would fix. As we had a previous engagement, we declined the invitation
to dinner, but we did ample justice to the pines and grapes. We were
then shewn over the house, and afterwards we went round the gardens,
consisting of five acres of the highest cultivated soil, and the walls
clothed with the choicest fruit trees in full bearing. One fact worth
recording the gardener told me, which was, that the Marquis, being
particularly fond of pears, they were cultivated in this garden to the
highest perfection, and he had a different plate of pears to be put upon
the table for every day in the year. The pleasure grounds and every
thing at Bow-wood bespoke the residence of one who was a nobleman by
nature as well as by title.

After having spent a most agreeable morning, and had a second edition of
the desert and wine, we prepared to depart, all much delighted with what
we had seen, and more gratified with the polite and handsome conduct of
the noble owner. Just as I was about to offer a present, the housekeeper
called me aside. She took the liberty, she said, to request that I would
not offer any of the servants any money. As the servants of the Marquis
had all of them most liberal wages, he never suffered them to take any
vails of his friends who visited him.

In addition to the attention which had been shewn to us, our servants
had also been handsomely regaled, and the horses well taken care of
in the stables; and, as we contemplated the munificent treatment we
experienced at Bow-wood, we could not refrain from drawing a most
unfavourable contrast of the treatment we had experienced about a month
before, when we had made a party to visit Blenheim, the seat of the Duke
of Marlborough, at Woodstock, near Oxford. There we were turned over
from one servant to another, each having his department, and demanding
a certain sum before we were handed into the custody of his companion.