Here an urn appears with the following
inscription:--"M.S. Henrici Bowles, qui ad Calpen, febre ibi exitiali
grassante, publice missus, ipse miserrime periit--1804. Fratri
posuit."--Passing round the water, you come to an arched walk of hazels,
which leads to the green in front of the house, where, dipping a small
slope, the path passes near an old and ivied elm. As this seat looks on
the magnificent line of Bowood park and plantations, the obvious thought
could not be well avoided:
"When in thy sight another's vast domain
Spreads its dark sweep of woods, dost thou complain?
Nay! rather thank the God who placed thy state
Above the lowly, but beneath the great;
And still his name with gratitude revere,
Who bless'd the sabbath of thy leisure here."
The walk leads round a plantation of shrubs, to the bottom of the lawn,
from whence is seen a fountain, between a laurel arch; and through a
dark passage a gray sun-dial appears among beds of flowers, opposite the
fountain.
The sun-dial, a small, antique, twisted column, gray with age, was
probably the dial of the abbot of Malmesbury, and counted his hours when
at the adjoining lodge; for it was taken from the garden of the
farm-house, which had originally been the summer retirement of this
mitred lord.
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