Digitised Manuscripts and Books

94 e e FY i = rm as is } , preserved tneir 1 ea LO purcnase Pace- ho ¢ } h¢ Paahionah! n x eb a! : norses or yacnts, he fashionable amusements of the day . Despite the law of atavism the same tastes are not always transmitted through generations of the same y either directly or at intervals. Prevalent as it at present is, the mania for old art has shifted from the descendants of the old to the founders of the new families , who owing to the greater means at thelr command have been enabled to themselves of many of the treasures which for long periods had > It would be t events gave a great impetus to this means of replenishing depleted fortunes. Many important collections were thrown on the market when I was still a child in arms. Lord ! ra) Stuart de Rothesay '’s collection of pictures was sold in I84I: ed r > relics and curiosities which Horace Walpole had ct RD) a PB) pe a) 631 pat pm C pe 3 fol Q Me @ spent a long life in gathering together for his beloved Straw- berry Hill were put up to auction in the following year ; and the dismantling of Stowe, the palatial residence of the Duke of Buckingham whose reckless extravagance had + to be him into the Bankruptcy Court. His ambition was without rivals or neighbours in his county , and to gratif) Q that desire he bought up all the estates of the latter and pulled down their houses,But to accomplish this whim he was