NUNEHAM COURTENAY. that splendid order. The accessory parts of the scene baffle description. From the verdant prominence where the urn is placed, the view, screened by the plantation immediately to the right, pushes on through a broad savanna to Oxford. Before it is Radley, the seat of Admiral Bowyer, on the Berkshire side of the river, rising from its own groves, with the woods beyond it: the intervening valley is watered by the Thames. Towards Abingdon, the spire of whose church is alone visible, the prospect is broken by a fore-ground of scattered trees, hanging down the lawn. To the left the ground falls abruptly into a glen in the park, but immediately rises into an irregular extensive brow, covered with oaks; which are so thick as to form a waving mass of foliage, in the distant view of them, and yet so distinct as, on a near approach, to disclose the verdure which they shade, and the individual beauty they possess. The character of the spot around Whitehead's urn, considered in an insulated state, is pensive elegance: while its sober charms are elevated by the grand expanse of prospect before it, the solemn, sylvan beauty of the grove beside it, and the venerable form of Carfax, on a projecting swell above it. This grove is beyond the boundary of the garden, and it is of too much importance in the general scenery not to attempt to give some account of the interesting circumstances connected with it. Grandeur belongs to a wood, beauty is the characteristic ofa grove, and this spot possesses both. It contains a large assemblage of the finest oaks, covering a deep, indented, and extensive brow, sinking into glens, or rising into knolls, in which every individual tree retains much of its own peculiar beauty, and transfers, whatever it loses from itself, to the superior character of the whole. Old Carfax, on a bold prominence, at the extent of it, aids the awful character of the place, and appears to surpass in age the venerable trees that shade it. This curious building 44 bears the record of its own history, in the following inscription: This building, called Curfar, erected for a Conduit at Oxford, The general character of Nuneham is elegant grandeur. Its predominant feature is variety of surface. It contains that pleasing arrangement of pleasing parts which constitutes beauty, with a splendid inlet of country, and a bold display of its own scenes, which may be said to compose grandeur. The ample space is divided in a number of successive parts, every where various, every where consistent, and no where licentious. Object succeeds to object, naturally and pleasingly, or, which is the same thing, there are seen different views of the same object. The several beauties appear in natural succession, and the succession is never lost in the divisions. The vast expanse of open country is frequently divided into separate pictures, but never subdivided into diminutive parts. The uniformity of the grand prospect is occasionally diversified, but the diversification never diminishes its greatness. The forms of the swells, slopes, and vallies, are every where graceful, and the groves on the declivities are rich and elegant. The correspondence of the parts does not produce sameness, and, in their contrast, there is neither abruptness or singularity. The woods are extensive; beautiful in themselves, and ennobled by the Thames, which flows beneath them. The meadows, refreshed by the silver stream, are, here and there, enlivened by single trees, or groupes of them, just sufficient to break the long level of coarser verdure, and to make them harmonise with the highly embellished grounds above them. The whole is a place of the first order: nature gave the outline, and taste has completed the picture. The buildings NUNEHAM COURTENAY. are but few, but they aid the grandeur or elegance of their respective scenes, without producing frivolous display or sumptuous affectation. The flower garden, which is unrivalled, may be considered as an episode in the great work, and demands distinct notice. It has no visible connection with the general range of pleasure ground, and is entered by a Doric gateway, on whose pediment is inscribed the following sentence of J. J. Rousseau, so beautifully allusive to the world of flowers. "Si l'auteur de la Nature est grand dans les grandes choses, il est tres grand dans les petites." The first object on the entrance of the garden, is the bust of Flora, on a therm, with an appropriate inscription. On passing along the shady path which leads round this Elysian spot, there are busts also of other sylvan deities, and men illustrious for their genius and their virtues. The buildings consist of a grotto possessing all "the pensive secresy of desert cell." The Temple of Flora, after a Doric portico, at Athens; a bower, against which are planted roses, woodbines, jessamines, and several kinds of creeping plants; and the conversatory, in which are planted bergamot, cedrati, limoncelli, and orange trees. In summer, the whole of the building is removed, and the trees appear to stand in the natural ground. There is also an urn to the memory of Lady Palmerston, and a similar sepulchral memorial to the poet Mason, who assisted the late Lord Harcourt in the arrangement of this unrivalled spot. The whole of the space, within this circuitous path, is filled with flowers of every name that will flourish in our climate, and with a selection of those trees which are most admired for their elegance and beauty. The whole is entirely secluded by a thick belt of choice trees and flowering shrubs, and an exterior boundary of wide spreading elms. And here it will scarcely be believed, that this nest of sweets, this hoard of floral beauties, this example of consummate taste, occupies little more than an acre of ground; but such is the irregularity of its surface, the disposition of |