endon. The witty and
malicious rhymer, after making Charles the Second demand the Great Seal,
and resolve to be his own chancellor, proceeds, reflecting on the great
political victim:

Lo! his whole ambition already divides
The sceptre between the Stuarts and the Hydes.
Behold in the depth of our plague and wars,
He built him a palace out-braves the stars;
Which house (we Dunkirk, he Clarendon, names)
Looks down with shame upon St. James;
But 'tis not his golden globe that will save him,
Being less than the custom-house farmers gave him;
His chapel for consecration calls,
Whose sacrilege plundered the stones from Paul's.
When Queen Dido landed she bought as much ground
As the _Hyde_ of a lusty fat bull would surround;
But when the said _Hyde_ was cut into thongs,
A city and kingdom to _Hyde_ belongs;
So here in court, church, and country, far and wide,
Here's nought to be seen but _Hyde! Hyde! Hyde!_
Of old, and where law the kingdom divides,
'Twas our Hydes of land, 'tis now land of Hydes!

Clarendon House was a palace, which had been raised with at least as
much fondness as pride; and Evelyn tells us that the garden was planned
by himself and his lordship; but the cost, as usual, trebled the
calculation, and the noble master grieved in silence amidst this
splendid pile of architecture.[120] Even when in his exile the sale was
proposed to pay his debts, and secure some provision for his younger
children, he honestly tells us that "he remained so infatuated with the
delight he had enjoyed, that though he was deprived of it, he hearkened
very unwillingly to the advice." In 1683 Clarendon House met its fate,
and was abandoned to the brokers, who had purchased it for its
materials. An affecting circumstance is recorded by Evelyn on this
occasion. In returning to town with the Earl of Clarendon, the son of
the great earl, "in passing by the glorious palace his father built but
a few years before, which they were now demolishing, being sold to
certain undertakers,[121] I turned my head the contrary way till the
coach was gone past by, lest I might minister occasion of speaking of
it, which must needs have grieved him, that in so short a time this pomp
was fallen." A feeling of infinite delicacy, so perfectly characteristic
of Evelyn!

And now to bring down this subject to times still nearer. We find that
Sir Robert Walpole had placed himself exactly in the situation of the
great m