vow and protest an I didn't fay he would take as civil notice of his old acquaintance: nay, tho'f he was created my Lord-mayor of London. Doll. What talk ye of Lord-mayors, and fusty citizens, goffip Quickly? Sir John is a courtier, and to be fure we must gratulate him now as one of the greatest knights in the nation. O, fweet Sir John! Fal. Truce with your formalities, Mrs. Dorothy. It is true, indeed, I am one of the biggest knights in the kingdom-but, pray, have you feen none of our followers by the way? Pistol, nor Peto. Quick. No verily, Sir John, not of one. We have seen nothing any of them to day. They are all gone to the Coronation, I warrant; and indeed we should have been there too, hadn't it been for that wicked villain, Constable Fang, that by miftake of the beadle of our ward, would have carried us to Bridewel this morning. Fal. How! mine hoftefs and my fair Dorothy to Bridewel! Quick. Even to Bridewel I can af fure ye. Fal. But how; how? Dame Quickly to Bride wel! a decent churchgoing widow; and a modest maiden, 1 fhould fay fingle gentlewoman, to a house of correction! why, what Quick. So I faid, Sir John. Nuthook, Nuthook, fays I, do you know what you do, says I? Have me to Bridewel, fays I,-I fay to Bridewel indeed a reputable houfekeeper, that has paid scot and lot, and borne the burthen of half the parish any time these twenty years. Fal. That thou haft, hoftefs; of the male half; I'll be fworn for thee. Quick. Befides, fays I, do you know Sir John Falstaff? fays I.— Touch a hair of Mis. Dorothy's head, fays I, and Sir John will make fmart for it, fays I, every bone in your fkin, fays 1. you Fal. And what faid the rafcal to that? Quick. Said, Sir John! he flood mumchance, and spoke never a liv. ing fyllable, but fer his vinegarvisaged catchpoles upon us; who faftened their claws into Mrs. Tearfheet's best kirtle, and tore it into as many rents and tatters, as there were in the old tapettry hangings I pawn'd to fit your honour out for last expedition. Fal. Pfhaw! Dol. Yes indeed, Sir John, made But a mere tatterdemallion of me. we did fo tongue the leather-ear'd vultures Fal. That they were glad to loofe their gripe to get rid of you, I fuppofe. Quick. Nay, Sir John, I was obliged to perduce an angel to convince them we were not the parties indicted. Fal. Infidel rogues! would nothing less than the teftimony of an angel convince them? Quick. Ay, I knew how Sir John would take it. O, how foundly will the knave conftable be swing'd for this! a jack-in-office rafcal! we fhall cure the blue-skin'd runnion of his itch for whipping, I warrant ye. Defcription Defeription of WILTON HOUSE, a magnificent Seat of the Earl of PEMBROKE. THIS elegant structure is fituated at Wilton, about three miles from Salif buy in Wiltshire, and was begun in the reign of Henry IV, on the ruins of a fuppreffed abbey. The great quadrangle was finished in the reign of Edward VI. together with the porch, which was defigned by Hans Holben. But the hall fide being burnt down about 60 years ago, was rebuilt by the late earl of Pembroke, then lord high admiral of England, in a very noble and fumptuous manner. The other parts, rebuilt by the firft Philip earl of Pembroke, were all defigned by that celebrated archi teat Inigo Jones, and finished in the year 1640. The canal before the house lies parallel to the road, and receives into it the greatest part of the Willy. The court-yard of the palace is paved with free-ftone, and has a marble fountain in the center. On the right-hand of the entrance is the hall, in which is a large fhuffleboard table of marble. In one of the two large parlours on the left-hand are two ceJebrated pictures, one representing our Saviour wasking his difciples feet, and the other little fhepherds and country-utenfils, both by the famous Bafano. From this a portico leads to the other parlour, fup. ported by two fine pillars of black and spotted porphyry. The garden-front of this noble ftructure is 194 feet long, and juftly eileemed as one of the fineft productions of Inigo Jones. The grand apartments are univerfally acknowledged to be one of the nobleft that architecture has yet produced, particularly that called the falon and the great diningroom: the former is a cube of thirty feer, and the latter a double cube of fixty by thirty, and both thirty feet high. At the upper end of the latter is the celebrated family-piece by Vandyke, twenty feet long and twelve high. The figures are as big as life, and appear as fo many real perfonages rather than the production of the pencil. These figures are the earl of Pembroke (then lord chamberlain of the household) with his lady, fitting; their five fons, ftanding, on the right; and the earl of Carnarvon, with his lady, their daughter, on the left; before them stands their eldest fon, with the duke of Buckingham's daughter, whom he married. Sir Godfrey January, 1766, Kneller would have given 3000l. for this piece, and Lewis XIV. of France offered as many louis d'ors as would cover it; but the piece is really invaluable. Over the chimney is prince Charles, and his brothers the duke of York and Gloucefter. And over the doors, on each fide of the capital picture, are two admirable portraits of king Charles I. and his queen; all by the above celebrated artist. The paffage from this room is by the grand geometrical stair-cafe, the first of the kind in this kingdom, with a rich and lofty fair-cafe, hardly to be paralleled for its magnificence. At the foot of the stair-cafe is a Grecian flatue of Bacchus, of white Peloponnesian marble, and a young Bacchus on his arm eating grapes; the whole so foft and natural as can hardly be excelled in the Vatican at Reme. In short, the whole ftair-cafe, and two rooms at the top of it, are so crouded with pictures of both Italian and Flemish mafters, as would require a volume to defcribe. There is alfo another fine fair-cafe as full of pictures as the former, and at the foot of it a beautiful marble statue of Flora. Near it is a parlour, decorated with the heals and horns of tags, fome of them very large; and alfo with the horns of antelopes. The falon, which, as we have already obferved, is a cube of thirty feet, is also adorned with family pictures, most of them by Sir Peter Lely. In this, and most of the rooms, are marble chimney pieces of the moft exquifite workmanship, carved in Italy, and brought over by the first ea 1 of Pembroke. Here is alfo a gladiator finely gilt, and preferable to that at HamptonCourt. But fome of the chimney-pieces, which are of white marble, and done by Inigo Jones, exceed every thing of the kind; and a black ma ble stone over the chimney of one of the garrets is fo finely polished, that Salisbury church, and its fpire, are feen on it as plain as in a lookingglafs. There are alfo a great number of baffo relievos, and other works in marble, with pictures by the most celebrated maf ters. There is likewife a large variety of fine granate, porphyry, and marble tables, and a cheft made of the nutmeg-tree, which, G when when opened, emits a fine fpicy odour. In a word, there are fo many antique bufts, by Greek and Roman mafters, fuch a collection of wonders both in fculpture and painting, that nothing can exceed them in beauty, nothing be more furprizing than the number of them. Among the bafts is a celebrated one of the Egyptian goddess ls, on a fine table of granite. The Loggio, or Banquetting houfe, in the boxling-green, has an Ionic arcade, with pilasters beautifully rufticated, and enriched with niches and ftatues, befides a row of antique buftos on the top. Here, is also a grotto, whofe front is curiously carved without, and wholly of marble within; the pillars are of black marble of the Ionic order, and their capitals of white marble, and decorated with fine basso reLevos brought from Florence. In the garden are two ruftic Ionic doors, fronting each other two ways. The tables, and other offices, with the curious ruftic gite, and the columns frotted on each fide, on the table-bridge, are all beauties in their kind, and finely difpofed. The gardens, as well as the canal, are fed from the rivers Nadder and Willy, which here join their freams. Among feveral pieces of antiquity in the two courts before the house, there is a noble column of porphyry, with a marble ftatue of Venus, on the top of it, above 30 feet high; it is of excellent workmanship, and came originally from Alexandria, Near it is another marble statue on one knee, fupporting a fun dial. The gardens extend on the fouth-fide of the house, beyond the river, and have a view of the remarkable Down called Salibury plain, leading to Shaftbury. The old walls that formerly furrounded thefe gardens have been many years taken down, We omitted to mention one curiofity, which is fhewn in this magnificent ftructure, namely, a collection of head-pieces, coats of mail, and other armour, for both, horse and man, particularly thofe of Henry VIII. Edward VI. and a rich fuit of an Earl of Pembroke, nick-named Black Jack, which he wore when he befieged and took Boulogne in France, where he commanded under the king. Befides thefe, there are: twelve other fuits of armour, remarkable for their workmanship; but the rest, about a hundred in number, are only for common horsemen, The late ea 1 enriched his feat with a well-chofen library, and a collection of me.. dals, antiques, and other curiofities, which thewed the juftnefs and elegance of his taite, who was one of the greatest virtuo fos and antiquarians of the age. It is faid, his lordship had fome thought of erecting a Stone henge in miniature, as it was fuppofed to be in its original glory, according to Dr. Stukeley, on the hill in his garden. Had this been finished, it would have added to the curiofi ies of Wilton, and been the admiration of foreigners as well as natives; for every one that views that stupendous piece of antiquity in its ruins would with delight contemplate it, as it is fuppofed to have appeared in its flourish-ing state. |