dSO UEITBKS I'EOM KNGLAND. 



♦ 



was of course bought by the present owner at a merely' nomimttf! 

 suin, compared" with its original cost: 



England, though in the. main remarkable for its common sense, 

 abounds with instances like this, of large wealth applied to the in-^ 

 dulgence of personal taste — ^to the building of a great mansion, the 

 collection of books,' pictures, or to the indulgence of personal whims 

 or fancies. Thus the Earl of Harrington has in his seat near Derby, 

 a peculiar -spot of twenty or thirty acres, wholly filled, with the rarest 

 and most beautiful everff/reens in the world — vyhere araucarias and 

 deodars, bought when they were worth', five or ten guineas apiece'j 

 are as plentiful now as henilocks in Western New- York ; where 

 darkrgreen Irish yews stand along the walks like sable sentinels, and 

 gold and silver hollies and yews are cijt into peacocks, shepherds, 

 and shepherdesses, and all manner of strange and fantastical whim- 

 sies. The conceit, though odd (I had a glimpse of it), is the finesft 

 specimen of its kind in the world — ^yet the oiivner — an old man now 

 — who has amused himself and spent vast sums on this garden for 

 twenty years past, will not let a soul enter it — ^unless it may be sonle 

 gardener whom it is impossible to itnagine a critic: Even the Duke 

 of Devonshire — so: the story goes — in order to get a sight pf it 

 went incoff. as a kitchen gardener. The Duke of Marlborough, a 

 few years ago, had a private garden at Blenheim, surrounded by a 

 high wall, intowhich even his own brother had nbt been admitted. 

 You see even the inost ainiable qualities of the heart-^those which 

 lead us to make our home^ happy — occasionally riin into a mono- 

 mania. ' ' 



I left the Isle of Wight with the ffeeling that if I should ever 

 need tjie nursing of soft airs and kindly influences in a' foreign land, 

 I should try to find my way back to it again. Even one, blest wifh 

 exofeUent health, and usually insensible to the magical iJifluence which 

 most persons find in a change of air, finds something added' to the 

 pleasurable sensation of breathing and taking exercise, in the de; 

 licious summer freshness of this spot. 



There is another memoraiidum which I made here and which is 

 worth relating. In England at large, the gi-eat wealth of the landed 

 aristocracy, and the enormous size of their establishments, raises the 

 houses and gardens to a scale so fa;- above ours, that they are not 



