REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 171 
except the side to the eastward of the abbey, along which there remains 
a part of the ancient terrace-walk, which, no doubt, once encompassed 
the whole. From this terrace-walk a stranger perceives, for the first 
time, that the river issues from under an arch nearly opposite the corri¬ 
dor before mentioned, and that it is tunnelled under the approach, in 
order that no anticipation of the existence of water may be had till the 
house is reached. 
The kitchen garden lies to the westward and somewhat in the rear 
of the house, is walled around, and at the front wall, which is exposed 
to the dressed lawn ; there is a bit of pleasure ground planted with 
shrubs and flowers. 
The view from the south windows down the valley, with the river 
sparkling here and there, is the best, and, though bounded by lofty 
woods on each side, is very interesting; but the view from the lower 
end upwards is truly and magnificently picturesque. From hence the 
abbey appears in all its grandeur, occupying a little eminence in the 
middle of the valley ; its various members of buttresses, pinnacles, 
turrets, embattled parapets, projecting mouldings, with their deep sha¬ 
dows, together with the glistening vanes of the turrets, altogether pre¬ 
sent an object of the most imposing character ; and being embosomed 
in “tufted” headed trees, contrasting so well with the prevailing per¬ 
pendicular lines of the Gothic architecture, is a most harmonious asso¬ 
ciation, and a subject worthy the most expert disciple of Claude Lorraine. 
(To be continued.') 
MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 
Reminiscences op a Voyage to and from China (continued 
from page 149).—So much is the love of flowers predominant in China, 
that almost every window-sill and every bit of a court in front or yard 
behind the houses of the shopkeepers and tradesmen are filled with 
plants either in the ground or in pots of different shapes, sizes, and 
colours. Some of the finest specimens of the Chinese magnolias we 
met with in the back courts of some of the merchants’ houses; and in 
such confined places there are what they call complete pleasure-gardens 
to be seen. We will describe only one of these, to serve as a sample of 
their taste. 
In a back court belonging to Sinchong, the great china-ware 
manufacturer, we saw one of these gardens on a very small scale indeed. 
It occupied one corner of a paved yard, and consisted of a little irregular 
pool of water, in a nook of which grew a Leinfaa (Nelumbium spe - 
