THE SMUGGLER. 269 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE house of Mr. Zachary Croyland was not so large or 

 ostentatious in appearance as that of his brother ; but, never- 

 theless, it was a very roomy and comfortable house; and as 

 he was naturally a man of fine taste, though somewhat singu- 

 lar in his likings and dislikings, as well in matters of art as in 

 his friendships, and vehement in favour of particular schools, 

 and in abhorence of others, his dwelling was fitted up with 

 all that could refresh the eye or improve the mind. A very 

 extensive and well-chosen library covered the walls of one 

 room, in which were also several choice pieces of sculpture ; and 

 his drawing-room was ornamented with a valuable collection of 

 small pictures, into which not one single Dutch piece was 

 admitted. He was accustomed to say, when any connoisseur 

 objected to the total exclusion of a very fine school, " Don't 

 mention it, don't mention it; I hate it in all its branches and 

 all its styles. I have pictures for my own satisfaction, not 

 because they are worth a thousand pounds a-piece. I hate to 

 see men represented as like beasts as possible; or to refresh 

 my eyes with swamps and canals; or, in the climate of 

 England, which is dull enough in all conscience, to exhilarate 

 myself with the view of a frozen pond and fields, as flat as a 

 plate, covered with snow, while half-a-dozen boors, in red 

 night-caps and red noses, are skating away in ten pairs of 

 breeches, looking, in point of shape, exactly like hogs set upon 

 their hind legs. It's all very true, the artist may have shown 

 very great talent ; but that only shows him to be the greater 

 fool for wasting his talent upon such subjects." 



His collection, therefore, consisted almost entirely of the Ita- 

 lian schools, with a few Flemish, a few English, and one or two 

 exquisite Spanish pictures. He had two good Murillos and a 

 Velasquez, one or two fine Vandykes, and four sketches by 

 Rubens of larger pictures. But he had numerous landscapes, 

 and several very beautiful small paintings of the Bolognese 



