412 THE DUKE'S DIFFICULTIES PART V. 



something of the cut of Dr. Johnson's with dark 

 drab breeches, fastened at the knee with silver buckles. 

 At dinner he rejected, with a kind of antipathy, nil 

 poultry, veal, and such like, calling them " white meats," 

 and wondered that everybody, like himself, did not 

 prefer the brown. He was a great smoker, and smoked 

 far more than he talked. Smoking was his principal 

 evening's occupation when Brindley and Gilbert were 

 pondering with him over the difficulty of raising funds 

 to complete the navigation, and the Duke continued his 

 solitary enjoyment through life. One of the droll habits 

 to which he was addicted was that of rushing out of the 

 room every five minutes, with the pipe in his mouth, to 

 look at the barometer. Out of doors he snuffed, and 

 he would pull huge pinches out of his right waistcoat 

 pocket and thrust the powder up his nose, accompanying 

 the operation with sundry strong short snorts. 



He would have neither conservatory, pinery, flower- 

 garden, nor shrubbery at Worsley ; and once, on his 

 return from London, finding some flowers which had 

 been planted in his absence, he whipped their heads off 

 with his cane, and ordered them to be rooted up. The 

 only new things introduced about the place were some 

 Turkey oaks, with which his character seemed to have 

 more sympathy. But he took a sudden fancy for pictures, 

 and with his almost boundless means the purchase of 

 pictures was easy. 1 Fortunately, he was well advised as 

 to the paintings selected by him, and the numerous fine 



1 Lord Ellesmere says : " An acci- 

 dent laid the foundation of the Bridge- 

 water collection. Dining one day 

 with his nephew, Lord Gower, after- 

 wards Duke of {Sutherland, the Duke 

 saw and admired a picture which the 

 latter had picked up a bargain, for 

 some 10Z., at a broker's in the morn- 



were doubtless not wanting to cater 

 for the taste thus suddenly deve- 

 loped ; and such advisers as Lord 

 Farnborough and his n<'j>lir\v lent 

 him the aid of their judgment. His 

 purchases from Italy and Holland 

 were judicious and important, and, 

 finally, the distractions of France 



ing. 'You must take me,' he said, forcing the treasures of the Orleans 



'to that d d fellow to-morrow.' Gallery into this country, he Uranie 



Whether this impetuosity produced a principal in the fortunate sjK'cula- 



any immediate result we are not in- tion of its purchase." ' Kssays on 



formed, but plenty of such 'fellows' History, Biography,' &e. 



