other talent, her beauty, and grace, made her unusually popular in
society, and her house was a centre for all who had any pretensions to a
place in the best circles. Poets, authors, orators, lords, ladies,
diplomats, as well as the Prince of Wales, were to be seen in her
drawing-rooms. A larger house was soon required for the Cosways, and the
description of it in "Nollekens and His Times" is interesting:

"Many of the rooms were more like scenes of enchantment pencilled by a
poet's fancy, than anything perhaps before displayed in a domestic
habitation. Escritoires of ebony, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and rich
caskets for antique gems, exquisitely enamelled and adorned with onyx,
opals, rubies, and emeralds; cabinets of ivory, curiously wrought; mosaic
tables, set with jasper, blood-stone, and lapis-lazuli, their feet carved
into the claws of lions and eagles; screens of old raised Oriental Japan;
massive musical clocks, richly chased with ormulu and tortoise-shell;
ottomans superbly damasked; Persian and other carpets, with corresponding
hearth-rugs bordered with ancient family crests and armorial ensigns in
the centre, and rich hangings of English tapestry. The carved
chimney-pieces were adorned with the choicest bronzes and models in wax
and terra-cotta. The tables were covered with Sevres, blue Mandarin,
Nankin, and Dresden china, and the cabinets were surmounted with crystal
cups, adorned with the York and Lancaster roses, which might have graced
the splendid banquets of the proud Wolsey."

In the midst of all this fatiguing luxury, Maria Cosway lost her health
and passed several years travelling in Europe. Returning to London, she
was again prostrated by the death of her only daughter. She then went to
Lodi, near Milan, where she founded a college for the education of girls.
She spent much time in Lodi, and after the death of her husband
established herself there permanently. A goodly circle of friends
gathered about her, and she found occupation and solace for her griefs in
the oversight of her college.

She continued her painting and the exhibition of her pictures at the
Royal Academy. She made illustrations for the works of Virgil, Homer,
Spenser, and other poets, and painted portraits of interesting and
distinguished persons, among whom were Mme. Le Brun and Mme. Recamier.
The life and work of Maria Cosway afford a striking contradiction of the
theory that wealth and luxury induce idleness and dull the powe