the trees. There is a parterre which they call Paradise, in which is a pretty banqueting-house set over a cave or cellar. All these gardens might be exceedingly improved, as being too narrow for such a place." fine There are some very holly trees in these gardens, with a number of pleasant walks, shelving banks of velvet turf, arbours, pleached alleys, one in particular distinguished as Queen Mary's Bower, and the like. If the weather be sultry, the orange trees will be ranged in order outside their winter-house; among the plants preserved here is the orange myrtle said to have been brought to this country by King William III. The Vine, the largest in Europe, if not in the world, in fruitful seasons encumbered with between two and three thousand bunches of grapes weighing on an average a pound each, is worthy observation. The stem of this giant vine, in itself a vineyard, is thirty inches in circumference at the greatest girth, is one hundred and ten feet long, and incloses a space of two thousand two hundred feet square. The fruit is of the black Hamburgh sort, and said to be of exquisite flavour. It is exclusively preserved for Her Majesty's dessert. When the grapes are ripe, a visit to this vine will be amply repaid, even by a journey express from London. THE WILDERNESS. A labyrinth of delightful shade, with pleasant walks, "and seats beneath the shade, For talking age and whispering lovers made," entered by the magnificent Lion Gates, the iron-work whereof is well worthy minute examination, was planted by William III., with the view of concealing the irregularity of the buildings to the north front of the palace. In this Wilderness is a Maze or Labyrinth, which affords much amusement to crowds of holiday folks, looking on while beaux and belles lose themselves and each other in its intricate doublings and circumvolutions. The guidebooks generally give a map of the intricacies of this amusive contrivance ; but the secret of making your way is simple enough. On entering the maze, first turn to the left; then, crossing over, keep the trees ever on your right hand, until, following every turning, you finally reach the centre: returning, a course precisely contrary must be pursued. HAMPTON COURT AND BUSHY PARKS. In his work entitled Speculum Britanniæ, Norden mentions two parks at Hampton Court, the deer park near the Thames, and the hare park, both of which he describes as environed with walls of brick. There are at this day two parks intimately connected with Hampton Court; Hampton Court Park, properly so called, and Bushy Park. The former extending from Hampton Court to Hampton Wick, occupies the greater part of the promontory formed by the sinuosity of the Thames, by which it is bounded on the south, and on the north by the road to Kingston; and is about five miles in circumference. The canal, forming so beautiful an object from the east point of the palace, is one hundred and twenty feet in breadth, and nearly three-quarters of a mile in length: another, to correspond with it, was partly excavated by King William. The spot where that monarch met with the accident, from a stumbling-block thrown in his horse's way by "the little gentleman in velvet," is still pointed out to curious inquirers. The buildings in Hampton Court Park are the Stud House, an official residence of the Master of the Horse, and the Pavilion, opposite ThamesDitton, the work of Sir Christopher Wren, and erected about the same time as the Fountain Court of Hampton Court Palace. This Pavilion was formerly occupied by his late Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, in right of his office as keeper of this park it is now in the possession of Mrs. Moore, relict of the late General Moore. "There are two elm-trees, or rather the remains of two, in Hampton Court Park, known by the name of the 'Giants,' which must have been of an enormous size, the trunk of one of them measuring twenty-eight feet in circumference. The only one I have met with of a larger is by the side of the road at Crowley in Sussex, in the interior of which a party of five or six persons are stated to have dined; and from its external appearance I can easily believe this. "Perhaps the largest oak-tree in England is to be seen near the Old Stables in Hampton Court Park. It is thirty-three feet round, and its diameter, therefore, eleven feet. I never see this beautiful tree, and I often go to admire it, without carrying my mind back to the time it was probably planted, and the ages which have since elapsed. "There is also a remarkably fine poplar-tree in the Stud-house grounds in the same park. The height of this tree is ninety-seven feet; and to look at it, one might almost suppose that it was composed of several trees, so mighty are the branches which have shot up from the main trunk within a short distance from the ground. This tree is fourteen feet in circumference, and near it is a thriving English elm, so called to distinguish it from the wych elm. There are seven hundred and ninety-six feet of solid timber in this tree; the trunk is forty-four feet in height, and eighteen feet in circumference. There is another elm near it, known by the name of King Charles' Swing, which has a most curious appearance. There are two enormous limbs growing from each side of the trunk, which, at a height of eight feet six inches from the ground, measures thirty-eight feet round; each of the limbs is about forty feet high, and they are so healthy that they seem likely to become stupendous trees. "Cork-trees flourish in Hampton Court Park, where there are some very large ones." |