LETTER TO A FRIEND IN LONDON. 
253 
among which rose a fine purple-leaved beech. This, together with a 
fine cedar of Lebanon which stood opposite the lodge, stretching its 
horizontal arms across the entrance, told me at once I had entered upon 
dressed ground ; and the architectural character of the lodge as plainly- 
told me what description of mansion I was about to enter. 
From the gate the smooth and firm carriage road passed through a 
dense and lofty grove of forest trees, whose boundaries on neither side 
were discernible, imparting an idea of confinement in some degree 
painful to a stranger who was eagerly staring about him in every 
direction. While in this irksome suspense the carriage suddenly 
emerged from the deep shade of the wood into open day—a most beau¬ 
tiful prospect lay before me—I called to the post-boy to stop. Leaping 
from the chaise I was enraptured with the varied scene! rich masses 
of wood hung, as it were, upon the slopes of a beautiful valley, which, 
commencing at and retiring from the brow on which I stood, widening 
as it receded, and winding round a promontory on the right, was lost to 
the view. A little way back on this promontory the south-east angle 
and part of the south portico of the house was visible at the distance of 
half a mile; and beyond the point of the promontory, and in the lowest 
dip of the valley, an expanse of water reflected the golden light of the 
western sun ; and which at the same time illuminating the fresh green 
outline of every budding and intervening tree, while their boles were in 
deep shadow, presented altogether a landscape which the most fasti¬ 
dious eye would have paused to admire. 
Full of the pleasing ideas which this foretaste of the place had given, 
I again took my seat in the chaise, and proceeded onwards. The line 
of the approach trended rather to the right in an easy sweep, but as 
far as it could be seen in advance, always seemed to point to the spot 
where the visiter conceived the house to stand ; passing through open 
groves, or across winding glades which allowed pleasing peeps down 
into the valley on the left, or towards a well-wooded country on the 
right hand. Sometimes passing through a herd of deer, which wheeling 
gazed at us as we ran along; or threading a flock of South-down sheep 
which were scattered over the lawn. These different objects and view's 
I shall describe more minutely in another letter, as, passing so rapidly* 
along, I then had but time to note them in memory. 
At last, after passing through a succession of fine scenery along a 
well-designed and easy carriage road, I spied through an opening of the 
trees before me an ornamented turret with its gilded ball and vane, 
which I afterward found to be that of the stable-yard clock. This was 
a beacon announcing my near approach to the mansion ; and so it 
proved, as, on passing through a thicket of lofty trees and holly under- 
