202 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 281. 



embowered in trees and shrubbery, and behind it 

 was a garden, in which the lazy good-humoured 

 poet took his ease of an afternoon, and muttered 

 his verses throughout the moonlight nights. His 

 garden-seat and writing-table are still preserved ; 

 but the cottage has been enlarged into a hand- 

 some villa, and the garden has been extended and 

 improved so as to Isecome one of the most ex- 

 quisite and richly ornamented in that patrician 

 neighbourhood. Yet even in Thomson's time the 

 cottage at Kewfoot Lane was a desirable residence ; 

 and the poet, after weathering many difhculties, 

 had succeeded in gathering round him at least a 

 moderate share of the comforts and elegancies of 

 life. If his little Castle of Indolence could not 

 boast its costly tapestry, huge covered tables and 

 couches, " the pride of Turkey and of Persia 

 land," there was no lack of respectable bachelor 

 accommodation, with an assortment of valuable 

 prints and books, and a cellar that could have 

 supplied a dozen of jovial banquets to Quin, 

 Armstrong, Lyttelton, Mitchell, and those other 

 select friends whom he delighted to entertain, and 

 by whom he was so tenderly beloved. But let us 

 look at the different items in the sale catalogue, 

 which consists of eightpages octavo. 



The first division, marked "No. 1., right hand, 

 two pair of stairs," seems to be the furniture of an 

 inferior bedroom, the whole of which is valued at 

 4l. 2s. 6d., including what the auctioneer calls " a 

 piece of ruins in a carved frame." No. 2. is a 

 closet, containing feather-bed and portmanteau, 

 valued at 17*. No. 3., left hand, two pair of 

 stairs, was a better bedroom, containing a four- 

 post bedstead, with blue harrateen furniture, four 

 walnut-tree arm-chairs with black leather seats, a 

 chimney glass, and mahogany table ; the contents 

 of this room are valued at 81. 7s. No. 4., one 

 pair of stairs, was evidently the best bedroom. 

 It had a bed witli moreen furniture and other ac- 

 cessories, valued at 81. 2s. 6d. ; festoon window 

 curtains, bottle cistern, walnut dressing-table and 

 mirror, four walnut chairs, steel stove, &c. ; the 

 whole being valued at ]3Z. 12s. 6d. No. 5., one 

 pair of stairs, had a Turkey carpet valued at 

 IZ. lis. 6c?. ; a mahogany chest of drawers, II. 10s. ; 

 a sofa, 21. 2s. ; a mahogany writing-table, 11. 3s. ; 

 four mahogany elbow chairs with yellow worsted 

 damask seats, 21. 10s.; a walnut-tree easy chair 

 with matted seat and back, 12s. ; mahogany pillar 

 and claw, carved needlework fire-screen, with 

 quilted case, 2Z. 2s. ; dining table, 12s.; with 

 sconce for candles, yellow damask window cur- 

 tains, &c. ; the whole valued at 18Z. 15s. No. 6., 

 back parlour, possessed a steel stove, two walnut 

 and three smoking chairs, dumb waiter, book 

 shelves, a Scotch carpet (set down at 10s. 6d.), 

 &c. ; the whole valued at 51. 6s. 6d. No. 7., left- 

 hand parlour, had its writing-table, claw table, 

 window curtains, &c., valued 31. lis. 6d. No. 8., 



right-hand parlour, was evidently the principal 

 sitting-room. It was decorated with a Scotch 

 carpet, 10s. 6d.; a dining-table, IZ. lis. 6c?. ; a 

 sconce, 11. 5s. ; six mahogany elbow chairs, with 

 green worsted damask seats, Si. 12s. ; a back- 

 gammon table complete, with chessmen, 10s. Qd. ; 

 and other articles, the whole valued at 111. 19s. 



The next classification is plate, china, &c. ; but 

 here the enumeration is not extensive, and no 

 prices are affixed. Besides cups, saucers, plates, 

 and mugs, there are " Shagreen case, with twelve 

 silver-handled knives and forks ; a silver watch 

 with a cornelian seal, box and case in one, by 

 Graham ; one silver-hilted sword ; one mourning 

 sword ; an Alicant tea-chest, with silvered orna- 

 ments." The kitchen apparatus and furniture are 

 valued at 51. lis.; and the wash-house, garden, 

 and yard articles, at 21. 12s. 6d. 



The contents of the cellar, to which no prices 

 are affixed, are set down as follows : 30 bottles of 

 Burgundy, 30 bottles of red port, 4 bottles of old 

 hock, 7 bottles of mountain and Madeira, 10 

 bottles of Rhenish, 66 bottles of Edinburgh ale, 

 90 bottles of Dunbar ale. There is no mention of 

 ardent spirits. 



The library consisted of 260 lots, the greater 

 part of the books foreign and classical. Editions 

 of Dante, Tasso, and Ariosto are among the 

 number. The English works include Milton, 

 Theobald's Shakspeare, Harrington's Oceana, Ra- 

 leigh's History of the World, Cowley, &c.. Pope's 

 Works, 1717, and his Prose Works, stitched, 

 1737, The Dunciad, stitched, and the Ethic 

 Epistles in vellum, large paper, most likely a 

 present from Pope. The library cannot be con- 

 sidered valuable, but it was fully equal to that 

 of Johnson or Goldsmith. Authors resident in 

 London, with public libraries at command, have 

 little inducement to accumulate books at home, 

 even if their worldly circumstances were such as 

 to permit of the expensive luxury. 



Thomson, it is well known, had a taste for the 

 fine arts, and during his tour in Italy with Mr. 

 Talbot, collected some drawings and prints from 

 the old masters. He seems to have had no less 

 than eighty-three pictures hung up in his different 

 rooms, and " a large portfolio with maps, prints, 

 and drawings, to be sold together or separate." 

 The " antique drawings " are nine in number, all 

 stated to be by Castelli ; they consist of the Venus 

 de Medici, the Fighting and Dying Gladiator, 

 Perseus and Andromeda, Apollo Antinous, Me- 

 leager, Laocoon, Hercules Farnese, and " A Man 

 and a Woman." The seventy-four engravings 

 are all from the old masters, engraved by Frezza, 

 Claudie, Stelle, J. Frey, Bandet, Dorlgny, Du- 

 change, Poilly, Hansart, Edlinck, and Picart. It 

 is indicative of Thomson's taste that none of the 

 engravings are from pictures of the Dutch school, 

 but from those of Raphael, Guido, Correggio, Carlo 



