THE OLD CASTLE OF NEWCASTLE.
THE Duke of NEWCASTLE has got 21,0001. from the Hundred for the burning of Nottingham Castle. It was neither a very ancient nor a very magnificent building, "though fitted up in its interior after a costly fashion ;" and was untenanted but by lumbering fur- niture and a solitary person to keep it from the ravages of rats and mice. The Duke has made a good sale of his old mansion. It would not have fetched, with its contents, half that sum if brought to the hammer, though ROBINS himself had puffed Off its "sus- ceptibilities." The mob is the best auctioneer. The eclat, too, of an attack upon an empty house, is greater than that of a sale by auction ; and then there is no commission to pay—a Special Com- mission to try the rioters, costs the country somewhat, but the owner of the property sold, nothing. Mr. ROBINsON, the Duke's architect, estimated the damage done at 31,000/. Two provincial architects said, 15,000/. Mr. Coeur, the great builder, said. it could be restored for 21,000!.; but then, it would be 5,000/. the better. So that, if the Duke rebuilds his empty mansion, he will be a gainer of 5,000/. clear ; and if he does not rebuild it, which he is not bound to do, he will have pocketed 21,0001.—a nice little . fortune for a private man—for a useless pile of buildings; the blackened ruins of which he may allow to remain as -a- badge of honour to himself and a stigma upon the men of Nottingham. The Duke may now afford to mend the broken windows, of his town-house, and put up iron blinds like his brother of WELLINGTON. Our modern nobles are as proud of broken panes and pelted walls, as the feudal barons of old were of torn scarves and battered armour. In the mean time, to all queries as to what he will do with his 21,000/., the Duke may cry, " Shall I not do what I like with my own ?" What between places, pen- sions, and damages, the Anti-Reformer's is no bad trade.
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