In a garden, a pool of perfectly transparent water, the bed of which
should be paved with marble, or perhaps with mosaic work in images and
various figures, which through the clear water would look wondrously
beautiful.

* * * * *

_October 20, 1847._--A walk in a warm and pleasant afternoon to Browne's
Hill, not uncommonly called Browne's Folly, from the mansion which one
of that family, before the Revolution, erected on its summit. (On
October 14, 1837, I recorded a walk thither.) In a line with the length
of the ridge, the ascent is gradual and easy, but straight up the sides
it is steep. There is a large and well-kept orchard at the foot, through
which I passed, gradually ascending; then, surmounting a stone wall,
beneath chestnut-trees which had thrown their dry leaves down, I climbed
the remainder of the hill. There were still the frequent
barberry-bushes; and the wood-wax has begun to tuft itself over the
sides and summit, which seem to be devoted to pasture. On the very
highest part are still the traces of the foundation of the old mansion.
The hall had a gallery running round it beneath the ceiling, and was a
famous place for dancing. The house stood, I believe, till some years
subsequent to the Revolution, and was then removed in three portions,
each of which became a house somewhere on the plain, and perhaps they
are standing now. The proprietor, being a royalist, became an exile when
the Revolution broke out, and I suppose died abroad. I know not whether
the house was intended as a permanent family-residence or merely as a
pleasure-place for the summer; but from its extent I should conceive the
former to have been its purpose. Be that as it may, it has perpetuated
an imputation of folly upon the poor man who erected it, which still