st
at four louis, and said that a curious history attached to it. Though
it was of his golden period, and probably the finest instrument he ever
made, Stradivarius would never sell it, and it had hung for more than
thirty years in his shop. It was said that from some whim as he lay
dying he had given orders that it should be burnt; but if that were so,
the instructions were neglected, and after his death it came under the
hammer. Adrian Temple from the first recognised the great value of the
instrument. His notes show that he only used it on certain special
occasions, and it was no doubt for its better protection that he devised
the; hidden cupboard where Sir John eventually found it.

The later years of Temple's life were spent for the most part in Italy.
On the Scoglio di Venere, near Naples, he built the Villa de Angelis,
and there henceforth passed all except the hottest months of the year.
Shortly after the completion of the villa Jocelyn left him suddenly, and
became a Carthusian monk. A caustic note in his diary hinted that even
this foul parasite was shocked into the austerest form of religion by
something he had seen going forward. At Naples Temple's dark life became
still darker. He dallied, it is true, with Neo-Platonism, and boasts
that he, like Plotinus, had twice passed the circle of the _nous_ and
enjoyed the fruition of the deity; but the ideals of even that easy
doctrine grew in his evil life still more miserably debased. More than
once in the manuscript he made mention by name of the _Gagliarda_
of Graziani as having been played at pagan mysteries which these
enthusiasts revived at Naples, and the air had evidently impressed
itself deeply on his memory. The last entry in his diary is made on
the 16th of December, 1752. He was then in Oxford for a few days, but
shortly afterwards returned to Naples. The accident of his having just
completed a second volume, induced him, no doubt, to leave it behind him
in the secret cupboard. It is probable that he commenced a third, but if
so it was never found.

In reading the manuscript I was struck with the author's clear and easy
style, and found the interest of the narrative increase rather than
diminish. At the same time its study was inexpressibly painful to me.
Nothing could have supported me in my determination to thoroughly
master it but the conviction that if I was to be of any real assistance
to my poor friend Maltravers, I must know as far as possible eve