a long list of lamenting friends; many who esteemed the extraordinary talents of his head, but more who loved the amiable disposition of his heart. He had been chaplain to the English ambassador in Paris, at the breaking out of the French Revolution, and remained in that kingdom after our minister's departure; where he imbibed an attachment to the cause of French liberty, arising from a recollection of the enormities of the old government, rather than an admiration of some of the measures which followed its downfall. He has placed his name high on the roll of English literati, by his translation of "Friar Gerund," and his " Μέτρον Agiçov;" and manifested his regard for what is good and great in human character, by being the original proposer of a monument to the philanthropic Howard.

Your's, &c.

R. W.

i.

Am now to introduce you to one of the most splendid mansions in the kingdom, Fonthill, the seat of Mr. Beckford; where expence has reached its utmost limits in furniture and ornaments; where every room is a gold mine, and every apartment a picture-gallery. It stands

at the distance of one mile and a half from Hindon, to the right of the turnpike running from that town to Salisbury. The house is approached by a road, which, passing under a noble stone arch, proceeds through the park in a strait line to it; a fine sheet of water, nearly a mile in length, lying to the left, and a lofty wooded hill, rising behind and to the right of it. A superb portico, of the Corinthian order, ascended by a magnificent flight of steps, adorns the body of the mansion, to which are attached two wings, connected with it by semi-circular Doric colonnades. Every thing bespeaks the presence of unbounded wealth and expensive ideas. It occupies the scite of an house built by Inigo Jones, which the late Mr. Beckford took down, in order to build a more modern one on the spot. Accident, however, reduced this to ashes, and he was obliged to go once more to work; but, like the Phoenix, Fonthill rose with tenfold splendour from its ruins, and, in order to prevent a similar casualty, the new 'edifice' was constructed on a plan, which, separating the stories from each other by arches, secured it from future devastation by fire. The large folding doors open into the Egyptian hall,

P

a square apartment of great height, with a

coved ceiling painted in compartments, by Cassali, a modern artist. This prepares one for the richness of the other rooms, by its magnificent ornaments; a stupendous organ on the right, a beautiful statue of Venus, and another of Apollo, in white marble, with variegated 'pedestals of the same material, in front, and an antique bust of porphyry and black marble on the side, of the organ.

The collection of pictures begins in the adjoining apartment to the right, called the cabinetroom, which contains,

Two Views in Derbyshire, and a Storm, by 'Loutherbourg; the latter is the finest of the three. The Inside of a Church, by John Van Nikkelen, painted in 1688Duke de Bourbon, by Vandyke.-Head of a Madona, by Guido.Small Landscape, by Polenberg.-Landscape, by Berghem.-Washer-woman, by Teniers.Holy Family, by Goltzius.-And several others of the Flemish school.

From hence we pass into the ball-room, which, like all the other apartments, is hung with rich crimson damask, and furnished with chairs and sophas, covered throughout with one sheet of burnished gold. The ceiling here, also, is · painted by Cassali, with emblematical repre