[Autograph]

LETTER X.

THE COLLECTIONS OF DENON, QUINTIN CRAUFURD, AND THE MARQUIS DE SOMMARIVA.

All the world has heard of the famous DENON, the Egyptian traveller; and editor of the great work of the Antiquities of Egypt, published in 1802, in two sumptuous folio volumes.  As you possess a copy of the French work,[164] with choice impressions of the plates, I need say nothing further upon the subject—­except that I believe it to be one of the very finest works of the kind, which has ever appeared ... on the score of art.  But the author has other claims to attention and popularity.  He was an intimate friend—­and certainly the confidential adviser—­of Buonaparte, in all public schemes connected with the acquisition of pictures and statues:  and undoubtedly he executed the task confided to him with ability.  He was verging oh his sixtieth year, when he started with his master upon the Egyptian expedition—­a proof at least of energy, as well as of good disposition, in the cause.  But Denon has been a great European traveller:  he has had access to private, as well as to public, cabinets; and has brought home some rich fruits of his enterprise and taste.

His house, on the Quai Malaquais, is the rendezvous of all the English of any taste—­who have respectable letters of introduction; and I must do him the justice to say, that, never did a man endure the inconveniences which must frequently result from keeping such open house, with greater adroitness and good humour than does the Baron Denon.  I have sometimes found his principal rooms entirely filled by my countrymen and countrywomen; and I once, from the purest accident, headed a party of twenty-two ... in which were three British officers, and more than that number of members of either University.  I will fairly own that, on receiving us, he drew me quietly aside, and observed:—­“Mon ami, quand vous viendrez une autre fois, ne commandez pas, je vous prie, une armee si nombreuse.  Je m’imaginois encore en Egypte.”  What was still more perplexing, we found there a party of English as numerous as ourselves.  It was thus, however, that he rebuked my indiscretion.

We had twice exchanged visits and cards before we met.  The card of Denon was worth possessing, from the simple, unaffected modesty which it evinced.  You merely read the word DENON upon it!...  The owner of the collection which I am about to describe, is certainly “un peu passe” as to years; but he has a cheerful countenance, with the tint of health upon it; small, gray, sparkling eyes, and teeth both regular and white.[165] He is generally dressed in black, and always as a gentleman.  His figure, not above the middle height, is well formed; and his step is at once light and firm.  There is doubtless a good deal which is very prepossessing in his manners.  As he understands nothing of the English language, he can of course neither read nor speak it.