same time. This is an etching by Captain Hastings, one our shores, and join with the artists of our country, as canof our most distinguished amateur painters, from a picture didates for public encouragement and reward. For instance, which was exhibited at Somerset House, in the year 1821. in point of invention and improvement of the steam-engine, This picture, by Captain Hastings, which we may pro- the American, Mr. Perkins, bids fair to gain the most disnounce one of the most impressive sea pieces that we tinguished palm which success can award. In regard to remember to have seen from the pencil of a dilletante literature, Mr. Washington Irving is well known as a writer artist, was admired by the public and highly spoken of by of the most profound excellence. As to historical painting, the professors. The sea is well composed, and painted the names of Leslie and Newton have, amongst us, become with that truth of effect, which could only emanate from an distinguished by the proofs both have afforded of their great observant eye, with a hand capable of depicting what a talents, and to these have added additional laurels, by the powerful memory could retain of the impression of so awful pictures they have this year contributed at Somerset a scene. Impelled by that enthusiasm, which alone can House; and in the department of portraits, Mr. C. Hardcreate originality of style in painting, or poetry, this gentle-ing, a young artist of great merit, has lately visited Engman was lashed to the poupe of the vessel in this storm, and land, and already this year exhibited in Somerset House made the study of the effect, at the period when the ill-four portraits, namely, of Mr. Owen of Lanark, Mr. Perfated ship, with the signal of distress flying, was labouring kins, the Honourable Mr. Anson, and one of himself, and in so tremendous a gale, that no assistance could approach. in the Exhibition in Suffolk-street, three portraits, namely, This print, which is bold and independent in execution, His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, T. W. Coke, Esq. and of large dimension for an etching, yet conveys but an M.P. and John Dunn Hunter, the author of "Memoirs of inadequate perception of the picture; for nothing short of His own Captivity among North American Indians, from the elaborate and finished lines of the graving tool, re- Childhood till the Age of Eighteen." That seven portraits entering the most studied etching, can render the compact should have been accepted, is surely evidence of their exmasses of sky and water effective. We should have thought cellence in point of painting; and the likenesses are so it more judicious had this composition been engraved in striking, that I would not hesitate to warrant them in every mezzotinto, or in the line manner, by the incomparable case, so completely does Mr. Harding possess the talent of burin of the Cookes. As it is, however, we are willing to pourtraying correctly feature and expression. Gratifying receive it, as a work of merit and originality, from the hand as it is to see our own artists maintaining the character of of an amateur highly distinguished for his taste in the our country's genius, surely it is equally so to find the graphic arts. young aspirants for fame, of America, remote from their homes-at the distance of thousands of miles far across the wide roaring Atlantic-employing their talents among Britain's patrons and children, with so much deserved success. I am sure you will join me in wishing them the continuation of prosperity, and that the union of sentiment and good fellowship which every day tends to encourage, may between Great Britain and America become the more strongly cemented, by the sweetest endearments which brotherly love can cherish, or enthusiasm make known. I am, Dear Mr. Editor, Your constant reader,

The name of this gentleman has long been enrolled on the list of amateur artists. His etchings of architectural remains in and about the ancient city of Canterbury, a work in folio, from his own original drawings, with historical letter-press, is to be found in the library of the collector. Another work too, which is far advanced towards completion, will, we understand, soon be announced by Messrs. Hurst and Robinson. This will comprise more than forty finished etchings of small dimensions, by Captain Hastings, from paintings by the incomparable Wilson, selected principally from the valuable collection of Lady Ford. Of these we shall speak more at length in our proposed papers upon amateur artists.

With recurrence to these striking pictures, we would suggest, for the consideration of the proprietors of the Panorama, whether a storm off the Cape, would not afford a magnificent and impressive subject, for their stupendous circle? such a graphic spectacle could not fail to excite the attention of the public.

Painted from a sketch made by Captain Hastings, in 1804, during a storm between Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope, in which the ship Prince of Wales, Indiaman, homeward bound, was totally lost. The painting is 6 feet by 4.

TO THE

London, June, 1824.

DRAMA.

GEORGE.

Covent Garden.-A new farce has been produced, called My Own Man. It is from the fertile pen of Mr. Peake, the punster. To the excellence of his better farces it has no claim, but it presents some ludicrous situations, and affords occasion for much comic humour. The story turns on the poverty of a briefless barrister in the Temple, and the distresses to which he is put, to escape from the duns of his creditors and the visits of his friends. He puts on the livery of his servant; and hence the name of the piece. At coxcomb, who pays his debts and sets him up again. The only attempts at character which are at all successful, are the old baronet, (Farren) and a thick-headed dancing servant boy, (Keeley.) Both are laughabl-the last particularly so. Connor played a Mr. O'Corpsejoy, an undertaker, who walks about with a folio History of England under his arm, to which he is constantly referring. The idea is absurd, and the execution contemptible. The farce just escaped damnation.

EDITOR OF THE SOMERSET HOUSE GAZETTE. || length he turns out to be the natural son of a formal old

DEAR MR. EDITOR,

PERMIT me to assure you, that the perusal of your weekly miscellany affords me much pleasure, and I doubt not must receive universal encouragement; because, besides the occasional well-written articles with which it abounds, in reference to general literature, I am proud to find that you zealously advocate the cause of the aspiring artist, and the child of genius, by adverting to those exhibitions which present to a British public the many indubitable proofs of talent and merit. It is a circumstance to cause infinite pleasure to every Briton, to reflect, that as those amicable feelings, which it is both the inclination and interest of our country should be cherished, become daily more strong betwixt Great Britain and America. Such have the effect of encouraging the children of the new world to repair to

On Thursday evening, Mr. Kent made his first appearance in Richard III. This gentleman has been a good deal praised in the provincial papers; and not a slight effort has been made to prepossess the London audience in his favor. It will not do. No man can succeed as an actor, unless he possesses a fair share of talent. This is not the good fortune of Mr. Kent. He has now and then a gleam of ability,

which is sure to be obscured in the general darkness. He which is well known to be the appropriate gesticulation of is a noisy, turbulent, affected performer,-fit for the coun- despair. The vehicle itself lay quiet enough; black and try-utterly unfit for town. There was a great deal of dis- huge as it looked in the darkness of the night, but every approbation, and we look upon it as a complete failure. now and then, there burst from it, an angry storm of Drury Lane.-Mr. Macready has performed Coriolanus words, which threatened, like a volcano, any nearer apfor his benefit. We are no great admirers of this gentle-proach, and awed Jehu into deference, and distance, as man's Shakspeare. Messrs. Shiel, Knowles, and Walker, are effectually as if it had been a Congreve rocket. the poets for his capacity. Virginius-Gracchus-Wallace, these are the parts in which Mr. Macready has gained his reputation, and when he leaves them for Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, &c. he is sure to detract from his fame. The truth is, that Mr. Macready is a smart, clever man, with a good voice, and long acquaintance with the stage, but he wants intellect for the higher creations of Shakspeare. His manner too is not impressive. Swagger is mistaken for dignity, violence confounded with power, and affectation substituted for simplicity. His Coriolanus was decidedly a failure. We hear that he has played it before; for our own parts we never wish to see it again.

The new melo-drama to which we adverted last week, called "The Revolt of the Greeks," is a wretched piece of business, which has no one merit except the very equivocal one of superb dresses. All our efforts to get at the meaning were in vain, and the audience appeared to be in the same hopeless situation.

The Haymarket.-This little house was once a great favourite of ours. It is thronged with all sorts of pleasant theatrical associations. Once it was the focus of wit and merriment; and some of the famousest" of our histrionic names stud its annals. But those days are past. There is no Foote to write his own pieces, and to act in them, and no Colman to manage the little world of stage affairs. It is a new house-shapeless, uncomfortable, and monstrously inconvenient. The performers, with the exception of Liston and Cooper, are all bad. The pieces are just the same. On the first night there was a farcical prelude "Come if you can," which was miserable enough; and on Thursday, the audience was treated with something still more contemptible, entitled " A Year in an Hour :" such silly trash we have not lately seen. The house was nearly empty before it was over. Unless some change takes place, "the little theatre in the Haymarket," must bid farewell to its old glories. At present it is considerably inferior to the Adelphi.

Vauxhall Gardens.-These delightful gardens have commenced their season very auspiciously. Last night the anniversary of Waterloo was celebrated with great brilliancy. We shall say more of them in our next.

SKETCHES FROM THE CAUSEWAY.

THE BOULEVERSEMENT.

"What should I speak of that rare patience,
When thou wast forced, with no small expence,
To exercise it on those Hackneys vile,
Which rather would lie down than ride a mile."
Corgate's Travels.

I WAS passing through one of the squares, about the witching hour of night, with nothing of the spirit of adventure about me, when I encountered an overturned coach. The membra disjecta," as Ovid would say, lay all around; a wheel, escaped from the axle-tree, had rolled to a little distance, as if to establish its own independence; the dickey had taken the same road, but from greater ponderosity, was less prepared for flight, and had fallen something short of its more lively companion; and was pulled on this side, and on that by the horses; who, in this second chaos, had been released from the harness, and were picking out a little hay which yet remained of the morning's store. In the midst of the general wreck, where Desolation might have fixed her seat, stood Coachee, like Hannibal amid the ruins of Carthage, scratching his head,||

||

The unhappy charioteer came up to me, and with a very embarrassed air, said " Here's a pretty business, for a poor fellow; my axle-tree broken, my fare lost, and scolded to boot" which of all these calamities he rated highest I do not mean to say.-I offered my assistance to the inmates of the prostrate carriage, and instantly there was a storm of thanks, flung at me from the interior, by an old Lady, who I learned was returning from the theatre, with a cortege of Misses under her charge.

By the assistance of the driver, she was hauled out by the door on the upper side of the coach, to relieve the poor girls of her weight; for contrary to all the natural propensities of gravity, she had unaccountably remained on the high quarter of her prison. I stood below, to receive this goodly piece of merchandize in my arms; and while she made a thousand apologies, had leisure to survey this windfall-this deodand-which, as far as I could judge, had no one quality that we would expect from above, except, that like the moon stones, she would come to the ground by her own weight. "O, Sir," she whined out, in the most piano style imaginable," you are too good!" but the pathos was arrested by the approach of the coachman, to render his assistance, whom she instantly attacked ith all the good will that flame scizes gunpowder. "Ah! you nasty rogue, do you think to coax me, after nearly committing murder, with your vile crockery shay?-But I a'n't done with you yet, if there's justice in Essex-street, or law in Bow-street." I entreated she would make no further excuses: for my benevolence was now agog, and eager for employment, and, to say truth, a little curious to have a peep at the remainder of the cargo. Down she dropt into my arms, with an affected giggle that was quite provoking; it was like the swan's death-song; it was the last note I heard; for in the next minute I found myself in the mire, bruised, mortified, and unable to extricate myself from beneath this mature Venus, who, like another Incubus, lay above me, quite as much ashamed, though not at all so much injured as myself. Compliments are very good things-fair weather accompaniments, well enough in their own place; but they wont cleanse clothes, nor heal aching bones. The coachman now undertook to relieve the other ladies; and nothing loath, I took my leave, praying heartily I might never again be called to any lady in confinement.

This accident a little discouraged my general philanthropy. When kindness becomes troublesome, it grows cautious. In passing the same place at night, I often fancy that I see a party of tumbledowns, when it is only the deep shade produced by an overhanging bush, and creep as closely to the opposite side, as if pursued by the importunities of a street-sweeper.

SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS.

THE Exhibition of this Society will close on Saturday, the 25th of June. We trust, that as usual, the last week will be the most prolific of substantial encouragement to the respective members. For although the gallery has been thronged with admiring visitors, on those days that the weather would permit, yet there are many of the works yet remain unsold, which would grace the walls of the noblest apartments in the world.

Should such splendid specimens of native art be allowed to return to their ingenious authors, it would reflect indelible discredit to this age of wealth; for the collection of Mr. Walter Fawkes, and that of Mr. Wheeler, united, so

honourable to the taste and patriotic spirit of these distinguished amateurs, for all their ackowledged excellence, have been purchased for a sum, that would be offered by fifty connoisseurs for one landscape by an ancient master.

MISCELLANEA.

MASSINGER.

"who was not for an age." On the scroll under the effigy is the name of "Wellesley," inscribed by the successive viceroy of Hindostan and Ireland, himself, and near it the name of Lucien Bonaparte, with the following lines:

"The eye of genius glistens to admire,

How memory hails the sound of Shakspeare's lyre;
One tear I'll shed, to form a crystal shrine
Of all that's grand, immortal, and divine."
Vide Relics of Literature.

In the time of this excellent dramatic poet, it was not unusual for men of letters to club or to farm their talents. An established writer for the stage would frequently call in MR. BINDLEY, THE BIBLIOMANIAC. the help of authors little known to the world, to aid him in THE late Mr. Bindley was one of the most assiduous his productions; and sometimes authors of celebrity con- bibliomaniacs of his time, and small as may be the service jointly came before the public. It is well known that Mas-which he did to letters, the price which his collection singer wrote in conjunction with Beaumont and Fletcher; brought at his death, shews, that a man in these days, may and that he was a necessitous fellow-labourer with less do worse for his heirs than spend his time in going the celebrated authors, is placed beyond all doubt, by the fol-round of the old book-stalls. Many rare things which he lowing affecting documents, which it is impossible to read without a sigh of regret for the distresses of such men :"To our most loving friend, Mr. Philip Hinchlow, these:MR. HINCHLOW,

had picked up for a few shillings, were actually converted into more than their weight in silver and gold. Herbert's "Dick and Robin, with Songs, and other old Tracts, 1641," which cost him only two shillings, was bought by Mr. Eber for ten pounds. A volume containing Patrick Hannay's "Nightingale, and other Poems, with a portrait of the author, and a portrait of Anne of Denmark, by Crispin de Pass," 1622. Which Mr. Bindly bought for six shillings, was sold to Mr. Evans for thirty-five pounds, fourteen shillings; and five of Robert Green's productions, which altogether cost him only seven shillings and ninepence, brought, from different purchasers, the enormous sum of forty-one "English pounds, fourteen shillings. An account of an

"You understand our unfortunate extremitie, and I doe not thincke you so void of Christianitie, but that you would throw so much money into the Thames as wee request now of you, rather than endanger so many innocent lives. You know there is x/. more at least to be receaved of you for the play. We desire you to lend us vl. of that, which shall be allowed to you; without which we cannot be bayled, nor I play any more, till this be dispatch'd. It will lose you xxl. ere the end of the next week, besides the hindrance of the next new play. Pray, Sir, consider our cases with hu-Hermite, or Wonder of his Age, 1655," one Roger Crab, manitie, and now give us cause to acknowledge you our truee who could live on three farthings a week, consisting of only friend in time of neede. We have intreated Mr. Davison four leaves, with a portrait, sold for five pounds, ten shilto deliver this note, as well to witness your love as our prolings. A short history of another prodigy, Mr. Marriot, mises, and alwayes acknowledgment to be ever "The Cormorant, or Great Eater of Gray's Inn," who always eat twelve pounds of meat daily, 1652, brought fourteen guineas. And Leuricke's "Most wonderful and pleasant History of Titus and Gisippus," 1562, though a poem of only ten pages, and, as a poem, contemptible, being however extremely rare, sold for twenty-four pounds, thirteen shillings, and sixpence. Could we be sure of this taste for mere rarities continuing, a man could do nothing more profitable, in the way of book-buying, than to purchase all the trash of his day. It would only have to be kept snug for a couple of centuries, and then, what nobody cared for once, might purchase a principality, or endow an hospital for brainless authors in all time to come.

"Your most thanckfull and loving fraind, "NAT. FIELD." "The money shall be abated out of the money remayns for the play of Mr. Fletcher and ours.

"ROB. DABORNE."†

"I have ever found you a true loving friend to mee; and in so small a suite, it beinge honest, I hope you will not fail us."

(Indorsed) "PHILIP MASSINGER." "Received by mee, Robert Davison, of Mr. Hinchlow, for the use of Mr. Daborne, Mr. Field, Mr. Massinger, the

sum of vl.

THE BIRTH-PLACE OF SHAKSPEARE.

HOGARTH'S NO-DEDICATION.

HOGARTH Wrote a History of the Arts, which he intended to publish as a supplement to the " Analysis of Beauty," and even went so far as to write the dedication for it, which was as follows:

"The No-Dedication; not dedicated to any prince in Christendom, for fear it might be thought an idle piece of arrogance; not dedicated to any man of quality, for fear it might be thought too assuming; not dedicated to any learned body of men, as either of the Universities or the Royal Society, for fear it might be thought an uncommon piece of vanity; nor dedicated to any one particular friend, for fear of offending another; therefore dedicated to nobody: but if for once we may suppose nobody to be everybody, as everybody is often said to be nobody, then is this work "By their most humble and devoted "WILLIAM HOGARTH."

THOUGH the shrine of many a Catholic saint has had more numerous, yet none had ever more sincere or enlightened devotees, than those who have paid homage to the genius of Shakspeare, at Stratford-on-Avon. The room which is there shown as that in which the immortal bard was born, is covered in every part with the names of visitors; even the ceiling, the sides, the projecting chimney, and every partition of the surface, have been written on. A list of the names would exhibit all the rank, charac-dedicated to everybody. ter, and genius of the age. Among these names are those of his present Majesty, the Duke of Clarence, and of at least one-half of the members of both Houses of Parliament, as well as those of many distinguished foreigners, among whom are Lucien Bonaparte, and the Russian and Austrian princes, who visited England since the Peace. Even the tomb of Shakspeare, and his bust, are in like manner covered with names, proud of an association with him

Nathaniel Field assisted Massinger in writing a tragedy, called "The Fatal Dowry," which formed the ground-work of Rowe's "Fair Penitent:" he was also the author of two comedies,-" A Woman's a Weathercock," and "Amends for Ladies."

+ Daborne was a clergyman, and the author of two plays, the "Christian turned Turk," and "Poor Man's Comfort."

ARTISTS' FUND.-The Subscribers to this Institutioning for Publication.

are respectfully informed, that the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING for the ELECTION of a COMMITTEE and OFFICERS for the ensuing Year, and other annual public business of the Fund, will be held at Freemason's Hall, next Wednesday Evening, the 23d Instant. The Chair will be taken at 8 o'clock, and the Ballot close at 9 precisely.

ROBERT BALMANNO, Honorary Secretary.

The two former editons having been printed at the particular request of many of the Subscribers, who were desirous of having a larger size, and the first number having been reprinted, the original Subscribers are at liberty to exchange the same for either of the two former ones, by application to their own booksellers or the pub-rious, scarce, and beautiful productions of nature; forming colleclishers.

And Literary Museum :

OR, WEEKLY MISCELLANY OF FINE ARTS, ANTIQUITIES, AND LITERARY CHIT CHAT.

By Ephraim Hardcastle.

A stamped Edition for Country Circulation, postage free, Price Tenpence.

LONDON, JUNE 26, 1824.