mirably executed by the best Italian artists. The sides are hung with a very rich three-coloured silk damask, being the first of the kind ever executed in England. The tables are two pieces of antique mosaic, found in Titus's baths, and purchased from the Abbé Furietti's collection at Rome. The glasses are about 108 or 109 inches by 65, being two of the largest that then had ever been seen in England. This conducts to the great gallery, which also serves for the library and museum, being about 133 feet long. The book-cases are formed in recesses in the wall, and receive the books so as to make them part of the general finishing of the room. The whole is after the most beautiful style of the antique, finished in a remarkably light and elegant manner, and gave the first instance of stucco work finished in England, after the finest remains of antiquity. The ceiling is richly adorned with paintings and ornaments answerable to the beautiful taste that prevails in the other parts of this superb gallery. Below the ceiling runs a series of large medallion paintings exhibiting the portraits of all the earls of Northumberland in succession, and other principal personages in the noble houses of Percy and Seymour, most of which (especially some of the most ancient) are taken from genuine originals. At the west end of the room is a pair of foldingdoors into the garden, which uniformity required should represent a book-case, to answer the other end of the library. Here, by a very happy

thought, his grace has exhibited the titles of the lost Greek and Roman authors, so as to form a very pleasing deception, and to give at the same time a curious catalogue of the authores deperditi. At each end of this gallery is a little pavilion or closet, finished in the most exquisite taste, as is also a beautiful closet in one of the square turrets rising above the roof, which commands a most enchanting prospect. From the east end of the gallery is a suite of private apartments that are extremely convenient and elegant, and lead us back to the great hall by which we entered. Of the disposition of the grounds, we can only say that they are beyond all praise, and to be properly appreciated, must be seen.

ISLEWORTH adjoins the lawns of Sion, and was formerly known by the names of Gistleworth and Thistleworth, but corrupted to that which it now bears. It could formerly boast of a palace, and a manufactory for making of brass; it now possesses neither. The palace belonged to the King of the Romans, better known to the inhabitants of this country as Earl of Cornwall, and brother of our Henry the Third. To gain the title of King of the Romans, he expended vast sums of money, in the hope of ultimately becoming Emperor of Germany (to which, indeed, that title was generally the stepping-stone); but the natives of those countries having obtained his money, knew too well what belonged to their own interests to elect a foreigner; and he would have done well to have

contented himself with the solidities of an English earldom, instead of struggling for the shadows of foreign honours; for, it is almost needless to say, shadows were all he ever obtained. His palace was burnt down in an insurrection of the Londoners.

But we have lingered long enough on this side the stream, and must once more cross into Surry, to describe fair

RICHMOND, which has long been acknowledged as one of the finest villages in his Majesty's dominions; nor is it famed for any single beauty in particular, but for a combination of all those grand characteristics essential to a place claiming for itself the honour of pre-eminent loveliness. Camden says it had the name of Shene, or Shining, from the splendour of its palace; and there are still existing the hamlets of Sheen hard by, in which was a priory, given, after its dissolution, by Henry the Eighth to the Duke of Somerset ; it was restored during the short reign of Mary, but again dissolved by her sister Elizabeth. It subsequently became the property of Sir William Temple, with whom resided Dean Swift, who has made the daughter of his benefactor familiar to us by the name of Stella, by which designation. she was styled in their correspondence. But to return after this digression:

Richmond took its name from Henry the Seventh, who was earl of a tract of land called Richmondshire, in Yorkshire; and not from any

land in Bretagne, (where he for some time resided,) as is erroneously supposed. Edward the Third died here; as did also Anne, the wife of his grandson, Richard the Second. To her has generally been ascribed the honour of teaching the English ladies their present mode of riding on horseback, which, before her time, used to be astride, in the same manner as the men. It is rather singular that the ladies of this nation should have needed being taught delicacy, and that too by a Frenchwoman. Tradition records that her husband took her death so much to heart as partially to destroy the palace in which they had resided; the truth most probably is, that he only deserted it; but be that as it may, it certainly was pulled down, and the one subsequently erected was built by the Duke of Ormond, but passed to the crown on his attainder. It was destroyed by fire in the reign of Henry the Seventh, who rebuilt it with greater splendour than ever. He died at this palace (as did also Queen Elizabeth); which event Camden, in his Britannica, pathetically laments, but seems to have consoled himself by the prospect of human felicity consequent on the accession of such a king as James the First; for he says, "He shone out upon us with his most august beams, and called us to the hope of enjoying him for ever."

This town would appear to have been much neglected after the decease of our princes of the House of Tudor, until the time of their late

majesties, Queens Caroline and Charlotte, consorts of George the Second and Third, who bestowed much attention in beautifying and embellishing it, particularly the park (which was enclosed by Charles the First with a wall eleven miles in compass) and gardens, which, under their management, rose to a pitch of grandeur and magnificence not easily to be attained.

The following description of them, as they existed in the time of Queen Caroline, may not be unwelcome to the reader:-"Entering the gardens from Richmond Green was a dairy; a neat, but low brick building. The inside walls were lined with stucco; the vessels for the milk being of the most beautiful china. Passing on by a canal, through a grove of fine trees, a temple presented itself to the view, consisting of a circular dome, crowned with a ball, and supported by Tuscan columns; in the centre was an altar. Returning by the dairy, there was a wood; a walk in which was terminated by the Queen's Pavilion, which contained a beautiful chimneypiece, after Palladio. In another part was the Duke of Cumberland's house, with a lofty arched entrance, whose roof, which rose to a point, was terminated by a ball. The next object was the summer-house on the terrace, with lofty windows. This edifice contained two well-painted pictures, representing the siege of Vigo by the Duke of Ormond. Through a labyrinth, was seen Merlin's Cave while beyond this was a large oval