A nobleman's seat. 491 



florid Gothic architecture for this building. Certainly, it looks like 

 throwing away such delicate detailsj — to pile them up amid the 

 smoke of London, which is, indeed, already beginning to blacken and 

 deface them. But, on the other hand, the beauty and fitness of the 

 style for the interior seeln to me unquestionable. The very com- 

 plexity appears in keeping with the intricate machinery of a gov- 

 ernment, that rules an empire almost extending over half the 

 globe. 



Picture of a Noblema^n's Seat. — I shall finish this letter with 

 a sketch of a nobleman's seat, where I am just now making a visit; 

 and can therefore give you the outlines in a better light than travel- 

 lers generally can do: The seat is called Wirnpole— the property 



of the Earl of H- , and is situated in the fine agricultural district 



of Cambridgeshire. It is not a '■' show place ;" and though a Resi- 

 dence of the first claSs, especially in extent, it is only a fair speci- 

 men of what you may find, with certain variations, ioi many counties 

 in England.' . > - 



The landed estate, then, amounts to more than thirty-seven thou- 



•sand acres — a large part admirably cultivated. The mansion,' ■which 



stahds in ih& midst of one of tbose> immense and beautiful parks 



which one only finds in England, is a spacious pile in the Eoman 



, style, four hundred and fifty feet front ; rather plain and antique 



- without, but internally beautiful, and in the highest degree complete 



^both as regards aiTangement and decoration. The library, for 



example, is sixty feet long, quite filled with a rich collection of books. 



The suite of drawing-rooms abounds with pictures, by Van Dyck, 



EubenSj.and other great masters; and there is a private chapel, in 



which prayers are read every morning, capable of containing a 



couple of hundred persons. 



In fent of the house, a broad level surface of' park stretches be- 

 fore, the eye, and is finely taken advantage of as a position for one 

 of the noblest ' avenues of grand old elms that I have seen in Eng- 

 land; an avenue three miles, long, and very wide — ^not cut in two 

 : by a road,* but carpeted with gi-?iss, like a broad aisle of verdure. 

 Place atthe end, of. this a distaj^t hill, and., let the avenue be the 



* The approach is, at the side. 



