204 Notes of the Month on [FEB. 



the Grand Duke of Baden ; and the Queen of Portugal. No man 

 of remarkable science has died in this country but Major Rennel. 

 Nor do we know of any distinguished scientific deaths on the continent. 

 Among a crowd of women of rank, none of distinguished beauty or 

 public merit, have died, and among the leading artists, but one, Law- 

 rence, the leader of them all. 



The well-known Beckford is selling off again. Why, in this life- 

 writing age, is so capital a subject left without a record? Let the 

 biographer give but a chapter each to his Italian, his French, and his 

 Portuguese palaces, and he would make enough even out of those for a 

 modern quarto. His English career may be reserved for his own pen, 

 for whose else could do justice to it ? We can scarcely believe that this 

 extraordinary and eccentric personage has become a house-jobber. But 

 his buildings and furnishings, and frequent change of place ; and his 

 regularly recurring sales of books, pictures, and bijouterie of all odd and 

 costly kinds, greatly favour the idea. 



Fonthill was a piece of architectural coxcombry, which, however, he 

 contrived to turn to the best advantage by the help of as dexterous a 

 manager of such things as any man in trade, George Robins. It 

 tumbled down soon after the sale. But the whole affair was only the 

 more in character. Fantasy was the spirit that presided at its birth, and 

 fairyland was the region round ; and as something equally out of the 

 world was the proprietor, it was only natural that the whole should 

 vanish like a castle in the air. 



His next sojourn was at Bath, where he astonished all mankind, in- 

 cluding the fashionable inhabitants of Lansdowne-crescent, by pur- 

 chasing two houses, and living in them at once. This, however, he 

 contrived, though having them at opposite sides of a street, by building 

 a handsome Italianized corridor, so as to secure an internal communi- 

 cation between the two houses, and in line with the drawing-rooms : 

 one house was devoted to domestic purposes, the cooking being per- 

 formed in it, and Mr. Beckford resided in the other, so that the smells 

 of all culinary preparations were cut off from his apartments. This was 

 the object of having two residences, and the communicating corridor ; 

 the dinner and other provisions being brought along the passage. Both 

 houses were furnished in the most splendid style, so much so as to draw 

 forth the marked admiration of all the Bath connoisseurs in buhl, or 

 molu, and glittering absurdities of all kinds. Even Prince Leopold's 

 philosophy was moved by the detail ; and he condescended to acknow- 

 ledge, that if Mr. Beckford and he gave pretty much the same number 

 of dinners, which was equivalent to none, the hermit of Bath had the 

 advantage in meubles, over the hermit of Claremont. But all this finery 

 is to come to the hammer again ; and we have no doubt that it will 

 bring in a handsome return. 



The owner's next remove is now awaking the queries of Bath again. 

 Where will he next build his house-to-let ? Where shew off his next 

 purchase of old cabinets, figured crystals, cracked china, and very odd 

 books with very odd mottoes in them from the pen of the learned and 

 curious owner. Bets, to the largest amount allowable among the card- 

 table ladies, have been laid, that his next journey will be to Pimlico, 

 there to erect a palace, which shall throw the Nash-building out of all 

 fame. Others, that he means to go to Constantinople, and offer himself 



