Digitised Manuscripts and Books

I05 attention . He was very un-English in appearance, having in- hermitied the sallow complliexiom and the bright dark eyes of his Italian mother , Mdlle. Fagniani, a lady of questionable notor- - ae do 7 “arl ea ayer aun +hne ] + yy . ayy ' ry LOby sana, GO whose iparentace the pukeuol Q@ueensherry = ,OldaQe.- and George Selwyn each put forward conflicting claims. The sensational article of the day was a Marie Antoinette lacquer table with Gouthiéres mounts - sensational because it had become known that the Empress Eugenie in her passionate a admiration for the 'Martyr Queen' had set her heart on its possession , but which the Marquis , as he was shortly and gen- erally called in Paris, would not be deterred from acquiring. It was said soon after the sale that Lord Hertford presented the table as a gift to the Empress, but I doubt the truth of the Feporia, «9 1 once gthousht Wl saw -ltcat Manchester House:., ibut could not find it on another occasion , and have never been able to ascertain whether the table I saw was the original or a replica ; or merely the result .of arnmentalhallucinetion«a,; nor 90ssession of t s ce) ct 49) ty # c w 9) a pen = bw | ae | ra par 3) ct ey 4 Vv aa ress or was destroyed when the Tuileries was burnt down during the Commune. Critical epochs produce eminent men and eminent men make history . |The first portion of this century was.a crit— ical epoch in the history of art. For several centuries Italy and France had sent orth the artists under whose -suidance the rest of the civilised world had fashioned its taste 37 FOR; HO wnose genius it owed the development of its art . But the 3) rench Revolution and the Wars of napoleon had killed off the then Italian and French artists and their pupils , who were