One spot we
found particularly pleasing, nay flattering to an Englishman; it is
called _l'Isle d'Amour_, in which there are some thatched cottages, a
water-mill, a garden, shrubbery, &c. in the English taste, and the whole
is, in every respect, well executed. The dairy is neat, and the milkmaid
not ugly, who has her little villa, as well as the miller. There is also
a tea-house, a billiard-room, an eating-room, and some other little
buildings, all externally in the English village stile, which give the
lawn, and serpentine walks that surround them, a very pastoral
appearance. The eating-room is particularly well fancied, being covered
within, and so painted as to produce a good idea of a close arbor; the
several windows, which are pierced through the sides, have such forms,
as the fantastic turn of the bodies of the painted trees admit of; and
the building is in a manner surrounded with natural trees; the room,
when illuminated for the Prince's supper, has not only a very pleasing
effect, but is a well executed deception, for the real trees falling
into perspective with those which are painted, through the variety of
odd-shaped windows, has a very natural, and consequently a very pleasing
effect; but what adds greatly to the deception, is, that at each corner
of the room the floor is opened, and lumps of earth thrown up, which
bear, in full perfection, a great variety of flowers and flowering
shrubs.
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