CULHAM COURT. THE Thames is no where more abundant in beauty, than between Henley and Marlow: while the river itself, as if sensible of the superior charms of its banks, lingers, as it were, in its course, by a greater variety and succession of meanders, than it any where displays, from its fountain to the sea. Culham Court is among the ornamental objects which distinguish the Berkshire side of the stream. The manor of Culham belonged, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to the family of the Nevilles: it was, in the beginning of the last century, the property of Serjeant Stevens, and latterly of Robert Mitchell, Esq. who erected the house, which, with the home scenery, forms the subject of the engraving. On his death it descended to one of his two daughters, the co-heiresses of his property, who married the Honourable Mr. West, a brother of the Earl of De Lawarr. From Henley, to this part of the river, the Berkshire side sinks in a comparison with the woody theatres of the opposite country at Culham Court it recovers its former character, and at this place, Berkshire, which is full of landscape beauty, may boast of one of its most delightful prospects. It is not of great extent, but embraces a variety of charming objects, and distinctly commands every thing it comprehends. The mansion-house is an handsome modern building, and stands half way down an expansive irregular brow, with large, wide-spreading trees scattered over it, which gradually declines, in swelling and unequal slopes, towards the river beneath it. To the right the view occupies the meads, through which the stream serpentines in superior beauty, with their rich and various boundaries. Before it, and on the Buckinghamshire side of the water, is Medmenham, with its church, abbey-house, and upland farms. To the left the eye advances up the enchanting vale of Hambledon, and finds a more distant termination in the groves of Fawley. From the high grounds above the house, there is a still more commanding view of the windings of the river, with Danesfield, the seat of Mr. Scott, on its shaggy cliff, and the less perceptible mansion of Hurley place, on the Berkshire bank. On the same line of elevation, and in the same range of improvement as Culham Court, but receding rather more from the river, is Rose Hill, a very pleasant but singular villa, which belongs to the proprietor of Culham, and, in its original state, appeared to be an ornamental building in the grounds of the former. It was fancifully built in the precise form and arrangement of a Chinese habitation. It had its bells, its dragons, and spiral turrets, with all the gawdy colourings of that species of oriental architecture. These decorations it no longer possesses it retains, however, its primæval distribution of apartment, and its single floor. It is placed in the recess of a wood, which forms two side screens that narrow the river from it, but it nevertheless commands several parts of that scenery which has been the subject of our description. |