HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



building rising to the airy height of some two-hundred and twenty feet, 

 will be a striking object for a vast distance around ; and from the palace 

 will doubtless be one of the most extensive and certainly the richest views 

 in England ; for, besides looking down upon the gardens, rich in all kinds 

 of decorations, the eye will sweep over some forty miles of country. 



The gardens occupy the south front of the Palace, sloping down a gentle 

 declivity towards the railway above alluded to, and although a great portion 

 is still in an unfinished state, sufficient progress has been made to enable 

 visitors to form some idea of what the eifect will be when the whole of the 

 works connected with those matchless gardens shall have been completed. 

 The narrow slope between the basement of the palace and the level of the 

 first terrace is covered with a close verdant turf, and the terrace itself is 

 in a very forward state. This terrace is supported by a handsome wall, 

 running its whole length, or seventeen-hundred feet, faced with Bath stone, 

 and crowned by a massive and elegant balustrade. Several flights of broad 

 steps lead from this down to the second terrace, which is to be laid out in 

 flower beds in grass, intersected in various directions, by gravel walks. The 

 basins for the numerous fountains with which it is to be ornamented are 

 excavated, and will soon be completed. Two conspicuous looking objects, 

 in connection with the palace, are the towers for affording a fall for work- 

 ing the fountains. These are placed one at each end of the building, and 

 will, we believe, be carried some two-hundred and eighty feet in height. 



The main central walk, leading from the principal transept through the 

 two terraces, has been put into shape as far as where the first great fountain 

 in the park is to play ; and the balustrading along the top of the lower ter- 

 race wall has been continued down the sides of this walk as far as it is raised, 

 and round the fountain, till it terminates in two neat piers a little below 

 the latter. The slopes from the base of the stone work down to the level of 

 the surrounding ground have been turfed, which has the effect of setting off 

 the white stone with which the terrace walls are formed to great advantage. 

 All along the terrace walls the little piers, which are twenty-four feet apart, 

 are to be surrounded by vases filled with flowering plants ; and we under- 

 stand that beds of sweet smelling flowers are to be scattered plentifully along 

 the grassy bank below the first terrace, so as to yield an agreeable perfume 

 to visitors looking over the wall on the magnificent gardens below, with their 

 delightful groups of ornamental shrubs, flowers and fountains. A large 

 tract of ground lying between a natural knoll, or little hill, on the west side 

 of the first great fountain in the park, and the front of the terrace gardens, 

 has been laid down in turf, or sown with grass seeds, and completed ; and 

 the walks in this part of the grounds have been made and rough gravelled. 



