There are also other portions of inscriptions, and among the more interesting of these remains are:—A fine torso of Venus, and another torso of a female, of very similar dimensions; the head of a stag, life-size, presented to the Duchess of Devonshire by the King of Naples; heads of fawns, of Jupiter, of a Cupid, of Silenus, &c.; part of a colossal medallion of Lucius Verus; a bas-relief of Bacchus, supported by a younger male figure; an alto-relievo of a procession of Silenus, in which that god is shown seated on a chariot, and leaning on a young Bacchante, and a fawn is playing on the double pipe; a number of architectural ornaments; some fine masks and portions of masks; an alto-relievo of three female figures and the dog Cerberus; a fragment representing Diana and Actæon; two right hands, one grasping the other firmly, as if struggling in wrestling or fighting; some Egyptian figures, &c., and many other fragments.
The Sculpture Gallery and Orangery.
Above the Lodge, too, some good architectural and other fragments of sculpture are preserved.
Bust of the late Duke
of Devonshire.
The gardens and grounds of Chatsworth are marvels of beauty, and are, indeed, in many respects, matchless both for their picturesqueness, their elegance, and the skill with which they have been laid out. Leaving the mansion from the door of the Orangery, to the left is a spacious alcove, and to the right, running in a direct line for more than a quarter of a mile in length, is a broad gravel path, at the summit of which, beneath a lofty avenue of trees, is seen a gigantic vase, bearing the simple name of “Blanche,” in touching memory of the much-loved and accomplished Lady Blanche Georgiana Howard, the wife of the present Duke of Devonshire.
From this spot the view on all sides is truly grand (embracing the mansion, the gardens, the lakes, basins and fountains, the woods and shrubberies, the park and the river, and the distant country towards Rowsley), and paths lead in various directions among the beauties of the place: here a delightful little dell or a fernery where ferns and heaths grow in wild profusion, there another dell of rhododendrons, or with statuary among heathery banks and masses of rock. Near here, too, is a sylvan slope, headed by a gigantic bronze bust of the late Duke, mounted on a pillar, composed of fragments of an ancient Greek fluted column from the Temple of Minerva at Sunium. On the base are these beautiful verses by Lord Carlisle:—
“These fragments stood on Sunium’s airy steep;
They reared aloft Minerva’s guardian shrine;
Beneath them rolled the blue Egean deep;
And the Greek pilot hail’d them as divine.