Work done in the altar-piece of the chapel - Bill for carving on the north side of Chatsworth Another bill for sundry carving, chiefly in wood, dated 342 5 5 69 12 0 Many other memorandums might be quoted from these papers, all tending to shew how liberally Mr. Samuel Watson was employed at Chatsworth, and how largely he contributed, by the exercise of his professional talents, to its decorations. He died at Heanor, in Derbyshire, of which he was a native, and was buried in the chancel of the church, where there is a richly-ornamented monument to his memory, which contains an inscription that refers to his works at Chatsworth : - "Watson is gone, whose skilful art display'd, "View but his wond'rous works in Chatsworth hall, "You'll say 'tis pity he should hidden lie, Another artist who contributed to embellish this residence of the Dukes of Devonshire, was Cibber, who, besides the altar in the chapel, executed the four marble statutes on the bridge -the two sphinxes on the pedestals in the front of the house - and a figure of Neptune that was formerly in the garden, but which I have not lately noticed. This work is said to have been a very fine production, and but little if any inferior to his celebrated figures of Melancholy and Madness before the front of Bedlam Hospital. Several door-cases at Chatsworth are by the same hand: they are made of the alabaster of the Peak of Derbyshire, and are richly ornamented with foliage and flowers, beautifully disposed and finely executed. This artist was a native of the duchy of Holstein, and the father of Colley Cibber, once poet-laureate, whose name is identified with the history of the English stage. SECTION XII. Reflections on leaving Chatsworth.- Projected Improvement of Chatsworth House. Mary Queen of Scots imprisoned there. Marshal Tallard. Hobbes. St. Evremond to Waller. Recollections of a former Visit to Chatsworth. FREQUENTLY as I have visited Chatsworth-house, I have never left it without regret; yet it contains but few of those exquisite productions of the pencil which the mind naturally associates with such a mansion. The works of art that adorn the houses of the wealthy and the great are the best ornaments they possess; and though they cannot be regarded as exhibiting an equitable criterion, either of the riches or the taste of their possessors, they are honourable testimonies in their favour; they throw round their persons an additional lustre they give them a more exalted place in the estimation of society -and invest their mansions with a higher character than that of mere dwellings. So enriched, they are the depositories of the works of genius-the honoured receptacles of the labour of ages that have passed away; and he who reverences the arts, has an abiding interest in the treasures they contain; he visits them with a chastened feeling, and treads even their precincts with veneration, for genius has hallowed the place that he approaches: contemplating their stores, he lives in other times he holds communion with those who were becomes an inmate of their minds participates the sublime conceptions of Raphael, Titian, Poussin, Rubens, Salvator, and Claude, and he traces in their works the nature and the character of those energetic feelings by which they were embodied and produced. So precious is the deposit they contain ! Yet with all my enthusiasm for the productions of these men-however I may venerate their names -and with whatever portion of elevated feeling I may dwell on those periods in the history of the arts when they were produced, I cannot but regret that the works of British artists should so rarely be associated in honourable competition in the collections of the great, with these splendid emanations of other times. In Portrait, History, and Landscape, we have talent that might confer distinction on patronage, and perhaps it is not too presuming to say, that a gallery of the best works of British artists would be but little inferior to any in the world. Do the productions of Stothard's pencil, at Burleigh, sink in comparison with the works of Verrio and Laguerre, who were employed to decorate its ceilings? rather do they not in subject, composition, colouring, execution, and mind-in all that constitutes excellence in painting-rise incomparably superior? The present Duke of Devonshire has for several years past spent much of his time on the Continent, and during his temporary residence in France and Italy he has obtained some fine specimens of modern sculpture, which are intended to enrich the collection of works of art at Chatsworth-house. A statue, by Canova, is amongst the number, which is said to be a chef-d'œuvre of that celebrated artist. This statue has already arrived, but it is not intended to be opened for public inspection until the Duke's return from his travels. Some very magnificent plans are now in contemplation for the improvement of Chatsworth; and it is understood to be the Duke of Devonshire's intention to render it one of the noblest and most attractive mansions in the kingdom, and more worthy the notice of travellers. When the Archdukes Nicholas and Michael, of Russia, were there, they each of them planted a tree in the west front of the house, which are carefully protected from injury, and are intended to be known by the respective names of the noble planters, for the purpose of perpetuating the remembrance of their visit to Derbyshire. Chatsworth, as I have before intimated, was for some time the residence, or rather the prison, of Mary Queen of Scots, in remembrance of which a suit of apartments are still known by her name; and near the bridge, by the side of the Derwent, are the remains of an old building, called the Bower of Mary Queen of Scots. A deep moat encompasses the area where this tower stands, and a garden once occupied its summit, wherein that unfortunate princess, shorn of every semblance of royalty, was wont to spend the solitary hours of confinement. Her second letter to Pope Pius is dated from Chatsworth-house, October 31. 1570, nearly seventeen years before the sanguinary mandate of Elizabeth had sent her to the block. The murderous cruelty of this measure could only be equalled by the detestable hypocrisy with which it was succeeded: when Elizabeth heard that the unfortunate Mary was no more, she stood for some time mute with horror, and then burst into expressions of sorrow and resentment: she clothed herself in mourning, and largely indulged in the luxury of grief and lamentation: her ministers and counsellors were denied her presence, and she charged upon them the crime of putting to death her dear sister contrary to her wishes and intentions. Infamous dissimulation! Many years after this event, Marshal Tallard, a French general, who was taken prisoner by the Duke of Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim, spent a part of the days of his captivity in England at Chatsworthhouse, where he appears to have been treated with a kindness and attention that he most forcibly felt on taking leave of the Duke of Devonshire he is reported to have said, with true French politeness, "When I return to France, and reckon up the days of my captivity in England, I shall leave out all those I have spent at Chatsworth." Of all the personages connected with the local history of Chatsworth, who may have been rendered conspicuous either by their situation or their talents, perhaps no one has a more powerful claim to notice than the once celebrated Latin poet and philosopher, Hobbes; his connexion with the Devonshire family began early in life, and Chatsworth, in consequence, became his occasional residence: he was a man originally of a weak constitution, and he is said to have been subject through life to imaginary and unnecessary personal fears, that continually preyed upon and agitated his spirits: yet by a strict and uniform attention to diet and exercise, he lived to the age of 92. He was a very early riser, and as soon as he had quitted his bed he walked, or rather ran to the tops of some of the hills about Chatsworth, that he might enjoy a fresher and a purer breeze than circulated through the valley. This practice he continued until he was compelled to relinquish it by the infirmities of age. After breakfast he visited the Earl and the Countess of Devonshire and their children, until about twelve o'clock, when he dined in a private apartment by himself: he then retired to his own room, where ten or twelve pipes, filled with tobacco, were ranged in a row on his table ready to be used in succession: he then commenced his usual afternoon's employment of smoking, thinking, and writing, which he continued for several hours. When thus engaged 168 ST. EVREMOND TO WALLER. he was frequently visited by foreigners of distinction, who were attracted to Chatsworth chiefly by the celebrity that Hobbes had acquired amongst the learned and the great. St. Evremond, in one of his letters to Waller, dated from Chatsworth, details some interesting particulars of this extraordinary man, whom he found, as he expresses it, “like Jupiter, involved in clouds of his own raising." He says, "I now write to you from the Earl of Devonshire's, where I have been this fortnight past, paying my devotions to the Genius of Nature. Nothing can be more romantic than this country except the region about Valois, and nothing can equal this place in beauty but the borders of the lake. 6 "It was not, however, so much the desire of seeing natural curiosities that drew me hither: there is a certain moral curiosity under this roof which I have long wished to see, and my Lord Devonshire had the goodness to indulge me by a very kind invitation: I need not tell you that I mean the great philosopher Mr. Hobbes, so distinguished for the singularity of his sentiments and disposition. I arrived a little before dinner, notwithstanding which the Earl told me he believed I was too late to see Mr. Hobbes that day. 'As he does not think like other men,' said his Lordship, it is his opinion that he should not live like other men ; I suppose he dined about two hours ago, and he is now shut up for the rest of the day: your only time to see him is in the morning, but then he walks so fast up those hills that unless you are mounted on one of my ablest hunters you will not keep pace with him.' It was not long before I obtained an audience extraordinary of this literary potentate, whom I found like Jupiter involved in clouds of his own raising. He was entrenched behind a battery of ten or twelve guns, charged with a stinking combustible called tobacco. Two or three of these he had fired off, and replaced them in the same order. A fourth he levelled so mathematically against me, that I was hardly able to maintain my post, though I assumed the character and dignity of embassador from the republic of letters. I am sorry for your republic,' said Hobbes, for if they send you to me in that capacity, they either want me or are afraid of me: men have but two motives for their applications — interest and fear; but the latter is in my opinion most predominant.' I told him that my commission extended no farther than to make him their compliments, and to enquire after his health. If that be all,' said he, your republic does nothing more than negociate by the maxims of other states, that is, by hypocrisy: all men are necessarily in a state of war, but all authors hate each other upon principle: for my part, I am at enmity with the whole corps, from the Bishop of Salisbury down to the bell-man: nay, I hate their writings as much as I do themselves: there is nothing so |