ENTRANCE TO CHATSWORTH. 151 EPITAPHIVM. Immaturia tibi legerunt fila Sorores Betoni, ut summum ingenium summumqz periret DOMI ET FORIS. -A.B. Near the New Inn, at Edensor, stands the Porter's Lodge, which commands one of the entrances into Chatsworth Park: it is a neat stone building, but certainly not sufficiently elegant or ornamented to be an appropriate introduction to so magnificent a mansion. From this entrance into the park the road ascends to a high point of ground, from whence Chatsworth and its surrounding scenery are first beheld. Descending from this elevated situation, and approaching the river Derwent, the house appears to great advantage, and the noble amphitheatre of wood by which this richly ornamented mansion is accompanied, has a grand and magnificent effect. The lofty foliage near the house is well connected with the remote hills by a succession of delightful woody scenery, which is terminated in distance with the barren mountains of the Peak. About a quarter of a mile from the house a stone bridge of three arches crosses the river: this elegant structure was built by Paine, and is reported to be from a design by Michael Angelo: the niches between the arches are adorned with four marble figures by Cibber, of but indifferent workmanship as ornaments to the bridge, they have a pleasing effect, but they cannot be highly commended as works of art. Few noble mansions have been more lavishly praised and indiscriminately censured than Chatsworth, which was once the pride and boast of Derbyshire, "when," as Gilpin expresses it, "trim parterres and formal water-works were in fashion;" but now, fallen from its high estate, it has become a butt for every pretender to taste to shoot an arrow at. Chatsworth House was built by William Talman, a native of Wiltshire, who was Comptroller of the Works in the reign of William the Third, and notwithstanding the defects of its ground plan, which is certainly not unobjectionable, it will long remain a splendid monument of the architectural talent of its builder. It is composed of four nearly equal sides, with an open quadrangular court within, and the principal front is highly ornamented: it is rich without being tawdry, well proportioned and light, and elegant in appearance. The other sides, though not equally admirable in design, conspire 152 SCENERY IN CHATSWORTH PARK. to produce an impression favourable to the abilities of Talman, who from this specimen of his skill was evidently a man of superior attainments in his profession. Denham House in Gloucestershire, and old Thoresby House, in Nottinghamshire, were by the same architect. I once heard an eminent artist remark that the principal fault in Chatsworth was an apparent want of apartments suited for the accommodation of the domestics of so princely a mansion. It is a palace to the eye, where every part seems alike fitted for the noble owner and his guests only, and on beholding it the spectator is naturally led to enquire where the servants of such an establishment are to abide.* In Chatsworth Park many delightful views occur, which are chiefly terminated by the Moorland scenery of Derbyshire, and about half a mile below the bridge we noticed one eminently adapted to the purposes of the pencil. Immediately before us lay the river, across whose stream a stone butment or weir has been erected, which damming up the water, expands it into breadth; it is thence precipitated over this interruption to its progress, where it forms a magnificent cascade. On a gently ascending ground, about half a mile higher up the river, stands Chatsworth, finely embosomed in "Majestic woods of every vigorous green; 66 THOMSON. A little on the left is the bridge backed with broad and ample foliage: cattle reposing in groups on the brink of the river, or cooling themselves in the stream adorned the foreground; and the middle and remote distances, which are ornamented with a palace, a bridge, and towers and temples, disclose a scene as rich and as lovely as the fancy of Claude Lorraine ever portrayed when under the influence of his happiest inspirations. Yet the foreground had more of Berghem than Claude about it: the respective features which constitute the peculiar charm and excellence of these great masters, were most harmoniously combined; every part was in character, and the whole was faithful to nature. In this view the intervention of a few trees hides the cascade in the garden, near the house, which is a very formal object. A long and narrow stripe of regular stone steps, down which the water is sometimes made to descend for the amusement of visitors without This objection no longer exists. Chatsworth has been greatly enlarged and improved under the direction of J. Wyatt, Esq.. THE COURT AT CHATSWORTH HOUSE. 153 any winding, break, or interruption, has at any rate an unpicturesque appearance, particularly when the fountains above are not in motion. Entirely to remove this scar on the fair face of Beauty may very properly be objected to, as it would obliterate one of the distinguishing features of Chatsworth; it may nevertheless be so far improved as to become a very pleasing object. Bed the channel of the cascade with rugged and unequal stones, plant part of its brink with shrubs, and if practicable, give to its course a winding direction; thus the water will occasionally be lost and seen as it descends, and by damming up this artificial stream in its progress down the hill, narrowing its dimensions in one place and opening it in another, it will assume a more natural appearance: the cascade at Chatsworth may thus deviate into beauty, and instead of being suddenly absorbed into the earth, it may apparently retire behind the house or lose itself amongst the bushes, conveying to the spectator the pleasing idea of a continued stream, withdrawn from his sight by the intervention only, of other objects. Having leisurely surveyed the exterior of Chatsworth, we were anxious to be admitted to a contemplation of the treasures it contained, and we already dwelt with ecstasy on the rich stores of art—the legacies of genius with which imagination had decorated this palace of the Peak. It is a trite remark, that highly-excited anticipation often ends in disappointment: the observation has been made a thousand times without abating the unreasonableness of expectation, and will be a thousand times repeated before mankind grow wiser by the use of it. The interior of Chatsworth will gratify those who do not expect too much, and if any man return from such a place either chagrined or disappointed, let him recollect that the fault is principally, if not entirely, his own. Two Shortly after passing the Porter's Lodge we entered an open quadrangular court, formed by the four sides of Chatsworth, which in general style and richness of ornament corresponds with the principal fronts of the building. sides of this court have open balconies, guarded by stone balustrades, which are divided into different sections by twenty-two intervening parts, that form the pedestals to the same number of busts. The busts are well carved in stone, and represent some of the most distinguished personages in the reign of Queen Anne. In this court there are some military trophies, which are said to have been executed from 154 ARION AND THE DOLPHIN. designs by G. Gibbons, the celebrated carver on wood: they are formed into four different subjects, and they embellish the east and west sides of the court. They are the workmanship of Mr. Samuel Watson, a native of the Peak of Derbyshire, a man who attained to uncommon excellence in his profession, and who sculptured figures and ornaments in stone in bas relief with great skill and ability: nearly the whole of the rich and exquisite carving that adorns the exterior of this noble mansion, is the work of this artist. The middle of the court is occupied with a marble statue of Arion seated on the back of a Dolphin, and surrounded with the clear living waters of a fountain, which fall into a capacious basin, composed of the marble of the Peak of Derbyshire. This figure, by some strange propensity to blundering, is generally called Orpheus, probably from the circumstance of his playing on a lyre, and the well known classical fable of Arion is forgotten. He was a musician and a poet of Lesbos, at a time when those characters, though now distinct from each other, were intimately connected. Having acquired great fame in his own country, he travelled into Italy, and became rich by the exercise of his professional excellence: returning homewards, full of the hope of enjoying in his own country the wealth he had amassed in another, the mariners who accompanied him were tempted to throw him into the sea, that they might possess themselves of his riches. In this extremity he requested permission once more to play upon his harp before he died: the request was granted: he struck the chords, and amidst a stream of music that astonished the mariners, he leaped into the sea: a dolphin, charmed with the strains of his harp, caught him on its back, and in return for the sweet music it had made, bore him safely through the waves to his home, where he arrived long before the vessel in which he had embarked, when he told the story of his danger and escape. The mariners, on their examination, acknowledged their murderous intention, and as far as they were concerned in the transaction, they confirmed the tale of the miraculous escape of Arion on the back of a Dolphin. SECTION XI. Interior of Chatsworth. - Paintings. - Verrio and Laguerre. Gallery of Drawings.- Chapel. - Library. -Tapestry. Sculpture.-Portraits.- Closterman.- Sir James Thornhill. Carving in Wood. — Gibbons.—Samuel Watson. — Cibber. WE now entered the hall, the first apartment that strangers are introduced into at Chatsworth it is a spacious and noble room, and the flight of steps which connects it with the grand stair-case, passing between two rocks of variegated alabaster, and ornamented with rich gilt balustrades, has a grand effect. This apartment exhibits the first specimen of the kind of painting that most prevails at Chatsworth. Verrio, Laguerre, and Sir James Thornhill, were the principal artists who decorated the walls and ceilings of this splendid mansion, and in the hall, Verrio has attempted the assassination of Cæsar at the foot of Pompey's statue "when Brutus rose, “Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate, "When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud “On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, AKENSIDE. The subject of this picture was too mighty for the grasp of such a mind as Verrio's. His Brutus has none of the dignity with which Akenside has clothed his noble Roman, and his conspirators are altogether a miserable set of common-place ruffians, who seem in the act of butchering one of their associates, who had threatened to turn informer. I am aware that this painting has been attributed to Louis Laguerre; but as this artist was only employed by Verrio as an assistant in his labours, I have chosen to characterise their joint productions here as the works of the master. Pope has associated these artists together, and his verse will probably perpetuate the remembrance of their names when their works are forgotten. |