Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/186

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grand touches of nature as are seen around. Nu- merous mottos, stanzas, and copies of verses, also appear on every side, whose good moral excuse their want of poetical merit. A colossal statue of Neptune, with attendant Naiads, is placed behind the building. With these injudicious ornaments may be classed another in their neighbourhood equally objectionable a wind-mill painted in the Dutch manner, to keep up the idea of a North- Holland picture, first suggested by the cottage and its furniture. Here we find two small pieces of water, one finely darkened with wood, the other (tame and formal) open to the day, with velvet turf banks, and a nicely-rolled gravel walk, encir- cling it; giving the appearance of an old-fashioned family picture in its circular gilded frame.

From hence a path leads the visitor to a deep little sequestered glen, whose carpet of green is open only in front, shut up on every other side by towering rocks and widely-spreading trees. This is called a scene in Otnheite, and imagination is assisted in her flight to the South-sea islands by a cottage constructed in the manner and fitted up with the furniture of their inhabitants; a canoe ly- ing in front of it is introduced to aid the delusion. But our intention was quickly called to more in- teresting objects the gigantic ornaments with

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