1825.) 
olden time, which but for his zeal might 
have been entirely lost to the curious. 
To him also we owe the publication of 
a very useful work, “ The Annual Re- 
gister ;” and his tragedy, “ Cleone,” 
proves him to have been an author of 
no mean power. 
Cleveland House, situated at the 
western extremity of Pall-Mall, origin- 
ally belonged to the Howards, Earls of 
Berkshire, and was afterwards purchased 
by Charles II., and presented by him 
to Barbara Duchess of Cleveland, whom 
Pennant styles a “ beautiful fury,” one 
of the most dissolute and shameless of 
the wantons of his court: a woman who 
disgraced her birth, sex, and rank, by 
the indulgence of vices, which few of 
the king’s other favourites, even amid 
those who were reared from a mean con- 
dition, and attached to a profession at 
that time considered to be infamous, 
were found to imitate. Cleveland 
House, in later times, fell into more 
worthy hands, it belonged to the Duke 
of Bridgewater, a nobleman who de- 
serves to be recorded as one of the 
benefactors of his country.. A modern 
author speaking of him, says, 
** Some men possess means that are 
great, but fritter them away in the execu- 
tion of conceptions that are little; and 
there are others who can form great con- 
ceptions, but who attempt to carry them 
into execution with little means. These 
two descriptions of men might succeed if 
united; but as they are usually kept asun- 
der by jealousy, they both fail. It is a rare 
thing to find a combination of great means 
and of great conceptions in the same per- 
son. The Duke of Bridgewater was a 
famous example of this union ; and all his 
designs were so profoundly planned, that 
it is delightful to observe how effectually 
his vast means supported his measures at 
one time, and how gratefully his measures 
repaid his means at another. On the 
blameless and bloodless basis of public 
utility he founded his own individual ag- 
grandizement, and his triumphal arches are 
those by which he subdued the earth only 
to increase the comforts of those who 
possess it.” 
Assisted by the bold and masterly 
designs of one of those self-taught ge- 
niuses, who, like the aloe, spring up 
once ina century, to astonish and de- 
light an admiring world; the Duke suc- 
ceeded in bringing his extensive works 
to perfection. 
_ Happily,” says the biographer of James’ 
Brindley, “ for himself and society, the 
Duke of Bridgewater had the discernment 
to single out Brindley as the man to carry 
his plans into effect, and the generosity and 
Walks in London.—No. II. 
11f 
spirit to support him against the aspersions 
of ignorance and timidity. When it was 
proposed to raise an aqueduct for the pur- 
pose of carrying the canal, which was one 
of the grandest of his undertakings, over 
a river, the Duke, or Mr. Brindley, con- 
sulted an engineer of great celebrity upon 
the subject, the possibility of such an erec- 
tion being much disputed ; this gentleman 
treated the project with ridicule. ‘ I have 
often,’ said he, ‘ heard of castles in the air, 
but never before was shewn where any of 
them were to be erected.’ The confidence 
of Brindley, in the combinations which he 
had made, was not, however, to be shaken ; 
and the Duke himself possessed himself 
too much knowledge and discernment to be 
diverted from plans to which his own com- 
prehension was fully adequate.” 
The work succeeded, and remains a 
proud trophy of the talent, the courage, 
and the industry of its projectors. 
Though nature and fortune had been 
equally lavish in their gifts to the Duke 
of Bridgewater, he was not destined to 
enjoy the pleasures of domestic and 
conjugal felicity ; he descended -unmar- 
ried to the grave, having unhappily im- 
bibed a strong prejudice against women; 
the depravity of one female disgusted 
him with the whole sex. The Duke, 
we are told, having accompanied a 
friend upon a visit to the family of that 
friend’s. intended bride, received over=- 
tures, from the lady, of a very disgrace- 
ful nature, and which, under her cir- 
cumstances, as living with a fair repu- 
tation, highly educated, well born, and 
betrothed to. another, shocked and con- 
founded him, and impressed his. mind 
with so great a hofror of trusting his 
honour to. the kéeping of -one who 
might prove equally frail, that he de- 
termined against marriage; and thus 
the dukedom, which he held with so 
much splendour, became extinct at his 
decease. 
Cleveland House, one of the most 
magnificent habitations in the metro- 
polis, is now the town residence of the 
Marquis of Stafford, and is celebrated 
as possessing the finest private collec- 
tion of pictures in Europe. The libe- 
rality of the present .owner allows the 
public to participate in the delight af- 
forded by these exquisite treasures of 
art, and, gratifies the antiquarian by a 
perusal of those rare yolumes. which 
enrich the valuable library, and of which 
there are some not to be found else- 
where. 
In Sir Egerton Brydges’ edition of 
Collin’s Peerage, we learn, that: Law- 
rence Gower, ancestor to the Marquis 
ior 
