n to construct the Thames Embankment at their own cost,
and to hand it over free from the higglings of Mr. Gore to the people at
large. Even now we may hear of some earl whose rent-roll is growing with
fabulous rapidity as coming forward to relieve the Treasury by the offer
of a National Gallery of Art, or checkmating the jobbers of South
Kensington by the erection of a National Museum. It seems to be easy
enough for peer after peer to fling away a hundred thousand at Newmarket
or Tattersall's, and yet a hundred thousand would establish in the
crowded haunts of working London great "Conservatoires" where the finest
music might be brought to bear without cost on the coarseness and
vulgarity of the life of the poor. The higher drama may be perishing in
default of a State subvention, but it never seems to enter any one's
head that there are dozens of people among those who grumbled at the
artistic taste of Mr. Ayrton who could furnish such a subvention at the
present cost of their stable. As yet however we must be content, we
suppose, with such a use of wealth as 'Lothair' brings to the front--the
purely selfish use of it carried to the highest pitch which selfishness
has ever reached. Great parks and great houses, costly studs and costly
conservatories, existence relieved of every hitch and discomfort--these
are the outlets which wealth has as yet succeeded in finding. For nobler
outlets we must wait for the advent of the Poet-Capitalist.

LAMBETH AND THE ARCHBISHOPS.

A little higher up the river, but almost opposite to the huge mass of
the Houses of Parliament, lies a broken, irregular pile of buildings, at
whose angle, looking out over the Thames, is one grey weatherbeaten
tower. The broken pile is the archiepiscopal Palace of Lambeth; the grey
weatherbeaten building is its Lollards' Tower. From this tower the
mansion itself stretches in a varied line, chapel and guard-room and
gallery and the stately buildings of the new house looking out on the
terrace and garden; while the Great Hall, in which the library has now
found a home, is the low picturesque building which reaches southward
along the river to the gate.

The story of each of these spots will interweave itself with the thread
of our narrative as we proceed; but I would warn my readers at the
outset that I do not purpose to trace the history of Lambeth in itself,
or to attempt any architectural or picturesque description of the place.
What I attempt i