octagonal saloon. "This house," says Mr. Walpole, "the idea of which is
borrowed from a well-known villa of Palladio, and is a model of taste,
though not without faults, some of which are occasioned by too strict
adherence to rules and symmetry. Such are too many corresponding doors
in spaces so contracted; chimneys between windows, and, which is worse,
windows between chimneys; and vestibules however beautiful, yet little
secured from the damps of this climate. The trusses that support the
ceiling of the corner drawing-room are beyond measure massive, and the
ground apartment is rather a diminutive catacomb than a library in a
northern latitude. Yet these blemishes, and Lord Hervey's wit, who said
'the house was too small to inhabit, and too large to hang to one's
watch,' cannot depreciate the taste that reigns throughout the whole.
The larger court, dignified by picturesque cedars, and the classic
scenery of the small court, that unites the old and new house, are more
worth seeing than many fragments of ancient grandeur which our
travellers visit under all the dangers attendant on long voyages. The
garden is in the Italian taste, but divested of conceits, and far
preferable to every style that reigned till our late improvements. The
buildings are heavy, and not equal to the purity of the house. The
lavish quantity of urns and sculpture behind the garden front should be
retrenched." Such were the sentiments of Mr. Walpole on this celebrated
villa, before the noble proprietor began the capital improvements which
have since been completed. Two wings have been added to the house, from
the designs of Mr. Wyattville. These remove the objections that have
been made to the house, are more fanciful and beautiful than convenient
and habitable; the gardens have also been considerably improved, and now
display all the beauties of modern planting.

It is a remarkable coincidence that at this secluded and beautiful villa
Charles James Fox terminated his glorious career, in the same month, and