218 Gardetis of Herefordshire. 



the place bungled and spoiled in the end, instead of improved, 

 are the inevitable result of beginning an undertaking without a 

 previous well-considered plan. Under the directions of an able 

 architect and landscape-gardener, Foxley might be made one 

 of the first places of the country ; for the surrounding scenery 

 possesses much natural beauty ; the woods are exceedingly fine, 

 and the picturesque snatches of view caught from the numerous 

 rides with which they are intersected bear witness to the taste of 

 their late talented and much respected owner. Many individual 

 trees are of great size, and some junipers near the house are 

 higher by many feet than any I ever saw. Some real improve- 

 ments have, however, been made ; such as the removal of the 

 farm buildings, which, formerly, were inconveniently near the 

 house, to a distance. The new farm buildings are chiefly of 

 wood, grown on the estate, and cut into boards, &c., by a saw- 

 mill moved by a water-wheel. Besides the sawing apparatus, 

 this wheel also works a cider-mill and a thrashing machine, by 

 the aid of a very simple and effective machinery. 



The gardens are scarcely worthy of notice, consisting merely 

 of a little flower-garden, and a small extent of shrubbery. The 

 only ornamental glass structure is a conservatory, of many years' 

 standing, which contains some large specimens of Fuchsia, Ca- 

 meWia, and similar common conservatory plants. The roof of 

 this house is taken off" in summer, and its inhabitants fully ex- 

 posed to the weather. 



The kitchen-garden is nearly a mile from the mansion : it 

 stands in a good situation, and the soil is fertile ; but it is now 

 wretchedly managed. 



Some years since, there was a tolerably good aviary at Foxley, 

 the late Lady Caroline Price having been passionately fond of 

 birds, and some remains of it still exist. Golden and other phea- 

 sants enjoy comparative liberty in a small lawn ; the precaution 

 having first been taken of docking one of their wings of a joint, 

 to prevent their flying over the boundary walls. 



Garnons; Sir John Geers Cotterill, Bart. This place is about 

 the same distance south of Foxley as the latter is from Gai'n- 

 stone. From its position, on the side of a hill, the mansion 

 commands an uninterrupted view of some miles over one of the 

 finest valleys in Herefordshire, through which the lovely Wye 

 gracefully winds its way. The hills rise to a considerable height 

 at the north side, or back, of the house, and are partially 

 wooded, but much less picturesquely than the high grounds in 

 the vicinity of Foxley. Garnons House was built about the 

 same time as Garnstone (some twenty-five or thirty years since) ; 

 it is also similar in style and materials, but, unfortunately, the 

 beauty of the building, when viewed from the front, is totally 

 destroyed by the want of one wing, in the place of which part of 

 the old house still remains. A battleniented terrace, with mi- 



