hardly conceive them to exist in the vicinage of a
populous metropolis. The paintings of the saloon
came from abroad, and had some of them much
merit. To see the best of them, however, you
must be admitted into the very penetralia of the
temple, and allowed to draw the tapestry at the
upper end of the saloon, and enter Mrs Martha's
own special dressing-room. This was a charming
apartment, of which it would be difficult to describe
the form, it had so many recesses which were filled
up with shelves of ebony, and cabinets of japan and
_or molu_; some for holding books, of which Mrs
Martha had an admirable collection, some for a
display of ornamental china, others for shells and
similar curiosities. In a little niche, half screened
by a curtain of crimson silk, was disposed a suit of
tilting armour of bright steel, inlaid with silver,
which had been worn on some memorable occasion
by Sir Bernard Bethune, already mentioned; while
over the canopy of the niche, hung the broadsword
with which her father had attempted to change the
fortunes of Britain in 1715, and the spontoon which
her elder brother bore when he was leading on a
company of the Black Watch* at Fontenoy.
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