but now despoiled of the large collection of pictures,
curiosities, and articles of _vertu_ so assiduously collected
by Walpole during a long life. The ground on which it stands
was originally partially occupied by a small cottage, built by
a nobleman's coachman for a lodging-house, and occupied by a
toy-woman of the name of Chevenix. Hence Walpole says of it,
in a letter to General Conway, "it is a little plaything house
that I got out of Mrs. Chevenix's shop, and is the prettiest
bauble you ever saw."--ED.

[35] Walpole's characters are not often to be relied on, witness his
injustice to Hogarth as a painter, and his insolent calumny of
Charles I. His literary opinions of James I. and of Sidney
might have been written without any acquaintance with the
works he has so maliciously criticised. In his account of
Sidney he had silently passed over the "Defence of Poetry;"
and in his second edition has written this avowal, that "he
had forgotten it; a proof that I at least did not think it
sufficient foundation for so high a character as he acquired."
How heartless was the polished cynicism which could dare to
hazard this false criticism! Nothing can be more imposing than
his volatile and caustic criticisms on the works of James I.,
yet he had probably never opened that folio he so poignantly
ridicules. He doubts whether two pieces, "The Prince's
Cabala," and "The Duty of a King in his Royal Office," were
genuine productions of James I. The truth is that both these
works are nothing more than extracts printed with those
separate titles and drawn from the king's "Basilicon Doron."
He had probably neither read the extracts nor the original.

[36] It was such a person as Cole of Milton, his correspondent of
forty years, who lived at a distance, and obsequious to his
wishes, always looking up to him, though never with a
parallel glance--with whom he did not quarrel, though if
Walpole could have read the private notes Cole made in his
MSS. at the time he was often writing the civilest letters of
admiration,--even Cole would have been cashiered from his
correspondence. Walpole could not endure equality in literary
men.--Bentley observed to Cole, that