ACCOUNT OF GREGORIES. 105 Burnham Abbey. Waller himself built on the manor a seat called Hall Barn, since the residence of Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart., and now in the possession of John Hargreaves, Esq., of Broadoak, Lancashire. This mansion was Waller's abode on his return from exile, and here he terminated his days in retirement, amid the recollections of his blighted ambition, and his bygone love for Sacharissa, and other aristocratic objects of his poetic affections. Waller died at the place in his 83d year, on the 1st October, 1687. His widow, after his demise, continued to dwell there till her death in 1708. The name of "Gregories," which was given to that part of the property where Burke lived, is de-. rived from the family of Gregory, citizens of London, at one time its owners. Mistress Martha Gregory, who was buried at Beaconsfield the 15th November, 1704, erected the mansion which Burke partly rebuilt, and greatly ameliorated. Lipscomb, in his History of the County of Buckingham, thus describes Gregories whilst in Burke's possession:-"The diversified combination of woods, hills, valleys, and beautiful enclosures by which the residence of Burke assumed a resemblance of Chilton, Wotton, Cliefden; and the splendid colonnades which gave it, at a little distance, the dignity of a royal residence in miniature, by its similitude to Queen Charlotte's palace, called Buckingham House, in St. James's Park, together with the magic name of Burke, rendered it an object of very general curiosity." With the house at Beaconsfield, Burke was obliged, much against his inclination, to take the seller's collection of pictures and marbles, and thus, as he writes to his friend Barry, the painter, he went to an expense he would not have otherwise incurred. Once, however, in possession of his new estate, Burke applied his comprehensive mind so assiduously to the pursuits of agriculture, that he soon tripled the value of the land, and astonished his visitors and neighbours by his improvements. As a farmer he pursued the plan which had been found, by experience, to produce the best corn and cattle; and he was, in fact, without any unusual expense, one of the most successful farmers in the county. When in town he had his mutton, poultry, and all other meats, except beef, and also the various productions of the dairy and gardens, from his own estate, brought by his own horses and carts. The same horses which served for his carriage were employed on his farms. In London he had no permanent house after he left Queen Anne Street, on taking Butler's Court, but lived in temporary residences, which he frequently changed. At one time he sojourned in Westminster, first in Fludyer Street, and then in the Broad Sanctuary. Latterly his abode was in Charles Street, St. James's. In town and country he was remarkable for hospitality-a hospitality of real benevolence: there was no parade of style, no ostentatious display of plate, no sumptuous entertainments; every thing was plain, substantial, and agreeable, with kind looks, kind manners, and a hearty welcome. He would often insist, when in London, on eight or ten of his associates going to his town home with him to eat mutton-chops or beef-steaks; and on such occasions, literally gave such dinners-dinners which, considering the zest of his company, few banquets could be found to excel. At Gregories, where the cheer was of course more in accordance with the dignity of the seat, he received his friends and admirers frequently and cordially. His house was the continual resort of rank, beauty, wit, and talent. In his domestic circle politics were readily laid aside. Various anecdotes represent the statesman entering with glee into the sports and pranks of the witty crowd around him; sharing earnestly in the games of schoolboys, and even listening to, or inventing with serious face, in the company of children, fairy adventures and infantine histories. He once observed to his friend Murphy, that Tom Thumb' and 'Jack the Giant Killer,' were both, "from intrinsic merit, and from their popularity, fictions of no inferior stamp." Of the interest he took in children of all classes, the following anecdote is related. Burke being one day with a friend at a country fair, observed a BURKE'S DOMESTIC HABITS. 107 lot of boys in front of a show of attractive aspect, looking on with eager and longing countenances, but evidently with pockets too empty to enable them to penetrate into the interior. Burke forthwith went up to the showman, and agreed for the admission of the whole youthful crowd at his expense. On his friend asking him the reason of his strange proceeding, "I could not,” he said, "miss the opportunity of making so many urchins happy." Burke's own domestic life was extremely regular. Both as a student and afterwards as a man of business, he was an early riser, and used to dispatch important affairs before many of the other members of the House of Commons were able to get up or recruit themselves after a previous long debate. In this he entirely differed from his mighty coadjutor, Charles James Fox. Fox, owing either to the nights not occupied in the senate being spent at a tavern or in a gaming-house, usually dosed the morning away. His valet, towards the afternoon, would apply to his brow a cloth wet with the coldest spring water, and he would then arise perfectly revived. Burke, in his way to the house, frequently called on Fox, and would find him at three o'clock sitting cool and comfortable at his breakfast: "There's Charles," he would say; "whilst I have exhausted the day and fatigued myself with reading and business, he is quite fresh: it is no wonder he is so much more vigorous in parliament." The notion of the morning, and the early stirring lark, were favourite themes with Burke. In one of his poetic effusions, he writes thus: "Teach me, O lark! with thee to greatly rise, To exalt my soul and lift it to the skies; To make each worldly joy as mean appear, Burke liked wine as an enlivener of society, but he never drank much. During dinner he took water, and afterwards generally claret or some other light beverage. Wine, in fact, could not add to the rational animation of his conversation and exhilara tion of his spirits. Touching his friendly patronage of the juice of the grape some anecdotes are recorded. One evening, at the Literary Club, he observed that a hogshead of claret, which had been sent them as a present, was almost out, and proposed that Dr. Johnson should write for another, in such ambiguity of expression as might have a chance of procuring it also as a gift. A member of the company said, " Dr. Johnson shall be our dictator." "Were I," observed Johnson," your dictator, you should have no wine; it would be my business covere ne quid detrimenti respublica caperet:-wine is dangerous; Rome was ruined by luxury." Burke replied: “If you allow no wine as dictator, you shall not have me for master of the horse." 66 Dining one day at Sir Joshua Reynolds', Dr. Johnson repeated his gradation of liquors-claret for boys, port for men, brandy for heroes. Then," said Burke, "let me have claret: I love to be a boy, and to have the careless gaiety of boyish days." Burke was frequently, with the other leading men of his party, invited to the table of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. On one occasion, after dinner, the prince about to propose a bumper toast, asked Burke if a toast-master was not absolute? He instantly answered: "Yes, jure de vino." George's `rejoinder was ready and graceful: "That is the only way," said his royal highness," in which I should wish to be absolute." Burke's love of books and literature was boundless. He liked mostly those works which brought human nature to his view; he perused with exquisite delight writings which exhibited particular characters, general manners, the active principles of the mind, and their operation on the relations and duties of society. This pre dilection for pictures of moral kind is tested by the modern writers whom he preferred: among these were Bacon, Shakespeare, Fielding, Le Sage, and Addison. Concerning Fielding he differed with his friend Dr. Johnson, and preferred him to Richardson: the painter from real life to the painter from his own fancy. Mr. Burke was very fond of novels in general, and often amused BURKE'S RELISH FOR THE ARTS-THE DRAMA. 109 friendly parties at his own house with reading good new works of that kind, and still more so old. He was partial to Smollet's "Roderick Random," as a natural and excellent description of a young man, coming, with all his provincial notions and peculiarities, to push his fortune in the capital. Though he preferred Fielding on the whole, yet he thought Smollet's hero, in point of enterprise and active exertion, preferable to "Tom Jones." "Both," he would say," set out poor from their respective homes. Roderick, by industry, endeavours to supply his wants; while Jones, benevolent and meritorious as his character was in many respects, yet, when he has nothing to depend on but his own efforts, continues in a state of inaction. The conduct of Roderick was in this more natural, and more worthy of imitation than that of Jones." The whole of the novel of Fielding, however, he greatly preferred to the whole of Smollet's. Swift he did not relish, because he only gave one side, and that the worst side of human nature. He entertained a poor opinion of the then all-popular Beggars' Opera. He thought its intellectual excellence small, and totally overbalanced by its moral defects. He did not admit the commonplace blame, that it was calculated to increase the number of robbers. Those who betake themselves to the highway, he deemed it probable, were impelled by much more powerful motives than the imitation of a fictitious robber; but he objected that the opera placed vice in too pleasant and familiar an aspect. Burke had an exquisite taste for the fine arts, and was deemed by Sir Joshua Reynolds an excellent judge of pictures. Much of his leisure time was spent in Sir Joshua's house. The amusement, however, in which he most delighted was the theatre. He did not, like Johnson, contemn scenical personation; he had a high admiration of theatrical excellence: "I am gratified," he would say, "with that perfect imitation of human characters and passions which a Garrick and a Siddons exhibit." Of the stage Mr. Burke thus writes in 1796: "The theatres are a prominent feature of our gaiety and profusion. They are established through |