-Lettre du 17 octobre 1733 (sans lieu): The Prints tell us that on Tuesday morning Oct. 16, a fire broke out in the stately house of the Duke of Devonshire, in Piccadilly, Westminster, by the carelessness of the workmen, who had been employed all the summer to repair and beautify it at the expense of 40,000 l. [ [I suppose it should be 4,000 l.] ] and entirely destroyed it, but his Grace’s Library, Cabinet of Rarities, Pictures, Plate and Jewels valued at 100,000 l. were saved. However the damage is computed at 10 or 15,000 l. I was told also of the same dismal fire in a letter from Mr. West of the 17th from the Inner Temple, who added that most of the pictures & medals he heard were saved, and a pretty many of the books, & that it was occasioned by a Joyner’s Prentice leaving a pot of glue on the fire. (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. letters 27c fol. 3345).
