I took leave of the Duke, and dined at Mr. Henry Bruncker's, at the Abbey of Sheene, formerly a monastery of Carthusians, there yet remaining one of their solitary cells with a cross. Within this ample inclosure are several pretty villas and fine gardens of the most excellent fruits, especially Sir William Temple's (lately Ambassador into Holland), and the Lord Lisle's, son to the Earl of Leicester, who has divers rare pictures, above all, that of Sir Brian Tuke's, by Holbein.
After dinner I walked to Ham, to see the house and garden of the Duke of Lauderdale, which is indeed inferior to few of the best villas in Italy itself; the house furnished like a great Prince's; the parterres, flower-gardens, orangeries, groves, avenues, courts, statues, perspectives, fountains, aviaries, and all this at the banks of the sweetest river in the world, must needs be admirable.
Hence, I went to my worthy friend, Sir Henry Capel [at Kew], brother to the Earl of Essex; it is an old timber-house; but his garden has the choicest fruit of any plantation in England, as he is the most industrious and understanding in it.