An Eccentric Prince.

Western Star, Issue 2220, 8 July 1898, Page 4

An Eccentric Prince.

The Sicilian Prince of Vaiguanera at the beginning of this century (says a writer in the " Evening Standard") was a monomaniac of a rare description. Fie succeeded to one of tlie largest fortunes in Europe ; bis habits were studious and economical ; lie had no children; but in spite of these advantages for saving money he contrived to ruin himself. The prince had a fancy for grotesque statues, with which he adorned the stately mansion of his forefathers. Many descriptions of the place are extant, for it was- renowned through Europe in its day. Brydone visited it. and he has left us a pleasant picture. Approaching l>y a noble avenue, one found the palace encircled by an

"army" of monsters. "The absurdity of the wretched imagination which created them Is not less astonishing than its wonderful fertility," says Brydone. " Some were a compound of five or six animals winch have no resemblance in Nature. In one instance the head of a Hon was set upon the neck of a goose, with the body of. a lizard, the eye of a goat, and the tail of a fox. Upon the back of this object stood another with five or six heads and a grove of horns. There is no kind of horn in the world that he (the priitce) has not collected, and his pleasure is to see them all flourishing on the same skull." Of such horrors there were 000 hundred in the avenue and the courtyard alone when Brydone saw the collection. The prince maintained a regiment, of sculptors, who were rewarded proportionately to their ■success in designing new and unparalleled combinations. The effect upon a superstitious peasantry may be imagined. So serious was the agitation that the Government of Sicily -»threatened to demolish the wondrous array several times, but a Prince of Valguanera was not to be offended in those days without the gravest, cause. .Matrons of Palermo would not take their drives in that direction, fearing dire results. The inside of the house was eccentric in another fashion. Here the madman diverted himself with columns and arches and pyramids of cups and saucers, teapots, and the like, cemented together. One column, for instance, started from a'great porcelain vase of shape familiar in bedrooms, ■but not elsewhere ; the shaft was teapots, with the spouts protruding, graduated in size up to a capital of flowerpots. The openings of windows were encrusted in this manner, the chimneypieces were loaded up to the ceiling, and the magnificent rooms of the palace were divided by fantastic arches of the same construction. China was rare and fine in Sicily at that day, and most of the pieces thus treated had great value. The prince's bedroom was a chamber of supreme horrors. Reptiles awful beyond conception had their home there, intermixed with pleasing busts and statues, which, if turned, showed a skeleton or a hideous representation of decrepitude. We have never observed an allusion to these things in a modern work of travel. Perhaps the Government destroyed them at the prince's death, beggared by his mania.

Women Actors of Men's Parts. Circumstances conspired to make Charlotte Oluirko one of the most striking i.inpe>ivonator« of mule charai'ter, ami one of the unhappiesl creatures of •her time. Her father, Colley Gibber, was .ill-advised enough to give lier a training more befktlng a boy than a girl, with the result. Hhnt .In after yeans she' evinced no delig.ht save in purely masculine amusements. Half her life, either on the >tage or off, was passed in male attire : and as actress, puppet-show wouwin, valet de ehanibre, and waiter lS ] h , experienced much vicissitude of fortune. During Che season of IT.".:::'.! we find 'her at the Llaymarket playing a round of male ehnraetu-s-Uodengo. m "Othello." among the number. A decade later saw her appearing as Captain Plume ar t.he same .house, and making *!„■ second of a long line of female Captain Mae'heaths cxtendiu„. rtown trt 'onr own time. The first was evidently Mrs. Reynolds, who performed the character at Smock Alley in 1730. and probnbls earlier elsewhere. The third. I hat beautiful Mrs. Oargill who was drowned a h«i. was noted for evoking a liberal tribute of tears in the seem; where t.he fase.inal ing highwayman 'hears t.he dread knell summoning him to execution. in IT.V.) Mrs. Oharke made her last appearance on the stage in playing Marplot- in "T.he Kusybody" for her benefit at the Haymarket. A lew months later this unhappy creature, who was "cut our for a man. only the devil ran away with tihe pattern,' ay in an unhonoured grave, what tune her famous- father was sleeping placidly m Westminster Abbey. Magazine."

Served Its Purpose. A country gentleman whose premises were often invade J by trespassers put up the following on his gate-house : "A terrlflkokaiblondomenoi kept here." A friend asked him what terrifying tiling that was. " Oh," he replied, "it is just three big Greek words put all together ; but it serves the purpose well; the unknown is always dreadful."