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is supposed to have uttered, when she had laughed sufficiently at the trick she played him, and which, to the best of my recollection, ran thus, "Leave fishing to us smaller potentates; your angling should be for cities and kingdoms."

Every article of the furniture merits your attention. Here is a Venetian chair;* it is one of a set of twenty-six,

with a sofa, brought from the Gradenigo Palace, and is carved and gilt all over,-the back, and seat, and cushions for the arms, being Genoa red velvet. Fourteen of these chairs, with the sofa, are in this room; the other twelve were purchased by the Earl of Lonsdale.

Vases of Dresden China, marqueterie tables, and a shrine (see

page 237) of gilt carved work at

one end of the room, reflected in mirrors of gigantic dimensions, dazzle the senses; and its ceiling studded with blue and gold pendants, and its walls all painted over with quaint devices like the pages of a missal. Also a magnificent Gothic chimney-piece (see page 238) of Carrara marble, fitted with brass-work of ormolu and chimney-glass. The chimney was removed from the grand Gothic-room at Carlton House, and cost George IV. many hundred pounds. Indeed the drawing-room of the Pryor's Bank seems to be more like some scene in an enchanted palace,

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*Now in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton.

than in an every-day residence upon the bank of the river Thames.

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The ante-room is not less splendidly furnished. Its ceiling is even more elaborately embellished than that of the drawing-room, for the heads of mitred abbots, jolly monks, and demure nuns look down upon us from each intersection of the groining.

A Florentine cabinet (see page 239), of mosaic work in lapis lazuli, pietra dura, topaz, agates, &c., one of the finest specimens of the kind ever seen,-it eventually came into the possession of Mr. Hurst, who asked fifteen hundred

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guineas for it-a magnificent carved oak chimney-piece (see page 240); chairs which belonged to Queen Elizabeth; and among other pictures, an undoubted one by

Janssen, of "Charles II. dancing at the Hague," must not detain us, although it be a duplicate of the celebrated picture in the possession of Her Majesty, with which the history of this is completely identical, both having been purchased from the same individual at the same period.

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"And that portrait of Elizabeth?" It was given by Charles II. to Judge Twysden. "And that other portrait ?" Yes, it is Lord Monteagle; not of Exchequer documentary fame, but of Gunpowder Plot notoriety. And there are portraits of Katharine of Aragon and Prince Arthur from Strawberry Hill. I positively cannot allow you to dwell

on that chimney-piece of Raffaelle design, carved in oak and coloured in ultra-marine and gold.

I entirely agree with you in thinking it a pity that the

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Carved Oak Chimney-piece.

vast labours of our ancestors -things upon which they bestowed so much time and thought-should be blown into oblivion by the mere breath of fashion. How much nobler is the fashion to respect, cherish, and admire them!

And now we are again within the gallery, and look upon the ante-room through the private entrance, and in another second we might be within the bay-window of the gallery; for, place these sketches together at a right angle, side by side, and the par of the sofa which appears in one, is only the continuation of the same seat in the

other. But this must not make you think that the Pryor's Bank is but a miniature affair, or give you a contemptible idea of the size. You should rather take your general notion of the proportions of the gallery from a glance at that lady who is studying with so much attention the part she has un

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