cognised through the iron gate by which you enter, and which is surmounted by a lion rampant, probably the crest of one of the subsequent possessors. It is surprising, indeed, that so little alteration, externally as well as internally, should have taken place. The appearance of the BACK OF SHAFTESBURY HOUSE, as represented in an old print, is unchanged, with the exception of the flight of steps which led to the garden being now transferred to the west (or shaded side) of the wing,-an addition made by Lord Shaftesbury to the original house. This was purchased by him in 1699 from the Bovey family, as heirs to the widow of Sir James Smith, by whom there is reason to believe it was built in 1635 as ANNO DM 1635 is engraved on a stone which forms part of the pavement in front of one of the summer-houses still remaining in the garden. The Right Honourable Sir James Smith was buried at Chelsea 18th of November, 1681. He was probably the junior sheriff of London in 1672. "It does not appear," says Lysons, "that Lord Shaftesbury pulled down Sir James Smith's house, but altered it and made considerable additions by a building fifty feet in length, which projected into the garden. It was secured with an iron door, the window-shutters were of the same metal, and there were iron plates between it and the house to prevent all communication by fire, of which this learned and noble peer seems to have en. tertained great apprehensions. The whole of the new building, though divided into a gallery and two small rooms (one of which was his lordship's bedchamber), was fitted up as a library. The earl was very fond of the culture of fruittrees, and his gardens were planted with the choicest sorts, particularly every kind of vine which would bear the open air of this climate. It appears by Lord Shaftes bury's letters to Sir John Cropley that he dreaded the smoke of London as so prejudicial to his health, that whenever the wind was easterly he quitted Little Chel. sea," where he generally resided during the sitting of parliament. In 1710 the noble author of Churacteristics, then about to proceed to Italy, sold his residence at Little Chelsea to Narcissus Luttrell, Esq., who, as a book-collector, is described by Dr. Dibdin as "ever ardent in his love of past learning, and not less voracious in his bibliomaniacal appetites" than the Duke of Marlborough. Sir Walter Scott acknowledges in his preface to the works of Dryden the obligations he is under to the "valuable" and "curious collection of fugitive pieces of the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., and Queen Anne," "made by Narcissus Luttrell, Esq., under whose name the editor quotes it. This industrious collector," continues Sir Walter, "seems to have bought every poetical tract, of whatever merit, which was hawked through the streets in his time, marking carefully the price and the date of the purchase. His collection contains the earliest editions of many of our most excellent poems, bound up, according to the order of time, with the lowest trash of Grub Street. It was dispersed on Mr. Luttrell's death," adds Sir Walter Scott, and he then mentions Mr. James Bindley and Mr. Richard Heber as having obtained a great share of the Luttrell collection, and liberally furnished This is not exactly correct, as Mr. Luttrell's library descended with Shaftesbury House to Mr. Sergeant Wynne, and from him to his eldest son, after whose death it was sold by auction in 1786. On the title-page of the sale-catalogue the collection is described as "the valuable library of Edward Wynne, Esq., lately deceased, brought from his house at Little Chelsea. Great part of it was formed by an eminent and curious collector in the last century." At the sale of Mr. Wynne's library Bindley purchased lot " 209, Collection of Poems, various, Latin and English, 5 vols. 1626, &c." for seven guineas; and "211, Collection of. Political Poems, Dialogues, Funeral Elegies, Lampoons, &c., with various Political Prints and Portraits, 3 vols. 1641, &c." for sixteen pounds; and it is probable that these are the collections to which Sir Walter Scott refers. Dr. Dibdin, in his enthusiastic mode of treating matters of bibliography, endeavours to establish a pedigree for those who "Love a ballad in print a' life," from Pepys, placing Mr. Luttrell the second in descent. the curious book - reservoir of a Mr. Wynne, and hence breaking up and taking a different direction towards the collections of Farmer, Steevens, and others, they have almost lost their identity in the innumerable rivulets which now inundate the book-world." "The opening of the eighteenth cen tury," he observes, "was distinguished by the death of a bibliomaniac of the very first order and celebrity; of one who had, no doubt frequently discoursed largely and eloquently with Luttrell upon the variety and value of certain editions of old ballad poetry, and between whom presents of curious old black-letter vo lumes were in all probability passing,-1 allude to the famous Samuel Pepys, secretary to the Admiralty." Of Narcissus Luttrell, he then says: It is to the literary taste of Mr. Edward Wynne, as asserted by Doctor Dibdin, that modern bookcollectors are indebted for the preservation of most of the choicest relics of the bibliotheca Luttrelliana. "Mr. Wynne," he continues, "lived at Little Chelsea, and built his library in a room which had the reputation of having been Locke's study. Here he used to sit surrounded by innumerable books, a great part being formed by an eminent and curious collector in the last century."" What Dr. Dibdin says respecting Mr. Wynne's building a library and Locke's study is inaccurate, as there can be no reasonable doubt that the room or rooms his library occupied were those built by Lord Shaftesbury, which had (and correctly) the reputation of having been his lordship's library, and the study, not of Locke, although of Locke's pupil and friend. It is not even probable that Lord Shaftesbury was ever visited by our great philosopher at Little Chelsea, as from 1700 that illustrious man resided altogether at Oates, in Essex, where he died on the 28th of October, 1704. "Nothing would seem to have escaped his lynx-like vigilance. Let the object be what it may (especially if it related to poetry), let the volume be great or small, or contain good, bad, or indifferent warblings of the Muse, his insatiable craving bad stomach for all.' We may consider his collection the fountain-bead of these copious streams, which, after fructifying in the libraries of many bibliomaniacs in the first half of the eighteenth century, settled for awhile more determinedly in Whether to Lord Shaftesbury or to Mr. Luttrell the embellishments of the garden of their residence are to be attributed can now be only matter for conjecture, unless some curious autograph-collector's portfolio may by chance contain an old letter or other document to establish the claim. Their tastes, however, were very similar. They both loved their books, and their fruits and flowers, and enjoyed the study of them. An account drawn up by Mr. Luttrell of several pears which he cultivated at Little Chelsea, with outlines of their longitudinal sections, was communicated to the Horticultural Society by Dr. Luttrell Wynne, one hundred years after the notes had been made, and may be found printed in the second volume of the transactions of that society. In this account twentyfive varieties of pears are mentioned carefully preserved, its antique summer-houses respected, and the little infant leaden Hercules, which spouted And see on the basement-story of the original house the embellished mouldings of a doorway, which carries the mind back to the days of Charles I., and, standing within which, imagination depicts the figure of a jolly cavalier retainer, with his pipe and tankard; or of a Puritanical, formal servant, the expression of whose countenance is sufficient to turn the best-brewed October into vinegar. Now a sleek cat purs there, in answer to some aged inmate's passing recognition of, "poor pussy." The staircase, too, with its spiral balusters, as seen through the doorway, retains its ancient air. Narcissus Luttrell died here on the 26th of June, 1732, and was buried at Chelsea on the 6th of July following; where Francis Luttrell (presumed to be his son) was also buried on the 3d of September, 1740. Shaftesbury House then passed into the occupation of Mr. Sergeant Wynne, who died on the 17th of May, 1765; and from him it de scended to his eldest son, Mr. Edward Wynne, the author of Eunomus: a Dialogue concerning the Law und Constitution of England, with an Essay on Dialogue, 4 vols. 8vo.; and other works, chiefly of a legal nature. He died a bachelor, at Little Chelsea, on the 27th of December, 1784; and his brother, the Rev. Luttrell Wynne, of All Souls, Oxford, inherited Shaftesbury House, and the valuable library which Mr. Luttrell, his father, and brother, had accumulated. The house he alienated to William Virtue, from whom, as before mentioned, it was purchased by the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, in 1787; and the library formed a twelve- days' sale, by Messrs. Leigh and Southeby, commencing on the 6th of March, 1786. The auction catalogue contained 2788 lots; and some idea of the value may be formed from the circumstance, that nine of the first seventeen lots sold for no less a sum than 321. 7s., and that four lots of old newspapers, nos. 25, 26, 27, and 28, were knocked down at 187. 5s. No. "376, a collection of old plays, by Gascoigne, White, Windet, Decker, &c., 21 vols.," brought 387. 17s.; and No. 644, Milton's Eiconoclastes, with MS. notes, supposed to be written by Milton, was bought by Waldron for 2s., who afterwards gave it to Dr. Farmer. Dr. Dibdin declares, that "never was a precious collection of English history and poetry so wretchedly detailed to the public in an auction - catalogue" as that of Mr. Wynne's library; and yet it will be seen that it must have realised a considerable sum of money. He mentions, that " a great number of the poetical tracts were disposed of, previous to the sale, to Dr. Farmer, who gave not more than forty guineas for them." LITTLE CHELSEA has much more to detain the recollection, although little of which the precise local identification can now be so clearly established. ANECDOTES OF THE LATE KING OF SWEDEN. THE authority for the following anecdotes, hitherto unpublished, so far as I know, rests upon persons witnesses to the facts related. No event in so remarkable a life ought to be allowed to be forgotten. We owe them to history, to the memory of the illustrious dead, out of gratitude to a chief leader in the mighty contest that restored the nations of Europe to their independence and rights. We owe their preservation to morals, which, teaching by example, proves how, through the midst of a revolution, when all the restraints of manners, laws, and religion, had been burst through when treachery, plunder, and murder, had become the habits of a people, from a private station there arose a good, just, and wise man to the highest ranks of his country, as marshal, minister, and governor of provinces, then finally selected by the choice of a free people to fill their ancient and illustrious throne. In that celebrated letter of Frederick the Great to Sta nislaus Augustus, in 1764, upon his election to the throne of Poland, he says,― "Your majesty is to consider that, since you have obtained your crown by election, and not by birth, the world will be more attentive to your actions than to those of any other prince in Europe. And this is but just, since the latter is only the effect of consanguinity. From such a one no more is to be expected, though much more might be wished, than what men are usually endowed with. But from one who has been exalted above his equals, from a subject to a kingfrom one who has been voluntarily elected to reign over those who chose him, every thing is to be expected which may contribute to the honour and ornament of a crown. Gratitude towards his people is the first virtue of such a monarch, for, next to Providence, he is indebted to them for his royalty. A king by birth, who acts inconsistently with his character, is a satire upon himself only; but a king by election, whose conduct is unworthy of his dignity, disgraces his subjects also." Had Frederick designed to write a satire on elective monarchies, he could not have told more bitter truths; for how very seldom have elected princes realised, as did the King of Sweden, even the reasonable expectations of their subjects. Yet out of such reiterated disappointments the conviction has arisen, now received for an established maxim of political science, that, to secure the safety and welfare of a state, its crown must be made hereditary, and the succession governed by fixed rules of law. Much of the wise government of the King of Sweden was undoubtedly due to his personal character, yet much must be granted, also, to the circumstances under which he was elected, and to the nature of his people and their constitution. Marshal Bernadotte came to reign with advantages possessed by no other elective prince of modern times; and, since these are imperfectly known, the following facts deserve our consideration. The expulsion of the former dynasty was forced upon the Swedes by a painful but inevitable necessity. So general was this conviction that, after the king had been deposed by parliament, he and his family were sent through the midst of the kingdom, for several hundred miles, escorted by twenty dragoons, relieved from station to station, without a voice or an arm being raised in his favour. The Duke of Sudermania, uncle to the exiled king, and now the next heir to the crown, had been elected to the vacant throne, and, being aged and childless, his successor was also appointed. This prince's death imposed upon the parliament the necessity of choosing another crown prince. A skilful general was needed to reorganise the army, and arrest the encroachments of Russia, as well as a just and vigorous government for internal affairs. The military renown of Marshal Bernadotte was known to all Europe, but his civil administration of the north of Germany had won the respect and affections of that country, by the protection he had afforded them from the savage de crees of Buonaparte. Thus the late King of Sweden had neither knowledge nor part in the expulsion of the family whose throne he filled. He was no rival nor aspirant. He never had the pretension to become a candidate. He possessed neither |