tion, nor in harmony with her soul." So, when the curé of Saint-Sulpice came to see her in her last illness, she said, "Monsieur le Curé, you will be satisfied with me; but spare me three things: no questions, no reasons, no sermons." This is partially confirmed by Wiart, her private secretary, in a letter to Walpole, giving a detailed account of her last illness and death. She was buried, he states, in the Church of Saint-Sulpice, her parish, according to her request.

"But they would not suffer any marks of distinction to be paid to her. These gentlemen were not perfectly satisfied." However, her Curé saw her every day, and had even commenced her confession, when she lost her head and was not able to receive the sacraments; but M. le Curé behaved admirably. He did not believe her end so near."

The master-passion strong in death was never more strikingly exemplified than in her. Her last words were as characteristic as the "More Light" of Goethe, the "Aber" (But) of Frederic Schlegel, the "Give Dayrolles a chair" of Chesterfield, or the "Life is a poor vanity" of Locke. They were "Vous m'aimez donc ?" addressed in a mixed tone of surprise and incredulity to the secretary, who knelt dissolved in tears at her bedside. She died doubting the existence, the bare possibility, of the feeling or faculty which helps, more than any other, to expand the heart, to refine the intellect, to soften and sweeten life, to grace and elevate humanity!

HOLLAND HOUSE.'

(From the Quarterly Review, October, 1873.) 2

As Henry Bulwer (Lord Dalling) was leaving Holland House one evening with a friend, after pausing at point after point till they reached the corridor, he said: "I have seen most of the palaces and palatial residences of Europe, and if I were told to choose one to live in for the remainder of my life, I should choose this." His companion quietly added:

"And I said to myself if there's peace in the world, A heart that is humble might hope for it here."

All things considered, it is certainly the pearl of metropolitan or suburban houses. Take Northumberland House, Devonshire House, Chesterfield House, Cambridge House, Lansdowne House, Stafford House: extend the area so as to comprise Sion House, Strawberry Strawberry Hill, and Hatfield. Where have you such a continuous stream of historical, literary and political associations, reaching nearly three centuries back? Which of them calls up so many striking scenes, characters and incidents, or can be re-peopled by no extraordinary effort of memory or imagination with so many

1 Holland House. By Princess Marie Liechtenstein. In 2 vols. London. 1873.

2 Some passages of this Essay are reprinted from a notice of the same book in "The Times" of October 28, 1873, by the writer.

brilliant groups of statesmen, orators, poets, artists, beauties, wits-with the notabilities of both hemispheres during six or seven generations, including (not, we hope, terminating with) our own?

Then, for what Henry Bulwer was thinking of at the moment, for what more peculiarly addresses itself to the sense of material enjoyment and the eye, for the combination of comfort with space, splendour, luxury and refinement in the interior arrangements, Holland House stands equally unmatched. There is a real charm, an irresistible attraction, in the proportions, harmony of colouring, and disposition of the rooms-in the exquisite tone and keeping of the pictures, busts, decorations, hangings, china, the Elizabethan staircase of dark oak, and the quaintly constructed hall. The late Lord de Mauley asked one of a party of excursionists whom he met in a gallery at Chatsworth, to tell him where he was, as, after a week's stay in the house, he had lost his way. This could hardly happen at Holland House: although it is large enough to have a winter and summer set of sitting-rooms and (without counting the library) ten or eleven reception-rooms open to the guests.

Considering the variety of almost indispensable qualifications, it required no common courage and self-reliance in a young woman settled abroad to undertake the exhaustive treatment of such a subject in all its aspects. But Princess Marie Liechtenstein had gifts and opportunities which, used as she was capable of using them, went far towards counterbalancing her disadvantages. Quick-witted and highly educated, the adopted child of one of the most refined and charming of her sex, observant, sympathising, appreciating, she had been cradled in Holland House, nurtured in its traditions, and imbued from infancy with the genius

of the place. "Je ne suis pas la rose, mais j'ai vécu près d'elle." Although she had seen only a surviving relic or two of its celebrities, her impressions from constantly hearing about the rest of them, were vivid she had a speaking acquaintance with their portraits her knowledge, if secondhand or hearsay, came from the best sources: the family archives were open to her; and she must be supposed to have laid under contribution all the best informed friends and connections of the house.

When Sir James Mackintosh was asked by a Frenchwoman what he had done that people should think him so superior, "I was obliged," he says, "as usual to refer to my projects." Among these was a history of Holland House, as well as a complete History of England. The notes made for the more ambitious project were turned to good account by Macaulay: those on Holland House have been well employed by the Princess.

This accomplished lady has a cultivated taste for the fine arts, along with a keen sense of natural beauty: and she writes about objects of virtù with the ease and confidence of a connoisseur. Her industry and discriminating research are shown by the number and variety of scattered facts and notices she has brought together from every quarter; and although the amount of original matter is less than may have been anticipated, and some of the moral reflections and sentimental touches might have been spared, she has produced a curious and valuable work; enabling us to do for almost every room in the mansion what the brilliant essayist has done for the gallery-make them the scenes of a succession of tableaux vivants, in which words reproduce character and expression as vividly as the pencil or the brush. It is a work which will lie long on the drawing-table before it

is promoted to the library, for the illustrations are numerous and choice. They consist of five steel engravings of portraits, and between sixty and seventy woodcuts. The quarto edition also contains forty Heliotype illustrations, which are really beautiful specimens of the art.

The difficulty of writing a book, or even an essay, on a historic site, rises in exact proportion to the eminence of the celebrities that have flung a halo round the spot. What is best worth telling is familiarly known already: if we venture on the slightest digression, the chances are that we find ourselves on the beaten track of biography; and the utmost we can hope is, that some traits or incidents may acquire an air of novelty by being, so to speak, localised. The safest course, therefore, is to keep as strictly as possible to the subject, and place the minor notabilities, the associate forms" that have hitherto rested in comparative obscurity, in broad relief.

Despite of Pope's warning, when ladies get hold of a little learning, they experience no sense of danger. They are apt to think it new to others because it is new to them. In the course of her introductory account of Kensington, the Princess discourses trippingly about Domesday Book, Saxon derivations, allodial proprietors, hides and virgates of land, and the pedigree of the De Veres; who held the manor till 1526, when it passed through co-heiresses into the families of Neville, Wingfield, and Cornwallis. In 1610, we find it the property of Sir Walter Cope, gentleman of the bedchamber to James I., who (in 1607), before acquiring the manor, had built the centre and turrets of what was then Cope Castle.

"As for the ancient Manor House, even its site is unknown; and Sir Walter Cope not mentioning such a habi