The Rotunda, A Magnificent Circular Building In The Garden,
Particularly Engaged My Attention.
By means of beautiful
chandeliers, and large mirrors, it was illuminated in the most
superb manner; and everywhere decorated
With delightful paintings,
and statues, in the contemplation of which you may spend several
hours very agreeably, when you are tired of the crowd and the
bustle, in the walks of the garden.
Among the paintings one represents the surrender of a besieged city.
If you look at this painting with attention, for any length of time,
it affects you so much that you even shed tears. The expression of
the greatest distress, even bordering on despair, on the part of the
besieged, the fearful expectation of the uncertain issue, and what
the victor will determine concerning those unfortunate people, may
all be read so plainly, and so naturally in the countenances of the
inhabitants, who are imploring for mercy, from the hoary head to the
suckling whom his mother holds up, that you quite forget yourself,
and in the end scarcely believe it to be a painting before you.
You also here find the busts of the best English authors, placed all
round on the sides. Thus a Briton again meets with his Shakespeare,
Locke, Milton, and Dryden in the public places of his amusements;
and there also reveres their memory. Even the common people thus
become familiar with the names of those who have done honour to
their nation; and are taught to mention them with veneration.
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