His second wife, a beautiful and amiable young lady, is the daughter of William Lock, Esq. of Norbury-park, by whom he has also two children. Mr. Angerstein's summer residence is called Woodlands, and is delightfully situated on Blackheath. Were it not contrary to our usual mode, to allow much time or space to local description, we could expatiate at large, and with delighted imagination, on the various scenery of this charming place. A brief and faithful account, so far as it goes, will be found in the note.* Any description would afford but a very faint image of a spot which exhibits, within a few miles distance from the metropolis, as many rural graces as can be found in the deepest recesses of the country. The grounds display that engaging irregularity which discovers a harmony both in art and nature, that produces the happiest effect; and the conservatory, in particular, has a claim upon our admiration, as well from the magnificent yet simple construction of the building, as from the delicacy, richness, and variety of the plants which adorn the interior. The writer of this article has been informed that the proprietor of these enchanting pleasure-grounds, and their accompaniments, was fortunate enough to * The house is faced with a beautiful stucco: the front, which has a handsome portico, is enriched by a niche on each side, containing elegant statues representing the young Apollo and the dancing Fawn. Immediately over each is a circular basso-relievo, with a semi-circular window in the centre. The gardens communicate with a paddock, and command the beautiful prospect of Westcomb-park, Shooter's-hill, and the Thames. Dd 1803-1801. engage engage one of the first gardeners in England, one calculated rather to cherish than thwart the good taste of his employer; but it has rarely happened that a practical gardener possesses such a fund of good sense, as well as good taste, as George Stewart, while to these is subjoined much real science, and a knowledge of whatever has been written or achieved in his art. It would not be proper to omit, that in the collection at Woodlands, together with many other fine paintings, are to be found the well-known picture of Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, drawn by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and one of his most brilliant later works, the Nymph and Boy. The person of Mr. Angerstein is manly, noble, and commanding; his manners are easy, unaffected, and so calculated as to invite respect and confidence ; his address is simple, but highly prepossessing; his conversation is manly and ingenuous, without any mixture of disagreeable levity on one hand, or assumed gravity on the other; his countenance, in particular, is marked by those traits of beneficence which are reflected from his mind, and there is that singleness of integrity in his whole demeanour, which corresponds with the rectitude of his private and public life. It would have been a solecism in feeling for a character so distinguished, to pass unnoticed by those whose ministry it is to "Catch the manners living as they rise," and exhibit examples of virtue to the public view. Mr. Angerstein bas enjoyed his full share of just ap plause plause on many great and interesting occasions; and his name stands recorded and reverenced in the annals of public as well as private celebrity. We have seen more than one well-earned tribute to his worth; nor have the Muses been unmindful of their friend. An ingenious work, some years since, came forth under his auspices; and to Mr. Angerstein the English Gleaner has recently addressed the volume which brings his work to a conclusion. The author thus justifies the selection of his pa tron: "A trait of a very important kind (says Mr. Pratt) is still wanting in a sketch of the national picture, I mean, sir, an English merchant. The august empire, whose mental likeness I have attempted, offers a rich and ample choice on this occasion; though that feature must combine the purest commercial integrity with the most extensive active benevolence. "In this union of great and good qualities, I have but to mention the name of Mr. Angerstein, to be universally justified in my choice. That gentleman's public acts of bounty stand upon record; and he is pre-eminent as a benefactor to the noblest, tenderest, and best of those charities which are among the prime national objects I have endeavoured to describe; and of his private beneficence, instances have, I am assured, their faithful registers in numberless hearts, which his philanthropy has relieved from wänt, from sorrow, and from various misfortune. More than one example of this, sir, has come within my own observation, and should the favour which has been shewn by the public to the former parts of this work, be extended to the present volume, very many of my readers will silently, yet glow. ingly, feel the truth and the force of this assertion. "And surely, sir, never has there been a moment at which the public and private virtues of the English merchant had more occasion to exert all the energies of that exalted character. "The country has been insulted. The lives and property of Englishmen are insolently menaced: inevitable burthens must again be laid upon industry, ingenuity, and labour, with a heavy hand; and a daring infatuated enemy is on the watch. The poor and the rich, in all their classes and gradations must feel the weight of a new war, that has blasted all the promised joys of peace, even in their first fruits. These, and innumerable evils in their train, lay claim to all the powers that constitute the mind and character of an affluent English merchant, and all these powers will be exerted by Mr. Angerstein; who to the more essential qualities of a great and good man, superadds a love of the fine arts, and encourages the talents which produce them: and who, when the insatiable hand of an universal plunderer would have appropriated every foreign repository, secured to this country a domestic treasure, in those great works, the study of which, is so necessary to the rising art. "For all these public and private reasons; for possessing with great power a yet greater inclination to do good; and for thus forming in his own mind and character several prominent features in that of his country; it is with equal pride and pleasure this last portion of "Gleanings in England," is now offered to the patronage of Mr. Angerstein." With equal pride and pleasure, on the basis of like motives, we enrol the name of Mr. Angerstein in the honourable list of our PUBLIC CHARACTERS. MR. HENRY JAMES PYE, POET-LAUREAT. THE family of Mr. Pye came into England with the Conqueror, and settled at a place called the Meerd, in Herefordshire. His great great-grandfather was auditor of the exchequer to James I. and by virtue of that office, paid the salary of the Poet-laureat, as appears from the subseqoent verses of Ben Jonson : Father John Barges, Necessity urges, My My mournful cry To Sir Robert Pye; And that he would venture, Tell him, his Ben, Knew the time when He loved the Muses, His son, Sir Robert Pye, a knight also, married Anne, the eldest daughter of John Hambden, the patriot, of whom our author is consequently the representative as much as can be by the female line. Although we are confident Mr. Pye is fully aware of the pride and folly of ancestry, yet of such an ancestor as the latter, it is almost permitted to be proud. And in respect to the former, it is not a little singular, that the auditor's great grandson should be one of the successors to the laurel. The last male heir left the estate in Herefordshire and the name to the Trevors, descended from the second daughter; but Sir Robert Pye purchased Farringdon in Berkshire, which county he twice represented in Parliament. Our author's father, who occasionally resided there, was elected no less than five times, without opposition, for the same county; the poet himself was, however, born in London, in the memorable year 1745. He was educated at home under a private tutor, until he had attained the age of seventeen, when he entered a gentleman commoner of Magdalen College Oxford, where he continued four years, and had the honorary degree of master of Dd 3 arts |