. More famous homes of Great Britain and their stories . s was created Marquis of Bath in 1789, in which year George111. and his Queen and a retinue of 128 persons visited Longleat,and were all lodged within the house, while thirty thousandWiltshire men stood outside in the Park. Let us descend from these altitudes, to make better acquaint-ance with the scene below, by way of the east terrace, past thecrimson and carmine flower-beds, to the lake edge. A good dealof wild life is to be seen here, almost touching the house. Firstthere are the ducks, in large quantities—not a bird among t
. More famous homes of Great Britain and their stories . s was created Marquis of Bath in 1789, in which year George111. and his Queen and a retinue of 128 persons visited Longleat,and were all lodged within the house, while thirty thousandWiltshire men stood outside in the Park. Let us descend from these altitudes, to make better acquaint-ance with the scene below, by way of the east terrace, past thecrimson and carmine flower-beds, to the lake edge. A good dealof wild life is to be seen here, almost touching the house. Firstthere are the ducks, in large quantities—not a bird among thempinioned ; wild enough to startle anybody, as they rise withresounding quacks from beyond the fringing bullrushes, and thenfly farther on, or back to one of the higher ponds ; or, tired ofexercising their paddles on these home waters, take bolder flightover the hill to Sherewater. Then there are the coots, sulky andshy, and always keeping their distance ; and the moor-hens every-where, friskinsf their tails and skating over the water-lilies till a. 22g 2;0 Xongleat clear place suggests a dive. Lower down, swans manoeuvre inthe open water, and herons lazily flap to and fro, with a purpose :extracting the big anodons from the mud, and bearing them offin triumph to the seclusion of a tree, there to snip the shells withtheir strong wedged beaks and devour the esculent the number of herons is sufficient to cause a considerablelayer of broken shells to be found under any tree near, but across,the lake, that you may happen to inspect. Strolling along this walk, round by the boat-house and inthrough a shrubbery, you suddenly find yourself in the Wintergarden, gay with all manner of flowers in geometrical box-edgedbeds ; with a terrace of mixed borders with trellised bowers ofroses running along the path-side ; and reposeful with fountain-splash. No rude wind ever intrudes, but all is sweet-scentedand seductive. A lovely spot to have tea in, out-of-doors ; witha conven
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectcountry, bookyear1902
