inister we have noticed; we have his confession to his brother
Lord Walpole, and to his friend Sir John Hynde Cotton. The historian of
this minister observes, that his magnificent building at Houghton drew
on him great obloquy. On seeing his brother's house at Wolterton, Sir
Robert expressed his wishes that he had contented himself with a similar
structure. In the reign of Anne, Sir Robert, sitting by Sir John Hynde
Cotton, alluding to a sumptuous house which was then building by Harley,
observed, that to construct a great house was a high act of imprudence
in any minister! It was a long time after, when he had become prime
minister, that he forgot the whole result of the present article, and
pulled down his family mansion at Houghton to build its magnificent
edifice; it was then Sir John Hynde Cotton reminded him of the
reflection which he had made some years ago: the reply of Sir Robert is
remarkable--"Your recollection is too late; I wish you had reminded me
of it before I began building, for then it might have been of service to
me!"

The statesman and politician then are susceptible of all the seduction
of ostentation and the pride of pomp! Who would have credited it? But
bewildered with power, in the magnificence and magnitude of the edifices
which their colossal greatness inhabits, they seem to contemplate on its
image!

Sir Francis Walsingham died and left nothing to pay his debts, as
appears by a curious fact noticed in the anonymous life of Sir Philip
Sidney prefixed to the _Arcadia_, and evidently written by one
acquainted with the family history of his friend and hero. The chivalric
Sidney, though sought after by court beauties, solicited the hand of the
daughter of Walsingham, although, as it appears, she could have had no
other portion than her own virtues and her father's name. "And herein,"
observes our anonymous biographer, "he was exemplary to all gentlemen
not to carry their love in their purses." On this he notices this secret
history of Walsingham:

"This is that Sir Francis who impoverished himself to enrich the state,
and indeed made England his heir; and was so far from building up of
fortune by the benefit of his place, that he demolished that fine estate
left him by his ancestors to purchase dear intelligence from all parts
of Christendom. He had a key to unlock the pope's cabinet; and, as if
master of some invisible whispering-place, all the secrets of Christian
princes met at his closet. W