Continuing the road, on the right is a fine old Saxon arch leading to Blancbois, a large farm belonging to Mr Lainé. A little further is Saumarez, the mansion of the Lady Dowager De Saumarez, a quadrangular building, remarkable for a kind of belfry on the top which gives it a curious effect. It is built of granite and is surrounded with umbrageous trees, and tastefully laid out gardens, abounding in flowers. In the front is a small pool, which from being hemmed in by a wall is rather a deformity than an addition, as it smacks of the artificial. The adjoining grounds are pretty, but of the usual character, small and circumscribed, and some connected gardens figure boldly for a number of fine myrtles, outlandish trees and numerous lillies of the valley. The district is nearly the same as we have just past, with the exception of the orchard scenery being much more florid, the fields sheltered with trees, and the ground much better dairy land.
A cow generally yields from twelve to fifteen pounds of butter throughout the summer, and the farms are somewhat remarkable for their fine ducks. The grounds connected with the curious house of Miss Le Marchant have an English aspect to a considerable degree, and in the centre of one, the property of the late Mr Le Pelley, is a curious old elm.
Someways to the left in a well screened valley, and immediately behind the parsonage-house, is the country hospital. It was built in 1753 and has upwards of forty vergées of excellent land attached to it which in part supports its inmates, who are employed in its cultivation, thereby enjoying the advantage of constant fresh air and exercise. The apartments are commodious and cleanly, and are the receptacle of the destitute and infirm of all the country parishes, as also two-thirds of those orphans and widows who are left by soldiers dying in garrison. The sick ward conveniently fronts a sunny garden abounding with flowers and fruits, the former of which goes much towards exhilarating the sick. Divine Service is performed by the country ministers in turn, and the children which attend have nurseries and schools.
St George, the residence of Colonel Guille, our present Baillif, is charmingly situated amid woods of stately oak, beech and other timber, and is esteemed by Englishmen and others of sound taste to be a better specimen of English country scenery than any other in the island. The stranger perhaps will see but little to attract him in the house, as it is small, and but little discretion in the style; but then this is amply compensated in the back scenery, which includes park-like grounds, rendered doubly interesting from being beautified with sheep, which may be perhaps the only opportunity he will have of seeing them in the island, and even here they are, according to the law, either tied by the leg or pent in folds.
Diverging towards the sea on an eminence overlooking the wide main, and a considerable territory of fens, called the "Pontine Marshes," is a kind of look-out house or summer retreat belonging to the above gentleman. Here the stranger has a broad-cast view of the fenny country beneath, which in the winter is the beat of the wild-fowl shooter, as it is the resort of the bittern, the heron, and a variety of other curious birds[A]; therefore if he can regard the gunner and his dog wading through a wild tract of rushes, marshes and vistas of tall spear, with a picturesque eye, this is the spot. Looking inland he will see the beautiful wooded district he has just left, connecting itself in an apparently unbroken chain until it loses itself amid the beautiful confines and valley of the King's Mills, where, on retreating back a little, he will soon find himself. Throughout this rout the botanist will fall in with digitalis purpurea, convallaria majalis, artemisia vulgaris, and a curious specimen of salix, together with abundance of teucrium scordonia, which is as common and unregarded an herb as any in the island, though possessing such excellent medical properties as a tonic. However, hoping he will take this hint, and give it a trial, we must leave him for the sake of the conchologist and geologist, whom no doubt have both taken a rout by the sea-shore, and by this time must have bagged a variety of shells, inasmuch as this line of coast displays some beautiful sorts, such as black, white, yellow and red.
[A] A certain town gentleman shot a fine bittern in these marshes, as also that beautiful bird, the egret, or lesser-bittern.