commands a view over the lake, and a beautiful prospect over the country.

Opposite the north front of the House is

THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF KING GEORGE I.

In Armour, with this Inscription :

In medio mihi Cæsar erit

Et viridi in campo signum de marmore ponam.

COBHAM.

In this front are an Ionic Portico; two circular corridors, with twenty-seven Ionic columns, and one pilaster on a side, adorned with marble busts, the walls ornamented with niches and pilasters; four gateways into the courts, two by Signor Valdre, two by Kent, and two into the Gardens by Leoni.

Opposite the south front is the Parterre, on the right hand of which are the Flower Gardens and Orangery. In the centre of the lower Flower Garden is a Fountain, on which stands a figure of Narcissus in white marble. At the upper end of it is a circular room, and two semicircular colonnades, containing an extensive Museum. Mineralogical collection of the late distinguished Abbé Haüy, arranged by himself, is in this building, as well as an immense collection in every branch of Natural History, formed by the Duke of Buckingham.

The

In the upper Flower Garden is a large Basin, in the centre of which is a Marble Fountain.

Under the shade of some fine Tulip Trees is placed a group in stone, representing a Piper and his Dog: this is the work of Caius Gabriel Cibber, who also carved the two celebrated figures of Raging and Melancholy Madness, now at Bethlehem Hospital: he was father of Colley Cibber. This group was formerly at Whitton, the seat of the Duke of Argyle: it represents the Piper, who is described by Daniel De Foe, in his History of the Plague in London, as having been taken up for dead in the street, and thrown into the dead cart with other bodies to be buried; but who awaked from his trance, just as those charged with the melancholy office were proceeding to throw him into the pit filled with the dead bodies of the victims of that dreadful calamity; and, after considerably alarming his bearers by sitting upright in the cart, and playing upon his pipes, recovered and did well.

There is also a large Vase of blue marble, ornamented with vine leaves and lions' heads. At the upper end of the Flower Garden stands the Orangery. The building is one hundred and thirty-eight feet in length. The centre forms a Garden Apartment, furnished with Sofas, Casts from the Antique of the Dancing Faun, Cupid and Psyche, and of the Nymph extracting a thorn from her foot, and a beautiful Vase of Grecian Serpentine sculptured in Florence. The two wings are filled with Orange trees: in the centre of each is a Fountain rising out of stone

C

At the one

basins, copied from the antique. extremity of the building is a cast from the celebrated statue of the Listening Slave: at the other, a corresponding cast from the Group of Wrestlers. Under a spreading chesnut is a Sarcophagus of white marble, discovered by the Duke of Buckingham in an excavation near the tomb of Cecilia Metella, near Rome.

THE MARCHIONESS OF BUCKINGHAM'S SEAT,

is a Grotto entirely executed by the late Marchioness, mother of the present Duke, and was her favourite seat. It was named after her, and dedicated to her memory by the present Duke.— On a plain stone of grey marble are the following words:

MATER AMATA VALE!

-Beloved Mother, Farewell!

THE ROTUNDO,

is raised upon Ionic pillars, and ornamented with a statue of Bacchus.-The building, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, was altered by Borra.

In the adjoining wood on the other side of the Parterre, is

A DORIC ARCH,

leading into the Elysian Fields,-built by Richard Earl Temple, in commemoration of the visit of the Princess Amelia to Stowe.

On the Arch is inscribed