ABSTRACT
He made the circuit of the whole green, in which he saw much to admire, and still more to condemn. e magni cence of many of the houses pleased – while the meanness of others, and the want of regularity in the whole, did not fail to o end. But what disgusted him most was the deep ditch which surrounds the elds, with a nasty, stinking, green, unwholesome puddle at the bottom, which can answer no end but to annoy the inhabitants, and which it is astonishing they have so long endured. If that ditch was lled up, over a concealed drain; if the centre eld was laid out in walks and shrubbery; if the mean houses were removed, and new ones built on a regular and uniform plan, Stephen’s Green would be the most beautiful square in any city in Europe. /
Having now been near two hours on his walk, he returned back to Lord Ravensdale’s. When the servant opened the door he informed him that Lord Rivers had been obliged to go out, on business he could not neglect, but that he would be home to dinner, when he hoped to have the honour of Mr. Evans’s company. e footman then shewed him up to the drawing-room. – ough Ned was no stranger to the best houses in his own neighbourhood, yet he had never seen any thing like the apartment which he now entered. e room was 44 feet long, 34 wide, and 30 high; – it was hung with silk damask of an azure blue; chairs, sophas, and window curtains of the same; the latter hung in festoons, and ornamented with tassels and a deep fringe of blue and silver. e ceiling and cornices were of the nest stucco, divided into compartments, in the four principal of which were painted, by an exquisite hand, the four seasons: from the centre hung a lustre of cut glass, with branches for six-and-/thirty candles, and which with all its appendages had cost 1000 guineas. e beauty of the chimney piece was inexpressible, which was all of Parian marble, and on the top of which stood the statues of two naked boys, which were worthy to be the work of Phidias.15 e glasses, the carpets, and every thing else were answerable.16 – But the richest part of the furniture, and in comparison of which all the rest was nothing, was the pictures. Here were the works of Titian, Guido, Correggio, and Tintoret. A landscape, by Claude,17 had caught his eye, for this was his favourite kind of painting, when, chancing to turn his head to the glass, he thought he saw Lady
Cecilia behind him. He started and looked hastily round, but alas! it was only her resemblance – but then so exquisitely like that it almost made amends for the disappointment. e noble works of the Italian masters were now obliged to yield to the more interesting pencil of Angelica18 – for she it was who painted this portrait./ Mrs. Kau man had been some time before in Ireland, and Lord Ravensdale could not miss the opportunity of getting his daughter painted by so excellent an artist. She was drawn in the character of Diana; and never did the goddess herself on the banks of the renowned Eurotas,19 or in the numbers of the sublimest poet, exhibit a more striking combination of majesty and sweetness, of beauty, chastity and grace. Ned gazed at it with rapture, astonished at the art that could so happily represent the picture in his soul; and here he would still have gazed, had not a thundering rap at the door, which shook the whole house, and which astonished him, who had never in his life heard the like before, announced the arrival of Lord Rivers and the Captain.
