loose feftoons, at its feet; forming deep and dark receffes. The glade itself, sweeping round a bold feftoon of this foreft hang, is loft to the eye: which now glances acrofs the public road (funk low and unperceived) to the face of Wichbury Hill; a fublime paffage of ground; a tempeft wave of the Bay of Biscay. The part under view is a clofe bitten sheep walk, fcattered with groups and single trees, and terminating with a tall well proportioned obelifk, ftanding on the fummit of the hill. To the right, a grove of Scotch Firs, hanging on an almost perpendicular brow; and, embofomed in these, a sumptuous colonnade is feen. To the left, a lofty wood, which crowns the apparent fummit on that part, and clofes the view: the moft ftriking compofition of ground, wood, and turf, we have ever seen; especially when the glaring white building in the firft diftance is covered, as it may be, with a handfome tree in the foreground.

WHY the obelifk fhould please fo fully in this view, is difficult to account for; but feen, as it is, terminating the view, and upon the fummit of the hill, with no other back ground than the clouds, it certainly adds to the general effect :-its colour is that of stone in the quarry; its shape is finely proportioned it is lightness and elegance itself; perfectly according with the beautiful nearY 2 grounds;

grounds; which, by the way, are hurt by a ragged, aukward Pear tree, that ought to be removed.

THE church (a low building) which stands near the house, at the more immediate foot of the slope, is inveloped in a deep feftoon of the foreft trees. that cover this magnificent feature of Hagley.

ABOVE the church yard, is a remarkable congeries of Limes, near fixty feet high, and fifty feet arm; with a large Wych Elm, twenty-one feet girt; and feveral other large old trees.

A RILL prattling in a paved channel, by the fide of the walk, which leads up to the cafcade, and other interior operations, in this magnificent foreft fcenery, is a charming companion in a dry fultry feafon unfortunately, too dry for the cafcades of Hagley: the upper fprings, which feed the refervoir, being dried up! a circumftance we seriously regretted for, here, the fite is fuch, as may be fuppofed to produce a natural cafcade; lofty, fteep, and ftrongly featured; a wild mountain dingle: ftrangely disfigured by a polished rotundo, perched near the top of it; mixing in the view, as feen from the gapefee below, with the fhaggy furniture of this finely favage fcene: which, if farther furnished with a mountain torrent, would be at once grand and awful.

IF

If art muft needs meddle with natural streams, how much more eligible are irregular falls, than flights of steps. In wild, romantic, and especially in rocky fituations, Shenftonian cafcades may ever produce, momentarily at least, a pleafing effect. But let them appear in whatever fituation they may, if a fufficient fupply of water cannot be commanded, to feed a perpetual fall, the reflections which follow the idea of playing them off, as rareeshows, must ever lower the enjoyment.

BESIDE the cafcade, the interior of the wood contains grottos, ftatues, and fair buildings; but the fairer Oaks with which this magnificent ground may be faid to be loaded, and which prove it to have worn its prefent honors for fome centuries paft, give the mind the fuller fatisfaction,

THE views from the top of the park are grand and extenfive; and the wood fcene, from Thomson's Seat, is nobly fine; but not more so than we have feen frequently occur, in ftrongly featured woody countries. The view is much better, in our eye, a little below; -where Pope's Building is not feen; the fequeftered lawn which contains it is enough: a bench is here wanted.

UPON the whole, Hagley, as the Leafowes, has fallen fhort of our expectation; which had unfortunately

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tunately been raised too high. The obelisk scene apart, we would not have rode five miles to have feen it, The dingle, the wood scenes, the fequeftered lawns, and the fine timber, are doubtless all charming objects; and, to thofe who have not been in the habits of viewing fuch scenery, are worth going ten times that distance to fee,

INDEED, throughout, there is a greatness of taste, which does the noble artist, who embellished it, great honor. It is probable, however, that LORD LYTTELTON was affifted in his defigns by MR. SHENSTONE, and by other men of taste and genius, among whom he lived; and often, no doubt, at Hagley,

THE cafcade, and the classical allusions are after the manner of the Leafowes :-indeed the two places are evidently of the fame genus; their specific difference confifting in Hagley's being on a larger fcale, more strongly featured, and more fully wooded. Their embellishments, as well as the views from them, are very fimilar. Their ages, too, are fimilar: they are both of them growing feedy. While they flourished under the eyes of their defigners, they were probably in better keeping. The Leafowes, however, is now as well kept, perhaps, as it ought to be; and there is nothing ftrikingly negligent at Hagley, They have both

of

of them reached that ftate of maturity, when a polished neatness is lefs required, than it is during the early bloom of embellished places,

SECTION THE SIXTH,

ENVILLE.

.

FROM Hagley we proceeded to ENVILLE, the feat of the EARL OF STAMFORD, in the fame picturable district; leaving with reluctance a lovely view of Shropshire, as feen from the inn garden at Hagley; one-of the most pleasing views this district had afforded us,

ENVILLE, in fituation, is fimilar to Hagley and the Leafowes. The immediate fite is the precipitous face of an extended hill, broken into furrows, and watered by rills; of which there are two, as at the Leafowes, that unite near the house, at the foot of the flope. The fite of Enville is the steepest, moft lofty, and largeft of the three: containing feveral hundred acres, divided chiefly into sheep walk and coppice wood, with kept grounds near the house, and with meadows and arable lands round the church and village, in the plain below.