ent son,
and most faithful friend; at intervals he enjoyed with them the pleasure
they experienced in receiving guests of the highest consideration;
amongst them the eccentric Madame de Genlis, who put their politeness to
the test by the exercise of her peculiarities, and horrified the meek
and amiable Sir Joshua Reynolds by the assumption of talents she did not
possess.

The publication of his reflections on the French Revolution, which,
perhaps, never would have seen the light but for the rupture with Mr.
Sheridan, which caused his opinions to be misunderstood, brought down
the applause of Europe on a head then wearying of public life.

But, perhaps, a tribute Burke valued more than any, remembering the
adage--an adage which, unhappily, especially applies to Ireland--"no man
is a prophet in his own country," was, that on a motion of the provost
of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1790, the honorary degree of LL.D. was
conferred upon him in full convocation, and an address afterwards
presented in a gold box, to express the University's sense of his
services. When he replied to this distinguished compliment, his town
residence was in "Duke-street, St. James."

His term of life--over-tasked as it was--might have been extended to a
much longer period, but that his deeply affectionate nature, as time
passed on, experienced several of those shocks inseparable from even
moderate length of days; many of his friends died; among others, his
sister and his brother; but still the wife of his bosom and his son were
with him--that son whose talents he rated as superior to his own, whom
he had consulted for some years on almost every subject, whether of a
public or a private nature, that occurred, and very frequently preferred
his judgment to his own. This beloved son had attained the age of
thirty-four, when he was seized with rapid consumption. When the malady
was recognized and acknowledged, his father took him to Brompton, then,
as now, considered the best air for those affected with this cruel
malady. "Cromwell House," chosen as their temporary residence, is
standing still, though there is little doubt the rage for extending
London through this once sequestered and rural suburb, will soon raze it
to the ground, as it has done others of equal interest.

[Illustration: CROMWELL HOUSE.]

We have always regarded "Cromwell House," as it is called, with
veneration. In our earliest acquaintance with a neighborhood, in which
we lived