at Paris for the amount demanded, namely fifteen thousand livres, on condition that the library was to be left as a deposit with the owner, and that he was to accept a gratuity of one thousand livres annually for taking charge of the books, until the Empress should require them.  This was indeed a delicate and ingenious kindness.  Lord Brougham makes D’Alembert and not Diderot the subject of this anecdote.  It is a mistake.  See the Correspondence of Baron de Gumm and Diderot with the Duke of Saxe-Gotha.

Many of the Russian nobles keep up to this day the taste in gardening introduced by Catherine the Second, and have still many gardens laid out in the English style.  They have often had in their employ both English and Scottish gardeners.  There is an anecdote of a Scotch gardener in the Crimea in one of the public journals:—­

“Our readers”—­says the Banffshire Journal—­“will recollect that when the Allies made a brief expedition to Yalto, in the south of the Crimea, they were somewhat surprised and gratified by the sight of some splendid gardens around a seat of Prince Woronzow.  Little did our countrymen think that these gardens were the work of a Scotchman, and a Moray loon; yet such was the case.”  The history of the personage in question is a somewhat singular one:  “Jamie Sinclair, the garden boy, had a natural genius, and played the violin.  Lady Cumming had this boy educated by the family tutor, and sent him to London, where he was well known in 1836-7-8, for his skill in drawing and colouring.  Mr. Knight, of the Exotic Nursery, for whom he used to draw orchids and new plants, sent him to the Crimea, to Prince Woronzow, where he practised for thirteen years.  He had laid out these beautiful gardens which the allies the other day so much admired; had the care of 10,000 acres of vineyards belonging to the prince; was well known to the Czar, who often consulted him about improvements, and gave him a “medal of merit” and a diploma or passport, by which he was free to pass from one end of the empire to the other, and also through Austria and Prussia, I have seen these instruments.  He returned to London in 1851, and was just engaged with a London publisher for a three years’ job, when Menschikoff found the Turks too hot for him last April twelve-month; the Russians then made up for blows, and Mr. Sinclair was more dangerous for them in London than Lord Aberdeen.  He was the only foreigner who was ever allowed to see all that was done in and out of Sebastopol, and over all the Crimea.  The Czar, however, took care that Sinclair could not join the allies; but where he is and what he is about I must not tell, until the war is over—­except that he is not in Russia, and that he will never play first fiddle again in Morayshire.”

[031] Brown succeeded to the popularity of Kent.  He was nicknamed, Capability Brown, because when he had to examine grounds previous to proposed alterations and improvements he talked much of their capabilities.  One of the works which are said to do his memory most honor, is the Park of Nuneham, the seat of Lord Harcourt.  The grounds extend to 1,200 acres.  Horace Walpole said that they contained scenes worthy of the bold pencil of Rubens, and subjects for the tranquil sunshine of Claude de Lorraine.  The following inscription is placed over the entrance to the gardens.