taken for an old General that had fought at the battle of Dettingen.'-The Queen said, 'Oh, I plead guilty to that; and I see you enjoy it. I said, HARDINGE will enjoy it; for, though he is very goodnatured, he loves a little innocent mischief. The King then told me the whole story of the conference with Pitt; commended the House of Commons, and said, 'His illness had in the end been a perfect bliss only to him, as proving to him how nobly the people would support him when he was confined.' This tempted me to say, that it was no Political Debare, but the contest between generous Humanity and mean Cruelty, and it interested Human Nature.' The King seemed very much pleased with this idea, and worked upon it. I commended the conduct of the Bishops, and it made them laugh. Said the King, 'You mean to commend it as a wonder ! He talked over Lord North, and the Duke of Portland. He talked of the Chancellor, of Loughborough, and Mr. Baron Hotham, and said,' you are almost the only man who love the land for its own sake.' Then we talked of Mrs. Siddons, Jordan, &c.; and the Queen said, 'Siddons was going to Germany, to make the English find out by her absence that she was good for something.' Then we flew to Handel; after which the King made me a most gracious bow, and said, I am going to my dinner.'-I was near the door, made a low bow to the females, and departed."

This account of the private character and pleasing disposition of our aged Sovereign may surely be placed as a suitable companion to Dr. Johnson's celebrated interview, so well related by Mr. Boswell.

Opportunities for penetrating into the characters of the tenants of palaces are so few, and calumny aud misrepresentation so mischievously active, especially in our days, that we are glad to lay before our Readers, as a fair specimen of the curious information they may expect from the present volume, an account of another interview with a Royal Personage, who, for some years, has rendered himself dear, to the friends of humanity in the Metropolis, as an illustrious supporter of our public charities, in which he has been distinguished as much for talent as for zeal.

"Melbourne-house, Aug. 15, 1811. "My dearest Richard,

"That may lose no drop from the cup of pleasure which I enjoyed from

seven in the evening of October the first to eleven, and from eight the next morning till eleven before noon, at Castlehill, I shall record upon paper, as memory can present them, all the mazes of my enchantment, though the consummation is past.

"In the afternoon of October the first, and at half past five, I followed my servant, undressed, and in boots, on foot, a short half mile from Ealing Vicarage, to the Lodges of the Duke's Palace.

"Between these wings I was received in due form by a porter in livery, full trimmed and powdered. He opened his. iron gates for me; bowed, as if I had been the King; and rang the alarum bell, as if I had been a hostile invader. I looked as tall, as intrepid, and as affable as I could; but I am afraid that I was not born for state.

"The approach to the Palace-door is magnificent, graceful, and picturesque; the line of the road flanked by a row of lamps the most brilliant I ever saw, is a gentle serpentine. It commands to the right, through young but thriving plantations, Harrow-on-the-Hill, and carries the eye in a sort of leap to that eminence over the intermediate ground; which is a valley better unseen, for it is very tame. The Lodges are quite new, and in Mr. Wyatt's best manuer.-A second gate flew open to me; it separates the home-garden from the lawn of entrance. The head gardener made his appearance, in his best clothes, bowed, rang his bell to the house, and withdrew.

"When I arrived at the Palace-door my heart went pit-a-pat. The underwriters would not have insured my life at seven minutes purchase, unless tempted by a most inordinate premium: an aspen leaf in a high wind stood better upon its legs than I stood upon mine; indeed I am not sure it was not upon my head instead of my legs.-I invoked all the Saints of Impudence to befriend me. But think of little me! attended by six footmen! three of a side! and received at the head of this guard by the House-steward! a venerable Frenchman of the old Court, and of the last age, who had very much the appearance of a with more solemnity than I wished up Cabinet Minister. He conducted me door of it stood the Duke's valet, who stairs into my toilette-room. At the took charge of me into the room, bowed, and retired. In this apartment I found my own servant.

"The exterior of the house has an elegant, and a chaste, as well as princely air. You can see Wyatt fecit' upon. every part of the effect. But the inte

rior struck me infinitely more, even in this bird's eye view of it. I was all astonishment; but it was accompanied with dismay at the awful silence which reigned, as well as the unexampled brilliancy of all the colours. There was not one speck to be seen. I would not have sneezed for all the King's dominions. Every thing was exquisite of its kind, in the taste of its outline, proportions, and furniture.

"My dressing-room, in which there was an excellent fire, attached itself to the bed-chamber, and was laid open to it by a folding door. These are the Regent's territories whenever he is at Castle Hill.

"My toilette was à peindre, and there was not any thing omitted which could make a youthful Adonis out of an old Hermit but the mirror was honest, and youth is no birth of art.-A propòs to the mirror, in the dazzling variety of look ing-glass-I was more than usually ashamed of the dumpling figure it presented before me at every turn; I even thought it was a family resemblance to that of Sancho in Barataria, when I was better acquainted (by this force upon me) with my own exterior.-My servant (who is in general cavalier, keeps me in order, and gives me only two or three jerks with his comb) half scared at the new and the imperial honours of his little master, waited upon me with more deference, and with more assiduity, than I had ever marked in him before. He called me once or twice My Lord, as upon the circuit; and I half expected that he would say, Your Royal Highness. The comb of the Male Grace had scarce begun its help to the Male Venus personated by me, before a gentle tap at the door alarmed us both. We opened upon a messenger, who told me in French that His Royal Highness was dressing, but would soon do himself the honour of taking me by the hand. Opening by accident one of the doors in the bed-chamber, painted with traillage in green and gold, I discovered, in an adjoining closet, a running stream and a fountain. I began to think I was in the Elysian fields. The bed was only to be ascended by a ladder of steps, and they were dressed in flowered velvet. There was a topical cold-bath; and at night hot water for my feet, if they should happen to wish for it. Pen, ink, and paper of all descriptions, made love to me: books of amusement were dispersed upon the tables like natural flowers. I was in my shirt when His Royal Highness knocked at my door. Not waiting for my answer, he opened the door himself, and gave me a shake of the hand

with his Royal fist, so cordial, that one of my chalkstone fingers, had I possessed them, would have begged him, if he had not been the son of a king, te be rather less affectionate in that shape. I hurried on my coat and waistcoat in his presence; and then he walked before me into the Library. All the passages and staircase were illuminated with lamps of different colours, just as if a masquerade was in train. I began to think more and more of Sly in Shakespeare, and said, like him, to myself, 'Am I indeed a Lord!

"This Library, fitted up in the perfection of taste, is the first room of a magnificent range, commanding at least a hundred feet. All the contiguous apartments in that suite were lighted up, and were laid open to this apartment. By a contrivance in the management of the light, it seemed as if the distance had no end. You can have no conception of the cost, of the beauty, or of the magic. They left indeed behind them painful and moralizing reflections; but I was dazzled at the moment, and was not sober enough to be in train for them. The Duke, amongst other peculiarities of habit, bordering upon whim, always recommends the very chair on which you are to sit. I suppose it is a Regal usage.-He opened a most agreeable and friendly chat, which continued for half an hour tete-a-tete. So far it was like the manner of the King (when he was himself), that it embraced a variety of topicks, and was unremitted. He improved at close quarters even upon his pen; and you know what a pen it is. The manly character of his good sense, and the eloquence of his expression, were striking. But even they were not so enchanting as that grace of manner which distinguishes him. Compared with it, in my honest opinion, Lord Chesterfield, whom I am old enough to have heard and seen, was a Dancing-master.

"I found the next morning at our tete-à-tete that he has infinite humour, and even that of making his countenance into the character he is to personate. One of his Joe-Millers I annex to my narrative, though without his face (which I cannot inclose) it loses more than twothirds of its effect.

"In about an hour dinner was announced. The Duke led the way. I was placed at the head of the table. The Duke was on my right; Madame L****** on my left. The honours were chiefly done by him. The dinner was exquisite. The soup was of a kind that an epicure would have travelled barefoot three hundred miles in a deep snow to have been in time for it.

"In my efforts to be irresistible, between my two admirers, I dropped my napkin three or four times in rapid succession. It was recovered each time by the well-bred sentinel, whose province it was to be careful of me; but I hated him, for I thought he almost betrayed that he was ashamed of the duty, and of me.

"The natural civility of an amiable habit in both of them appeared in two little traits of it, and which I may as well delineate here, because they occurred at the table, and we are there at present, my Reader and I.

"Louis the XVIIIth was upon the tapis, and Madame, unsolicited by me, desired one of her attendants to ask her maid for his Majesty's Portrait in miniature. The Duke, instead of discouraging this alert galanterie, in good humour improved upon it, by saying, 'Let her give him poor Louis Seize and his Queen at the same time.' It was accomplished.

"They accidentally mentioned the famous Dumourier. I said, 'that I loved seeing those whom I admired unseen, upon report alone, and in the mind's view.-But I shall never see Dumourier,' said I, for he is the Lord knows where (and I cannot run after him) upon the Continent.'-' Not he,' said the Duke; he is in this very Island, and he often dines with us here.' -I looked, but said nothing. My look was heard. Madame asked the Duke (for it isoa word and a blow with her) if it could not be managed?—' Nothing more practicable,' said he; ‘if the Judge will but throw down his glove in the fair spirit of chivalry, Dumourier shall pick it up.'

"The servants, though I could not reconcile myself to the number of them, were models of attention, of propriety, and of respect. Their eye seemed as if they had been made only for us; their apparel gave the impression of clothes perfectly new; the hair was uncommonly well dressed and powdered. Thereby hangs a tale, which I cannot have a better opportunity of reporting; I had it from the best authority, that of my own servant, who had it from the souterrein of the establishment, which he had confidentially explored.-A hairdresser for all the livery servants constitutes one of the efficient characters in this dramatic arrangement. At a certain hour every male servant appears before the Duke, to shew himself perfectly well dressed, and clean.

"Besides this Law of the Medes,' every man has a niche to fill, so that he GENT. MAG. January, 1819.

is never unoccupied, except at his meals, in some duty or another, and is amenable to a sudden visit into the bargain. I can assure you, the result is, that, in this complicated machine of souls and bodies, the genius of attention, of cleanliness, and of smart appearance, is the order of the day.

"When the Duke took me the next morning to his Master of the Horse, instead of dirty coachmen or grooms, they were all as neat as if they had never had any thing to do, or as if they were going to church in state.

"The male servants meet in their hall at an unvaried hour; and round this apartment, as in a convent, are little recesses, or cells, with not only beds in them for each, but every accommodation as well as implement for their apparel.-Yet all this absolute Monarchy of system is consistent with a most obliging manner to the servants on his part, which I attested more than once; and with attachment, as well as homage to him, attested by the Hermit's Inquisitor and Spy, who gave me this note of his comments-I mean of course my

own servant.

The

"The next morning I could not believe my own sight. It was like a vision before me, in the very moon itself. 1 rose at seven. The lawn before me, surrounded by an amphitheatre of plantation, was covered by leaves, for they will fall even in a garden of state. head gardener made his appearance, and with him five or six men, who were under his wing. In much less than a quarter of an hour every dead leaf disappeared; and the turf became a carpet, after mowing, and after a succession of rollers, iron and stone.

"After this episode, we are to go back, and are to be at the table again. A very little after dinner Madame vanished. I flew to the door, and was in time for it, with a minuet step, not unpractised or unrehearsed in the Milbourne woods, to the Fauns and the Satyrs there; but whether such an assiduity was etiquette or vulgar, is too deep to be fathomed by so humble a conjecture as mine. In a very little time the summons came for coffee; and, as before, he led the way, conducting me to another of the upper apartments in the range before described, and which, as it happened, was close to the bed-chamber. They were open to each other.But such a room was that bed-chamber as no Loves and Graces ever thought of shewing to a Hermit of all the birds in the air. It was perfectly Regal, but without prejudice to a very Circassian air.

"In

"In the morning the Duke shewed me all his variety of horses and of carriages. He pointed out a curricle to me. 'I bought that curricle,' said he, 'twenty years ago; have travelled in it all over the world; and there it is, firm on its axle. I never was spilt from it but once. It was in Canada, near the Falls of Niagara, over a concealed stump in a wood just cleared.'

"He afterwards opened himself very much to me in detail, with disclosures in confidence, and political ones too, which interested, as well as enlightened me very much; but which, as a man of honour, I cannot reveal even to you.

"He is no gamester. He is no huntsman. He never goes to Newmarket; but he loves riding upon the road, a full swing trot of nine miles an hour.

"I am going to part with him in my narrative; but not before I have commanded you to love him, for his anecdotes of his good fortune, and of his feeling attention to me. In the morning he asked me how I was mounted; and before I could answer him he whispered (in a kind of parenthesis more dropt and spilt than pressed) that he had for two months been putting a little Circuit horse in train for my use of him in Spring. It was a pet,' said he, of the dear King, who gave it to me; and you must ride it with more pleasure for both

our sakes.'

"These were not goodly words,' like those of Napthali, or the hind let loose; for my servant received the intelligence that such a keepsake was in

tended for me.

"How charming is the delicacy of conduct like this!I had once complained, three or four months ago, that my own Circuit Bucephalus had kissed the earth with his knees. He condoled with me, half in jest; but gave me no hint of such a Fairy's boon in store for me.

"But now for the last of these wonders! It was the incalculable surprize of his feast in the morning. I can give you not the faintest image of its effect upon me. It made me absolutely wild. -The room in which our breakfast apparatus received us had at the end of it a very ornamental glass door, with a mist over it, so that nothing was to be seen through it. He poured me out a dish of tea, and placed it before me: then rose from the table, and opened that glass door. Somebody (but whom I could not see) was on the other side, for he addressed words to the unseen; words in German. When he returned, and I had just lifted the cup to my lips, Imagine my feelings, when a band of thirty wind-instruments played a march,

with a delicacy of tone, as well as precision, for which I have no words equal to the charm of its effect. They were all behind this glass door, and were like one instrument.-The uplifted cup was replaced on the table. I was all ears, and was entranced; when all of a sudden they performed the Dirge upon our Naval Hero*. It threw me into a burst of tears. With a heart for which I must ever love him, he took me by the hand and said, Those are tears which do none of us any harm." He then made them play all imaginary varieties for a comHe walked me round his plete hour.

place, and parted with me in these

words: You see that we are not formidable; do come to us again! Come soon; and come very often!”

66

May I not, must I not, love this GEO. HARDINGE.

man?

2.

(To be continued.)

A brief Account of the Guildhall of the City of London. 8vo. pp. 64. Nichols and Son.

THIS is no ordinary Compilation; but will be found a very desirable Companion to the Visitor of the Guildhall of the first Commercial City in the World.

After a satisfactory account of the early History of the Building; the present state of the Hall, the Chapel, the Courts of Law, the Public Of fices, and every building connected with it, are minutely and accurately surveyed.

In confirmation of the remark, in p. 12, that the antient Roof rose with a lofty pitch similar to that in Westminster Hall, it might be added, that the late Col. Smith, Deputy-governor of the Tower, was in possession of a curious Painting, taken from Greenwich, representing London after the Fire, in which about a third of the roof of Guildhall appeared standing, decidedly with a gable roof.

Whilst describing the late improvements in this magnificent Hall, the Author pays the following just compliment:

"The late repairs of this beautiful building, and the judicious arrangement of the Monuments and other internal

embellishments, have greatly conduced, not only to the appearance of the ele

** The pathetic lines of Lady Mackintosh, 'on the Death of Capt. Hardinge' (see p. 414), were set to music by Mr. Charles Wesley, the celebrated Organist, with an effect above all praise."

gant

gant symmetry of the architecture, to the advantage of the sculptural memorials which grace the walls, and to the more minute decorations which had been destroyed or disfigured, but to the regularity and the display of the antient and modern designs and enrichments. The prying eye of a cynical observer may perhaps trace a moulding, a leaf, or a crocket, that has not the truest curvature, or he may discover a device that

is to be found in no other part of the

Can

building: but, not to descend to the strictest minutiæ, can he withhold his praise of the efforts that have been made to restore as near as possible to the original work, those parts and ornaments which have so long been defaced? he view the restoration of the great win dow, the removal of the monuments and other incumbrances, which disfigured their beautiful tracery and compartments; of the Pictures which covered the walls; and of the ponderous appendages of the Clock - entrance to the Courts, and various other useless disfigurements of this noble room, and not bestow merited approbation? It would be injustice, after the expence, labour, and attention, that have been devoted towards the restoration of such an elegant structure, to pass it over without high praise. We think it one of the best specimens that has ever been opened to the publick. There is no mixture of stile. Where an alteration or an addition was necessary, no deviation in imitation; no invention where example remained, and no negligence in the execution of the several parts. The whole is worked with peculiar neatness, precision, character, and delicacy; and while it does credit to the Architect, and to the age, it reflects the highest honour upon the Promoters of so extensive and useful an undertaking."

The late Mr. James Smith, (who is noticed in p. 19, as the sculptor of Nelson's Monument) was originally an apprentice of the famous Italian sculptor Locatelli, and was afterwards for eight years assistant to Mr. Flaxman. He designed the Monument in St. Paul's to the memory of General Le Marchant, but did not live to complete it. This ingenious Artist died

in 1813, leaving two sons, who are educating to their father's profession, and are likely to become eminent in it.

Mr. Moore, who executed the Monument to Alderman Beckford (p. 23) was a native of Hanover. He resided and died in Wells - street, Oxfordstreet. Pennant, and after him Malcolm, erro eously attributes this mcnument to Bacon. There were several

designs for this Monument, one by Mr. Nathaniel Smith, a pupil of Roubiliac; and another by Augustine Carlini, of which there is a large and beautiful engraving by Bartolozzi.

The Paintings and Sculpture which adorn the Council Chamber are accurately described; and the liberality of the late venerable and worthy Alderman, Mr. John Boydell, is frequently noticed with due commenda

tion.

Those memorials of National Exultation, the Thanks of the Corporation to Our numerous successful Military and Naval Commanders, emblazoned by the matchless pen of the late Mr. Tomkins, which ornament the Chamberlain's room (here enumerated at length), cannot fail of being a gratifying treat to every true lover of his Country.

The Work is adorned with two excellent Prints; one, a correct external View of Old Guildhall, from a finished Drawing by the late Mr. Jacob Schnebbelie, Draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries; the other, an equally correct and interesting internal View of the Hall, in its present improved state, by the accurate pencil of Mr. J. C. Buckler.

A concise Dedication to the Lord Mayor and Corporation is signed by the Editor, J. B. Nichols.

3. The Servant's Monitor. By R. C. Dallaway, author of Observations on Education, for the Use of Private Governesses. 12mo, pp. 226. Greenwich *.

SINCE the well-known satire of Swift's" Advice to Servants," we are

heath,