Digitised Manuscripts and Books

beneficial as he had fancied nor the house as convenient as he had “imagined it ‘to ‘be. “Se he sold it again at cost price with its contents - all but the Sévres vases , out of which he made i) Soon after: this experience of watering place bhife the dealer was favoured with a still greater piece iof good fort- une, It came to his knowledge that a worthy citizen of London , a retired dentist, living somewhere near Regent's Park, poss- essed a pair of china vases . He obtained an introduction to e house and was amazed at the sight of a pair of Sevres vases which were of still greater beauty than those which had come so unexpectedly into his hands during his holiday . The dentist who knew more of the merits of ivory than of ‘soft paste’ was only too glad to be rid of the vases , and parted with them for a trifling amount . In’ fact on receiving his cheque which had been made out in guineas , he returned the Shillings saying that he could not think of taking more than pounds for articles for which he cared so little. All sales arranged by private treaty are not necessarily made on the quiet. Purchases made for instance on behalf of | the wational Gallery are of public notoriety . Numerous and important as these have been , those of Blenheim and Longford | Castle especially, that of the late Sir Robert Peel's collect- ion of pictures surpassed alike in quality and quantity any transaction that has taken place in this century either at home-or abroad. These pictures: which:his father the great Minister had brought together with exquisite judgment , Sir Robert, when he decided to sell them,first offered to my Uncle