The ornamental improvements were made by the direction of the Princess
Elizabeth, (now Landgravine of Hesse Homburg,) whose taste for rural
quiet we noticed in connexion with an Engraving of Her Royal Highness'
Cottage, adjoining Old Windsor churchyard. [1]

[1]: See _Mirror_, No 475.

Frogmore occupies part of a fertile valley, which divides the Little
Park from Windsor Forest, and comprises about thirteen acres. Mr.
Hakewill describes it as "diversified with great skill and taste, and a
piece of water winds throughout it with a pleasing variety of turn and
shape. The trees and shrubs, both native and exotic, which spread their
shade and diffuse their fragrance, are disposed with the best effect;
while buildings are so placed as to enliven and give character to the
general scene. The Ruin was designed by Mr. James Wyatt, and being
seated on the bank of the water, as well as in part in the wood, it
presents, with its creeping ivy and fractured buttresses, a most
pleasing object from various points of the garden. The _Hermitage (see
the Engraving)_ is a small circular thatched building, completely
embowered in lofty trees, and was constructed from a drawing of the
Princess Elizabeth. There is also a Gothic Temple, sacred to solitude,
and a well-imagined and picturesque barn, which heighten the appropriate
scenery. Too much cannot be said of the secluded beauty of this charming
spot, and nothing further need be said of the taste and judgment of
Major Price, to whom its arrangements have been entrusted."

The _Hermitage_ contains a tablet spread with fruit, eggs, and bread,
and a figure of a hermit reading the Scriptures; at the entrance are
the following lines, written on the marriage of the Princess Royal:--