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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2023
A JOURNAL OF WHAT I OBSERVED MOST REMARKABLE IN A TOUR INTO THE NORTH 1744
Set out with my brother and Mr. Wray from Wrest; dined at Stowe and walked over the gardens in the afternoon. They consist of 200 acres, 60 enclosed last year; except from those which look to the park, the prospect lies over a flat naked country. Points of view in them beautiful, the water is well managed, the lake covers 10 acres, and the serpentine river is so conducted as to conceal its ending. Terrace round the gardens in some places 8 yards broad. The best buildings are the temples of Ancient Virtue, Friendship, Venus Hortensis, Gothic tower and Palladian bridge. Hermitage made of roots whimsical enough, the grotto prettily fancied. The pleasantest spots in them are the Elysian Fields, Queen Caroline's amphitheatre, and the view from the round open temple. The gardens find constant employment for 30 men, 10 boys. My Lord Cobham is making large additions of wings to his house. Crossed the country to Towcester, where we lay.
Saw Easton, Lord Pomfret's house, a good one in the present taste with large windows etc. The best pictures I observed were these: Lennox, Duke of Richmond, and his Duchess by Vandyke; a Lord Vaux by Dobson; Lord Jeffreys by Kneller with the great seal; another of him when recorder; Sir P. Rycaut; Cymon and Iphigenia by Lely; dead Christ by Schiavone; Magdalen by Bonatti; Elijah by Teniers; 4 Cornelius Johnsons; 2 pretty Lauras; Io; and a scene of the Aminta; an old picture of Henry VII's queen; Cardinal Morton; and the Abbot of Westminster. Antiquities: a consular statue of Cicero, another of Marius, Minerva, Crispina (Commodus’ wife), Melpomene, an Amazon, Bacchus, a Greek virgin, busts of Tiberius and Vitellius. Bas-reliefs: taking of Troy, symposium, a Bacchanalian, group of Dacian figures, 2 or [3] pretty altars, Corinthian column from Delphi, a Sella Votiva with a Greek inscription. Most of the statues, especially the finest, have modern additions; the head and neck of the Minerva, which is 10 ft. high, is so. It is reckoned the best collection of the kind in England next to that at Wilton.
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