1828.] ‘Notes for the Month. 281 
We have always resisted, as a mistake, as well as rather a cockney 
piece of insolence, the claim, as a right, on the part of the public, of 
access to the palaces or mansions of the crown. Such a doctrine has 
always seemed tous to involve a good deal of mean feeling, as well as of 
obtrusive impudence. The Sovereign has the same right to the privacy of 
his palace that a simple tradesman has to that of his dwelling-house. The 
paltry fact of its being built with what is called “the public money,” 
makes no difference in the case. The seats of many of the noblest families 
in the country have been built or purchased with the ‘“ public money ;” 
that is, with money most fitly and politicly granted to them for services 
that they have performed ; but the “ public” has never yet been held 
to possess any “ right of entry” to such edifices ; and a good many of 
the owners, we suspect, would be inclined to restore them to the public, 
if any such right could be made out. But, on the other hand, there is 
something horribly offensive in the contents of this Windsor paragraph ; 
something very humble, and yet very craving; very disgraceful to all 
real English heart and feeling, and likely to be a tit-bit for the columns 
of an American newspaper. The deep admiration of the writer at the 
“ spirit” with which a hole has been broken through the store-house 
wall, to make an additional opening to the terrace! And the joyous 
anticipation of seeing, through “ the new gate,” which is to be built of 
* open iron-work,” some portion of that “ delightful scenery” all the 
week, which he has hitherto only been allowed to contemplate on a 
Sunday! This is all base, and mean, and hungering ; and, what is 
basest of all, hungering after luxury: an honést man would go without 
* scenery” for ever, rather than purchase it on such terms. The sug- 
gested purchases’ “to the amount of 30,000/. or 40,000/.” for the 
« Waterloo Gallery” of pictures, we rather hope exist only in the writer’s 
heated imagination, or, at least, that such an outlay is not to be made at 
the national expense ; because his Majesty, we believe, already possesses 
as many pictures as he can well dispose of for his private entertainment ; 
and an expenditure of 40,000/. to fit up a new picture gallery at 
Windsor Castle would sound almost like extravagance, when we are 
dismissing twenty inferior clerks to save 2000/. a year. The last four 
lines of the nonsense, however, contain the crowning morsel! The 
protecting “ exertions’”—we are really overpowered with the thought! 
—the kind “ mediation” of the excellent architect !—the “ intercessions” 
of “ Mr. Wyatville,” the builder, on behalf of the British nation! It 
is impossible not to be moved by the beneficent interference of this 
excellent gentleman, in favour of the whole of the inhabitants of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland—not to speak of the natives of Berwick-upon- 
Tweed, and the people that drop in occasionally from India and the 
colonies! to obtain “admission” for them to the “ New Grand Terrace,” 
and to remove the “ objections entertained in a high quarter” to their 
enjoyment of so much indulgence! But the thing really passes a joke, 
and rises into the pathetic. The British public indulged at the “ inter- 
cession” of Mr. Wyatville! What an intellect must the man have who 
could imagine that even a suggestion offered on such a subject and from 
such a quarter could be listened to, and what a heart, if he could con- 
sent—were an advantage offered to him so obtained—to accept it! We 
owe the justice to Mr. Wyatville to believe that he has in no way 
authorized this monstrous hanging-up of his own name to ridicule. It 
is as impossible that he should have desired to have it supposed that 
M.M. New Series.—Vou. V1. No.33. 20 
