good effect; as being in themselves ornamental, and as affifting to mix and affimilate the kept with the unkept grounds. For the latter purpose, however, they were, at the time we faw them, in too high keeping an error which a little neglect would foon rectify.

To detail the view from every Temple would convey little ufeful information to our readers. That from the Temple of Concord and Victory (erected, we believe, in honour of the great Lord Chatham) is the most interesting of the interior views. It confifts of a narrow graffy valley or dell, thickly wooded, on either fide; in a way which we not unfrequently fee, in Nature. But the effect is hurt, by two fide vistas opening, in a formal manner, upon two obelifcal buildings; from which, in return, the Temple of Concord is feen. This fort of reciprocity of view may often be given with good effect. But it fhould ever appear as an effect of accident, rather than of defign, and cannot please when introduced in a forced or formal manner.

THE eye having dwelt awhile, with pleasure, in this hollow glade, fomething unnatural in the fhelving of the ground was perceived. On clofer examination, and still clofer enquiry, this beautiful dell was found to be a work of art: not fet about, however,

however, with the intent to produce an artificial valley, but an artificial river!

THIS miscarriage is not brought forward, here, in detriment to the profeffional character of Mr. BROWN. Every novice, in every art, is liable to cómmit errors; and one miftake, in the courfe of an extensive practice, is but a fingle blot in writing a volume. We produce it as a leffon for young artists. Water can feldom be retained with advantage, in upland fituations; even where the fubftratum is retentive. In places where this is abforbent, and where the neighbourhood affords no materials to correct the defect, it is in vain to attempt it.

MR. BROWN, however, on difcovering his error, had great merit in the manner of correcting it. Sloping away the bank of the river, and thus forming a valley, instead of returning the excavated materials to their former ftate, fhewed, in a favorable light, his talent for expedient. In the case under notice, the effect of the graffy dell is infinitely better, than any which a weed-grown canal could ever have produced; befide the injury which water, pent up in that fituation, muft have done to the grounds that lie below. A man may discover as much talent, in making a retreat, as in gaining a victory.

SECTION

SECTION THE THIRD.

FISHER WICK.

THE Seat of the MARQUIS OF DONEGALL, hear LICHFIELD, was the next place which particularly engaged our attention *.

THE natural fituation of FISHERWICK is ftill gentler than that of Stowe; where fome undulation of furface gives a degree of variety to the grounds themselves, and where diftances, though feldom interefting, are fometimes caught. But the fite of Fisherwick is a flat, without any relief to the eye; except fome rifing grounds on the banks of the Tame; which, however, though beautiful in themfelves, are not feen from Fifherwick, with advantage; and except a gentle fwell of ground, which rifes behind the house, and which has been judiciously chofen as the more immediate fite of embellishment.

AT the foot of this fwell, ran a confiderable rivulet, or small brook, fevering it from the house X

VOL. I.

* In Nov. 1784, and June 1785.

and

and park: a flat infertile heath; fuch as we fee in various parts of this island; and fuch as never fails to disgust the eye; more, perhaps, than paffage of furface, which the ifland affords.

any

other

THE embellishments have been effected by breaking the greenfward of the rifing ground, behind the house, with planting; the boldeft and moft beautiful part of it being judiciously preserved in lawn,-fcattered with groupes and fingle trees. The further extremity is a continued grove; and the point towards the houfe is alfo planted; to hide the kitchen garden, and to give to this confined fite, all the feature and expreffion it was capable of receiving.

In the dip, between the garden and the park, in which the rivulet formerly ran, a broad REACH OF WATER is formed; winding up to a large and well built ftone bridge, over which the road from Lichfield paffes; and its margins are well wooded: circumstances that unite in giving this Reach of Water, as feen from the Grounds, every picturable advantage of a natural River of the firft magnitwde.

IMMEDIATELY below this Reach, an irregular bafon, or lakelet, is formed with the paffing ftream. This bafon is open, on one fide, to the windows;

but

but is judiciously backed by planting; and produces a beautiful effect, as feen from the house *.

In the front of the house, the lawn fwells out fully to the park; from which it is feparated by a well managed funk fence. This lawn fhelves down, towards the banks of the Tame (deep funk, unfightly, and unfeen, from the grounds of Fisherwick), and embraces the unwooded margin of the lower water. It is naked; except in fo far as it is broken by an aged Sycamore in the principal front of the house,-one or more groupes of Planes in the East front,—and an irregular mass of shrubs, well placed upon the brink of the funk fence, against the park.

THE PARK, Containing fome five hundred acres, is encircled, in great part, by fkreen plantations; on the outside of which is a public road; on the inner fide, a chain of Oaks and Elms, placed at fuch a distance from the paling, as to form a drive round the park; whofe flatted furface is broken, and relieved, by large circular clumps; chiefly of X 2 Scotch

This effect, however, is, in our opinion, much injured, by a noify cafcade, which is formed between these two waters, under the windows of the library. A pebbled ftream, shaded by Alders, or other Aquatics, would, we think, have been more in character with the fite.