Digitised Manuscripts and Books

L0z2 Which are acquired for: therUnited:S ever to cr py) cr © Q ~ - a @ SS 5 cod a Pal o fe! eA 4 ) The ink is barely dry on the words I have been writing she announcement comes to hand of the bequest to the nat- ion by his widow, the late Sir Richard Wallace } 7 Lord Hertfords ’="colstection®’.*% NO country has ever" hadisuch’ a windfall, for great as may be its pecuniary value its artistic value is inestimable . In the six or seven hundred pictures it eontains there isnot one that is not of the highest excellence. The’ same may almost be saad of the furniturejsthe: china jand the numerous degorative objects) which €vén in point of mere number exceed those of any other collection either public or private. It would have been a source of the keenest disappoint nent and regret had this cvllection been dispersed and sent abroad,or if it had gone into the hands of our millionaires, walls with the masterpieces of Eng- lish and foreign artists may be praiseworthy and legitimate, but which would in this case have caused a disastrous loss to the @ +e) i o te H OQ ° I saw Lord wertford only once in my life and I have e Latte - bo say ot him thas 2s notnaiready well’ known, as the career and the eccentricities of that very original personage | have been exhaustively described in every variety of print. He was pointed out to me at Prince Beauveau's sale in Paris in 186 , sitting beside his alter ego M.Richard on a front bench in a stuffy room in the Hotel Drowot. I should: have noticed him of my own accord , for he possessed that certain unmista- PX is oe Se eee a ee ee ae ee ee ee ee ee . kable ‘something Which denotes the ‘somebody’ and attracts