Cleveland House, containing the matchless collection of pictures belonging to the marquis of Stafford.

This is a plain building, but very chaste in its exterior; it has a neat portico of the Doric order. The western end faces the : the drawing and dining room windows project in bows.

The house consists of the following rooms: the new gallery; the drawing room; the Poussin room; the passage room; the dining room; the anti room: the old gallery; the small room; the cabinet room; the library rooms; lady Stafford's apartments, &c.

All that part of the house west of the old gallery, with the stairs, have been erected by the marquis from designs by C. H. Tatham, esq. The old and new gallery are lighted from the top,

The other apartments, being fitted up and appropriated for domestic purposes, are lighted from the sides.

The cabinet room is a small apartment entered from the back stairs, and leads into the old gallery, which is feet long, broad, and high. The new gallery feet long, broad, and high. The anti-room, between the drawing and the dining room, is feet long, feet broad, and feet inches high. The rooms on either side are each feet long, broad, and feet inches high.

These respective dimensions being given, will serve to convey to the mind of the reader a pretty correct idea of the space allotted to the noble marquess's collection.

It is impossible in this work to enter into any thing like detail or enumeration of the several exquisite pictures with which this gallery is enriched.

The New Gallery contains pictures, mostly, if not entirely, of the Italian school; many of them from the Orleans gallery, at the beginning of the French Revolution despoiled of its treasures, which were brought to this country.

The Anti-room, or Poussin-apartment, contains pictures, by N. Poussin, representing so many different subjects from the sacred writings and Catholic ritual. These subjects are the Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church; and purely scriptural piece of

Moses striking the Rock.

The Old Gallery, west end, is filled with about pictures of the Dutch and Flemish schools; among which is sir Peter Paul Reubens's large allegorical picture of

Peace and War,

The noble possessor, with the most laudable and rare liberality, has appropriated day in the week, (Wednesday, from the hours of to o'clock,) during the months of May, June, and July, for the public to view the pictures in his spacious gallery, subject to the following regulations:--

No person can be permitted to view the gallery without a ticket; to obtain which it is necessary that the applicant be known to the marquis, or to some one of the family; otherwise he or she must have a recommendation from a person who is.

Applications for tickets are inserted in a book by the porter, at the door of Cleveland-house, any day except Tuesday; when the tickets are issued for admission on the following day.

Artists desirous of tickets for the season must be recommended by some member of the Royal Academy.

It is expected, if the weather be wet or dirty, that all visitors will go in carriages.

Near Cleveland-house stands another noble mansion, the town residence of earl Spencer, in the .

This house is a mixture of the Grecian style of architecture, and is highly, though not profusely, ornamented: the statues in front, on the apex and at the base of the pediment, are commanding and graceful; but the pediment itself, according to Mr. Malton, is too lofty, and has not the grace and majesty of the low Grecian pediment. The order should have had a greater elevation, sufficient to have included ranges of windows, or it should not have been returned on the sides of the building.

This,

is a striking example of the impropriety of employing the Doric order in private houses; its column is too short, its entablature too large, and all its proportions too massy, to admit of such apertures as are necessary to the cheerfulness of an English dwelling. The statues on the pediment and the vases at each extremity, must be mentioned with applause, as they are in a good style, and judiciously disposed.

The interior of Spencer-house is not inferior to the outside; but its chief ornament is the Library, which is feet by , and is most beautifully ornamented. The chimney-piece is very light, of polished while marble. On side of the room hangs a capital picture of the nature of witchcraft;

the expression and finishing is very fine; and the extent of the painter's imagination striking, in drawing into

one

point such a magnitude of emblems of witchcraft, and all designed with a charming mildness of fancy.

It were vain to attempt any description of the contents of this invaluably rich and extensive library: the reader who can afford

is a noble and elegant street, leading from St. James's-palace, at the west end of Pall-mall to , opposite .

The west side of this street is chiefly composed of stately houses belonging to the nobility and gentry, or extensive hotels, bankers, &c. The opposite side consists of elegant shops; which appear to a stranger rather as lounging-places than the resorts of trade and the busy pursuits of merchandize.

On the west side of several noble houses have been recently erected; near the south end is Arthur's club-house, an elegant building of the Corinthian order. The basement is rusticated; the upper story has attached columns of the Corinthian order supporting an entablature and cornice; the summit finished with a ballustrade. The windows between the columns are large and are covered alternately with arched and angular pediments. Higher up, in the same street, is Fenton's hotel, a large and handsome edifice; and near the top is the

Temple of Pluto,

[] Picturesque Tour, p. 108.

[] Bibliotheca Spenceriana; or, a Descriptive Catalogue of the Books printed in the Fifteenth Century, and of many valuable first editions in the library of George John earl Spencer, K. G. &c.&c. Four volumes.

[] Sir Egerton Brydges's Collins's Peerage, vol. v. p. 44.

[] A stranger naturally associates with the idea of an hotel, that of a public licensed house, for the reception of individuals and families, for temporary refreshment and accommodation. Hence he would, (as many are) be induced in his walks through St. James's-street, to call, as at any other respectable house of the same name and ostensible destination in the metropolis; but what would be his surprize to find himself abruptly stopt at the door by two or three waiters and door-keepers, earnestly enquiring his business, and when they found that rest and refreshment were his only objects, absolutely refuse him entrance? The fact is, that with one or two exceptions, these hotels are those sinks of vice and dissipation--the bane of human happiness, and domestic peace,--Gaming Houses! I need not add one word more to caution the prudent not to be misled by these spacious houses, with a foreign name. It is not necessary to distinguish the respectable hotels from these haunts of cupidity and dishonesty, now fashionably called Subscription Houses. --Nightingale.