British Architects.

Countess of Sunderland , second daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough . She died on the 15 th of April , 1716 , and in the contemporary notice of her death is described as " the general toast by the name of the Little Whig . " This theatre was burnt down June 27 , 17 S 9 . Kit-Kat Garth ( the best good Christian without

knowing it ) has , in his poem called " Claremont , a villa now belonging to the Earl of Clare , " this couplet on his fellow Kit-Kat " Van " : — " But say , who shall attempt the adventurous part , Where Nature borrows dress from Vanburgh's art ?" a couplet sounding in Pope ' s ear when he wrote of Esher : —

"Whore Kent ancl Nature vie for Pelham ' s love . " As I bring , for the first time , this Claremont couplet into light in connexion with Vanbrugh ancl his works , I will try ( what has hitherto been unattempted ) to explain its meaning . When at work at Claremont , in Esher , Vanbrugh had a house in the adjoining parish of Walton-upon-Thames . I have oycf-looked chapter and verse for it , and here it is : —

" 1723 , ivtarch 28 , John , the son of Sir John Vanbrugh , was bury'd . " for thus runs an entry in the burial register of Waltonupon-Thames , in the hundred of Elmbridge , ancl the county of Surrey . This was not Vanbrugh ' s only son : a second was

slain ( 17-1-6 ) , in his twenty-seventh year , at Tournay , and died without a will . The names of Sir John Vanbrugh ancl of Captain Philip Vanbrugh are to be founcl among the subscribers to the first collected edition of the works of Addison , edited by Tickell , and published in four

volumes quarto , in 1721 . Who was Captain Philip Vanbrugh ? His brother , I suspect . The building of Marlborough House , in Pall Mall , was given to Wren by Sarah , Duchess of Marlborough , to vex Vanbrugh . Whoever is curious about Van ' s quarrel with Pope ' s " . Atossa" will find some new

, matter of moment in the correspondence of the duchess , printed by Mrs . Thompson , from the MS . collections of Archdeacon Coxe . The amusing materials I allude to have been brought to light since the life of Vanbrugh was last written . Of Vanbrugh it is to be said , what we cannot say

of any other English dramatist : his plays , though evidently printed with his entire sanction , are ¦ without his name , and without dedications in a dedicating age . When and where Sir John Vanbrugh married , his biographers omit to tell us . I have traced the period thus far : —He was married in or about November , 171 S .

His biographers are equally silent when his widow died . The fact in his history I will now give . Lady Vanbrugh died the 26 th of April , 1776 , having outlived her husband , the great architect , just half a century and one month . In this long period we hear nothing of her . What became of her papers ? Did she leave a will ? Where was she buried ?

The will of Sir John Vanbrugh is to be seen in the Prerogative Will Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury . I have seen it . Two of his brothers are named in it , Charles and Philip ; ancl three sisters , Mary , Kobina , and Victoria , —the last being the earliest use

British Architects.

in England of the name , that I remember to have seen , of our beloved Sovereign . Since Walpole ' s death , three editions of his " Anecdotes of Painting , " & c , have appeared . The first was in his " Works " ( 5 vols . 4 to ., 179 S ) , as left revised by himself ; the second , in 1826 , 1 S 27 , and 1828 , as edited in 5 vols . Svo ., by Dallaway ; and the third in .

18-19 , in 3 vols . Svo ., as re-edited by Mr . Worntun . Walpole made and left many additional notes , and wholly overlooked by Mr . Dallaway and Mr . Wornum . Here , for instance , is a note relating to Vanbrugh ( not to be found in Dallaway or Wornum ) , every sentence of which is in Walpole ' s true Strawhern / veiu : —•

"Two very good judges , ancl men of excellent taste , Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr . Gilpin , have declared their admiration of the studendous piles of Blenheim and Castle Howard , and no doubt vastness is very imposing at o distance ; hut if the designs and details are detective , the merit of grandeur remains with the person who is at the expense of the fabric , not with the architect who

executes his commands . St . Peter ' s , St . Paul ' s , each strikes as a magnificent whole ; but they charm , too , when the parts are examined , nor have any superfluous weight . Large edifices might be erected from unnecessary excrescences of stone that load the palaces above mentioned ; and , however admirable Vanbrugh ' s structures may be in their present state of perfectionI will

, venture to guess that their ruins will have far greater effect , not only from their massive fragments , but from the additional piles which conjecture will supply , iu order to give a meaning to the whole . " Walpole ' s ' ¦ Worhs , " iii . 394 ( 4 to ., 1798 ) .

In this view it may be said , and truly , that Strawberry , when stripped of its curiosities by the inevitable hand of George Robins , looked , in its ruins , more truly Gothic than it did as left by Walpole , or as it now does , redecorated by Frances , Lady Waidegrave . This omitted note I commend to the judicious eye of the Builder ' s next-door neihbourMr . H . G . Bohn

g , , the last publisher of Walpole ' s Anecdotes . Only a few words more , ancl those Vanbrugh ' s own , aud recently recovered : — " When travellers , many ages hence , shall be shown the very house in which the Duke of Marlborough dwelt , and they shall be told it was not only his favourite

habitation , but was erected for him b } the queen , and with the approbation of the people , as a monument of his greatest services and honours that any subject has ever done his country ; I believe , though they may not find art enough in the builder to make them oclmiro the beauty of the fabric , they will find wonder enough in ilui story to make them pleased with the sight of it . " PETER CuxxrxGimi .

The Path Of Life. —An Allegory.

THE PATH OF LIFE . —AN ALLEGORY .

We extract the following from the Penny Post , it being from the pen of a well-known Correspondent of the FUEEMASOXS' MAGAZIXE . Bro . J . Emra Holmes , Secretary of the St . Helen ' s Lodge ( No . 774 ) . Methought I stood upon the borders of a vast desert , and before me were a of childrenattended by

company , some elders , who seemed to me to be their guardians and protectors . And they were waiting for the dawning of the day to commence their journey of life . It was still dark , and the watch-fires of the little camp had not yet burned away . There were men busily engaged in taking down the tents which had shielded them in the night , and packing them on the backs of the patient camels who lay