whilst his sprightly manners, pleasing conversation, and inoffensive wit, in the social intercourse of private life, procured him the esteem and regard of most of the characters of his time remarkable for worth, learning, or abilities. As a poet, his two works "FacЄtion displayed," and "Moderation displayed," give him the praise of a caustic satyrist, rather than that of an harmonious versifyer. The Chinese bed-chamber receives its name from the fanciful furniture with which it is fitted up. It contains, Charles I. and his Queen, by Vandyke. Connected with this room are two small apartments, a little cabinet, where we find, The Duchess of Rutland, when a child, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In the Duchess's dressing-room are some family portraits, by Opie; and one stiff and aukward one of Lady Elizabeth Talbot, eldest daughter of his Grace, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The north front of Badminton-House is extremely grand; consisting of a body surmounted at the extremities by cupolas, and adorned in the centre with a tympanum, containing the Beaufort arms; and two extensive projecting wings. This commands the whole extent of the park, which stretches three miles in a right line from it, terminated by Worcester-Lodge. But the apparent distance is much less, a singular deceptio visus, being produced by some dips in the ground, that intervene between the house and the lodge.-A comfortable asylum for the decayed servants of the family, supported by the Duke of Beaufort, bears honourable testimony to his Grace's generous munificence. On our road to Bath, deviating a little to the right from the turnpike-road about two miles from Badminton, our route leads us to Old Sodbury, where we meet with a noble specimen of Roman castrametation, taking the accustomed form of a long square, rounded at the corners. The length of the area from east to west is two hundred and sixty paces, the breadth one hundred and seventy. To the east, south, and west, it was defended by a double ditch and double vallum, through which were three porte or entrances; an abrupt natural sinking of the ground formed a barrier sufficiently strong on the remaining side to preclude the necessity of artificial vallations. A grand view discloses itself from this commanding ele vation. Many attribute the encampment at Old-Sodbury to the Saxons or Danes, but it should seem with little propriety. Either of these people, indeed, might have availed themselves of so strong a work, in so happy a situation, for the temporary accommodation of an army; as Edward IV. is recorded to have done, when he was marching to the field of Tewkesbury, so fatal to Queen Margaret; but that it may be ranked amongst the labours of the Roman soldiers, originally, is obvious, at a single glance, to any one acquainted with the earth-works of this military people. The whole country, indeed, from hence to Bath has been the scene of ancient warfare. It was in this direction that the Romans first marched to found the colony of Aquæ Solis, nearly eighteen hundred years ago; and it was in the same line that the Saxon adventurers, Ceaulin and Cuthwin, five hundred years afterwards, led their troops to the attack of the city of "the Waters of the Sun." Rushing on in the spirit of the times, through blood and fire, "Amazement in their van, with flight combin'd, they at length reached Dyrham, about eight miles from Bath, the seat at present of William Blathwayte, esq. There an enemy was assembled to meet them; the three kings of Glocester, Cirencester, and Bath-Cornmail, Candidan, and Forrinmail-prepared to contest, by one desperate effort, their crowns and lives: The hosts encountered with a dreadful shock; and, after a bloody contest, victory declared for Ceaulin and his brother leader; the dispirited Britons fled, or were cut to pieces with their kings, and the triumphant Saxons marched down the hill to Bath, and took possession of the most splendid city in the West of England. Your's, &c. R. W. |