Excerpt from A Philosophical and Critical History of the Fine Arts, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, Vol. 1 of 4 Yet it is not merely by fuccellion that your majesty now {lands at the head of thefe. Their fame was never higher in the modern world than that which is now their claim in this coun try; and that fame is wholly the growth of your own reign. How old foever may have been the hil'tory of tliofe footl'teps, by which they have been marked in Great Britain, the hiflory of their elegance and refined fpirit is comprized within the compafs of that period, which has given the generous and amiable influ ence of your majesty's exemplary mind to fpread it's general ornament over thefe kingdoms. It is a faet not to be quef'tioned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.