Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/267

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through a portcullis, and over the moat by a bridge; a way lately formed with great taste and judgment; and soon round ourselves in a broad gravel walk, winding towards the green-house, skirted to the right by a thick plantation, and open to a lawn, potted with trees to the left. From hence the towers of the castle, and the spire of St. Nicholas, are seen to good effect. A Gothic front has been properlychosen for the green-house, which looks out upon the velvet lawn, and catches beyond it a reach of the Avon, backed by a gradual slope, whose thick plantations embosom an elegant lodge. In this building is preserved the celebrated antique vase, presented by Sir William Hamilton to the Earl of Warwick; of vast dimensions, and the chastest sculpture. The material is white marble; the form circular, the depth rather shallow for its capacity, which enables it to receive one hundred and sixty-three gallons; a tennon on the square pedestal on which it stands, and a mortise in the bottom of the vessel, enable the latter to turn easily on the former. Two twisted handles ornament its body, each formed of two intertwining vine branches, of most spirited design and elegant sculpture; terminating in tendrils, that run with all the ease and wildness of nature beneath its spreading rim. The decorations have all the appropiateness of Grecian