248 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



divisions are made by hedges of yew and* box, which in 

 thickness and density resemble walls of brick. 



Grottoes and fountains are some of the principal orna- 

 ments. The grottoes are adorned with masses of calcareous 

 tuff, corals, and shells, some of them apparently from the 

 East Indies, others natives of our own seas. The princi- 

 pal grotto is large, and studded with thousands of crystals 

 and shells ; we were told that its construction was the 

 labour of twelve years. The fountains are of various de- 

 vices ; and, though old, some of them were still capable of 

 being put in action. One, in which the water is discharged 

 upwards in a continued circular stream, hollow in the mid- 

 dle, had a very pretty effect. Frogs and lizards, placed at 

 the edgings of the walks, and spouting water, to the risk 

 of passengers, were not quite so agreeable ; and other 

 figures were in still worse taste. 



There is a long berceau walk of beech, with numerous 

 windows or openings in the leafy side-wall, and many 

 statues and busts, chiefly of Italian marble, some of 

 them of exquisite workmanship. Several large urns and 

 vases certainly do honour to the sculptor: the subjects of 

 the bass-relief ornaments are the histories of Saul and Da- 

 vid, and of Esther and Ahasuerus. Having mentioned to 

 the attendant, that in England such pieces of sculpture would 

 bring more than a hundred guineas each, we were imme- 

 diately told, that Mr Hope of Amsterdam had offered to 

 pur hase, at a high price, two of the more recent, cut in 

 Carrara marble (as the pedestals bear) by " Jacob Cresant, 

 1738;" 1 but that the owner replied, that the place ha- 

 ving descended from his father and grandfather, it should 

 j-.i l down to his children unimpaired by him. With this 

 becoming resolution we more cordially sympathised, when 

 wc observed^ hard by, a simple monument erected in me- 



