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NUNEHAM COURTENAY.

them: and though they do not prevent the eye from ranging over a part of the park, they form a kind of venerable inclosure, that gives the verdant area before the house the tranquil appearance which we have endeavoured to describe. Indeed, if it may be considered as a merit merely to produce effect, these circumstances may claim an ample share of it; because, on passing through this entrance to the apartments of the back front, the blaze of prospect, which there bursts upon the view, is greatly heightened by the comparative gloom of the passage to it.

The park is a noble domain, containing twelve hundred acres, is finely varied with wood and forest scenery. The home part is broke into waving lawns, enlivened by single trees, and occasional groupes of them of various size and figure. Thick woods form the general boundary, and where they offer an opening, prospects appear, which have the contrasted charms of distance, grandeur, and beauty. On the eastern side, the scene is broken into two distinct views by the hills of Wettenham, at the distance of about five miles; to the right of which the country opens to the distant parts of Berkshire, which border on Hampshire; and on the left there is a broad expanse of cultivated country, which is terminated by the hills that form the hithermost boundary of the county of Buckingham. To the south, the horizon is varied by the long range of hills which rise above the vale of White Horse. To the west, the park falls in thick wood or open grove towards the Thames; and, on the north, it is bounded by the village of Nuneham.

Nuneham is a curious, pleasing, and interesting object. It is built on a regular and uniform plan; house answering to house, and garden to garden, on either side of the road; and though regularity is generally thought to, and certainly does, destroy picturesque effect, nevertheless, the screens of trees that stretch along before the cottages, with the intervals of garden ground, produce, in certain points of view, a peculiar mixture of trees and buildings, which the eye cannot regard with indifference as a rural picture.

All these various objects, with their accessory circumstances, are seen in delightful succession and to the best advantage, in the course of a riding that leads from one charming scene to another, along the boundary of the park.

The garden part of Nuneham, and which may be considered as the pride of it, does not contain more than forty acres, but its command of country is very comprehensive, and the inlets of park scenery give an artificial extent to its beauties. From the centre of the back front of the house, round the south side of the garden, and back again by a returning walk, is something more than half a mile. From the same place along the terrace on the northern side, round the hill, at termination of it, and back again, is somewhat more than twice that length. From this central point we shall begin our description.,

The fore ground, from the house, is a small lawn, or rather large knoll, of a triangular form, which, however, softens off into the glades on either side, so as to be totally devoid of formality. To the right it sinks to rise again, after an easy bend, to another knoll of corresponding acclivity, but different form, and crowned with thicker shade. It falls more gently to the left, and continues in a succession of various undulating surface, to the rising woodlands of the park. From the centre of this spot, a very extensive and delightful prospect presents itself to the view, which is broken into two separate pictures by a groupe of fine elms on the projecting point of the lawn. To the right, the eye, forced onwards by a grove to the north, glances over a charming glade, and is first caught by a long reach of the Thames, somewhat interrupted by trees, which flows, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile through the meadows in the bottom; it then passes over several gleamy snatches of the river, as it meanders on, in various directions, towards Oxford, whose towers, domes, and spires, compose a very

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superb object: the high part of Blenheim park is seen beyond it; and the eye, returning over the dark mass of the distant woods, in Berkshire, and the fertile intervening country, completes its view of the right hand picture. Its companion on the left, comprehends a larger foreground, from whence the eye, after passing a broad indented sweep of lawn, slightly broken by a clump of birches, rises to the verdant prominence that supports the venerable pile of Carfax, with the majestic oaks in which it is embosomed; and then stretches on to the park wood, beneath whose impending shade the Thames takes its course towards Abingdon, and after one lingering meander is seen no more. The nearer part of the wood bounds one side of the prospect; but the extreme line of it, inclining gradually to the water, lets in the blue hills of Berkshire, which, ranging on to join those of Wiltshire, above the White Horse Vale, are at length lost in the azure of a very distant horizon. Faringdon Hill, with the tuft of trees that crowns it, is distinctly seen at the distance of eighteen miles; and the eye, returning over the rich intermediate level, is relieved from its luxuriant sameness by the airy spire of Abingdon. Such are the two distinct pictures which are divided by the central group of elms, in the front of which they are both united.

This spot being more prominent, not only comprehends more of the northern meadows, glades, and woods of Nuneham, but brings a great variety of new objects into the view. The village of Heddington, situate on a range of high ground, at the distance of five miles, forms a pleasing boundary to the north, which falls gradually down to Oxford. Here also Ifley Tower, on its high bank of the river, more sensibly unites with the towers of the city; and thus, by lengthening its form, aggrandizes its character. The objects of the prospects are here in more determined contrast; the variety is increased, and the Thames is seen in all the meandering beauty with which it flows from Oxford; in its fine long reach as it passes before the grounds of Nuneham, and in its grand sweep beneath the park wood, when it takes its leave of them.

This description comprehends the exterior features of the principal views from Nuneham, and we shall now proceed to trace the line of the garden, which, besides its own extensive beauties, gives so many charming subdivisions of the general prospect.

The terrace, disdaining the regularity annexed to its name, takes the natural form of the ground over which it passes, as well as the direction of the garden boundary; and keeping always above the slopes and declivities, maintains throughout its course an elevated situation. It proceeds from the northern side of the house; when the eye passing over a glade rich in verdure, penetrates a long arch of foliage up to the west end of the clturch, which appears on an elevated situation, and the entrance from thence to the family closet, being decorated with a semi-rotunda of Ionie columns, supporting a dome, produces the elegant form of a temple of that Order. A grove of fine elms ascends to the west end of the church, and the walk winding round it reaches the principal portico of that beautiful structure. It consists of six large Ionic columns supporting a pediment, above which a dome springs from the centre of the building; the whole assuming the form of a Grecian temple. This superb piece of architecture, though attached to, has no communication with, the church, the principal entrance being on the opposite side, and was erected merely as an ornament to the garden. It stands on a brow of exuberant verdure, which takes a circular sweep to the right; is occupied by a grove of elms, and projects on the descent to the left. In its front the ground falls in a various wave of surface to a glade, which steals away beneath the spreading branches of trees towards the meadows. Elms of the most luxuriant foliage, and feathering down to the turf beneath them, form, in the bottom, an irregular boundary, that just admits the view of a verdant woody slope, beyond

NUNEHAM COURTENAY.

which the elevated village of Heddington, at the distance of a few miles, opposes itself the portico; and, being enriched with several handsome houses of stone, is suited to the scene. The path now sweeps round the upper part of this delightful glade, beneath the shade of flourishing beech trees that crown its shelving sides, which stretch down to the trees, whose thick masses of foliage enrich the bottom; while Oxford appears through an opening in their upper branches.

A little onward from beneath a venerable elm on the upper part of the declivity, the Thames is seen through two separate branches of the glade; but in that immediately before it, the ground assumes such pleasing shapes, the foliage of the trees forms such grateful outlines, which correspond so happily with the undulating surface that descends towards them, while different clumps make out such various and natural divisions, that they altogether compose a consummate picture of sylvan beauty.

The walk now assumes a more regular form, and after giving a peep in a sequestered part of the park, ascends into a thick grove of gloomy shade; and, having made the circuit of an hill covered with stately trees, it returns to itself, and re-conducts to the house. But though, in its returning progress, the same objects are seen, their appearance is so changed, and their perspective positions so varied, that the charm of novelty is still added to those of taste and nature. On re-entering what may be called the Portico glade, a scene displays itself, which, in its kind, has no equal that we have ever seen, and is very superior, as we think, to the situation of the Temple of Victory and Concord, in Stow gardens, which has been so much admired by the landscape gardener. Its character is grandeur, but the grandeur is twofold; beneath clouds it is solemn, and in sunshine it is splendid. The walk now reskirts the glade, repasses the Portico, and gradually descends towards the house, and to a review of those extensive prospects which aggrandise its superior situation.

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