98 HORTIC Hl/rUKAl. TOUR. 



vi -rv naturallv and gracefully with the surrounding coun- 

 trv, — which indeed may be said to be a continued garden. 

 The vista view from the house is so contrived, that it 

 stretches imperceptibly into the natural wood in the dis- 

 tance. The house, like most of the others which we have 

 visited in the Netherlands, is moated, or immediately sur- 

 rounded with water. This, we should imagine, must be 

 prejudicial not only to health, but to comfort. Here the 

 water is very near the surface ; and so low and flat is the 

 situation, that the pond which surrounds the house does 

 not seem to require feeders. 



We are well aware how tedious and how unsatisfactory 

 detailed descriptions of scenery generally prove. Even 

 the accounts of Hagley, by Heeley, Maurice, and Wheat- 

 ley, soon satiate the reader ; and if the classical seat of 

 Lord Lyttelton do not possess sufficient interest, what 

 may be expected from minute details regarding the level 

 green lawns and still waters of a Belgian demesne ? Al- 

 though, therefore, we shall notice only a few of the most 

 prominent features, in the order in which they occurred to 

 our observation, we must bespeak the indulgence of the 

 reader. 



Soon after leaving the house, we came to a circular 

 pond, around which, on a double row of raised terraces, 

 numerous orange-trees are placed at this season of the year. 

 The collection of these is great, there being not fewer than 

 150 plants, large and small. Some of the specimens are 

 excellent, and have not been so unmercifully clipped as those 

 at the Ghent Garden. Several inches of the surface-soil of 

 the boxes in which the orange-trees are planted, consisted 

 almost wholly of hcn-pcn, and this acrid manure was near- 

 ly in a recent state. 



Observing a pagoda rearing its head above the trees, 

 (Ve walked towards it. With the exception of the pa- 



