The house is large and commodious; but the chief charm of Holly Lodge is its situation. The views from the house and grounds of the Park, Forest, and distant scenery are unrivalled. The grounds were laid out by Repton, who employed all the skill for which he was famous, in crowding adornment into limited space, and, by a pleasing deceit, to convey an idea of extended territory. Not far from Cranbourn Lodge is a very remarkable oak, called William the Conqueror's oak, at six feet from the ground, measuring thirty-eight feet in circumference. Near this is another veteran of the forest, thirty-six feet in circumference. These trees, with the scenery and prospects immediately round Cranbourn Lodge, will amply repay those who may linger in this picturesque vicinity. Of magnificent prospects, that from High Standing Hill, without the limits of the Great Park, should not be forgotten. "The thick forest scene below, with the continued mass of foliage beyond it, forms a verdant base to the Castle, whose towers, clustered in the perspective, are crowned by the stately Keep, while the town is seen climbing up, as it were, to claim the protection of the fortress above it. The chapel of Eton College rises in the luxuriant vale, which is varied by the uplands of Buckinghamshire, and extends to its distant termination in Middlesex and Surrey." The number of fine seats, in the vicinage of Windsor Great Park, is very great, and their particular description would far exceed the narrow limits to which we are confined, but among the principal we may note: ST. LEONARD'S HILL, conspicuous for its elevated situation, a very noble seat, in the immediate vicinage of the Great Park. It was erected on the site of a cottage by the beautiful Countess Dowager of Waldegrave, afterwards Duchess of Gloucester, and was first called Gloucester Lodge. The great Earl of Chatham, when Secretary at War, made this his country retreat from the fatigues of public business. One of the finest prospects of the Castle and surrounding country is overlooked by St. Leonard's Hill. Tradition will have it that there was a Roman encampment here: in 1717, a brass lamp was discovered under a stone, with a spear head, two pieces of trumpets, cans, earthen pots, &c. The lamp, having been presented by Sir Hans Sloane to the Society of Antiquaries, has since been chosen for their crest. There is at St. Leonard's a field called Hermitage Field, and it is conject that there was hereabouts an anchorite's retreat; a well, known as SUNNING HILL.-WINDSOR FOREST. 353 the Hermitage Well, was several years since stopped up, and although every exertion has been made to discover it, its place of concealment has been hitherto undiscovered. Silwood Park, at present offered for sale, is another of the splendid seats on the outskirts of the Great Park. The house is situated on a rising ground, commanding beautiful and extensive views from either front; and the demesne, consisting of between two and three hundred acres, is laid out as a ferme ornée with great taste and judgment. Not far from Ascot is SUNNING HILL, a small village in Windsor Forest. The medicinal well once gave to this picturesquely-situated spot all the attractions of a watering-place; public breakfasts and assemblies gave life and social cheerfulness to the residents, and the magnificent scenery in the neighbourhood formed an attraction few places of this description can boast. Tittenhurst, or as it is pronounced Titness, in this parish, was the residence of Admiral Sir Home Popham, but has since his time frequently changed owners. At Sunning Hill resided General Fitzpatrick, formerly known in the political world, but remembered chiefly as the friend and associate of Fox, Burke, and other distinguished Members of the Whig party. WINDSOR FOREST was formerly of vast extent, comprising, as appears by ancient survey, part of Buckinghamshire, a considerable district in the county of Surrey, following the course of the river Wey as far as Guildford, and the whole of the south-eastern part of Berkshire, as far as Hungerford. Its original circumference was computed at one hundred and twenty miles; but Norden's map, taken in 1607, makes its circuit seventy-seven and a half miles—an immense royal demesne, certainly, and one which few monarchs could have boasted to possess. In 1789, the entire quantity of land in the Forest was calculated by the Surveyor of the Woods at nearly sixty thousand acres; the parishes within its circuit are twelve in number, and part of five others; and it contains no less than fifteen principal or chief manors, with several that are subordinate or inferior. The Forest has now in a great degree passed out of royal hands, a small portion contiguous to the Great Park only being reserved; the remainder having been granted, devised, or otherwise disposed of to private individuals. The Forest contains one market-town and several villages: the principal in point of size and population is WOKINGHAM. In the chancel of the parish church is a monument to the memory of Thomas Godwin, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who was born, and died here. Archbishop Laud was a liberal benefactor to this parish: the proceeds of the fee farm rents, bequeathed by him, are divided, pursuant to the donor's intention, every third year, between three poor maidens, of the age of eighteen, natives of the town, and members of the Church of England: -the other years they are appropriated to apprenticing boys. The Rose Inn at Wokingham is the scene of the whimsical, burlesque ballad, "Molly Mog,"-a production of the conjoined talent of Gay, Swift, and others of their distinguished party. The current tradition of the place is, that Gay and some of his poetic friends having agreed upon one occasion to dine at the Rose, and being kept in the house by the severity of the weather, it was proposed, for the sake of beguiling the time, that a song should be written, to which each individual might contribute a verse: the subject proposed was the maid of the inn. This highly-favoured dame— the subject of a club of poets, and more fortunate than Laura or Sacharissa, who only commanded the homage of one-was the daughter of the landlord, who rejoiced in the discordantly-sounding name of Mog. It is reported that the combined authors intended to celebrate the praises of Molly's sister, the Beauty of the Rose, but in mistake transferred poetic immortality to the plainer sister, thus inadvertently compensating for the partiality of nature. It would certainly be an appropriate pendant to the portrait of Gay which decorates the parlour of the "Rose," if an artist were to pourtray the confederate bards in the ecstacies of composing "Molly Mog," during their enforced seclusion in the parlour of the village hostelry. BOROUGH OF WINDSOR. Or the history of the town of Windsor, I cannot find anything that is not comprised in the history of the Castle, of which the town is strictly the dependant and the creature. The population is about seven thousand. Two Members are returned to Parliament, and the town is governed by a Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors. There is no object of particular curiosity in the town, unless we choose to except a stroke of sly humour displayed by Sir Christopher Wren, who, having finished the Town Hall, was remonstrated with by some of the more portly burgesses upon the apparent want of stability of the edifice. In order to allay, while he rebuked their groundless fear, he erected six stone pillars, without, however, allowing them to touch the beams they appear intended to uphold. The corpulent citizens, however, trusted their valuable lives to the deceptive supporters, and dismissing further solicitude, "greatly daring, dined." We must by no means omit an example of the sublime profound-the bathos of servile adulation, as exhibited in a Latin inscription on the base of a statue of Queen Anne which ornaments the Town Hall. We subjoin a translation : Sculptor, thy art is vain. It cannot trace S. CHAPMAN, Mayor. When we recollect that Queen Anne was, without flattery, the plainest of the plain, we will be obliged to give Mr. Chapman, Mayor, credit for excess of loyalty, or rather, in the words of Ben Jonson, he would seem to have "Understood things as most chapmen do!" It would be improper not to make honourable mention of an institution founded here by a benevolent gentleman, Mr. Samuel Travers, for the provision of seven superannuated or disabled lieutenants in the navy, who reside here in handsome apartments, and mess together. The building stands at the end of Datchet Lane, and commands, from its neatly-kept garden, a fine view of the Castle. If the happiness and comfort of the inmates of any institution, where the inmates are gentlemen, were to be considered, the provision intended for them by their generous benefactor should never be made dependent upon their leading a solitary conventual life-a barbarous relic of the monkish period. Age and infirmity require the privilege of living where they please-pleasant converse of intimates chosen by themselves, and above all the sweet solicitude of female relations or friends; nor, perhaps, is there any condition of life more opposed to happiness than that of a number of sick and infirm gentlemen compelled to live as it were on shipboard, to depend upon their own, or each other's resources, and to mess together. It is like putting sick lions in the same cage; there can be neither comfort nor retirement-the best medicines for the age that succeeds a weather-beaten youth. The true philanthropist, in conferring a benefit, will rather strive to hide its eleemosynary character from the receivers, or at all events, if he cannot prevent that which he gives being considered as a gift, he will not neutralise the benefit to be derived from it, by clogging its dispensation with conditions incompatible with happiness. He who provides for gentlemen upon condition that they shall live solitarily within four walls, in age and infirmity, apart from relatives and friends, may be said only to perpetuate his ostentatious benevolence by a monument whose statues are alive. END OF WESTERN DIVISION. LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 52 |