Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/191

166 their fleetness, embellish the parks. The grounds of Chatsworth cover an area of eleven miles, diversified by lawns, plantations, and pleasure-grounds. The spot called the Italian Gardens, is adorned with statues, and vases, and a rich stone balustrade, fronting the Derwent.

It would be in vain to attempt a description of this splendid establishment. Dazzled as the eye may be with its internal decorations, I could not but consider the conservatory as its chief glory. It extends several hundred feet, its lofty roof resting on iron pillars, and entirely covered with large plates of glass, furnishing a spacious carriage-drive through plants and flowers from every region of the earth. Some of these are of surpassing beauty, and all refreshed by waters artificially distributed, and cheered by a perpetual summer, as if a second Paradise fostered their bloom.

In the sculpture-gallery at Chatsworth, among noble forms, and groups apparently instinct with life, we were attracted by the statue of a young spinning-girl, from the chisel of a German artist. She is called the Filatrice, and stands in a simple and graceful attitude upon the fragment of a granite column, brought from the Roman forum. Extensive collections of paintings, engravings, and other works of art, enrich this residence, as they do also that at Chiswick, another seat of this tasteful and liberal nobleman, where, among other antique specimens of sculpture, are three statues from Adrian's villa at Rome.

It is well to see Chatsworth and Haddon Hall in