aforesayd groves are two great statues of white marble of eight foot high, the one of Bacchus, and the other of Flora; and on the sides ranging with the platts of flowers are two covered arbours of three hundred foot long, and divers allies.  At the beginning of the third and last division are, on either side of the great walke, two ponds with fountains, and two columnes in the middle, casting water all their height; which causeth the moving and turning of two crowns at the top of the same; and beyond is a compartment of green, with divers walkes planted with cherrie trees; and in the middle is the great ovall, with the Gladiator of brasse, the most famous statue of all that antiquity hath left.  On the sides of this compartment, and answering the platts of flowers and long arbours, are three arbours of either side, with turning galleries, communicating themselves one into another.  At the end of the great walke is a portico of stone, cutt and adorned with pyllasters and nyckes, within which are figures of white marble, of five foot high.  On either side of the said portico is an ascent leading up to the terrasse, upon the steps whereof, instead of ballasters, are sea-monsters, casting water from one to the other, from the top to the bottome; and above the sayd portico is a great reserve of water for the grotto.”

[The gardens of Wilton were illustrated by a series of twenty-six folio copper plates, with the following title; “Le Jardin De Wilton, construct par le trés noble et trés p. seigneur Philip Comte Pembroke et Montgomeri.  Isaac de Caux invt.”  The above description is copied from one of these plates.  Solomon de Caus was architect and engineer to the Elector Palatine, and constructed the gardens at Heidelberg in 1619.  Walpole infers that Isaac and Solomon de Caus were brothers, and that they erected, in conjunction with each other, “the porticos and loggias of Gorhambury, and part of Campden house, near Kensington.” (Anecdotes of Painting.) As the engravings of Wilton gardens bear the name of Isaac, he had probably some share in the arrangement of the grounds, and perhaps also in building the house.  In Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus, vols. ii. and iii. are several views, plans, and sections of Wilton House and grounds. — J. B.]

The grotto is paved with black and white marble; the roofe is vaulted.  The figures of the tritons, &c. are in bas-relieve, of white marble, excellently well wrought.  Here is a fine jeddeau and nightingale pipes.  Monsieur de Caus had here a contrivance, by the turning of a cock, to shew three rainbowes, the secret whereof he did keep to himself; he would not let the gardener, who shewes it to strangers, know how to doe it; and so, upon his death, it is lost.  The grott and pipes did cost ten thousand pounds.  The garden is twelve acres within the terrace of the grott.

The kitchin garden is a very good one, and here are good ponds and a decoy.  By the kitchin garden is a streame which turnes a wheele that moves the engine to raise the water to the top of a cisterne at the corner of the great garden, to serve the water-workes of the grotto and fountaines in the garden.