our noble scribe seemed always ambitious of being enrolled in their corps. After a very common observation on the few events in the life of a man of letters that can be worth recording, he adds:

:

• Nor are authors such benefactors to the world, that the trifling incidents of their lives deserve to be recorded. The most shining of the class have not been the most useful members of the community. If Newton unravelled some arcana of nature, and exalted our ideas of the Divinity by the investigation of his works; what benefactions has Homer or Virgil conferred on mankind but a fund of harmonious amusement? Barren literati, who produce nothing, are innocent drones, whom the world has been so kind as to agree to respect for having entertained themselves gravely in the manner most agreeable to their taste. When they have devoured libraries, they are supposed to be prodigies of knowledge, though they are but walking or temporary dictionaries. Yet the republic of letters, confining its own honours to its own corporation, fondly decrees the distinction of biography to most of its active, and to some of its mute members.'

There is too much of party in this life of Mr. Baker;-and there is too much egotism in the author's subsequent account of his own conduct,' to be amusing to our readers or his own. In his correspondence with ministers, however, a letter to the first Mr. Pitt is so spirited, yet so ingeniously civil, that we shall insert it here.

،

SIR,

To the Rt. Hon. WILLIAM PITT.

• On my coming to town I did myself the honour of waiting on you and lady Hesther Pitt, and though I think myself extremely distinguished by your obliging note, I should be sorry for having given you the trouble of writing it, if it did not lend me a very pardonable opportunity of saying what I much wished to express, but thought myself too private a person, and of too little consequence, to take the liberty to say. In short, Sir, I was eager to congratulate you on the lustre you have thrown on this country; I wished to thank you for the security you have fixed to me of enjoying the happiness I do enjoy. You have placed England in a situation in which it never saw itself a task the more difficult, as you had not to improve, but to recover. In a trifling book written two or three years ago, I said (speaking of the name in the world the most venerable to me), "Sixteen unfortunate and inglorious years since his removal have already written his eulogium *." It is but justice to you, Sir, to add, that that period ended when your administration began. Sir, don't take this for flattery; there is nothing in your power to give that I would accept-nay, there is nothing I could envy, but what I believe you would scarce offer me, your glory. This may sound very vain and insolent, but consider, Sir, what a monarch is a man who wants nothing; consider how he looks down on one who is only

* Royal and noble authors, account of Sir Robert Walpole.'

the

the most illustrious man in Britain. But, Sir, freedoms apart, in significant as I am, probably it must be some satisfaction to a great mind like yours, to receive incense when you are sure there is no flattery blended with it: and what must any Englishman be that could give you a minute's satisfaction, and would hesitate!

• Adieu, Sir, I am unambitious, I am disinterested-but I am vain. You have by your notice, uncanvassed, unexpected, and at the period when you certainly could have the least temptation to stoop down to me, flattered me in the most agreeable manner. If there could arrive the moment, when you could be nobody and I anybody, you cannot imagine how grateful I would be. In the mean time permit me to be, as I have been ever since I had the honour of knowing you, SIR,

• Nov. 19, 1759."

Your most obedient humble servant,

HOR. WALPOLE.'

Lord Orford seems to have been on good terms with the first Lord Chatham's successor, Lord Bute; not as a politician, but as a man of letters, and a judge and patron of the fine arts. Ex. gr.

MY LORD,

To the EARL OF BUTE.

HAVING heard that his Majesty was curious about his pictures, I recollected some catalogues of the royal collections which I had a little share in publishing a few years ago. I dare not presume to offer them to his Majesty myself; but I take the liberty of sending them to your Lordship, that, if you should think they may contribute to his Majesty's information or amusement, they may come to his hand more properly from your Lordship than they could do from me. I have added some notes that illustrate a few particulars.

• Having dabbled a good deal in this kind of things, if there is any point in which I could be of use to your Lordship for his Majesty's satisfaction, I should be very ready and happy to employ my little knowledge or pains. And permit me to say, my Lord, your Lordship cannot command any body who will execute your orders more cheerfully or more disinterestedly, or that will trouble you less with any solicitations: an explanation which even esteem and sincerity are forced to make to one in your Lordship's situation. The mere love of the arts, and the joy of seeing on the throne a Prince of taste, are my only inducements for offering my slender services. I know myself too well to think I can ever be of any use but as a virtuoso and antiquarian; a character I should formerly have called very insignificant; though now my pride, since his Majesty vouchsafes to patronize the arts, and your Lordship has the honour to countenance genius, a rank of which at most I can be but an admirer.

SIR,

• I HAVE presented the book sent me to his Majesty, and men

tioned the very polite and respectful manner you expressed yourself

I shall presume

in with regard to him. The catalogue came very opportunely, for the King had just given orders to the duke of Devonshire to make out exact lists of all the pictures in the royal palaces. His majesty's great fondness for the arts will, I hope, soon have a striking effect in this country. I with gratitude acknowledge the assistance they have been of to me during many years of absolute solitude: other matters much less agreeable now demand my whole attention; depend upon it, therefore, on your generosity, and use the freedom you give me, without remorse or hesitation; fully satisfied, that whatever you shall please to undertake, will be executed in a much superior manner to any attempts of mine, even in the days of liberty and quiet. I am sorry before I finish this scrawl to be forced to enter my protest against an expression in yours. Men of your character and ability are by no means confined to any one study: quick parts and superior talents become useful in every occupation they are applied to; with these, according to marshal Saxe, little things amaze, and great ones do not surprise. I am, Sir,

'Dec. 17, 1760.'

• Your obedient humble servant,

• To Mr. WALPOLE.

BUTE.'

• LORD BUTE presents his compliments to Mr. Walpole, and returns him a thousand thanks for the very agreeable present he has made him. In looking over it, Lord Bute observes Mr. Walpole has mixed several curious remarks on the customs, &c. of the times he treats of; a thing much wanted, and that has never yet been exe cuted, except in parts by Peck, &c. Such a general work would be not only very agreeable, but instructive: -the French have attempted it; the Russians are about it, and Lord Bute has been informed, Mr. Walpole is well furnished with materials for such a noble work.

• Saturday.'

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MY LORD,

• To the EARL OF BUTE.

• I AM sensible how little time your Lordship can have to throw away on reading idle letters or letters of compliment; yet as it would be too great want of respect to your Lordship not to make some sort of reply to the note you have done me the honour to send me, 1 thought I could couch what I have to say in fewer words by writing, than in troubling you with a visit, which might come unseasonably, and a letter you may read at any moment when you are most idle. I have already, my Lord, detained you too long by sending you a book, which I could not flatter myself you would turn over in such a season of business: by the manner in which you have considered it, you have shown me that your very minutes of amusement you try to turn to the advantage of your country. It was this pleasing prospect of patronage to the arts that tempted me to offer you my pebble towards the new structure. I am flattered that you have taken notice of the only ambition I have: I should be more flattered if I could contribute to the smallest of your Lordship's designs for illustrating Britain.

The

• The hint your Lordship is so good as to give me for a work like Montfaucon's Monuments de la Monarchie Françoise, has long been a subject that I have wished to see executed, nor in point of mate. rials do I think it would be a very difficult one. The chief impedi ment was the expence, too great for a private fortune. The extravagant prices extorted by English artists is a discouragement to all public undertakings. Drawings from paintings, tombs, &c. would be very dear. To have them engraved as they ought to be, would exceed the compass of a much ampler income than mine, which, though equal to my largest wish, cannot measure itself with the rapacity of our performers.

But, my Lord, if his Majesty was pleased to command such a work, on so laudable an idea as your Lordship's, nobody would be more ready than myself to give his assistance. I own, I think I could be of use in it, in collecting or pointing out materials, and I would readily take any trouble in aiding, supervising, or directing such a plan. Pardon me, my Lord, if I offer no more; I mean, that I do not undertake the part of composition. I have already trespassed too much upon the indulgence of the public; I wish not to disgust them with hearing of me, and reading me. It is time for me to have done; and when I shall have completed, as I almost have, the history of the Arts, on which I am now engaged, I did not purpose to tempt again the patience of mankind. But the case is very different with regard to my trouble. My whole fortune is from the bounty of the crown, and from the public; it would ill become me to spare any pains for the King's glory, or for the honour and satisfaction of my country; and give me leave to add, my Lord, it would be an ungrateful return for the distinction with which your Lordship has condescended to honour me, if I withheld such trifling aid as mine, when it might in the least tend to adorn your Lordship's administration. From me, my Lord, permit me to say, these are not words of course, or of compliment, this is not the language of flattery; your Lordship knows I have no views, perhaps knows that, insignificant as it is, my praise is never detached from my esteem : and when you have raised, as I trust you will, real monuments of glory, the most contemptible characters in the inscription dedicated by your country, may not be the testimony of, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant,

Feb. 15, 1762.' HOR. WALPOLE. After having explained whence his income was derived, and its amount, our author has given the public the satisfaction of informing them how the savings from his establishment were expended, by “ a Description of his Villa at Strawberry Hill near Twickenham;" with a minute inventory of the furniture, pic+ tures, curiosities, &c. 1784; including a list of the books printed at the Strawberry Hill press, with interior representa tions, exterior views, and ground-plans of the building, very neatly engraved.

We were tempted to copy the preface to this description :

but the article is already extended to a sufficient length; and

besides,

besides, the place and its curious contents are too well known to render an extract necessary.

Mr. Walpole seems through life to have wished for notice as a connoissieur in painting and architecture, as well as in literature; and as the building on Strawberry Hill and its furniture form an unique among villas, he could not have obtained fame on so small a scale at a less expence, by any similar draft on public notice. Gothic architecture, so appropriate to sacred purposes on account of its gloomy grandeur, lost its secular favour at the same period as that which abridged the Barons of their feudal rights and military splendour. It is not likely now that more churches will be built in the Gothic style; and if it were possible to embalm specimens of the most beautiful and fantastic members of that order, for the inspection of our descendants who may survive churches, it would be a curious legacy to posterity:- but of whatever utility this Gothic miniature may be to future times, it has certainly contributed not a little to its founder's celebrity. Imitations are numerous, not only in his neighbourhood, but throughout the kingdom.

The perusal of this catalogue, even without a view of the ob. jects which it describes, is amusing and instructive to those who wish to form an idea of the taste and costume of our ancestors. We certainly deem ourselves more wiseand enlightened than them, in having simplified state and grandeur; the mere sight of which, however, formerly gave infinitely more pleasure, than can be derived from ideal equality at present. Mr. Walpole's collection consisted not only of "rags of popery," but of rags of nobility and aristocracy. The minute catalogue of cups and saucers, and saucers without cups, will perhaps seem frivolous, and impress some readers with no magnificent idea of the noble collector's magnitude of mind; and if, in his defence, we should say that the most trifling parts of the collection are links of a chain, we shall, perhaps, be told that it is a hair-chain to fetter fleas. The great number of portraits of our princes, antient nobility, gentry, poets, and eminent artists, composes a very interesting part of our history, while the collection remains entire; and the furniture, in the revolutions of fashion, may save the trouble of invention, by inducing the renewal of antient forms and patterns.

On modern Gardening. This historical tract on the origin, cultivation, and embellishments of garden-ground, is full of sound sense and good taste. No whim, daintiness, nor singularity, appears; and all that the author praises, and proposes to practice, flashes conviction, and seems indisputable There are a selection and force in the expression of his ideas, which not only manifest him to be a master of the subject, REV. SEPT. 1798. buc

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