I am satisfy’d you pass your time well now at _Windsor_, for you adore
that Place; and ‘tis not, indeed, without great reason: for ‘tis most
certainly now render’d the most glorious Palace in the Christian World.
And had our late Gracious Sovereign, of blessed Memory, had no other
Miracles and Wonders of his Life and Reign to have immortaliz’d his
Fame (of which there shall remain a thousand to Posterity) this noble
Structure alone, this Building (almost Divine) would have eterniz’d
the great Name of Glorious _Charles_ II. till the World moulder again
to its old Confusion, its first _Chaos_. And the Paintings of the
famous _Varrio_, and noble Carvings of the unimitable _Gibbon_, shall
never die, but remain to tell succeeding Ages, that all Arts and
Learning were not confin’d to antient _Rome_ and _Greece_, but that
_England_ too could boast its mightiest Share. Nor is the Inside of
this magnificent Structure, immortaliz’d with so many eternal Images of
the illustrious _Charles_ and _Katharine_, more to be admired than the
wondrous Prospects without. The stupendous Heighth, on which the famous
Pile is built, renders the Fields, and flowery Meads below, the Woods,
the Thickets, and the winding Streams, the most delightful Object that
ever Nature produc’d. Beyond all these, and far below, in an inviting
Vale, the venerable College, an old, but noble Building, raises it
self, in the midst of all the Beauties of Nature, high-grown Trees,
fruitful Plains, purling Rivulets, and spacious Gardens, adorn’d with
all Variety of Sweets that can delight the Senses.
At farther distance yet, on an Ascent almost as high as that to the
Royal Structure, you may behold the famous and noble _Clifdon_ rise,
a Palace erected by the illustrious Duke of _Buckingham_, who will
leave this wondrous Piece of Architecture, to inform the future World
of the Greatness and Delicacy of his Mind; it being for its Situation,
its Prospects, and its marvellous Contrivances, one of the finest
_Villa’s_ of the World; at least, were it finish’d as begun; and would
sufficiently declare the magnifick Soul of the Hero that caus’d it to
be built, and contriv’d all its Fineness. And this makes up not the
least part of the beautiful Prospect from the Palace Royal, while on
the other side lies spread a fruitful and delightful Park and Forest
well stor’d with Deer, and all that makes the Prospect charming; fine
Walks, Groves, distant Valleys, Downs and Hills, and all that Nature
could invent, to furnish out a quiet soft Retreat for the most fair and
most charming of Queens, and the most Heroick, Good, and Just of Kings:
And these Groves alone are fit and worthy to divert such earthly Gods.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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