In part of this building there is a noble gothic hall, much resembling Westminster-Hall, and very large; on each side little shops were arranged, similar to those in Exeter ‘Change: it is converting into a chapel for the king. There were here formerly the prince’s cabinet of natural history and museum of rarities, consisting of a tolerable collection of shells, petrifactions, precious stones, fossils, minerals, and birds. This collection has been removed to Paris, although, from all I could learn, scarcely worthy of so much trouble: it, however, furnished the first elements of knowledge to Camper, one of the most profound geniuses which the United Provinces ever produced, and also Professor Pallas, who has been called the Pliny of Russia. The French offered to re-sell this cabinet to the Dutch government, who declined becoming the purchasers; a tolerable proof of its inferiority. The prince’s cabinet of pictures was very select and valuable, and was enriched by the productions of Titian, Holbein, Rembrandt, Vandyke, Gerard Dow, Metzio, Polemburgh, and other illustrious artists. On the confiscation of the property of the exiled Stadtholder, the Dutch government, for the purpose of promoting the polite arts, formed this collection of pictures, esteemed one of the most valuable in Europe, into a national gallery, set apart an annual sum for the augmentation of it, and deposited it in a fine suite of apartments in the House in the Wood, where a director of ability, and assistants, were appointed to superintend it: but the French soon afterwards transferred the best of them to that magnificent depot of the fruits of conquest, the Louvre at Paris. The first person sent by Napoleon to select for his gallery was unequal to his office, and left some excellent works behind him, which, upon “a second shaking of the tree” by another and more able inspector, were collected, and sent off to that _colossal collector_ of works of art. Amongst several landscapes by Vernet was the finest he ever painted, the subject, the waterfall of Tivoli. It is a curious circumstance that there is not one fine private collection at the Hague.