truvius, Inigo Jones,
Gibbs, and Chambers, into our libraries: and why not Mr.
Hope's book? Is decoration to be confined only to the
exterior? and, if so, are works, which treat of these only,
to be read and applauded? Is the delicate bas-relief, and
beautifully carved column, to be thrust from the cabinet and
drawing room, to perish on the outside of a smoke-dried
portico? Or, is not _that_ the most deserving of
commendation which produces the most numerous and pleasing
associations of ideas? I recollect, when in company with the
excellent DR. JENNER,

----[clarum et venerabile nomen
Gentibus, et multum nostrae quod proderat urbi]

and a half dozen more friends, we visited the splendid
apartments in Duchess Street, Portland Place, we were not
only struck with the appropriate arrangement of every thing,
but, on our leaving them, and coming out into the dull foggy
atmosphere of London, we acknowledged that the effect
produced upon our minds was something like that which might
have arisen had we been regaling ourselves on the silken
couches, and within the illuminated chambers, of some of the
enchanted palaces described in the Arabian Nights'
Entertainments. I suspect that those who have criticised Mr.
Hope's work with asperity have never seen his house.

These sentiments are not the result of partiality or
prejudice, for I am wholly unacquainted with Mr. Hope. They
are delivered with zeal, but with deference. It is quite
consolatory to find a gentleman of large fortune, of
respectable ancestry, and of classical attainments, devoting
a great portion of that leisure time which hangs like a
leaden weight upon the generality of fashionable people, to
the service of the Fine Arts, and in the patronage of merit
and ingenuity. How much the world will again be indebted to
Mr. Hope's taste and liberality may be anticipated from the
"_Costume of the Ancients_," a work which has recently been
published under his particular superintendence.]

[Footnote A: This book is beautifully executed, undoubtedly,
but being little more than a thin folio pamphlet devoid of
_typographical_ embellishment--it has been thought by some
hardly fair to say this of a press which brought out so many
works characterized by magnitude and vario