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PARK PLACE.

the contrary, is a combination of beautiful parts, in shape and position, which vary with, and are most happily contrasted to each other: thus, a succession of the most pleasing, and, as they may be truly called, Arcadian pictures are continually, and oftentimes most unexpectedly, produced; that the sensation of delight, on viewing these objects, is occasionally heightened by the emotion of pleasurable surprise. Its successive and ever-varying projections, with their intervening vallies, its rich woods, spacious groves, wide-spreading lawns, and bold declivities, are in a style and form which the landscapes, that are enlivened and reflected by the Thames, do not display in any other part of its course. Nature has done much, nor has taste done less; the genius of the place has every where been consulted, and the resulting conformities completed. Marshal Conway seems ever to have had in view the precepts of Mr. Pope, who had himself broke from the formality of fashion, and stole a peep of nature in his garden at Twickenham.

To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the column, or the arch to bend,
To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot;
In all let nature never be forgot:
But treat the goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spied,
Where half the skill is decently to hide;
He gains all points who pleasingly confounds,
Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds.
Consult the genius of the place in all,

That tells the waters or to rise or fall,

Or helps th' ambitious hill the heav'ns to scale,

Or scoops in circling theatres the vale,

Calls in the country, catches op'ning glades,

Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades;

Now breaks, or now directs th' intending lines,

And in one whole involves the fair designs.

The charms of this distinguished place had long demanded a better house, and they at length enjoy it; an improved,

and, in some part, new mansion was the last embellish ment which Marshal Conway gave to the paradise he had formed. The old house, though it had been occupied by the heir apparent to the crown, and received various subsequent additions, still wanted room, and was deficient in convenience: the new edifice possesses both, and somewhat more. The alterations and additions have been contrived with such a judicious attention to their object, as to give the building not only a very handsome, commodious range of apartments, but an exterior that has a claim to architectural importance; and, while the principal front, which presents itself to the river, has acquired extent, without violating uniformity, the new elevation, which looks along the glade to the south, is in a style of the most chaste and elegant simplicity. It may be supposed to have been borrowed from a design of Inigo Jones, without depreciating the established character of that great architect.

The part of the park where the house stands is near three hundred feet above the river, but is so happily sheltered by woods and plantations, that it has every advantage, and none of the inconveniences of an elevated situation, or, at least, such as are very frequently connected with it.

The garden entrance is near a very luxuriant shrubbery, behind the house, from whence a path, after skirting an ornamented lawn, where some of the more beautiful kinds of trees are agreeably scattered, winds through a woody scene to the flower garden and the menagerie. The former is inclosed by a wall, and, being solely applied to the culture of flowers, is disposed in regular parterres, with a bason for gold and silver fish in the centre; four small statues, allusive to their situation, with something of treillage about them for creeping plants, occupy as many corresponding positions; the whole being formed upon the plan, and answering to the uniform prettiness of a French design. In this point of view it is very beautiful, and contrived to give a rich display of the world of flowers. In the floral season, it is an hoard of sweets, a region of odours, and presents such a carpet as

PARK PLAGE,

is seldom seen spread for the decoration of mother earth. It does not possess the elegance, beauty, variety, and classical character of the flower garden at Nuneham, which is the most perfect example of its kind, any where known; but, as a spot solely adapted to the cultivation and display of flowers, it forms a most interesting, fragrant, and lovely scene. The menagerie presents a picture of cheerful seélusion, charming in itself, and admirably suited, in all its accessory parts, both in lawn, cover, and building, to its purpose; and peopled, as might be supposed, from the mind that formed it, with those birds, both foreign and domestic, whose natures, from their beauty and rarity, are most congenial to the spot which they inhabit. Though it is perfectly characteristic of the purposes for which it is contrived, and to which it is applied; there is a certain elegance in its arrangement, as well as in its plantation and its receptacles, that one could scarce expect to see a barn-door fowl, however beautifully feathered, an inhabitant of it: the peacock, unfolding its splendors to the sun, or the gold and silver pheasants, with their gorgeous and finely pencilled plumage, would appear to be the more associated denizens of this peaceful republic.

At the entrance of an adjoining wood, near the summit of the hill to the east, is a subterraneous passage, two hundred and seventy five yards in length, of simple contrivance, and without the affectation of ornament, that leads to a valley of superlative beauty; at whose upper end, and forming à side scene to the cliff, which the cavern perforates, is a large, massy, artificial ruin, whose front presents a double range of mutilated columns and broken entablatures, exhibiting, altogether, the best imitation we ever remember to have seen of a decayed state of Grecian architecture. The original design is very chaste, and of the finest proportions, and so admirably assorted are all the necessary appendages to denote the ravage of time, that it might be very readily supposed to have been the natural victim of that destructive power. Mr. Stuart, the architect, particularly known by

the title of Athenian Stuart, which he derived from his long residence in Athens, who was undoubtedly a man of genius, and had visited so many of the vestiges which are to be found in Greece of delapidated cities, was employed by Mr. Anson to erect a structure of this kind in the gardens of his fine seat, near Ousely bridge in Staffordshire: but with all the professional knowledge and experience acquired in his travels, he did not produce an erection which could be brought in comparison with that raised at Park Place, by the consistent taste, and appropriate attention of Field Marshal Conway.

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The valley in which this ruin stands is of considerable length, and stretches on in a very gradual descent to a large rustic arch of curious construction. This enchanting spot comprehends a rare example of garden scenery. What may be considered as the highest polish of rural elegance is here displayed: the painter, whose subject leads him to enquire after a study for viewing Arcadia, will find his warmest fancy realised here. The undulating, but ever-varying lines which shape its sides, the taste with which they are planted, the beauty of the trees, and the richness of the verdure, with the woody ridges that form its lateral boundaries, produce an independent beauty, and render it a scene to charm, though it were far distant from the Thames, and without any aid from artificial embellishment. The arch through which, on a nearer approach, the river and its casual accompaniments, its mechanical animation is seen, forms a span of forty-three feet; and while it continues the road from Henley to Twyford, affords a passage beneath it, to the margin of the stream. This structure produces a very noble effect, whether seen from the valley, the water, or the meadows. It is, indeed, formed with so much skill, and such a blended attention to picturesque shape and utility, that we are almost deluded from lamenting how many of the huge stones which compose it, were brought from the violated remains of Reading Abbey. Many instances, indeed, might be named, where the seats

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PARK PLACE..

of solitary sanctity, have not only been neglected, but suffered to tumble about in rude confusion: indeed, in some case their Vandal owners have allowed them to be considered as so many mouldering quarries, to serve the ordinary repairs of the most ordinary buildings. Netley Abbey, so interesting from its form, its situation, and curious, historical circumstance, was suffered to be treated in this disgraceful manner; and was continually diminishing to repair the farm-houses, cottages, and even walls in its vicinity, till the very pleasing poem of Mr. George Keate on that subject, awakened the indignation of the neighbourhood, and induced its owner to give it the protection which it has since received. Every visitor of Southampton, every lover of sacred antiquity, every admirer of landscape beauty, is indebted to the poet who called, in strains of the most tender character, for its preservation.

Near the arch, which has already been mentioned, on a steep bank, and delightfully embosomed in trees, in a scene of elegant seclusion, is a cottage, containing a room, of appropriate character, and fitted up in that judicious style of accommodation, which all must admire; but is peculiarly suited to the philosopher of the world. It is chearful but solitary, and is admirably calculated to compose and sooth the cultivated mind, and assist the contemplations which at once improve and embellish it. The Thames is seen before and beside it, near and at a distance, through surrounding foliage, but in that indistinct glitter of its water, which chequers the gloom and animates the shades. From the north window, the tower of Henley church, a fine object of its kind, appears with the best effect, and the wood-clad hills of Fawley rising beyond it. Here is something uncommonly fine in this view the parts are few, but they form a beautiful whole, and harmonize most happily with each other. From hence a willow-walk leads to a tomb of white marble, a solemn object; and a little onward the river is seen through an arch of natural stones, which gives a varrying view. of the beautiful object

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