of its kind in the country. Another and more singular
attraction consists of the subterranean roadways--gigantic mole runs the
cause of whose creation is, and probably always will be, a mystery to
the world in general. The pleasure gardens are stocked with rare trees,
and the vast lake has so natural an appearance that one forgets that it
was made by human folk. The kitchen garden is notably fine: we are told
that it covers thirty acres, and that the houses for peaches and other
luscious fruits extend over a quarter of a mile. There is a story of a
monstrous bunch of Syrian grapes having, some generations ago, been
grown there, and sent by the duke of that time across country to
Wentworth House. It weighed nineteen and a half pounds, and was
carried--as was the trophy taken by the spies from Canaan--attached to a
pole.

Finest of the Welbeck trees is the "Greendale Oak", which in 1724 was
transformed, by cutting, into an archway, the aperture being 10 feet 3
inches high and 6 feet 3 inches wide, so that a carriage, or three
horsemen riding abreast, could pass through. From the branches cut off
at that time a cabinet was made for the Countess of Oxford--a fine piece
of furniture, inlaid with a representation of her spouse driving his
chariot and six through the opening.

Horace Walpole, in 1756, writes in his usual acid style: "I went to
Welbeck. It is impossible to describe the bales of Cavendishes, Harleys,
Holleses, Veres, and Ogles: every chamber is tapestried with them; nay,
and with two thousand other morsels; all their histories inscribed; all
their arms, crests, services, sculptured on chimneys of various English
marbles in ancient forms (and to say truth) most of them ugly. Then such
a Gothic hall, with pendent fretwork in imitation of the old, and with a
chimney-piece like mine in the library. Such water-colour pictures! such
historic fragments! There is Prior's portrait and the Column and
Verelst's flower on which he wrote; and the authoress Duchess of
Newcastle in a theatric habit, which she generally wore, and,
consequently, looking as mad as the present Duchess; and dukes of the
same name, looking as foolish as the present Duke; and Lady Mary
Wortley, drawn as an authoress, with rather better pretensions; and
cabinets and glasses wainscoted with the Greendale Oak, which was so
large that an old steward wisely cut a way through it to make a
triumphal passage for his lord and lady on their wedding! What trea