Among My Curios. 121 
Who ever gives a thought to that prince of hosts—old John Alves? But, 
blessed man, he lived in iades the lotus-eating life, and when he came to tie 
colony what should he do but bring with him the reminiscenées of that land of 
the breezy call of incense-breathing morn. It is to him we owe that luxury, the 
Berbice chair, and on the one he owned himself when a Magistrate here I now 
recline my weary limbs. 
Did the Iron Duke ever smoke? I trowhedid. If he was not an inveterate 
smoker he at least indulged in the smoke that gracefully curled. In the pipe 
case reposes a huge meerschaum bowl with silver top, long stem of albatross 
bone ; ivory acorns suspended therefrom. This was once his property and was 
used in the Peninsular war. Did he indulge in private theatricals ? Oh, yes! 
for a sketch by Hoyte with a letter addressed to His Grace on the back thereof 
relating to a scene from The Moor of Venice in satirical vein shows that he did 
and that not too well. He was a man to make friends and to keep them. One 
of his best friends was Sir Charles Flint who was Ivish Secretary and whose sons 
came to this colony to die. To Sir Charles the Duke gave a number of keep- 
sakes showing the generosity of his heart, and I flatter myself that there is no 
man more proud of the collection of the late Sir Charles than I am, the 
majority of which came from His Grace. The magnifying glass used by the 
Duke during the war, the pouncet box with the portrait in oils of the Czar of 
the Russias, given to the Duke by the Czar, the sketches made by the Duke for 
Sir Charles in his scrap album all lie in their honoured places in the collection. 
The Napoleonic war is largely represented by pictures, paintings, etc., culled 
from different sources. A ducat which was in the pocket of the unfortunate 
Due D’Englein when he was shot by the order of Napoleon is encased in a card 
on which is written a description of the coi and the way it got in the possession 
of the then owner. That the genuineness is beyond dispute is evidenced by a 
letter also in my possession from the Palais Bourbon, which enclosed the ducat. 
Along with this letter is a cast in plaster of the bust of the Duc D’Englein and a 
noble found on the field of Agincourt. Napoleon comes to mind in the number 
of steel engraved pictures, beautifully coloured by hand and marvels of colouring 
of that day. Two large volumes of the life history of Napoleon dictated by 
le petit General to his Secretary at St. Helena and corrected by Napoleon himself, 
printed by Medoc in 1827 and profusely illustrated with full page woodcuts, bring 
to memory that prince of Advocates, old Landry, to whom it originally belonged. 
He was a gentleman of the old school andan Advocate of Leyden, direct descend- 
ant of the Grotius of Roman Dutch law fame. He practised at the bar here 
and was of the family of the De Groots, one of whom is a Customs Officer, 
another an overseer at Pln. Bath, Berbice, and Sunny, of West Africa, late of the 
Registrar’s Office of this colony. It was through Adoveates like Landry, who 
would live out of the touch of the Law Courts, that the famous edict was 
issued by the Courts that Advocates must live or at least have an office 
at Fort Island where the Supreme Courts of the colony were held. 
Everyone has heard or read of the celebrated artist Maud Goodman ; but 
there are few persons who can tell you that she has ever painted a landscape. 
Tam one of the very few persons who can boast of one of her landscape paintings 
