Part of the Rock-work—the Rocky Portal.
Not far from the conservatory, and approached by a path between tall and stately yew hedges, is a sweetly pretty circular pool of water, with central fountain, filled with water-lilies, and surrounded first by a broad circular band of grass, then by a broad encircling gravel-path, edged on half its circumference with a closely-cut yew hedge with arched entrances, and the other half planted at regular intervals with cypress-trees. This, however, is but one of many charming spots which characterize the grounds at Chatsworth.
The Emperor Fountain.
The Emperor Fountain is one of the great attractions of Chatsworth, and one that to see is to remember. This marvellous fountain throws up a thick jet of water no fewer than 267 feet in height, which, spreading out as it falls, forms a liquid sheet of spray, on which, not unfrequently, the sunlight produces an exquisite rainbow. The quantity of metal, we are told, required in the formation of the pipes, &c., for this gigantic work, amounts to nearly 220 tons. The force of the water is so great that it is said to rush out of the pipe at the rate of a hundred miles a minute. Near the “Emperor” are other fountains of great beauty, and when all are playing, the effect is beyond description.
The Garden on the West Front.
Of the truly elegant and indeed wondrous gardens and parterres on the west and south fronts of the mansion, and of the thousand and one other attractions of the place, we have not time to speak, so lengthy has our article upon this “Palace of the Peak” already become; but there are yet two or three objects before passing out into the outer grounds and the kitchen-garden &c., on which we must say a word. These are the trees that were planted by royalty, and which most loyally have been tended, and grown up to a wondrous size. One of these is an oak-tree planted (well do we remember the circumstance, and the pretty, simple, earnest, and interesting appearance of the youthful princess at the time) in 1832, by our present beloved Queen, when, as a child of thirteen, then the “Princess Victoria,” she visited Chatsworth, with her august mother the Duchess of Kent. This tree, which in its forty years’ growth has become a stately oak, bears the label,—“This Oak planted by Princess Victoria, October 11th, 1832.” Near it is a Spanish chestnut thus labelled—“Spanish chestnut, planted by the Duchess of Kent, October 17th, 1832.” Then comes a sycamore planted when the Queen and the Prince Consort, “Albert the Good,” visited Chatsworth in 1843; it is labelled—“This Sycamore planted by Prince Albert, 1843.” In another part of the garden, opposite the west front, are a “Sweet Chestnut, planted by the (late) Emperor of Russia, 1816;” and a “Variegated Sycamore, planted by the Archduke Michael of Russia, 1818.” A tree was also planted by H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, on the visit of himself and H. R. H. the Princess of Wales, to Chatsworth, in December, 1872.
