A few yards from the lawn a rustic orchestra is in course of erection:
whence "the dulcet and harmonious sounds" of music may attune with the
joyful inspiration of the natural beauties of the scene. Our guide, (of a
more intelligent and communicative character than guides usually are,)
directed us by a descending path through the wood, across a rude bridge,
past a maze, by a flight of roughly-formed steps, to a terrace, whence we
enjoyed a picturesque prospect of great range and indescribable beauty.
The woods were as yet leafless, but primroses enlivened the pathside: how
touchingly is their solitude told by our poets. Shakspeare calls them
Pale primroses
That die unmarried ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength.
Milton describes them as dying forsaken:
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies:
and Mayne calls this flower
Lorn tenant of the peaceful glade,
Emblem of virtue in the shade.
Dr. Weatherhead describes the prospect from this terrace with more
minuteness than the hazy state of the atmosphere enabled us to trace its
several beauties.
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