CHATSWOBTH. 503 



balustrade of the terrace (all of lliat rich golden stone), and catch 

 fine vistas of the park scenery below and beyond you. Of course, 

 the Italian gardens are laid out in that symmetrical style which 

 best accords with a grand mass of architecture, and are decorated 

 with fine vases, statues, and fountains. , A prptty efiect is produced 

 by avenues of Portugal, laurels, grown with single stpins and round 

 I loads, like the orange-trees that always border the walks of the 

 gardens of the continent; and the Duke mentioned, in passing, that 

 the Prince and Princess Borghese, who had been guests at Chats- 

 worth but a few days befo^had really mistaken them for orange^ 

 trees. But one point where the Italian gardens of Chatsworth must 

 always be finer than any in Italy, is in the carpet of turf which 

 forms their groundwork. The "velvet turf" pf England is world- 

 wide in its reputation ; but no one; tiU he sees it as it is here — 

 short, tufted, elastic to the tread — can realize that the phrase is not 

 a metaphor. A surface of real dark green velvet of a dozen acres, 

 would scarcely soothe the eye .more, by its look of softness and 

 smoothness, than the turf in the Italian gardens at Chatsworth. 



But the crowning glory in Chatsworth, is its fountains. In a 

 country where water is always scarce, a situation that affords a pretty 

 stream, or a small artificial lake, is a rarity. But the whole of the 

 hill, or mountain, that rises behind the house and pleasure-grounds, 

 is full of springs, and has been made a vast reservoir, which is pei-- 

 fectly- under coiniaand, and fulfils its purposes of beauty as if it 

 were under the spell of some enchanter. Ejou will suppose your- 

 self standing widi me on the upper terrace of the Italian gardens 

 that morning, behind you rises u^ the palace, stately and magnifi- 

 cent ; all along its front of eight hundred feet, those gardens extend 



a carpet of velvet, divided by broad alleys,*"enriched by masses of 



the richest flowers, and enlivened by fountains of various form, 

 sparkling in the sunshme, like silver. Before you, also, stretches 

 part of these gardens — a part in which the principal feature is-a 

 mirrpr-lik? lake, set in turf, and overhung by a noble avenue of 

 drooping lime trees — ^beyond which you catch a vista of the distant 



hills. 



Out of this limpid sheet springs, up a fountain, so high that, as 

 you look upwai-d and fairly hold your breath with astonishment 



