CHATSWORTH. 509 



If, after this lengthy description, I have almost wholly failed to 

 give you an idea of Chatsworth, it is not wholly because my pen is 

 not equal to the task. Something must be allowed for the difficulty 

 of presenting to you any adequate notion of the variety, richness, 

 and completeness of an estate, where you may spend many days 

 with new objects of interest and beauty constantly before you ; ob- 

 jects which, only to enumerate, would be presenting you with dry 

 catalogues, instead of living pictures, brilliant and varying as those 

 of the kaleidoscope. 



And, I think I hear you say, this is all for the pride and pleasure 

 of a single individual ! All this is done to minister to his happiness. 

 Not entirely. The Duke of Devonshire has the reputation, very 

 deservedly, I should think, of being second to no man in England 

 for his benevolence, kind-heartedness and liberality. Certainly, I 

 think I may safely say, that Chatsworth shows more refined taste, 

 joined to magnificence, both externally and internally, than any 

 place I have ever seen. When one sees how many persons are con- 

 stantly employed in the various works of improvement on this single 

 estate, and how cheerfully the whole is thrown open to the study 

 and enjoyment of thousands and tens of thousands annually, one 

 cannot but concede a liberal share of admiration and thanks to a 

 nobleman who might follow the example of many others, and make 

 his home his closed castle ; but who prefers, on the other hand, to 

 open, like a national picture gallery, this magnificent specimen of 

 landscape gardening and architecture, on which his fine taste and 

 ample fortune have been lavished for half a century. One has only 

 to visit Windsor and Buckingham Palace after Chatsworth, to see 

 the difference between a noble and pure taste, and a royal want of 

 it. The one may serve to educate and reform the world. The ut- 

 most that the other can do, is to dazzle and astonish those who can- 

 not recognize real beauty or excellence in art 



