The Merry Past 



execution of the criminal would be an infringement 

 of the privileges of ambassadors. In spite of every- 

 thing, however, Cromwell ordered the man to be 

 hanged, without any deviation from the customary 

 method of executing a common criminal for the same 

 offence. The Protector was determined to show 

 that, whatever he might choose to do himself, neither 

 the ambassadors nor their brothers should murder 

 English subjects with impunity. 



At one time the most easterly point in which any 

 of the nobility lived was Devonshire House, in Bishops- 

 gate Street. When Lord Burlington was asked why 

 he built his house, on the site of what is still Burlington 

 House in Piccadilly, so far in the country, he said he 

 was determined that no one should live beyond him. 



Lord Burlington was a nobleman of great public 

 spirit and fine taste. He it was who repaired St. 

 Paul's Church, Covent Garden, and published the 

 designs of Palladio with the idea of stimulating the 

 taste for classical architecture in England. 



When the citizens determined to build a palace 

 for their chief magistrate, the peer in question, the 

 great amateur and Maecenas of the arts of that time, 

 offered to supply them, without expense to themselves, 

 with an excellent design, which he proposed to ex- 

 tract from the works of Palladio. Instead, however, 

 of receiving this offer as it should have been received 

 when the matter was debated in the Common Council, 

 a wiseacre rose in his place and asked if Mr. Palladio 

 was, or was not, free of the City. When he was told 

 who and what " Mr. Palladio " was, he moved that the 



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