Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1

[375] castles, or the grand front of Wentworth; but it seems to me to blend more magnificence and comfort, and to hold a more complete collection of interesting things, whether antiques, pictures, or manuscripts, than any seat I have visited. The entrance hall is the noblest I have ever seen; and the suite of apartments is the best arranged for show and comfort that can be imagined. With the doors open, you may look through a vista of eleven spacious rooms; and these of the most agreeable proportions, and adorned by the choicest productions of the pencil. Here you may admire the luxurious tints of Titian, the landscapes of Claude, the magnificence of Vandyke, and the soul-touching canvas of Raphael and Da Vinci. The painting by Vandyke of the Duke of Aremberg, which, large as life—and the duke on his courser—adorns the principal saloon, Lord Leicester considers the best picture in the world. He has refused twenty thousand pounds for it. Here is the ‘Leo X.’ by Raphael, —an engraving from which you will find in Roscoe's ‘Life of Leo;’ and a ‘Holy Family,’ by Raphael. A large ‘Joseph and Mary,’ with the infant Saviour, going into Egypt, by Rubens, I do not admire. It has that tawdry coloring which flames so along the walls of the Louvre, where his canvas is spread for several rods. As you pass from these rooms to the dining-room, you go through a gallery of surpassing grace and proportions, which is occupied by a collection of antique statues and busts, the completest in England, —a ‘Pythian Apollo,’ a ‘Venus’ with a veil, a ‘Meleager,’ a ‘Faun’ in most beautiful preservation, a ‘Neptune,’ a ‘Diana’ (for sending which from Rome the old Lord Leicester was thrown into prison) ,with busts of Seneca and Cornelius Sylla,—the latter said to be the only one that has come down to us. I have only mentioned some of the principal ones. And you dine with noble and almost colossal heads of Juno and of Lucius Verus looking from their high niches down upon you. You have heard much of the manuscripts at Holkham, which were arranged and put in order by the late Mr. Roscoe;¹ this also is called the completest collection of the kind in England. Some of the illuminations are beautiful beyond imagination; and some of the manuscripts are invaluable. They relate to all branches of learning; and here I have found the handwriting of Sir Edward Coke, and have for hours pored over the crabbed page which bears the marks of his pen. In the library there are many works with his annotations.

Lord Leicester² is now old and infirm. He is a very ardent friend of