A Description of Millenium Hall: And the Country Adjacent Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants and Such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections As May Excite in the Reader Proper Sentiments of Humanity, and Lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
A Description of Millenium Hall: And the Country Adjacent Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants and Such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections As May Excite in the Reader Proper Sentiments of Humanity, and Lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue
John Stuart Mill · en
After breakfast the ladies proposed a walk, and as they had seen the
course I took when I first went out, they led us a contrary way, lest,
they said, I should be tired with the repetition of the same scene. I
told them with, great truth, that what I had beheld could never weary,
for virtue is a subject we must ever contemplate with fresh delight,
and as such examples could not fail of improving every witness of them,
the pleasure of reflection would increase, as one daily grew more
capable of enjoying it, by cultivating kindred sensations. By some more
explicit hints they found out to what I alluded, and thereby knew where
I had been, but turning the conversation to present objects, they
conducted us to a very fine wood which is laid out with so much taste
that Lamont observed the artist's hand was never more distinguishable,
and perceived in various spots the direction of the person at present
most famous for that sort of improvement.
The ladies smiled, and one of them answered that he did their wood great
honour, in thinking art had lent her assistance to nature, but that
there was little in that place for which they were not solely obliged to
the latter. Miss Trentham interrupted her who was speaking and told us
that as she had no share in the improvements which had been made, she
might with the better grace assure Mr Lamont that Lady Mary Jones, Miss
Mancel, and Mrs Morgan were the only persons who had laid out that wood,
and the commonest labourers in the country had executed their orders.
Lamont was much surprised at this piece of information, and though he
would have thought it still more exquisitely beautiful had it been the
design of the person he imagined, yet truth is so powerful, that he
could not suppress his admiration and surprise. Every cut in it is
terminated by some noble object. In several places are seats formed with
such rustic simplicity, as have more real grandeur in them, than can be
found in the most expensive buildings. On an eminence, 'bosomed high in
tufted trees', is a temple dedicated to solitude. The structure is an
exquisite piece of architecture, the prospect from it noble and
extensive, and the windows so placed, that one sees no house but at so
considerable a distance, as not to take off from the solitary air, which
is perfectly agreeable to a temple declaredly dedicated to solitude. The
most beautiful object in the view is a very large river, in reality an
arm of the sea, little more than a quarter of a mile distant from the
building; about three miles beyond it lies the sea, on which the sun
then shone, and made it dazzlingly bright. In the temple is a picture of
Contemplation, another of Silence, two of various birds and animals, and
a couple of moonlight pieces, the workmanship of the ladies.