500 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



study as you will flad in any of the architectural works, with the 

 advantage which the reality always, has pver its counterfeit. , 



Frqih this little village to Chatsworth House, or palace, is abojit 

 two miles, through a park, which is a broad valley, say a couple of 

 miles wide by half a dozen long. It is indeed just one of those 

 vallays which our own Durand loves to paint in his ideal landscapes, 

 backed by wooded hUls and sylvan slopes, some three hundred or 

 four hundred feet high, with a lovely ]^nglish river — the Derwent — 

 running like a silver cord through the emerald park, and grouped 

 with noble drooping limes, oaks, and elms, that are scattered over 

 its broad surface. After driving about a mile, the palace bursts upon 

 your view — the broad valley park spread out below and. before it — 

 the richly wooded hill rising behind it — the superb Italian gardens 

 lying around it — the whole, a palace in Arcadia. On the crest of 

 the hill, from the top of a picturesque tower, floats the flag which 

 apprises you that the owner of all that you see on every side— the 

 park of twelve miles_ circuit (filled with herds of the largest and most 

 beautiful deer , I h^ve yet seen), valley, hills, and the little world 

 which the horizon shuts, in^s at home in his castle.v - ■ ; 



The palace is a superb pile, extending in all some eight hundred 

 feet, It is designed in the classical style, and is built of the finest 

 material, — a stone of a rich goljien . brown tint, which harmonizes 

 well with the rich setting of foUage, out of which it rises. , 



Cavendish , is the family name^ of the Duke of Devonshire, and 

 this estatelsecame the property of Sir W. Cavendish, in the time of 

 Elizabeth, The main building was erected by the first Duke in, 1702, 

 aijd the stately wings, containing the picture and sculpture galleries, 

 by the present, Duke. Kvery portion, however, is in the finest pos- 

 sible order ^nd preservation ; and it would bp diflacult for the stran 

 ger to point out which part of the palace lielongs to the eighteenth, 

 and which to the nineteenth; centuries. ? 



You, enter the gilded gates at the fine portal atone end, of the 

 range, and drive along a court some distance, till you are set down 

 at the main entrance door of .the palace. The middle of the court 

 is occupied by a marble statue of Orion, seated on the back of a 

 dolphin, aibout whicluthe waters of a fountain are oonistantly play- , 

 ing. From the chaste and beautiful entrance hall rises a broad 



