After having been long a conspicuous ornament of the Barberini Palace, the ‘Barberini Vase’ was bought by HAMILTON. When, in December, 1784, he paid one of his visits to England, the vase came with him. Its fame had previously excited the desires of many virtuosi. By the Duchess of PORTLAND it was so strongly coveted, that she employed a niece of Sir William to conduct a negotiation with much more solemnity and mystery than the ambassador would have thought needful in conducting a critical Treaty of Peace. [Sidenote: _Correspondence of Mrs. Delany_, vol. ii (in many places).] The Duchess’s precautions foiled the curiosity of not a few of her fellow-collectors in virtû. ‘I have heard,’ wrote Horace WALPOLE, ‘that Sir W. HAMILTON’S renowned vase, which had disappeared with so much mystery, is again recovered; not in the tomb, but the treasury, of the Duchess of PORTLAND, in which, I fancy, it had made ample room for itself. Sir William told me it would never go out of England. I do not see how he could warrant _that_. The Duchess and Lord Edward have both shown how little stability there is in the riches of that family.’ [Sidenote: H. Walpole to Lady Upper-Ossory, 10 August, 1785. (Cunn. Edit., vol. ix, p. 3.)] As yet, the reader will remember, that ‘Portland Estate,’ which was so profitably to turn farms into streets, was but in expectancy. And then WALPOLE adds: ‘_My_ family has felt how insecure is the permanency of heir-looms,’—the thought of that grand ‘Houghton Gallery,’ and its transportation to Russia, coming across his memory, whilst telling Lady UPPER-OSSORY the story of the coveted vase, just imported from the Barberini Palace at Rome. The Duchess of PORTLAND enjoyed the sight of her beautiful purchase only during a few weeks. It was bought in by the family (at the nominal price of £1029[11]) at the sale of her famous museum of curiosities—a sale extending to more than four thousand lots—and twenty-four years afterwards, it was lent, for exhibition (1810), by the third Duke of PORTLAND, to the Trustees of the British Museum, where it has since remained. When WEDGWOOD set about imitating the Portland Vase in his manufactory at Etruria—for which purpose the then Duke liberally lent it to him—he discovered that the vase had been broken and skilfully put together again. After it had been publicly exhibited during almost thirty-five years in London, the frenzy of a maniac led—as it seemed at the moment—to its utter destruction. But, mainly by the singular skill and patience of the late John DOUBLEDAY (a craftsman attached to the Department of Antiquities for many years), it was soon restored to its pristine beauty. That one act of violence in 1845 is the only instance of very serious injury arising from open exhibition to all comers which the annals of the Museum record. CHAPTER IV. THE KING’S OR ‘GEORGIAN’ LIBRARY;—ITS COLLECTOR, AND ITS DONOR.