Cannons Park. -Near the middle of Edgware is the principal entrance to Cannons, a place of extraordinary interest, both in a moral and gardening point of view, though it can now only be considered as the wreck of what it once was. (See Encyc. of Gard., 2d ed. 7520.) It is impossible not to reflect on the wonderfully sumptuous and yet regulated magnificence of the Duke of Chandos. The circumstence of his employing, at first, calculators, to ascertain exactly to what extent he might carry his expenditure; and then adjusting his daily expenses accordingly; the magnificence of his house, the principal staircase of which consisted of blocks of Italian marble, 20 ft. long, and the handrailing of silver; his painted chapel at Little Stanmore; and the complete band kept on purpose for it; the vault underneath, where his remains and those of his family lie in coffins, which, in 1814, wre in a dilapidated state, and liable to have pieces of their rich coverings torn off as memoranda, by strangers; his horse patrol, which day and night perambulated the park; his body guard; and above all, his grand idea (which he had in great part carried into execution and which, it is said, if he had lived, he would have been able to accomplish), of making purchases of land from Little Stanmore to Chandos House, in London, (then surrounded by fields, but now forming part of Cavendish Square,) so as to have an uninterrupted private avenue in a direct line, and which would have been nine miles in length, from his country to his town residence. That the establishment at Cannons should have been broken up at his death is generally looked upon, by the vulgar, as a visitation for some supposed irregularities in the mode by which he acquired his immense fortune. That he did acquire both his wealth and his title, as a government contractor, is a matter of notoriety; but we know of nothing upon record that indicates him to have been less honest than other men of his time; and it appears to us probable, that the chief difference between him and other men of modern times, who have made large fortunes as government contractors, consists in the greater liberality and public spirit he displayed in spending the sums he had acquired. The park of Cannons has the advantages of possessing a rich soil, and of being near London; but the situation is low, the grounds little varied, and there is scarcely any distant prospect. In looking at the park from the road, we observed some round clumps of newly planted trees, placed in the midst of large open spaces, which we could not but consider as deformities, destroying the breadth of the landscape. It surely could never be the intention of the planter, that these formal and unconnected masses should grow up and remain.
