e
indeed, but he was very proud of his complexion." This is a very fine
group. Philip is represented dressed in a suit of black armour,
elaborately chased in gold, standing on a throne covered with a crimson
carpet. Near him is his dwarf, dressed in black, holding the helmet,
adorned with a magnificent plume of feathers, and turning towards his
master (the fountain of honour) a most expressive and intelligent face.
"That dwarf," said Mr. Beckford, "was a man of great ability and
exercised over his master a vast influence." Lower down you discover the
head of a Mexican page, holding a horse, whose head, as well as that of
the page, is all that is visible, their bodies being concealed by the
steps of the throne. This is a noble picture; but in my eyes the extreme
plainness of the steps of the throne and the unornamented war boots of
the king have a bare and naked appearance. They contrast rather too
violently with the whole of the upper part of the picture. Over the
steps are painted in Roman letters Rx. Ps. 4s. (Rex Philippus quartos).
Many who have hardly heard the painter's name will of course not admire
it, being done neither by Titian nor Vandyke; but Mr. Beckford's taste is
peculiar. He prefers a genuine picture by an inferior painter to those
attributed to the more celebrated masters, but where originality is
ambiguous, or at least if not ambiguous where picture cleaner, or
scavengers, as he calls them, have been at work. In this room, suspended
from the ceiling by a silken cord, is the silver gilt lamp that hung in
the oratory at Fonthill. Its shape and proportion are very elegant, and
no wonder; it was designed by the author of "Italy" himself. How great
was my astonishment some time after, on visiting Fonthill, at perceiving,
suspended from the _cul de lamp_, the very crimson cord that once
supported this precious vessel! The lamp had been hastily cut down, and
the height of the remains of the cord from the floor was probably the
reason of its preservation.

Mr. Beckford next pointed out a charming sketch by Rubens, clear and
pearly beyond conception. It is St. George and the Dragon, the dragon
hero and his horse in the air, and the dragon must certainly have been an
African lion. Mr. Beckford called the beast, or reptile, a mumpsimus
(_sic_). "Do look at the Pontimeitos in the beautiful sketch," said he,
"there is a bit from his pencil certainly his own. Don't imagine that
those great pictures t