524 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



yrha, turning their backs upon the numberless fine natural sites, with= 

 ■which- our country abounds, choose the barest and baldest situation, 

 in order that they may dig, delve, level and grade, and spend half 

 their fortunes, in doing what nature, has, not a mile distant, offered 

 to them ready made, and a thousand- times more beautifully done. 

 Osborne House may be' a tolerable residence (we mean respecting 

 its out-of-door pleasure) fifty years hence ; "but it is^ alinost the only 

 country-seat that we saw in England, that looted thoroughly raw and 

 uncomfortable. I suppose, in a country where every thing, seems 

 finished, there is asingular pleasure in taking a place in the rough, 

 and working beauties out of tameness and insipidity. 'The Queen 

 lives here, and walks and drives about the neighborhood, in a coin- 

 patatively simple and unostentatious manner, and attracts very little, 

 attention, alnd her husband practises farming and planting, quite in 

 good earnest. / ' . i 



-A country-seat, only a mile distant, in a thoroughly English 

 taste, was a complete contrast to-the foregoing, ^nd gave us great 

 pleasure. This is Norris Castle, built by Lord Seymour, but now * 

 the property of Mr. Bell, who resides here. Neither the,pla,ce, nor 

 the house, is larger than several on the Hudson, and the grounds 

 reminded me, in the simple lawn, or park, sprinkled with fine groups 

 of- trees, of Livingston Manor and EUerslie. The house gave me 

 greater pleasure, than any moderp castellated building that I haVe 

 seen; partly because it was simple, and .essentially domestic-looking, 

 and yet, ■with a fine rejish of antiquity about it. The fa9ade may, 

 perhaps, be one hundred and thirty feet, and I was >never ijiore sur- 

 prised than when I learned tljat the whole was erected quite la.tely. 

 The walls are of gray stone, rather lough, and they get a large part 

 of their beauty fi-om the luxuriant vines tl;iat festoon every part of 

 the castle. The vines are the Ivy, and our Virginia creeper, inter- 

 mingled, and as both cling to the stone, they form th« most pictur- 

 esque drapery, which has, in a few years, reached to the top of the 

 battlemented tower, and given a mellow and venerable character to 

 the whole edifice. 



We dined at Newport, th^ substantial little town, which, lying 

 nearly in the centre of the Island, serves as its capital and principal 

 market. Xh"e Isle of Wight, enjoying, as it does, a wholly insulated 



