The Library, 50 feet long and 244 wide, is stored with a fine collection of books, and over the shelves are portraits of the most eminent painters. Those of Titian, Rembrandt, Tintoretto, David Teniers the younger, Rubens, Murillo, Frank Hals, Jan Steen, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and John Kupetzki, are said to have been painted by the artists themselves whose names they respectively bear. The Sculpture Gallery, built in 1789, from the designs of Henry Holland, was originally intended for a green-house, and was converted to its present use, and its floor inlaid with Devonshire marble, in 1820. It is 138 feet in length, and 22 feet 7 inches high. The valuable collection of marbles contained in this gallery has been described in a splendid volume, accompanied with outline engravings, from drawings by Henry Corbould. The text is from the pen of the present Duke of Bedford, at whose expense the work was printed for private distribution; and from this source the subjoined particulars are extracted. 249 || Gallery is the Temple of Liberty, and at the west end the Temple of the Graces. The visitor is conducted into the gallery through a small ante-room, on the walls of which are engravings of some of Canova's most beautiful statues and groups of sculpture. Opposite to the entrance is a marble bust by Garrard of Mr. Holland, who built the gallery; and another bust by Chantrey of Nollekens, whose works adorn the interior of the Temple of Liberty. In the centre of this ante-room is an antique marble vase, four feet seven inches in height, and three feet four inches in its extreme width. This vase, discovered in excavating among the ruins of Hadrian's villa at Rome, is adorned with sculpture round the bowl in very high relief, representing eight Bacchic genii employed in the labours and festivities of the vintage. On the walls of the gallery are several ancient and modern sculptures in relievo, representing subjects illustrative of the mythology and epic poetry of Greece. The subjects of these relievos are: Apollo Musagetes, Minerva, and the Muses. Triumphal Procession of Bacchus and Hercules. Achilles at Scyros. Death of the Boar of Calydon. In the centre of the building are eight magnificent columns, supporting a dome: each column consists of one entire shaft: they are all ancient, and were discovered in the excavations made at Rome by the late Mr. Brand, of the Hoo, Hertfordshire. Two of them are of breccia Afrieana, two of a variegated kind of alabaster, two of Cipollino marble, and two of Bigio. Their white marble capitals are also antique, and were discovered in the same excavations: they are of a very rich Composite order, containing ornaments add-production of ancient art is of very ed to the combined decorations of the Ionic and Corinthian styles. At the east end of the Sculpture In a vaulted recess on the north side of the gallery stands the cele brated Lanti vase. This magnificent large dimensions, its diameter being six feet three inches, and its height, exclusive of the plinth on which it stands, six feet. It is of the very finest style of Grecian sculpture, of pure Parian marble, beautiful in its form, exquisitely and elaborately finished, richly embellished with appropriate ornaments, and in a high state of preservation. The swelling part of this vase is surrounded by eight grotesque masks, affording a rich variety of comic features. They are such as were used in dramatic exhibitions at the festivals of Bacchus; and they represent the heads of the Indian Bacchus, Silenus and Pan, and of Satyrs and Fauns, the ministers and attendants of the god of the vintage. The Lanti vase was found in fragments, during excavations made in the ruins of Hadrian's villa near Rome; and it has been restored to its original beauty by a very able artist. It passed into the collection of ancient sculpture belonging to the noble family of Lanti at Rome, from whom it received its name. It was afterwards purchased by Lord Cawdor; but on account of the prohibition of the papal government to export works of art, its clandestine removal was attended with great difficulty. At the sale of Lord Cawdor's effects, it was purchased by the predecessor of the present noble own er. Opposite to the Lanti vase is a copy of the celebrated statue of the Apollo Belvedere, of the same size as the original, executed by Paccilli, an Italian sculptor, at the beginning of the last century. Here are also antique statues of Bacchus, Minerva, Ceres, a Faun in bronze, terminating in a tapering square pedestal, and torsos of Venus and Apollo. The torso of Venus is a delightful specimen of Grecian art, similar in its attitudes and forms to the celebrated Cnidian statue; and it may vie with the Medicean Venus in the happiness with which the sculptor has conceived, and the perfection with which he has represented, the Goddess of Love and Beauty. This torso was lately brought from France, and purchased by the Duke of Bedford: the head and arms had been restored by a modern artist; but they so ill corresponded with the exquisite symmetry and grace of the original torso, that they have been removed since its arrival at Woburn. The vase and drapery introduced as a support to the figure are modern. We find here also antique busts of Antoninus Pius, Septimius Severus, Ælius Verus, Marcus Aurelius, Trajan, Diaduminianus, Hercules, Perseus, and Matidia, niece of the Emperor Trajan. This collection contains also some of the best works of the most eminent modern sculptors. By Chantrey there are two in alto-relievo: Hector recommending his Son to the Protection of the Gods, and Penelope's Reluctance to produce the Bow of Ulysses. By Thorwaldsen-The Wrath of Achilles, and Priam supplicating Achilles, both in basso-relievo. By Westmacott-Hector reproaching Paris, basso-relievo—Hero and Leander-Psyche; a delightful specimen of the perfection to which the art of sculpture has attained in England. The subject is taken from the episode of Cupid and Psyche in the Metamorphosis of Apuleius; and Psyche is exhibited at the moment of opening the mysterious casket, in which she has been enjoined to bring from Proserpine a recruit for the charms of Venus, wasted in anxious On the tympanum of the pediment of the portico of the temple is a beautiful allegorical group, composed by Flaxman, representing the Goddess of Liberty, Peace, and the Genii of Plenty; and on the south front of the edifice is an alto-relievo by Westmacott, composed of infant Genii, with various emblems and attributes, illustrative of the progress of man from a state of nature to civihized life, social intercourse, and rational liberty. attendance on Cupid, while suffer-man; viz. Earl Grey, Earl of Lauing from the wound he had received | derdale, Lord Robert Spencer, Lord from the burning oil of Psyche's lamp. Holland, General Fitzpatrick, and The foundation of the Temple of Mr. Hare. Liberty was laid by Francis Duke of Bedford a short time before his death, and it was completed by his brother, the present duke. Its portico is copied from a beautiful little Ionic temple of Ceres, once standing on the banks of the Ilissus, and delineated in Stuart's Remains of Athens. The architrave bears a Latin inscription, from the classic pen of the Rev. Dr. Parr, recording the object of the founder and the date of its erection. When the building was finished, it received the bust of Charles James Fox, by Nollekens, supported on a pedestal of Carrara marble, on which are inscribed the following lines by Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire: The Temple of the Graces was erected in 1818 from designs by Mr. Jeffry Wyatt. In the centre of it is placed the exquisitely beautiful group of the three Graces, executed for the Duke of Bedford by Canova. In the vestibule are two niches, containing beautiful little statues, one representing Lady Georgiana Elizabeth Russell, eldest daughter of the Duke of Bedford, sculptured at Rome by Thorwaldsen, when she was four years old; and the other Lady Louisa Jane, his grace's second daughter, the work of Chantrey, who has represented her at the moment when she has taken up a favourite dove, and is pressing it to her bosom. to her bosom. The whole figure seems animated with that natural and pleasing expression of character which gives to this artist's statues of children a charm and an interest that such subjects never possessed before. The late and present owner of Woburn have been distinguished by their zeal for the promotion of the science of agriculture; and for many years an annual sheep-shearing was farmyard is replete with conveniences: it contains barns, stables, fat bruising malt and cutting chaff for fodder. The water which works the latter is conveyed thither by pipes from ponds situated on the adjoining eminences. held here, which was generally attended by three or four hundred persons, mostly of the highest rank, || ting-houses, mills, and machinery for or eminent as farmers. The meeting lasted three or four days, during which various experimentswere made, and considerable premiums were devoted to the encouragement of improvements in agriculture. With this general attention to the furtherance of the science, it is not wonderful that his grace's farm should be peculiarly deserving of the attention of all who feel interested in its advancement. Every ingenious contrivance to shorten labour, and every invention to facilitate useful operatious, are here concentrated. The The park abounds with wood, and the ground being diversified with bold swells and a pleasing inequality of surface, affords many delightful prospects of forest scenery. It is well stocked with deer, and surrounded with a brick wall eight feet in height, and about twelve miles in circumference. NEWSTEAD ABBEY, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, THE SEAT OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILDMAN. AMONG the numerous views which || nual revenues were valued at 2297. we have hitherto presented to our It was then granted by the crown to readers, it is presumed that few will Sir John Byron, lieutenant of Sherbe more acceptable than that present-wood Forest, who converted part of ed in the accompanying engraving. the conventual buildings into a resiSetting aside the deep regret occa-dence; but it is to be lamented that sioned by the death of the late Lord Byron, whose property and residence Newstead Abbey once was, it has not only become more interesting on that account, but as a relic of antiquity it is entitled to particular attention. Although great alterations have been made in the conventual part of the building, the existing remains (especially the front of the abbey church) prove that it was one of the most elegant and chaste Gothic structures in the kingdom. Newstead Abbey appears to have been founded in the year 1170, by Henry II. It was dedicated to St. Augustine; but, like other religious institutions, was dissolved in the reign of Henry VIII, when its an the abbey church, the most beautiful part of them, was suffered to go entirely to decay. Newstead Abbey continued the property of the Byrons till a few years since, when the late noble bard sold the estate, according to report, with a view to assist the Greek cause, to Lieutenant-Colonel Wildman, who was one of the aides-de-camp to the Marquis of Anglesea. It is fortunate that the property has fallen into the hands of a gentleman possessing much taste, and who takes great pleasure in preserv ing every relic of antiquity connected with it. In the alterations which are now in progress, with a view to render Newstead Abbey a more comfortable and spacious residence, a |
