ed by the salt
water; you must try and restore the Lazarus.' I was shut up for two
days, and painted the Lazarus." On my asking if he believed it true, Mr.
Beckford replied, "Perfectly true, for I saw it lying on the floor and
the figure of Lazarus was quite gone." "Then you don't value that
picture much?" "All the rest is perfect, and I offered 12,000 pounds for
that and four more. I saw in the Escurial the marriage of Isaac and
Rebecca, now belonging to the Duke of Wellington. In fact, of all the
pictures in the collection there is not more than one in ten that has
escaped repainting. The picture given by H. Carr I cannot admire, the
outline of the hill is so hard. It is just the picture Satan would show
poor Claude, if he has him, which we charitably hope he has not."

November 10th, 1838.

How poor dear Mozart would be frightened (moralised Mr. Beckford) could
he hear some of our modern music! My father was very fond of music, and
invited Mozart to Fonthill. He was eight years old and I was six. It
was rather ludicrous one child being the pupil of another. He went to
Vienna, where he obtained vast celebrity, and wrote to me, saying, "Do
you remember that march you composed which I kept so long? Well, I have
just composed a new opera and I have introduced your air." "In what
opera?" asked I. "Why in the 'Nozze di Figaro.'" "Is it possible, sir,
and which then is your air?" "You shall hear it." Mr. Beckford opened a
piano, and immediately began what I thought a sort of march, but soon I
recognized "Non piu andrai." He struck the notes with energy and force,
he sang a few words, and seemed to enter into the music with the greatest
enthusiasm; his eye sparkled, and his countenance assumed an expression
which I had never noticed before.

Mr. Beckford showed me some very fine original drawings by Gaspar
Poussin, exceedingly delicate. On the back a profile most exquisitely
finished, another just begun, and another by his brother in admirable
style, sketch of a peacock by Houdekoeta. "When I was in Portugal," said
Mr. Beckford, "I had as much influence and power as if I had been the
King. The Prince Regent acknowledged me in public as his relation (which
indeed I was). I had the privilege of an entrance at all times, and
could visit the Royal Family in ordinary dress. Of course, on grand
occasions I wore Court costume." He showed me a letter from a rich
banker in Lisbon, a man in great estee