 Story," illustrated by vignette views painted upon the backs. One of these, 

 upon an artificial mound, commands a very picturesque view of the church and 

 churchyard, immediately over the graves of Groom and Tyacke, the two 

 domestics made mention of by Gray in his " Long Story." It is but a short 

 distance hence to the kitchen-garden, one of the remaining appendages to 

 the old manor-house ; but, though of considerable antiquity, it is very pro- 

 ductive, and has a good pinery, vinery, &c., with small fish-ponds in it. 



StoJce Park, Oct, 1833. 



Art. VI. Hints for the Improvement of the Town of Southampton, 

 with a short Notice of the Vineyard at Shirley. By the Con- 

 ductor. 



The business Avhich took us to Southampton was our being 

 employed by the town council to make a plan for a General 

 Cemetery ; and being rather poorly, and finding the air of the 

 town agree with us better than that of the Isle of Wight, which 

 we had previously tried, we remained there a month. 



Southampton is a town rapidly increasing in houses and popu- 

 lation, but, unfortunately, it seems to have been badly managed ; 

 the town council consisting of two political factions, the object of 

 one of which was to defeat the measures of the other. A better 

 feeling now prevails, and both parties are uniting for the general 

 good. The corruption of the citizens who are electors is well 

 known to all who read the newspapers. A citizen observed to 

 us on this subject, that " the devil is not so black as he is painted, 

 nor are the citizens so corrupt as attempted to be shown before 

 the election committees for party purposes, and as appeared by 

 the newspapers at the time." As a proof of the influence of the 

 radical faction, we may state that above a year ago the other 

 party had fixed on a situation for a cemetery, high, dry, and 

 with the soil of gravel to an unknown depth ; but, under the 

 pretence of its being half a mile too far from town, the bill in 

 parliament for authorising it was defeated by a sort of trick, 

 notwithstanding the horrors which, as is proved in the Report 

 on the Health of Toions, were then daily taking place in the 

 3d Ser.— 1843. XL UQ 



