LETTER VIL 173 



and the Figures, with their Draperies, and other 

 Ornaments, are coloured according to Nature, by 

 the due laying together of all the Pieces of the 

 Work. AH thefe little bits are difpofed according 

 to the defign which the Workman has before his 

 eyes, and are joined clofe together in the Cement 

 that was prepared to receive them -, which prefent- 

 ly after becomes hard. The beft quality of this 

 Work is its Sohdity. It has lafted more than fix 

 hundred years, without the leaft diminution of its 

 beauty. 



28. I remember that when I was at Althorp 

 Houfe, about three miles from* Northampton^ fome 

 years ago, among fine Pidlures, Bufts, and other 

 Curiofities of Art, I was fliown a Table, faid, and 

 believed by them to be a beautiful black Marble 

 one, with a pack of fcattered Cards and Counters 

 moft exquilitely well painted thereon, as appeared 

 by one of our Company, who in the dusk of 

 the Evening miftaking them for real Cards, went 

 to take them up. But they were deceived, for I had 

 fome months before, feen at Burleigh Houfe near 

 Stamford mLincolnpire, (a ftately Seat of the Earl 

 of Exeter ) a Table of the fame fort, which was 

 broke into two or three pieces, and upon examina- 

 tion found it to be nothing more than artificial 

 Stone, or Parte as fome term it. At Bromham a 

 Seat of my Lord T'revor^ about three miles from 

 )^^nce is a Table of rV»^ a^ - 1-:. ^ . \^^ black ground 



is 



