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BEAUTIES

OF

England and Wales.

MIDDLESEX.

MIDDLESEX, though of less extent than many English counties, may safely be pronounced the most prominent of all in topographical interest. Dignified by two royal palaces, and enriched by many ancient seats, inhabited at various periods by some of the best and most eminent characters of national story, it promises to afford a fertile source of Biographical inquiry and Historical allusion. From its connection with the metropolis, this district, also, derives a splendour of modern adornment, emphatically expressive of the affluence produced by the commercial energies of an enterprising people. The wealth acquired by an interchange of commodity with every known clime of the globe, raises here the frequent villa; and spreads the lawn, and plants the ornamental woodland, in grateful abundance. The advantages derived from a contiguity to the national emporium of literature and the arts, have -induced, likewise, Men conspicuous for learning and for taste to construct in this county, mansions which demand to be ex. bibited to public notice, as depositories of the rarer productions of genius, or as instances of architectural effort.

The great English River, while communicating benefits of vital importance to the capital, is a distinguished feature in the real grandeur of the attached county. The mansions which ornament its banks during the meanders of its earlier PART IV. A progress