and,
since both had rural tastes, it is probable that they were far happier
in Nottinghamshire than in their fine town mansion in Clerkenwell Close.
Welbeck she admired most, since it was seated "in the bottom of a park
environed with woods, and noble, yet melancholy". One wonders if the
ghost of this "wise, wittie and learned lady" wanders in those beautiful
and amazing precincts, a little bewildered and more than a little angry
that any of her beloved spouse's descendants should have dared to
enlarge and embellish the comfortable temple of their conjugal felicity.
If she could have had her will, his works in architecture, like hers in
the realms of smoky fancy, would have lasted until the end of time.

CLUMBER

The most impressive approach to Clumber is by way of Normanton Inn, a
red-brick hostelry draped luxuriantly with virginia creeper. At some
slight distance is a magnificent glade of varied greens, with great
patches of blood-coloured bent-grass. In the neighbourhood grow many
fine Spanish chestnuts; when I was last there the ground was littered
with the fallen flowers. A vast, festooned cloud, grey as the smoke of
some monstrous fire, drifted from the east; then lightning sported
wickedly amongst the trees, and the rain fell in torrents. Beside the
balustraded bridge the water seemed covered with an army of white
puppets. But it was at the entrance to the Lime Tree Avenue that I
looked upon the greatest wonder of the day. Behind the shifting veil the
view of that curving road seemed as fantastically unreal as the
background of some ancient Italian masterpiece.

This avenue, three miles in length, has on either side two rows of
limes, and on a hot July midday the fragrance is overpoweringly sweet.
From this the house is not visible--to reach it one must pass down a
private drive to the left. Whilst the present house was being built,
Sir Harbottle Grimston writes on a tour enjoyed in 1768: "From Worksop
Manor to Clumber, Lord Lincoln's, over the heath. The house is situated
rather low in a very extensive park, near a noble piece of water, over
which is a very handsome bridge on 'cycloidal' arches. The house is not
yet finished, but by its present appearance seems as if it would be
magnificent. There are nineteen windows in front, the middle one a bow,
with two wings projecting forwards." About this time Walpole speaks of
Clumber being "still in leading-strings". The building was finished
about 1770, and i