The fourth earl, who, we
should have stated, was a 'liver' too, was a man of _vertu_--a great
traveller and collector of coins, pictures, statues, marbles, and
curiosities generally--things that are very dear to buy, but oftentimes
extremely cheap when sold; and, having collected a vast quantity from all
parts of the world (no easy feat in those days), he made them heirlooms,
and departed this life, leaving the next earl the pleasure of contemplating
them. The fifth earl having duly starved through life, then made way for
the sixth; who, finding such a quantity of valuables stowed away, as he
thought, in rather a confined way, sent to London for a first-rate
architect. Sir Thomas Squareall (who always posted with four horses), who
forthwith pulled down the old brick-and-stone Elizabethan mansion, and
built the present splendid Italian structure, of the finest polished stone,
at an expense of--furniture and all--say 120,000_l._; Sir Thomas's
estimates being 30,000_l._ The seventh earl of course they starved; and the
present lord, at the age of forty-three, found himself in possession of
house, and coins, and curiosities; and, best of all, of some 90,000_l.
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