[2] This collection, consisting of 241 prints, in three portfeuilles, was sold at _Christie's, April_ 7, 1781, for 59 guineas, to Mr. _Ingham Foster_, a wealthy ironmonger, since dead. A set, containing only 100 prints, had been sold some time before, at the same place, for 47 guineas. The Hon. _Topham Beauclerk's_ set, of only 99 prints, was sold in 1781 (while this note was printing off for the first edition) for 34_l._ 10_s._ [3] It is not, indeed, inconvenient for the reputation of this famous connoisseur, that his name continues to be a secret. Either he could not spell, or his copier was unable to read what he undertook to transcribe. _Postilion_ must be a mistake for some other word. The whole note, in the original, appears to have been the production of a male _Slip-slop_, perhaps of high fashion. His petulant invective against Lord _Burlington_ is here omitted. [4] Dr. _Faustus_ was first brought out at _Lincoln's-Inn Fields_ in 1723, and the success of it reduced the rival theatre to produce a like entertainment at their house in 1725. From a scarce pamphlet in octavo, without date, called "Tragi-comical Reflections, of a moral and political Tendency, occasioned by the present State of the two Rival Theatres in _Drury-Lane_ and _Lincoln's-Inn Fields_, by _Gabriel Rennel_, Esq." I shall transcribe an illustration of these plates: "A few years ago, by the help of _Harleykin_, and Dr. _Faustus_, and _Pluto_ and _Proserpine_, and other infernal persons, the New-House was raised to as high a pitch of popularity and renown as ever it had been known to arrive at. Tho' the actors there consisted chiefly of _Scotch_, and _Irish_, and _French_ Strollers, who were utterly unacquainted with the _English_ Stage, and were remarkably deficient in elocution and gesture: yet so much was the art of juggling at that time in vogue, and so extreamly was the nation delighted with Raree-Shows, and foreign representations, that all people flocked to the New-House, whilst the Old one was altogether deserted, tho' it then could glory in as excellent a set of _English_ actors as ever had trod upon any stage. In the midst of this joyful prosperity and success, the Managers of the New-House were not without secret uneasiness and discontent, whenever they considered how slippery a ground they stood upon, and how much a juster title their rivals had to the favour and affections of the people. They were therefore always intent upon forming designs and concerting measures for the entire subversion of the Old-House. For this purpose, they constantly kept in pay a standing army of Scaramouches, who were sent about the town to possess it with aversion and resentment against the Old Players, whose virtues had rendered them formidable, and whose merit was their greatest crime. These Scaramouches, in so corrupt and degenerate a time, when blindness and folly, and a false taste every where reigned, were every where looked