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of fancy were unusually great, and the effect of whose quality, but always ingenious, and sometimes amusing. compositions on paper, has seldom been equalled, knew little of construction or calculation, yet less of the contri-It touches upon subjects not very far removed from vance of habitual structures, or the modes of carrying real works into execution; though styling himself an architect. And when some pensioners of the French Academy at Rome, in the author's hearing, charged him with ignorance of plans, he composed a very complicated one, since published in his work, which sufficiently proves that the charge was not altogether groundless. Indeed, it is not unfrequent in some countries on the continent, to find ingenious composers, and able draughtsmen, with no other reading than Vignola's rules, and without any skill whatever in the executive parts, or knowledge of the sciences belonging thereto.

the vulgar, and appeals to tastes very far removed from the refined. It is singularly infectious notwithstanding, and has made a progress which strikes us as being not a little alarming. The class of literature, (if it be literature) to which we allude, is that which belongs to “the Fancy.” Until very recently it was unknown to our literature, and is at present known to ours only. True, there were dictionaries, glossaries, and grammars of the slang dialects,-but there was nothing more. It was a spoken-not a written language. It lived upon the tongue, but it had no existence in “ black and white." Boxiana had never been composed— Pierce Egan was still in his teens-and Police Reports were a poor matter-of-fact sort of business. Fancy " itself scarcely formed a part of the English

"The

In countries where mechanics assume the profession, and arrogate the title of architects, men of this sort abound, they are by foreigners styled portfolio-artists: and their productions, collected without judgment, from different stores, must ever be discordant; without determined style, marked character, or forcible eflect; always without novelty, and having seldom either grandeur or beauty to recommend them. They are practices in building, gene-public. It was a mere sent in society,-an excresrally more imperfect than those of the stage.

"As to a painter, or sculptor, so to an architect, a thorough mastery in design is indispensably necessary, it is the sine qua non, and the mai a bastanza of Carlo Maratta, is full as applicable in one art as in the other; for if the architect's mind be not copiously stored with correct ideas of forms, and habituated by long practice to vary and combine them as the fancy operates; or if his hand has not the power of representing with precision and force, what the imagination suggests, his compositions will ever be feeble, formal, and ungraceful, and he will stand unqualified to discharge the principal part of his duty, which is, to invent and dispose all that enters into his design, and to guide the painter, sculptor, and every other artist, or artificer, by advice and precise directions, as far at least, as relates to the outline and effect of their performances, that all may be the efforts of one mind, master of its object, and all the parts be calculated to produce a general uniformly supported whole; which never can be the case when artists and artificers are left to themselves, as each, naturally enough, considers the perfection of his own part, sometimes without comprehending, and always without attention to, the whole composition. Even Bernini, though an able architect. could seldom refrain from sacrificing architecture to the graces of sculpture and painting, the ill consequences of which, are sufficiently conspicuous in several of his works, but particularly in his piazza of St. Peter's, where the statues placed upon the collonnades, instead of standing upright as they should do, in all such situations, are so whimsically contorted, that at a little distance they seem to be performing a dance, and very considerably injure the effect of that magnificent approach to the first building in the Christian world.

The engravings we shall notice in the next number.

REVIEWS.

Mornings at Bow Street. A Selection of the most Humourous and Entertaining Reports which have appeared in the Morning Herald. By J. WIGHT. London: Baldwin, 1824.

WITHIN the last few years, a species of literature has sprung up in this country, of a character altogether novel. It is not perhaps of the very highest and purest

cence on the great body politic,—an unsightly wart.— a gross humour, ugly, unhealthy, and discreditable. How mighty a change has taken place even in our days!-This despised and degraded class has grown up into an immense importance. "The Fancy" includes much of what is elevated in rank, and nearly all that is powerful for strength in the empire. Noblemen, statesmen, scholars, are its patrons :-the middling and lower orders of society are its professors :-it is regarded as a proud characteristic of the English nation: its language is making vast acquisitions in copiousness every day, and is spoken or understood by all who pretend to be accomplished: the records of its proceedings form a part of our general literature, which even the fair sex does not scorn to peruse. How far all this is a credit and a pride to the nation, we do not venture to assert. We have our private opinionsand intend to keep them private. Still it is our duty to notice whatever works of this branch of English literature come fairly before us, and therefore it is that we direct the reader's attention to the present volume. Police Reports enter largely into the literature of "The Fancy,"-since the most eminent of its followers are to be found at some period of their lives, spending a morning or two at Bow-street. The editor of this volume seems to be singularly well fitted for his office, since he is deeply versed in the dialect, and appears to be intimately acquainted with the pursuits and characters of his heroes. But something more than mere knowledge is required in the annalist of a Police Office; he must have judgment, taste, and imagination, and all these Mr. Wight possesses in full perfection. We have not space enough to establish his claim to all this high praise, but the few extracts we can afford, will shew that it is by no means exaggerated. In the first place only let the reader look at the following titles, which are taken promiscuously from the contents:-A Costermonger's Query, the Loves of M'Gillies and Julia Cob, Tipsy Julia, Cupid in Chambers, Beauty and the Broomstick, a Coachman's

Conscience, a Small Taste of Jimakey, the Rape of the
Wig, a Brummyjum Out-rider.

Here is a fine field for a slang historian. And now as to a specimen of his talents at dressing up a case in the first style for the public enjoyment. The following is the story of the "Loves of M'Gilles and Julia Cob:"

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"Mr. Robert M'Gillies was brought before the magistrates to answer the complaint of Miss Julia Cob. Mr. Robert M Gillies was a tall, stout, portly, middle-aged, Scottish gentleman; and Miss Julia Cob, a diminutive Hibernian young lady, in a richly braided dark blue habit, smart riding hat, long black veil, and red morocco ridicule. Miss Julia Cob made a multitude of complaints, by which it appeared that whilst she was living a gay and happy spinster, with her friends in Dublin, she was courted by Mr. Robert M'Gillies, whose card bore the initials M.P.' after his name: and she, conceiving that M.P. meant Member of Parliament,' lent a willing ear to his honied words. That she afterwards discovered his profession was the taking of likenesses, and that the M.P. meant Miniature Painter. That notwithstanding the disappointment of this discovery she continued her affections towards him, and eventually consented to come with him to England -not as his wife, but as his friend pro tempore; for she could not think of taking up with a miniature painter for life. That they did come to England accordingly and took up their rest in London; but from that period Mr. Robert M'Gillies became an altered man; he relinquished his M.P. profession, and lived entirely upon her means, spending almost his whole time in smoking and drinking, lying in bed with his clothes on, and amusing himself between whiles with tearing his and her garments in shreds and tatters. That at length her affection for him began to evaporate, and being much impoverished by these vagaries of his, she determined To whistle him off, and let him down the wind to prey on fortune,' as Othello talked of doing by the gentle Desdemona. That in consequence of this determination she got herself acquainted' with another lover-not a Scottish and sottish soi disant M.P.. but a real unadulterated, and genuine Irish Mem. Par.-one who had taken a house for her in Norfolk-street, Strand, furnished it fit for a princess to live in, and provided her with all things fitting for a lady in her situation. That Mr. Robert M'Gillies felt himself so dissatisfied at this new arrangement, that he forced his way into her new abode in Norfolk-street, turned her char-woman out of doors, broke her glasses, tore her clothes to ribbons, spat in her face seventeen times, and swore he loved her so that she should never live with any other jontleman till she was completely dead and done with. -Nay more-having done all this, he laid himself down on the best bed in the house, and, taking out his pipe, began smoking away as he used to do at home; though she told || him her new lover couldn't abide the smell of baccah.' "Under these circumstances, Miss Julia Cob begged the magistrates to interpose the strong arm of the law between her and Mr. Robert M'Gillies. He was a strong, powerful man, she said, and she verily believed he would never let her go to her grave alive-a figure of speech which she afterwards explained to mean-that she verily believed he intended to do her some grievous bodily harm-or, in other words, he intended to prevent her going to her grave in the natural way.

"The officers who took Mr. Robert M'Gillies into custody, stated that they found him-though in the middle of the day-stretched out at full length in bed, with all his clothes on, except his coat, and smoking a long pipe; and on the chair by his bedside was a quantity of tobacco, and a large jorum of ale.

Mr. Robert M'Gillies who had been with difficulty re

strained while these statements were making, now entered
upon his defence in form and manner following:-
"She is a villain, and will swear any thing!' (thump-
ing the table and bursting into tears.) But I don't
blame her, I blame her evil advisers.' (Another thump
and more tears.) She has been heard as a woman, and
now let me be heard as a man!' (A louder voice, a heavier
thump, and a greater flood of tears.) I was a bright man
before I knew her!-Her name is not Juliu Cob. She has
deceived many a man under the name of Julia Cob.' Her
right name is Jane Spencer! and she knows it. I don't
want to go near her, I tell you! (A fresh supply of tears.)
love her better than my own heart's blood; but I don't
care-I won't be used in this manner-I'll be d- -d if I
will! Contound her and them altogether, I say! But I
don't blame her-I blame the devils she has got about her.
she, let you and I go down upon our bare knees and swear
She said to me one day, says she, Come, M'Gillies,' says
to be true to each other for ever and ever!' and now she
uses me in this manner!-Oh! oh! oh!' (Lots of tears.)
What am I brought here for? What have I done? An-
swer me that!-Oh! oh! oh!' &c.

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"Mr. Robert M'Gillies filled up the pauses in this speech, by licking in with his tongue the tears, &c. which flowed plentifully through the stubble on his upper lip; and having made an end of speaking

"The Magistrate told him he was a very foolish man, and Miss Julia Cob was not a bit better than she should be; nevertheless she must not be subjected to personal violence, and he therefore must put in bail to keep the peace towards her-himself in 50%. and two sureties in 251. each.

been bound for him in a charge of assault upon the same
"It appeared, however, that his friends had previously
lady, and the magistrate declaring their recognizances for-
forward again.
feited by this his subsequent violence, they declined coming

"So Mr. Robert M'Gillies was consigned to his own lamentations in the dreary dungeons of Tothill-fields, Bridewell, and the false-hearted Julia Cob returned to her new lover in Norfolk-street."

But even this-delicious as it is—must give an imperiect notion of the volume, unless we could at the same time print Cruickshank's illustrations. M'Gillies in bed at mid-day, smoking his pipe, and drinking his ale, is one of the most amusing sketches we ever saw. And they are all excellent. George Cruickshank is certainly without a living rival in this walk of art. The book altogether is excessively amusing, and whatever its merits may be as a record of taste and morality, it certainly is one of the most laughable collections of anecdotes, illustrating a particular branch of national humour, that we ever met with.

A Tour in Germany, and some of the Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empires, in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822. London: Hurst and Co. 2 vols. 1824.

(Contiuned from p. 233.)

WE resume our notice of this author's clever volumes. -His sketches of the Rhenish towns are in every respect interesting. They are not mere transcriptions from guide books and printed travels, but the result of personal inspection, sagaciously winnowed of all common place disquisition, and thrown into the most amusing and instructive forms. The moral as well as

"Of the fifty thousand inhabitants who form the popu

the physical appearances of the country come within his notice, and are ably described. It is thus helation of Frankfort, about seven thousand are Jews. Fertouches on the fanaticism of the notorious Sand, when rapidly in a city whose favorite pursuits are so congenial to haps they might have been expected to increase more speaking of Manheim :— the trafficking spirit of Israel, while its constitution gave them a toleration in religion, and security of property, which they obtained only at a much later period from more powerful masters. They are noisome in more senses than one. They inhabit chiefly one quarter of the town, which, them from the rest of the community, repels the Christian though no longer walled in, as it once was, to separate intruder, at every step, with filth much too disgusting to be particularized. In the driving of their traffic they are importunate as Italian beggars. Laying in wait in his little dark shop, or little tattered booth, or, if these be buried in some obscure and sickening alley, prowling at the corner where it joins some more frequented street, the Jew darts out on every passenger of promise. He seems to possess a peculiar talent at discovering, even in the addresses, and seldom fails to hit the right language. Babel of Frankfort, the country of the person whom he Unless thrown off at once, he sticks to you through half a street, whispering the praises of his wares mingled with your own; for, curving the spare, insignificant body into obsequiousness, and throwing into the twinkling gray eye as much condescension as its keenly expressed love of gain will admit, he conducts the whole oration as if he were sacrificing himself to do you a favour of which nobody must know. When all the usual recommendations of great bargains fail, he generally finishes the climax with On my soul and conscience, Sir, they are genuine smuggled goods.'

"It seems to be the lot of the Jew to make himself sin

"I found the murderer, who had been executed shortly before, still the subject of general conversation. Though his deed, besides its moral turpitude, has done Germany much political mischief, the public feeling seemed to treat his memory with much indulgence. Most people, except the students, were liberal enough to acknowledge that Sand had done wrong in committing assassination, but they did not at all regard him with disrespect, much less with the abhorrence due to a murderer. The ladies were implacable in their resentment at his execution. They could easily forgive the necessity of cutting off his head, but they could not pardon the barbarity of cutting off, to prepare him for the block, the long dark locks which curled down over his shoulders, after the academical fashion. People found many things in his conduct and situation which conspired to make them regard him as an object of pity, sometimes of admiration, rather than of blame. Nobody regrets Kotzebue. To deny him, as many have done, all claims to talent and literary merit, argues sheer ignorance or stupidity; but his talent could not redeem the imprudence of his conduct, and no man ever possessed in greater perfection the art of making enemies wherever he was placed. Every body believed, too, that Sand, however frightfully erroneous his ideas might be, acted from what he took to be a principle of public duty, and not to gratify any private interest. This feeling, joined to the patience and resolution with which he bore up under fourteen months of grievous bodily suffering, the kindliness of temper which he manifested towards every gular even in trades which he drives in common with one else, and the intrepidity with which he submitted to Christians, much more palpably than he differs from them the punishment of his crime, naturally procured him in in their religious faith. In a Protestant country a Catholic Germany much sympathy and indulgence. Such palliating you open his prayer-book, or follow him into his church; is not known, nor in a Catholic country a Protestant, till feelings towards the perpetrator of such a deed are, no doubt, abundantly dangerous. If they pass the boundary but the peculiarities which keep the Jew separate from the by a single hair's-breadth, they become downright defen-world belong to every-day life. It is true, that, all over ders of assassination, yet one cannot entirely rid himself Europe, individuals are to be found who seldom repair to of them. It is one of the greatest mischiefs of such an the synagogue, and have overcome the terrors of barbers example, that it seduces weak heads and heated fancies and bacon; but these are regarded in heart, by their more into a ruinous coquetry with principles which make every orthodox brethren, as the freethinkers and backsliders of man his neighbour's executioner. Still, it would be untrue the tribes of Israel, whose sinful compliances must exclude to say that it was only his brother students who regarded them from the church triumphant, though the ungodly Sand with these indulgent eyes. To them, of course, he portion of mammon, which they have contrived to amass, appeared a martyr in a common cause. I would not have may render it prudent to retain them nominally within the told him to do it,' said a student of Hiedelberg to me, pale of the communion below. The peculiarities of the but I would cheerfully have shaken hands with him after general mass form a lasting wall of partition between them he did it. Even in the more grave and orderly classes of and their Christian neighbours. In his modes of appellasociety, although his crime was never justified or applauded, tion, in his meats, in his amusements, the Jew is a separaI could seldom trace any inclination to speak of him with tist from the world, uniting himself to a solitary community, much rigour. When the executioner had struck, the not only in his religious faith, which no one minds, but in crowd rushed upon the scaffold, every one anxious to pick matters which enter into the spirit, and descend to the details up a few scattered hairs, or dip a ribbon, a handkerchief, or of ordinary life. Whether you dine, or pray, or converse, or a scrap of paper, in his blood. Splinters were chipped correspond with a pure and conscientious Jew, some pecufrom the reeking block, and worn in medallions as his hair liarity forces upon your notice, that he is not one of the was in rings, false and revered as the reliques of a saint. people; and in these, more than in the peculiarities of To the students of Hiedelberg was ascribed the attempt to their religious creed, rests the execution of the curse, which still keeps the descendants of Israel a distinct and Sow with Forget-me-not the field on which he was beheaded; and which they have baptized by the name of despised people among the Gentile nations." Sand's Ascension Meadow. Though punished as an homicide, he was laid in consecrated ground; and, till measures were taken by the police to prevent it, fresh flowers and branches of weeping willow were nightly strewed, by unknown hands, on the murderer's grave."

But if the Jews are rather haughtily treated, so are the Governors of Germany. Nothing can be more severe, and at the same time more just than the remarks on the Germanic Diet, and the policy of the two We shall omit noticing his remarks on the Univer-great states Austria and Prussia. They are worth a sity of Heidelberg until we come to Jena. Frankfort receives an ample consideration. The description of the Jews is smart enough, if not remarkably liberal :

whole volume of dissertation. This power of condensing a vast deal of information into a narrow space approaches very near to genius. It proves at least

that the writer understands his subject. There is no portion of these volumes which has given us greater pleasure than that which relates to Weimar. This town-or rather village-has for many years been regarded as the German Athens. Fortunate in having for its ruler a liberal minded and well educated prince, it has long been the point where German intellect delights to centre. Wieland, Goethe, and Schiller have been the brightest stars of that brilliant constellation of genius and science, whose rays have streamed from this little town over the whole extent of Germany. Our author has done justice to the Grand Duke as will be seen in the following extract, which is only a part of his character :

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were absent with the fragments of the defeated army; the the flying peasantry already bore testimony of the outrages French troops were let loose on the territory and capital; which are inseparable from the presence of brutal and insolent conquerors. The hope that she might be useful to the people in this hour of trial, when it was only to her they could look, prevailed over the apprehensions of personal inof the French, collected round her in the palace the greater sult and danger; she calmly awaited at Weimar the approach part of the women and children who had not fled, and shared with them herself the coarse and scanty food which she was able to distribute among them. The Emperor, on Duchess immediately requested an interview with him. his arrival, took up his abode in the palace, and the Grand His first words to her were, Madam, I make you a present of this palace; and forthwith he broke out into the same strain of invective against Prussia and her Allies, and sneers at the folly of endeavouring to resist himself, which he soon afterwards launched against the unfortunate Louisa at Tilsit. He said more than once with great vehemence, On dit que je veux etre Empereur de l'ouest; et,' stampfounded at the firm and dignified tone in which the Grand Duchess met him. She neither palliated her husband's political conduct, nor supplicated for mercy in his political misfortunes. Political integrity, as a faithful ally of Prussia, had, she told him, dictated the one, and, if he had any regard for political principle and fidelity to alliances in a monarch, he could not take advantage of the other. The interview was a long one; the imperial officers in waiting could not imagine how a man, who reckoned time thrown away even on the young and beautiful of the sex, could spend so much with a princess whose qualifications were more of a moral and intellectual nature. But from that moment, Napoleon treated the family of Weimar with a degree of respect and consideration, which the more powerful of his satellites did not experience."

"The Grand Duke is the most popular prince in Europe, and no prince could better deserve the attachment which his people lavish upon him. We have long been accustomed to laugh at the pride and poverty of pettying with his foot, je le serai, Madame.' He was conGerman princes; but nothing can give a higher idea of the respectability which so small a people may assume, and the quantity of happiness which one of these insignificant monarchs may diffuse around him, than the example of this little state, with a prince like the present Grand Duke at its head. The mere pride of sovereignty, frequently most prominent where there is only the title to justify it, is unknown to him; he is the most affable man in his dominions, not simply with the condescension which any prince can learn to practise as a useful quality, but from goodness of heart. His talents are far above mediocrity; no prince could be less attached to the practices of arbitrary power, while his activity, and the conscientiousness with which he holds himself bound to watch over the welfare of his handful of subjects, have never allowed him to be blindly guided by ministers. Much of his reign has fallen in evil times. He saw his principality overrun with greater devastation than had visited it since the Thirty Years' War; but in every vicissitude he knew how to command the respect even of the conqueror, and to strengthen himself more firmly in the affections of his subjects. During the whole of his long reign, the conscientious administration of the public money, anxiety for the impartiality of justice, the instant and sincere attention given to every measure of public benefit, the ear and hand always open to relieve individual misfortune, the efforts which he has made to elevate the political character of his people, crowned by the voluntary introduction of a representative government, have rendered the Grand Duke of Weimar the most popular prince in Germany among his own subjects, and ought to make him rank among the most respectable in the eyes of foreigners, so far as respectability is to be measured by personal merit, not by square miles of territory, or millions of revenue."

The Grand Duchess-his mother-comes in for her share of eulogy :—

"Her Royal Highness is a princess of the house of Darmstadt; she is now venerable by her years, but still more by the excellence of her heart, and the strength of her character. In these little principalities, the same goodness of disposition can work with more proportional effect than if it swayed the sceptre of an empire; it comes more easily and directly into contact with those towards whom it should be directed; the artificial world of courtly rank and wealth has neither sufficient glare nor body to shut out from the prince the more checquered world that lies below. After the battle of Jena, which was fought within ten miles of the walls, Weimar looked to her alone for advice and protection. Her husband and younger son

The literature of Weimar is minutely discussed, and the characters of Wieland, Schiller, and especially Goethe, given at considerable length. The opinions of the author are expressed with great frankness, but we cannot agree with him in the position that Schiller is the first of the German poets Goethe in our opinion is considerably his superior. After giving a character of the people and their amusements our author enters into an examination of the constitution of the Duchy of Weimar. His politics are quite on the liberal side, and the sketch is instructive enough. He then proceeds to Jena-but the subject of German Universities is important enough for a separate article.

(To be continued.)

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Tyers," an hour before the worship'd sun peer'd forth the
golden window of the east," and prowling to my study, in-
stead of stealing into bed, I sat me down in the freshness of
the dawn, and taking my paper and my pen-the devil!
that cat has overturned my ink!
I do not pretend to know how it may be with others, Mr.
Editor, but I never undertook any thing out of season, but
some devilment of this kind seemed to spring up an impe-
diment to my doings, as though the hum-drum fates, or for-
tune, or the household gods that preside over our house,
(for it was so with my lather) had resolved to teach us
METHOD. Is it not a fact, I ask your worship in sober sin-
cerity, that to plodding method nothing is denied, whilst to
independent genius, I was going to say,-only that I have
naught of that sublime thing;-whilst to one, then, who
would set about matters out of the common way, the invi-
sible ministers of mischief dance a midnight fandango
amidst his tools?

It was a maxim with my dad, who was of the Shandean
school, that a man's wits were best sharpened by love or by
spite. Now mine were whetted by both; that is to say, by ||
regard for thee, Master Greybeard, and by spleen against
the invisible sprite who had played me the trick. I made
a vow to write a folio before I broke my fast, and thought of
my colour-box. There! said 1, snapping my fingers at the
Fates, and taking a china saucer from my chimney, and a
little water, rubbed away at a stick of Indian ink. This
was ready wit at a pinch-hey, Master Hardcastle You,
I have heard, take best brown rappee-the very best of
which sort of tabac that ever connoisseur regaled his nose
with, in my time, at least, was a caddie presented to me by
your old friend Mr. Rudolph Ackermann of the Strand. It
came from Frankfort, and is worth its weight in Oriental
pearls.

profound respect-doubtless knew that I served you with
the last week's dish of scraps, stolen from the Reverend
Mr. Dallaway's conservatory of arts, with a little of my
own garnish. Why do you not notice that very clever,
very cheap. very interesting, and very useful volume, writ-
ten by a fellow labourer in the cause, too, in his parsonage.
Fie! is this your respect for the church? What would old
Uncle Zachary say of this apostacy? Look to it, friend
Ephraim. Nota bene, the book is published by Priestly
and Weale.
What says your worship to the last? Will you be gra-
ciously pleased to accept another contribution, purloined-
as before.

GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI GUERCINO DA CENTO.

'Ods my life! This Guercino has as many names as he, that Spanish Don, who could not get entrance in the inn for want of room for so many, and slept solus in his cloak, on the back of his mule.

"Malvasia gives a list of his works, from which we col-
lect that he painted 106 altar-pieces for churches, 144
(vulgo, a gross) large historical pictures, besides his works
in fresco, his numerous Madonnas, portraits, and land-
scapes in private collections!! He lived 76 years."
This, Mr. Editor, I have no doubt, is a conundrum or a
hoax. Indubitably these were five distinct, individual,
separate men, who, cutting off the six, and averaging them
at seventy, gives the product, three hundred and fifty years,
or three centuries and a half, which is borne out by compa-
rison of the labours of the moderns.

Wilkie produces about three pictures in two years—
Mulready, in two years, half that number-
Calcott, one picture in one year.

The great Turner's last year's contribution may be likened to the list of deaths, with their causes, as printed in the parish-clerk's bills of mortality.

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None.

What a morn! The bright mist through which I behold our parish-steeple makes it quite another thing. Were you ever at Oxford? and if there, did you ever mount to the Killed by a cow top of the theatre about an hour after the sun was up, and Yet these, Mr. Editor, are all R.A.s, and distinguished then circumspice? If not, get some hackney to help you members of the British school. Poor Wilson repeated forward with your work, then crib a week from the desk, || himself, it is said. These great geniuses will not overstock and get another hackney, and ride thither; for one of your the market at this rate of proceeding. Their works already faculty should not die ignorant of such a spectacle. In a are scarce as the scarcest of the old masters. How do you fine morning like this, it exhibits three-quarter, yea, half- account for this? for "I am only a looker-on at Verona.” length portraits of a thousand celestial palaces. Palette and maulstick! 'tis a finer sight than standing on your head and looking up at the skies!

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LIONARDO DA VINCI.

Lanzi, who fancied he heard the neighing of the horses in Borgagnoni's Battle Piece, observes, "Il tanto celebre ritratto di Mona Lisa, lavoro de quattro anni, e non dato mai per finito." It is not known how this portrait was brought to England. It was given to Sir Joshua Reynolds by the late Duke of Leeds.

This great painter, who excelled even the Admirable This is the season for walking abroad. The atmosphere! | Crichton, in painting, in fighting, in dancing, and in poetis it not a prism? How prismatic was old Nosey Wilson.ising, offers an illustrious apology for Messrs. Calcott, What a rout about him just now! It is not too late, how- Wilkie, Mulready, and Turner; for he painted "The ever. Pull away, my worthies-you may prevent another Mona Lisa sitting in a chair. She was the wife of Francesco wreck! Cuyp, too, was not he prismatic? But we are for Giocondo: her portrait said to have employed Lionardo the English school. So was Reynolds, and sometimes during FOUR YEARS. when he was sober, so was that wayward genius Morland. Jackson, is he not a capital colourist too! I should like to steal his palette. But we have a knot of first-rate clever fellows, Lawrence, Beechey, Phillips, Owen, Ward, Tur- || ner, Callcott, Wilkie, Cooper, Leslie, Collins, Mulready, the able Northcote too- the patriarch of English historics; then there's Hilton, Etty, Chalon, and his brother, the idle rogue, who has given us nothing since his French Market. Rouse him up, Mr. Editor,-bid him paint "another and another." What a host of water-colour worthies besides, to use your old-fashioned phrases moreover. I wish I were two hundred years old, and these were all dead, from my inmost heart. I would turn auctioneer or picture-dealer, and make a mountain of gold. I'd write their lives, immortalize them and myself, live in style another century or so, and die in a greenish sort of oldish age.

You who are of the family of the Know-alls—I say it in

• Vauxhall.

FRANCISCO ALBANI.

"Albano is styled the Anacreon of Painting," says Lanzi.

AUGUSTINO CARACCI.

Augustino Caracci, as an engraver, may be reckoned among the more celebrated artists of Italy; his works

are numerous.

Our facetious correspondent doubtless need not be told, that these distinguished painters execute many fine works that are not publicly exhibited.-EDITOR.

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