I believe it very rarely happens. They are nobly furnished; no expence fpared; a profufion of glaffes, gilding, rich Lyons' filks and velvets, cover the walls. The floors are beautifully inlaid with woods of different fhades, and kept, as are the whole of the apartments and furniture, delicately clean. The frames of the looking gffafes of the sconces are all of wrought plate, as are the arms that hold the candles, and the fhapes of the pier glaffes; large maffive tables of filver ftand under each glafs, all wrought in bas reliefs, and the workmanship for the most part finely executed. The luftres that hang from the cieling are of rock crystal. I mea. fured one of the ornaments which was within my reach (for these luftres hang too low), it was shaped like a pear; was it fquared, it would meafure a cube of five inches; but they have, by their fcolloping and crinkling, fpoiled the rock crystal as much as poffible.

*

The curtains to the doors have a fine effect; for when all the doors which lead through thefe magnificent fuites of rooms are open, these curtains are tied back, and by the manner of their being drawn up, their folds form beautiful arcades. They confift of exceeding rich flowered filks of Lyons, of a

* Thefe doors open in the middle, and folding inward are received into grooves made in the thickness of the wall; the pannels are carved and gilt, and when the apartments are open, no door is to be feen; but as you pass through the doorcafe, the ornaments of the doors, which cover the fides of the thickness of the wall, are very friking.

beautiful

beautiful pattern, reprefenting large fruits and leaves there is a canopy of the fame, which projects about eight inches over each door, and finishes in a moft graceful fweep. Thefe doors all anfwering to each other, form a perspective which I think has a most beautiful effect. As these fuites of rooms form a rectangle, you look up from the same point two extenfive viftas, which being terminated by looking-glaffes, feem to have no end. Silk is the furniture of the fummer; that of the winter apartment is of crimfon velvet.-As the walls are extremely thick, the windows have a noble air from the inside, the wall floping off from them, and the tops arched in cove fashion, are incrufted with looking-glaffes fet in gilt foliage, which by their reflections produce a brilliant effect. Sculpture and gilding abound in every room; all the mouldings, architraves, and every morfel of wainscoting, is highly ornamented. But what is wonderfully fhocking in the midst of all this profufion of finery, is that the panes of the windows are set in lead, in the fame manner with the cafements of our English cottages. The cielings are painted, but none of them in a capital ftile; the best is that of the audience chamber, but even this has a certain bloom of colouring which is too gaudy. The reprefentation is allegorical, the groups much confused, and the whole unpleafing; the cornice loaded, and compofed of too many mouldings, &c.

I fhall

Pictures.

I fhall not pretend to give you a regular cata logue of the pictures and curiofities contained in this palace, I fhall only mention those that pleased us moft. The palace contains 53 chambers, of which 48 are completely furnished.

The King's gallery is decorated in an excellent tafte, except the cieling (by Daniel de Senterre), which has not much merit. The pictures are all hung upon black pannels; I fuppofe they imagined it would fet them off, but I do not think it has a good effect. The following are the most to our taste :

A boy careffing a dog, by Cimiani. This is fo well done, and so natural, that the longer it is looked at, the more beauties it discovers.-A full length portrait of King Charles I. by Miers, a fcholar of Vandyke's. The perspective of the back ground is much admired, though it is charged with the following faults; the point of view is placed too high, the pillars are too much crowded, and the row of columns commence too near the 'fore ground, on which the King stands. The coTouring is black, and the aerian perspective ill obferved; the King's figure fticks clofe to the architecture, for want of proper judgment in the demiteints, if not owing to a failing in the linear per fpective. The face is admirably done. The figure is ftiffer than it otherwife would have been, perhaps from the too great attention of the painter to the buttons, lace, &c. and too ftrict a reprefen

tation of the minutia of the ornamental drefs of thofe days. A Venus, Cupid, and doves, in high preservation, by Carlo Cigniani.-Prince Thomas on horseback, by Vandyke, as large as life. A very good portrait; the horfe well done, his mane incomparable; and the whole together in a great and masterly ftyle.-Another of the fame mafter, reprefenting the three children of our Charles the Firft; admirable, both as to the colouring, drapery, and correctness of the drawing; all the graces that belong to children, are here blended in the moft charming countenances, which exprefs at the fame time, dignity without pride, and softness without languor. There is alfo a spaniel in this picture, fo natural, that it would almoft deceive in a proper point of view.-The portrait of this painter, by himself; a truth and force of colouring that must strike the most ignorant spectator.— An Evangelift writing, an Angel dictating; the attention and awe, mixt with a holy dread, ftrongly expreffed in the countenance of the Saint, is beautifully contrafted by the benignity and candour in the celeftial face of the holy meffenger. I have forgot the name of the author of this picture.A picture reprefenting the daughter of Sir Thomas More, his head juft feparated from the body, and lying on a table; fhe is fainted away, her palenefs is most natural, and there is great expreffion in one of her hands, which is a little elevated from the dead head, as if fhe had fhrunk it back with horror at the touch: this is by Conrado of Milan.

In

In the room after the gallery are two good pieces of perspective, as seen from an angle ; one reprefents part of the infide of St. Peter's at Rome, the other of St. John de Lateran. There is also a landscape with four oxen in it, well done. Although the above three pictures are not by celebrated masters, they are by no means contemptible.-The portrait of Porbus, by himself; he is measuring the extent of his skull with a pair of compaffes; although it is not ill executed, yet the ungracefulness of the attitude, and the uncouthness of the fubject, prevent this picture from pleasing.—A portait of Rembrandt, by himself, and a fmall picture of an old man, whofe head and hands are admirable, particularly the truth of anatomy in the latter; the drapery and back ground are fo dark as to be totally indiftinct.-In another room, which goes by the name of Solimene's, are four pictures by that mafter; the best represents the Queen of Sheba presenting her gifts to Solomon. By his never finishing any of his pictures, there is often a great failing in his clair obfcure, which is frequently falfe. Covetoufnefs was the cause of this fingularity; for he could finish a piece confifting of thirty figures in fix days*, and his pictures fold off quick, as there is always to be found in them a truth of drawing, and great knowledge in the art of grouping his figures without confufion; but at

* His firft ftroke was alfo his lat, for he never retouched them.