Many of the old yews and hollies, which were formerly, it is said, cut into the forms of soldiers on guard, still remain. Near the castle is a banqueting room, most nobly kept up for the use of the public, have free admission to the grounds at all times, and who here find a large well furnished room in which to take their refreshments, and a person to wait upon them. There is a smaller room, with a dining table, for the accommodation of any party who may wish to dine by themselves, and in the large room are numerous small tables, chairs, and sofas, in the manner of the rural coffee houses of France and Germany. Both rooms are yery appropriately ornamented with prints of all the principal old castles in England. There are also panels of lookingglasses, and two fire places. The attendant lives, and has her kitchen, in the floor below. Near the ruins is an extensive piece of grotto scenery, put up by the same individual who executed the grotto at Fonthill and that at Oatlands. His name was Josiah Lane, and he was a native of the adjoining parish of Tisbury, in the workhouse of which he died last year, at a great age! He was perfectly ignorant, but certainly had a genius for this kind of construction. He used to do all the work with his own hands, and be paid at the rate of about two guineas a week; but, like other money-getting men with ill regulated minds, he never thought of making provision for age.
