ltalist who passed from amongst us at an early age— Bookii, also bequeathed a Collection of Oriental and Chinese Booked books. Mr. Hull's legacy was the small be- p"^TM*"" ng of that Chinese Library which has now become so ^*"*c'

was also in the year 1825 that Sir Gore Ouselet T^fi""

J t POLITAN

11 ted a Collection of Marbles obtained from Persepolis. Ma.blm. ; will be mentioned hereafter in connection with the uarian explorations of Claudius Rich and his sucs. The donor of the Persepolitan Marbles died on ghteenth of November, 1844.

addition to these many liberal benefactions made History 5 the earlier years of the present century, a smaller Ported irtually a gift, though in name a 1 deposit') of the ^ASE period claims brief notice, on account both of its c value and of its curious history. I refer to that lite monument of ancient art known, for many years, 'Barberini Vase/ but now more commonly as the and Vase,' from the name of its last individual sor.

s vase is one of the innumerable acquisitions which untry owes to the intelligent research and cultivated if Sir William Hamilton. It had been found more

century before his time (probably in the year 1640), h the Monte del Grano, about three miles from

on the road to Tusculum. The place of the dis

Avas a sepulchral chamber, within which was found a hagus containing the vase, and bearing an inscription memory of the Emperor Alexander Severus {A.D. 55) and to his mother. About this sarcophagus and sription there have been dissertations and rejoinders,

and commentaries, illustrative and obscurative, in

Correspondence of Mrs,

Bookii, sufficient number to immortalise half a dozen Jonathan Bo„k. Oldbtjcks and 'Antigonus' Mac-cribbs. And the controp"IucAND versy is still undetermined.

rTM."*0 After having been long a conspicuous ornament of the Barberini Palace, the 'Barberini Vase' was bought by Hamilton. When, in December, 1784, he paid one of his visits to England, the vase came with him. Its fame had previously excited the desires of many virtuosi. By the Duchess of Portland it was so strongly coveted, that she employed a niece of Sir William to conduct a negotiation with much more solemnity and mystery than the ambassador would have thought needful in conducting a critical Treaty fld«i.TOi. of Peace. The Duchess's precautions foiled the curiosity of pia'ccsT"* not a few of her fellow-collectors in virtu. 'I have heard,' wrote Horace Walpole, 'that Sir W. Hamilton's renowned vase, which had disappeared with so much mystery, is again recovered; not in the tomb, but the treasury, of the Duchess of Portland, in which, I fancy, it had made ample room for itself. Sir William told me it would never go out of England. I do not see how he could warrant that. The Duchess and Lord Edward have both shown how H waipoicto n^e stability there is in the riches of that family.' As yet, Lady upper- the reader will remember, that 'Portland Estate,' which

Ossory, 10 nil c

August, 1785. was so profitably to turn farms into streets, was but in

(Cunn. Edit., ,

voi.ii,P.3.) expectancy.

And then WAlpole adds: 'My family has felt howinsecure is the permanency of heir-looms/—the thought of that grand 'Houghton Gallery,' and its transportation to Russia, coming across his memory, whilst telling Lady Upper-ossory the story of the coveted vase, just imported from the Barberini Palace at Rome.

The Duchess of Portland enjoyed the sight of her beautiful purchase only during a few weeks. It was bought

v the family (at the nominal price of £10:29*) at the Bomii,
of her famous museum of curiosities—a sale extending Book-
lore than four thousand lots—and twenty-four years ^""4
wards, it was lent, for exhibition (1810), by the third ^"4C
e of Portland, to the Trustees of the British Museum,
e it has since remained.

hen Wedgwood set about imitating the Portland
in his manufactory at Etruria—for which purpose the
Duke liberally lent it to him—he discovered that the
had been broken and skilfully put together again.
■ it had been publicly exhibited during almost thirty-
/cars in London, the frenzy of a maniac led—as it
3d at the moment—to its utter destruction. But,
ly by the singular skill and patience of the late John
Sled Ay (a craftsman attached to the Department of
[iiities for many years), it was soon restored to its pris-
teauty. That one act of violence in 1845 is the only
ice of very serious injury arising from open exhibition
comers which the annals of the Museum record.

)i ace Walpole, at this sale, purchased the fine MS., with drawings
o Clovio, which was long an ornament of the villa at Strawberry
id also a choice cameo of Jupiter Serapis, for which he gave a
d and seventy-three pounds. He preferred, he said, either of
) the vase. So, at least, he fancied when he found it unattainable.
*lad,' he wrote to Conway (18 June, 1786), ' that Sir Joshua saw
■e excellence in the Jupiter than in the Clovio, or the Duke, I
would have purchased it as he did the Vase—for £1000. I told
liain and the late Duchess—when I never thought that it would
;—that I would rather have the head than the vase.'

CHAPTER IV.

THE KING'S OR 'GEORGIAN' LIBRARY;—
ITS COLLECTOR, AND ITS DONOR.

'A crown,

Golden in show, 13 but a wreath of thorns;

Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights,

To him who wears the regal diadem.'

'O polish'd perturbation! golden care!
That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night!'—

llcnry IV, Part 2, IT, 4

Notices of the Literary Tastes and Acquirements of King George The Third.—His Conversations with Men of Letters.—History of his Library and of its Transfer to the British Nation by George The Fourth.

Booxii, The strong antagonisms in mind, in disposition, and in Thi11 tastes, which existed between George The Third and ^cmroian- George The Fourth, may be seen in the small and inciLibhabt. Cental acts of their respective lives, almost as distinctly, and The Con. as sharply defined, as they are seen in their private lives, or TWKEfl in their characteristic modes of transacting the public V^ogiiw,. business. George The Third regretted the giving away 1V- of the old 'Royal Library' of the Kings his ancestors, not because he grudged a liberal use of royal books by private scholars, but because he thought a fine Library was the necessary appendage of a palace. He occasionally stinted himself of some of his personal enjoyments in life, in order

have the more means to amass books. He formed, B<x»ii,
ring his own lifetime, a Library which is probably both The
jer and finer than any like Collection ever made by any .c^koitm •
! man, even under the advantageous conditions of LlBEABr
alty. When he had collected his books, he made them
trally accessible. To himself, as we all know, Nature had

given any very conspicuous faculty for turning either
ks or men to good account; nor had education done
:h to improve the parts he possessed.
Ceorge The Fourth, as it seems, regretted the forma-

of the new Royal Library by the King his father, use, when he inherited it, he found that its decent itenance and upkeeping would demand every year a of money which he could spend in ways far more to aste. He had been far better educated than his father been. And to him Nature had given good abilities; study was about the last and least likely use to which, y time, he was inclined to apply them. If he saw any

at all in having, on his accession, the ownership of a

Library, it lay, not in the power it afforded him of iting literature, and the labourers in literature, but in ossibility he saw that so fine a collection of books i be made to produce a round sum of money. One

first thoughts about the matter was, that it would be :1 thing to offer his father's beloved Library for sale—

Emperor of Russia. By what influences that shrewd e of turning a penny was diverted will be seen in quel.

Jeorge The Third was, in respect to his parts, only rly endowed, he had in another respect large gifts, lis industry and his power of sustained application ncommon. And his conscientious sense of responsi