It is doubtless very possible that Mrs. Jamieson's love of pictures and of portraits may be so much "the ruling passion," as to "swallow up" every particle of interest or curiosity in the matter of BOKES; and yet SHE, who has added to all our Libraries by the production of one of the cleverest and most interesting "bokes" of its kind*, ought, methinks, to have dropped more than one passing courtesy as she glided by the interminable and glorious volumes of science, art, philosophy, belles-lettres, and Divinity, with which the shelves of Althorp are at once loaded and adorned. But let us keep to PICTURES. Let us suppose that, for an object not apparently developed, it was Mrs. Jamieson's exclusive wish to notice only the productions of the pencil at Althorp. By not "gliding" through the library-and by not beginning "at the beginning" in the Dining Room-she has in fact lost the opportunity of exercising her ready and eloquent pen upon the best pictures in the Houset. Nor when she has reached the

* Characteristics of Women, 3 vols. 8vo.

To the above assertion I here add the proof.-In the Dining-room will be found the Elder and Younger Cornaro, by TITIAN; Madonna and Child, by CARAVAGGIO; a Boy's Head, an antique caustic painting; Descent from the Cross, by SEBASTIAN BOURDON; Fragment of a Cartoon, by RAFFAELLE; Death of the Stag, by SNYDERS; St. Charles Borromeo celebrating High Mass, by DOMENICHINO. In the Drawing-room, a Head of a Blind Harper, by LELY; Dædalus and Icarus, by VANDYKE-so particularly noticed by Walpole; a sketch, by RUBENS-admirable. Two Venetian Ladies, by TITIAN; Cleopatra and Lucretia, each by GUIDO. In the Long library, a cluster of beautiful

PICTURE GALLERY above stairs-a spot which Walpole has designated as "one of those enchanted scenes, which a thousand circumstances of history and art endear to a pensive spectator”—has she selected objects so much on the score of art, as of furnishing matter for historical or personal anecdote. But a copy, as well as an original, will furnish materials for reflections of this nature. It should seem as if she came and went away full of the Grammont Mania-and for fear of its abatement, had left the place (undoubtedly well calculated to produce it) without even visiting another room. Now, although I readily admit that the Grammont Annals furnish instances of as terrible domestic tragedies as can be adduced furnished by means of poison, pistol-bullets,

enamel portraits, of the time of Louis XIV., over the mantel-piece, surrounded by a number of pleasing little Flemish pictures, several of them by Teniers. The Raffaelle library, so called from a picture of the Holy Family, by that great master, over the fire-place; and alluded to in my description of Althorp in the text. The Billiard library contains two beautiful SIR JOSHUAS-the one of the present Earl Spencer, when four years of age; the other, of the late Marchioness Camden: both these portraits were admirably engraved for my work. The Marlborough library contains a most extraordinary portrait of John, Duke of Marlborough, also engraved for the work in question. I mention a few of the principal pictures in these rooms, of which a glimpse only might have rewarded the toil of a little extra locomotion. Mrs. Jamieson has well and warmly noticed the REMBRANDT'S MOTHER, painted by the son; but might she not have also just dropt the fact of the splendid engraving of that matchless portrait to be found in 'the work which is briefly mentioned by her as if it had been an eighteen-penny Guide to a Watering Place? And the Sophonisba Angosciola, upon which she descants with her usual cleverness, will be found not only beautifully represented by the burin, but particularly and largely noticed in certain Althorpian pages.

daggers, and broadswords or arising from profligacy the most reckless, and a want of public and private principle the most notorious—yet, if Mrs. Jamieson had only gone a little onward, into one or two rooms, she would have found some of the most prominent ladies and gentlemen, who were especial figurantes in the courts of that "par nobile" of French Monarchs, Louis XIV. and Louis XV. I should like to have had her opinion of the splendid portrait by Mignard (in the room immediately following, or in that ensuing it) of the famous Duchesse de Montausier*, encircled by flowers, which, in tint and lustre, seem to yield only to the cheeks and eyes of the Lady.

But in the Gallery itself, we desiderate yet further notices; and may gently inquire how it comes to pass that Anne of Austria (by Mignard), and Philip II.—undoubted originals—are overlooked? Then, common courtesy might have led to the mention of the large whole length portrait of the Noble Owner of the Mansion, in his robes of the Garter, by Copley, at the top of the room! How came the second Lady Spencer, by Vandyke

(“a Spencer

* This piciure was purchased for a comparative trifle at the sale of Quintin Craufurd's collection at Paris, and is particularly described in my Tour. Mr. Wright, the engraver, was so struck with it, that he desired (and readily obtained) permission to copy it in water-colours; and for this copy, exquisitely and perfectly finished in every particular, he asked the sum of twenty guineas. I know not its present destination; but I do know that a more extraordinary performance can rarely be witnessed.

by Vandyke is a treasure")-to be overlooked? And of the Henry VIII., and several of the Lely and Vandyke portraits, together with the Lady Jane Grey, and Diane de Poictiers, it might as well have been observed, that all these interesting objects have been engraved, in the very best manner, chiefly in a work exclusively devoted to an account of the Mansion in which the originals are placed*. I was well pleased to read Mrs. Jamieson's spirited notice of the portrait of the third Duc de Guise, by Porbus -not so much because I was instrumental to its acquisitiontas to its being matter of astonishment how such a magnificent portrait of such a magnificent Persecutor of the Huguenots should have been

*Let me not be misunderstood. I desire nothing in the shape of offensive obtrusiveness; but it should seem to have been obvious, as a matter of useful information, for such as have little chance of seeing the originals, to mention, that they have a very good chance of seeing faithful representations of them, most admirably engraved. This does not apply so much to the DIANE DE POICTIERS, because there was only a very limited number (75 impressions) taken off, and the plate was afterwards destroyed. I learn that 37. 13s. 6d. has been given for a single impression of this most original and fascinating portrait.

The Anne of Austria and the Ninon de l'Enclos were offerings at my hands as gifts. Of the latter, a beautiful engraving, in stipling, on sale, is the property of Mr. Pickering, the bookseller.

+ It was obtained, as well as two small and very curious heads of Francis II. and Marie Stuart, of Mr. Jarman, from the Quentin Craufurd collection. I think that seventy guineas were given for the Duc de Guise; and not above sixteen for the two small heads-which I believe to be thoroughly, if not EXCLUSIVELY, genuine. I refer the reader, with confidence, to a short, but interesting account, of the bold and extraordinary character of the Duc de Guise, which appears in the des Althorpianæ, vol. i. p. 251-2.

allowed to leave the Kingdom which had been the scene of his too successful persecutions.

I take leave of Mrs. Jamieson, and of her "Visits at Home and Abroad," with perfect complacency and good humour; and had desired nothing better than to have been "a fellow visitor" with her at Albert Durer's House "abroad," and at Hardwicke*, as

* Her sketch of Hardwicke is more elaborated than that of Althorp. She says, to enjoy the former thoroughly, you "ought to sleep there one night." It has been my lot to sleep there two nights: in the depth of the winter of 1818, when on a visit to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. I have made mention of this visit at Hardwicke in the Library Companion, p. 596-7, second edit. His Grace drove me over from Chatsworth, and left me, at my particular request, to soliloquise two days within the spacious and deserted walls of this, his most ancient ancestral residence. In my bed-room were the old silver-topped dogs; and a huge fire was blazing upon the hearth when I retired to rest. (The particulars preceding this retirement may be sought for in the work just mentioned). Opposite the foot of the bed, over the entrance door of the room, were some small leaden casements, which caught the flickering light of the expiring flame. The walls of the room were covered with tapestry of some century and a half standing. The window was a large bay one, of the early time of James I. On retiring to rest I locked my door; and, after my first short slumber, I started up, thinking I heard a noise. The fire was yet burning, and through the casements, just mentioned, I thought I discerned human faces, looking at me some in anger, some in sorrow, and some in laughter. I fixed my eyes upon the tapestry. I fancied I heard the huntsman's halloo, the dogs yelling: and the very trees, like those of "Birnam Wood," seemed to be moving towards me. I leaped from my bed, and sprung to the door: unlocked and opened it. The whole delusion was dissipated in an instant. There were no human faces; the trees, and the huntsmen and the dogs were fast fixed in their worsted trammels; and on drawing the window curtain aside, to look abroad, I gazed only upon the leads of the building, bristled with a hoar-frost, upon which the cold clear moonbeam seemed to love to be sleeping.

I had been rummaging among some old black-letter books, before retiring to rest, which may account for this "fantasia." I preserve a