Wesley Corpus

They are said to take up four hundred acres, and are admirably well laid out. They far exceed the celebrated gardens at Stow ; and that in several respects :-1. In situation ; lying onamuch higher hill, and having a finer prospect from the house. 2. In having a natural river, clear as crystal, running beneath and through them. 3. In the buildings therein ; which are fewer indeed, but far more elegant ; yea, and far better kept, being nicely clean, which is sadly wanting at Stow. And, lastly, In the rock-work ; to which nothing of the kind at Stow is to be compared. This night I lodged in the new house at London. How manymore nights have I to spend there ? Mon. 11.-I began my little tour into Northamptonshire. In the evening I preached at Stony-Stratford ; the next day at Honslip, and at Morton, a little mile from Buckingham. Wed- nesday, 13. Having so lately seen Stourhead and Cobham gardens, I was now desired to take a view of the much more celebrated gardens at Stow. The first thing I observed was the beautiful water which runs through the gardens, to the front of the house. The tufts of trees, placed on each side of this, are wonderfully pleasant ; and so are many of the walks and glades through the woods, which are disposed with a fine Oct. 1779.] 169 variety. The large pieces of water interspersed give a fresh beauty to the whole. Yet there are several things which must give disgust to any person ofcommon sense :-1. The buildings, called Temples, are most miserable, many of them both within andwithout. Sir John Vanbrugh's is an ugly, clumsy lump, hardly fit for a gentleman's stable. 2. The temples of Venus and Bacchus, though large, havenothing elegant in the struc- ture; and the paintings inthe former, representing a lewd story, are neither well designed nor executed. Those in the latter are quite faded, and most of the inscriptions vanished away. 3. The statues are full as coarse as the paintings ; particularly thoseof Apollo and the Muses, whom a person, not otherwise informed, might take to be nine cook-maids. 4. Most of the water in the ponds is dirty, and thick as puddle. 5. It is childish affectation to call things here by Greek or Latin names, as Styx, and the