The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 326, August 9, 1828Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 326, August 9, 1828
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
The garden contains upwards of two acres, with a gravel-walk under the
windows. A Gothic porch has been added, the bow-windows being surmounted
with the same kind of parapet as the house, somewhat more ornamental. It
lies to the morning sun; the road to the house, on the north, enters
through a large arch. The garden is on a slope, commanding views of the
surrounding country, with the tower of Calne in front, the woods of
Bowood on the right, and the mansion and woods of Walter Heneage, Esq.
Towards the south. The view to the south-east is terminated by the last
chalky cliffs of the Marlborough downs, extending to within a few miles
of Swindon. In the garden, a winding path from the gravel-walk, in front
of the house, leads to a small piece of water, originally a square pond.
This walk, as it approaches the water, leads into a darker shade, and
descending some steps, placed to give a picturesque appearance to the
bank, you enter a kind of cave, with a dripping rill, which falls into
the water below, whose bank is broken by thorns, and hazels, and
poplars, among darker shrubs. Here an urn appears with the following
inscription:--"M.S. Henrici Bowles, qui ad Calpen, febre ibi exitiali
grassante, publicè missus, ipse miserrimè periit--1804. Fratri
posuit."--Passing round the water, you come to an arched walk of hazels,
which leads to the green in front of the house, where, dipping a small
slope, the path passes near an old and ivied elm. As this seat looks on
the magnificent line of Bowood park and plantations, the obvious thought
could not be well avoided:
"When in thy sight another's vast domain
Spreads its dark sweep of woods, dost thou complain?
Nay! rather thank the God who placed thy state
Above the lowly, but beneath the great;
And still his name with gratitude revere,
Who bless'd the sabbath of thy leisure here."
The walk leads round a plantation of shrubs, to the bottom of the lawn,
from whence is seen a fountain, between a laurel arch; and through a
dark passage a gray sun-dial appears among beds of flowers, opposite the
fountain.
The sun-dial, a small, antique, twisted column, gray with age, was
probably the dial of the abbot of Malmesbury, and counted his hours when
at the adjoining lodge; for it was taken from the garden of the
farm-house, which had originally been the summer retirement of this
mitred lord. It has the appearance of being _monastic_, but a more
ornate capital has been added, the plate on which bears the date of
1688. I must again venture to give the appropriate inscription:--
"To count the brief and unreturning hours,
This Sun-Dial was placed among the flowers,
Which came forth in their beauty--smiled and died,
Blooming and withering round its ancient side.
Mortal, thy day is passing--see that flower,
And think upon the Shadow and the Hour!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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