1811.
In the summer of this year, the Earl of Pembroke allowed me to copy a picture at Wilton, painted by the celebrated architect, Inigo Jones. It is a view of Covent Garden in its original state, when there was a tree in the middle. The skill with which he has treated the effect is admirable.
There is also, in that superb mansion, a companion picture of Lincoln’s Inn Fields by the same artist.
1812.
The political career of John Horne Tooke, Esq., is well known, and the fame of his celebrated work, entitled the Diversions of Purley, will be spoken of as long as paper lasts.
In the year 1811 a most flagrant depredation was committed in his house at Wimbledon by a collector of taxes, who daringly carried away a silver tea and sugar caddy, the value of which amounted, in weight of silver, to at least twenty times more than the sum demanded, for a tax which Mr. Tooke declared he never would pay. This gave rise to the following letter:—
“TO MESSRS. CROFT AND DILKE.
“Gentlemen,—I beg it as a favour of you, that you will go in my name to Mr. Judkin, attorney, in Clifford’s Inn, and desire him to go with you both to the Under Sheriff’s Office, in New Inn, Wych Street.
“I have had a distress served upon me for taxes, at Wimbledon, in the county of Surrey.