Passing through a labyrinth, you see, near a pond, Merlin’s cave, a Gothic building thatched; within which are the following figures in wax, Merlin, an ancient British enchanter; the excellent and learned Queen Elizabeth, and a Queen of the Amazons; here is also a library consisting of a well chosen collection of the works of modern authors neatly bound in vellum. On leaving this edifice, which has an antique and venerable appearance, you come to a large oval of above 500 feet in diameter, called the Forest oval, and turning from hence you have a view of the Hermitage, a grotesque building, which seems as if it had stood many hundred years, though it was built by order of her late Majesty. It has three arched doors, and the middle part which projects forward, is adorned with a kind of ruinous angular pediment; the stones of the whole edifice appear as if rudely laid together, and the venerable look of the whole is improved by the thickness of the solemn grove behind, and the little turret on the top with a bell, to which you may ascend by a winding walk. The inside is in the form of an octagon with niches, in which are the busts of the following truly great men, who by their writings were an honour not only to their country, but to human nature. The first on the right hand is the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton, and next to him the justly celebrated Mr. John Locke. The first on the left hand is Mr. Woolaston, the author of The Religion of Nature displayed; next to him is the reverend and learned Dr. Samuel Clarke, and in a kind of alcove is the truly honourable Mr. Robert Boyle. Leaving this seat of contemplation, you pass through fields cloathed with grass; through corn fields, and a wild ground interspersed with broom and furze, which afford excellent shelter for hares and pheasants, and here there are great numbers of the latter very tame. From this pleasing variety, in which nature appears in all her forms of cultivation and barren wildness, you come to an amphitheatre formed by young elms, and a diagonal wilderness, through which you pass to the forest walk, which extends about half a mile, and then passing through a small wilderness, you leave the gardens. At the extremity of the garden on the north east, is another house that belonged to her Majesty, and near it the house of his late Royal Highness Frederic Prince of Wales, which is on the inside adorned with stucco. Opposite the Prince’s house is the Princess Amelia’s, built by a Dutch architect, the outside of which is painted. To the west of the gardens are seen the fine houses of several of the nobility and gentry, particularly the Lady Buckworth’s, and Mr. Geoffrey’s, and extending the view across the Thames, there appears Isleworth.