The park is of great extent, exceedingly well wooded, limiting that phrase to bulk and quantity of timber; but it exhibits very little variety of kinds of trees, the prevailing, and, indeed, almost the only, tree being the beech; and it is well known to the admirers of forest scenery, that of all forests one of beech is the tamest. Notwithstanding this, there are some beech trees here with straight clean trunks of upwards of 100 ft. in height; and we hardly think these are to be equalled in the island. Let the stranger enquire for the king and queen beech. All the trees in the park seem to have been regularly pruned and trained for the timber-merchant; and form, in this respect, a singular contrast to the beech trees in Eastwell Park. The surface of the park is not without considerable undulations; but these are not heightened or brought into effect in a picturesque point of view by the emplacement of the wood. There is, also, a total want of water. To make the park what it ought to be, in correspondence with the house, water ought to be brought by a steam-engine and iron pipes from the nearest practicable stream, and the valley to the left of the house flooded. The approach from Dunstable would then pass over a bridge; and the pleasure-ground might be narrowed opposite the house, and extended along the margin of this lake, or river, to any extent, and with variations in the distant scenery, which our hasty glance did not enable us to determine. In short, while the highest degree of art and expense has been displayed on the house, scarcely anything has been done to the grounds to render them a worthy accompaniment to such a splendid pile.
