of the last quarter of the nineteenth century can, by possibility, exhibit an equal degree of national advancement in a given time, as that which distinguishes his present Majesty's reign, owing to the various fields of science and art having necessarily some limit-some boundary to the efforts of human genius and perseverance. We have undertaken the task, and mean to pursue it as a duty, to endeavour, by means of our miscellany, to call forth the fostering hand of taste and patronage for the support and advancement of every class of the fine arts, without distinction or preference. We therefore naturally include music in our view, from the vast influence it exercises in the mental refinement, and social enjoyments of our species. We perfectly harmonize with the views of the enlightened projectors of the New "Royal Academy of Music," in blending the excellencies of the different schools, by selecting professors, for the instruction of their infant establishment, indiscriminately from any country, provided their qualifications are of the highest class. This arrangement will do more towards eradicating what is usually termed "national systems," in musical science, than any measure that could be devised. And if we may venture a prophecy on the subject, we should say that the science of music will have made the most rapid strides in this country, ere another generation be past, from the very system adopted in this young institution: it is calculated to afford what may be called classical instruction in every departOur country was formerly reproached by foreigners, as ment of music, scientific and practical, vocal or instrumental. not being a musical nation. But whoever will take a retro- It will therefore supersede the necessity of sending musical spective glance at the patronage which has been uniformly students to the continental cities, as heretofore uniformly afforded to foreign "Artistes," even from the first esta-practised, in order to procure the best instruction, and imblishment of the original Royal Academy of Music in prove their musical taste. 1720 down to the present day-will agree with us, that if the English be not a musical people, they at least manifest a strong wish to be so considered, in paying such inordinate terms for the kind assistance of those ladies and gentlemen who condescend to come over from the continent for their instruction and amusement. SKETCHES FROM THE CAUSEWAY. A. "But to the intent that every man may knowe "At Christmas, I no more desire a rose, Shakspeare. It is, however, the interest of the parties concerned, to endeavour to perpetuate the idea that the English are not only at present inferior, but that they are also incapable of attaining the same degree of science and practical excellence in the art of music which foreigners possess. And it must be confessed, that the management of the Italian Opera in this country, has in a great degree confirmed this opinion, by the almost exclusive engagement of foreign vocal performers, and thus not giving native talent an opportunity of exhibition. While the direction of this establishment is placed under the controul of Italians, it is obvious that they will be inclined to keep down all competition from English performers. This result may be expected, not only from personal motives, but to maintain the supremacy of the Italian school of music, in contradistinction to the works of the great German composers. We are sorry to see the new director of this establishment follow up this exclusive system só rigidly since he has assumed the command. So far as lay in his power, we believe he has not, in a single instance, admitted the performance of any other than his own operas. The only exceptions during the season, according to the best of our recollection, being Mayer's "Il Fanatico per la Musica," for the purpose of having the splendid talents of Madame Catalani, it being understood that this lady is not partial to the music of Rossini; and "Il Don Giovanni," which Madame Caradori shewed the good taste of selecting for her be-frolic while the curds were preparing, the screaming poulnefit, and which proved, by the select audience assembled on that evening, that both the lady and the illustrious composer of that beautiful opera, are equally favourites with the great majority of English amateurs, and must continue to be, so long as pathos and purity of taste maintain their proper level. 66 A GREAT deal of useless learning was parading itself through my brain this morning, respecting the shews and revelries to which Biron alludes in the above lines, when the sun, bright and warm, shone through my windows and called me up as if still to go A Maying.'"Thick coming iancies" crowded my recollections when I thought of those blithe years when curds and cream were the luxuries of this day's pastime, and had a value they possessed at no other time, because provided out of our own slender stock. I yet see the gay rogues who with me bounded along the way to the rural fete; I yet see the anxious, doubtful looks with which we tried our arithmetic in counting our pence, and apportioning the charges before we encountered the housewife who furnished our cakes and milk. I could yet tell the havoc we made about the farm yard, during our unlicensed try flying in all directions from us; the poor dog limping about from an unlucky blow of some mischievous urchin, the cat peeping from below the great arm-chair, to which she had retreated as her strong hold, and sadly wiping from her face the curds with which we had bespattered it. I almost feel myself perched on the still leafless ashes which surrounded the farm yard, and grinning defiance at the angry churl who growled on the knaves who were be Our object, however, is not to censure either the Italian school of music, or the eminent professors of that nation, at present engaged at the King's Theatre. We may go far-yond his reach, and caused all this hurly-burly in his rural ther, by saying, that the annals of the Italian opera in this country have never shewn such a constellation of talent at any one period, as that which has been collected by Signior Benelli during the present season. We of course only allude to the department of vocal and instrumental music; being no judges of the art and mystery of cutting capers or twirling pirouettes. Our wish is, if possible, to see that establishment, called (improperly) the King's Theatre, conducive to the improvement and advancement of our own school of music, instead of being exclusively devoted to the maintainance of alien talent. And on this ground only do we indulge in these remarks. empire. I had no sooner opened my shutters, than half-adozen of strange figures in the street greeted me with nods and smiles, then forming a circle round a fellow making woful music of Pan's pipe, danced in a style which gave a very tolerable idea of the first appearance of the savages to Robinson Crusoe. These were the chimney sweepers who have retained a portion of the saturnalia for their own especial use. At this moment one of them, as merry as a satyr, is skipping about with his little wooden platter, on which he rattles with a stick. One half of his dress glitters with gold leaf, and soiled artificial flowers, the other remains begrimed with soot. His face reminded me of the ef feets which painters produce by artificial lights,-one section spoke of his morning's work,-the other blazed in all the clearness which soap and contrast could give to it-that he has seen one, out of the workshop of a statuary, it seemed as if Phoebus and Plato had been knit together. Two ladies danced on each side of him, on whom he bestowed alternate smiles, and who, before the gambols of the day were passed, might perhaps quarrel about the complexion and dress of their gallant. like the captious knights who fought about the colour of the shield of the statue, seen from opposite sides of the road. The " newfangled shows of May," were matters of abomination to the Puritans, and the topic on which their virulence delighted to expatiate:-they had some reason in their complaints of them. if the following may be trusted as a genuine description, of the Floral or May Games: "I (Flora) bid men cast off gravity, Old crones that scarce have tooth or ey, It was well for them that could exert themselves so manfully, on any day of the year,-and shame on the ill nature which banished a pastime, which realized all the wonders which vapour baths and shampooing have in vain promised to our rheums and aches. FLEET STREET. THIS street has always been famed for its shows-it is the region to which monsters seemed indigenous-the very garden of Hesperides, where the dragons would have commanded as many admirers as the golden fruit they guarded. Our early plays are full of allusions to the shows which haunted this quarter, and to the pictures hung on the outside, which were employed by our forefathers to give a foretaste to the onlookers of the greater wonders within. One of the characters in Ben Jonson's Play of the Alchymist, says, "What should my knave advance to draw this company? he hung out no banners of a strange calf with five legs to be seen, or a huge lobster with six claws. While I am in this land of marvels, where naked Indians, strange fishes,' and monsters had their former abode, it might seem ungallant to pass over the pretensions of the mermaid, to courtesy and observance." Since the days of Shakspeare, not a year has passed, in which we have not been told of the appearance of this mysterious lady, who is eternally represented at sea. combing her hair, and studious of her toilet: and little wonder if while courting the graces, she was averse to approaches made at so unseasonable a moment. But this coquettish shyness has only increased our deference for her we know as little at this hour of her physical resemblances, as they did two centuries since, and yet all this while, the mermaid has shared with the grim Saracen the honours of our signboards, and in the days of Shakspeare, gave name to a celebrated inn, which was the resort of the finest wits of the age. Every one knows that we had a visit about two years ago, from this most equivocal personage, and her disappearance, under mysterious circumstances, was the subject of much and anxious speculation, till it was at length whispered with all the caution which the matter required, that she was, (proh pudor) under the protection of the Chancellor, who I hope has by this time found out what kind of lady he had to deal with. But trifling apart, the belief in the mermaid is one of the most singular of our popular errors, and prejudices, if we may be allowed to call it such. racter; for no one short of a lunatic would endeavour to prove the reality of a bydra, a sphinx, or a dragon, still less or apart from the easel of the painter. Like many other matters, it is much easier, and perhaps more reasonable, to admit the existence of an animal in the sea, with a certain degree of resemblance to the human form, which we chuse to call a mermaid, than totally to discredit it. Had we never seen an ape, or some of the baboon species approaching most nearly to us. would we have believed the traveller who first vouched the fact? And why not something similar in the sea. where from the greater difficulty of near inspection, there is of course the wider field opened for exaggeration and fiction, respecting the qualities and pretensions of the animal, to share with us the face divine? There is this difference between a lie and a fable, that the former pretends to a reality which we will not concede to it, the other is contented with the shadowy existence which it claims, and which we generally are delighted to admit. The former may be repeated again and again, but the latter when once told remains unaltered, and stationary for ever after. The lie is therefore of a more ambitious and restless character, than the fable: the mermaid may probably be ranked under the former class, and will continue I doubt not to harass us with her pretensions to actual being, as she has done for the last 1000 years, unlike the well behaved monsters of antiquity, who have remained satisfied with the rank, properties, and description, which they received at their first birth. Shakspeare who moulds every thing to his own use, alludes to the mermaid in the beautiful passage in which the Queen narrates the manner of Ophelia's death, and adds to his description, the common tradition respecting the vocal talents of this hypothetical animal. In looking over a curious collection of old advertisements, early in the seventeenth century, I found several relating to this subject, and insert part of one of them, to prove that the showmen of those days do not disgrace their successors in Exeter Change. "In Bell Savage Yard, on Ludgate Hill, is to be seen at any hour of the day, a living mermaid: from the waist upwards of a party colour, from thence downwards is very strange and wonderful." The advertisement introduces the well known passage which describes so accurately our modern notions respecting this lady. I was returning to my lodgings a few evenings since, when my way was stopped by an immense crowd, filling All ages and all countries have had their fabulous crea- the streets, and as usual asserting its sovereignty by noise tures, and in addition to those we inherited from our own and rudeness. Forty or fifty torches occupied the centre ancestors, we have assumed the whole train which was in of the moving mass, and there was something black and fashion with the Greeks and Romans. But of all these the ponderous carried along with it, about which the attention imaginary existence is quite understood, and is never dis-of the mobility was chiefly condensed. I could have fanquieted by any attempts to give to them a more real cha-cied myself in Pekin, witnessing the feast of lanterns, and have been tempted to examine the feet of the passers pified, it at length broke through the sulphurous mass, and by, to ascertain if I was not surrounded by the club-footed || flying right over head, was frequently picked down by the race. All this hubbub, was but a poor Lamp Lighter's more cautious fowlers in the rear. But its murder was not funeral, with whom it is a general custom to be attended by always unavenged: for as it generally flew low, and each their friends, who precede the corpse covered with a white one was eager to anticipate his rival, besides that the dense frock, and carrying a torch inverted, like the Cupids in a cloud of smoke in which they moved robbed the act of all Greek procession. The poor widow was accompanied by a colour of malice prepense, they not unfrequently popped merry group of mourners, laughing and hooting; quite their shot into the faces of some unhappy wight, at a disdelighted with a cavalcade which cost her a husband. A tance, who (good easy man) had little dreamed of taking tall fellow, walked immediately before the coffin, bearing any active part in the amusements of this field of blood. an empty glass lamp which he rung to admiration, and Some few pigeons escaped for awhile by soaring high into the called forth the praise of two old women who stood by air, one of these after being secured by distance from its me, charmed with this mock pageantry, made up of me- assailants, by a kind of fatality wheeled round, made a taphor and symbols, and said to me, dont you think it downward flight, and, perched on a tree, in the very middle very nice, Sir.' of its foes. Now came the "tug of war," the tree was regularly invested, every gun cocked, presenting the front of a demi-bastion, bristling with artillery; but whistling, screaming, and shaking the tree were in vain employed to rouse him from his airy pinnacle. At length two adventurous blades, the forlorn hope of the party, filled with dire purposes of slaughter, climbed the tree, dragging their guns with them, and instantly fired, but without effect. But they themselves did not fare so well, the bird rose, and a score of pieces greeted him before he quitted the thicket of leaves:-he fell, to use the heroic phraseology, "pierced with many wounds," but at the same moment screaming and lamentation was heard from the assailants who were still among the foliage, as if they were performing his death song, or chaunting his epicedium. When they descended, their griefs were found to have a more personal concern: their soft fat faces were sorely riddled by some of the random shots, and if a guess could be hazarded on the inward thinkings, and future resolves, which suited with so woe-begone a physiognomy, they seemed BUT we are wearied with the Causeway, and sigh again for the green fields. which may seem very unreasonable to many a worthy citizen, who enjoys from his parlour window, an epitome of all their charms, in the few yards of turf, and scanty parterre which bounds his view. I have yet a sketch to take, and will finish it in the country, at a place whose name is of dreadful_import:-repeated with as much caution and reserve as the mysterious words of the Jewish Cabbala, or the hateful names of some of the infernal Deities by the timorous Heathens, and which, if properly applied, has produced as many shakings and tremblings as ever did a volcano. I mean no less a place than Chalk Farm-but I have no quarrel to settle either with my reader or my editor, but wish them to accompany me while I sketch at that celebrated spot, a PIGEON SHOOTING MATCH. At half-past one, about a score of baskets were brought into the field; at first I did not know what they were intended for, but the billing, cooing, and the cur-rooketydooing which was soon heard to issue from them, left no doubt of their purpose. Among the sportsmen were many grotesque figures ex uno disce omnes. He was dressed in buckskins, and I suppose a pair of warm comfortable stockings, (the day was what is called roasting hot,) over which were drawn thick leather hose, and stout mud boots well greased. Six pockets in his green frock coat, contained as much powder as would serve for a field day, and as much tow, as would furnish out a flax dresser's shop. He was a little apoplectic figure, and seemed like Falstaff, "as liable to heat as butter;" a man of continual heat and dissolution. About a quarter from two the match commenced, and a murderous business it really was; the party consisted of eighteen persons, each of whom had a dozen of birds. The pigeon is put into the trap which is a small square tin box, placed twenty yards distant, and as soon as the sportsman is ready to fire, a string, and the trap falls down, leaving erson pulls a bird at liberty: if it falls within a hundred yards, which distance is marked off by stakes placed in a circle round the trap, it is considered killed, if not, it is not counted. The feat is but a poor one at best; most of the pigeons were killed at the first shot, but if they escaped this ordeal, they were certainly sacrificed in the second. At least two hundred spruce cockneys, old soldiers, and ragamuffins, of every description, with guns as various as their own pretensions, were stationed round the field, like the outposts of a camp, and soon as the bird passed Morgan's fairy circle, or in plain English, the boundary, a platoon was discharged at the devoted victim; every one within a hundred yards, shut his eyes, commended himself and his fortunes to God, and blazed off his culverin with at least as much of despair as of hope, in its result. More alarmed, than hurt by all this " sharp-toothed unkindness," it turned, as if to seek a retreat by some other outlet, when it received a second assault: baffled again, it tried a third, and thus driven about, bewildered and stu to say ANNE CLARGES, Duchess of Albermarle, was the daughter of a blacksmith; who gave her an education suitable to the employment she was bred to, which was that of a milliner. As the manners are generally formed early in life, she retained something of the smith's daughter, even at her highest elevation. She was first the mistress, and afterwards the wife of General Monk; for when that general was confined in the Tower, his sempstress, Nan Clarges, was kind to him in a double capacity. It must be remembered he was then in want, and that she assisted him. Here she was got with child. She was not at all handsome, nor cleanly: her mother was one of the five women barbers, and a woman of ill-fame. A ballad was made on her and the other four: the burden of it was, THE TWENTIETH EXHIBITION of the SOCIETY of SECOND VIEW of POMPEII, Panorama, Leicester PAINTERS in WATER COLOURS is NOW OPEN at their Gallery, No. 5, Pall Mall East. Admittance 1s. Catalogue 6d. COPLEY FIELDING, Secretary. SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS, Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East. THE GALLERIES for the EXHIBITION and SALE of the WORKS of BRITISH ARTISTS, are now OPEN. W. LIN FON, Secretary. Open from 8 till dusk. Admittance ls. Catalogue Is. BRITISH INSTITUTION, PALL-MALL. THE GALLERY with a SELECTION of the WORKS of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and English Schools, will be OPENED to the Public on Wednesday next, the 19th inst. from Ten in the Morning until Six in the Evening, Admission, Is. Catalogue Is. (By Order) JOHN YOUNG, Keeper. The Subscribers to the print from Mr. West's Picture of "Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple," who have not already received their impressions, may receive them upon payment of the remainder of their Subscriptions at the British Gallery, Daily. ARTISTS' BENEVOLENT FUND, established 1810. THE SUBSCRIBERS to this INSTITUTION, and the Friends of the Fine Arts, are respectfully informed, that the FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL, will be celebrated in Freemason's Hall on Saturday the 5th of June, on which occa sion His Royal Highness Prince Leopold has kindly consented to take the Chair. The Lists of Stewards, and other particulars, will be given in future advertisements. ROBERT BALMANNO, Honorary Secretary. On the 1st of June, will be published, to be continued Monthly, No. I. Price 10s. 6d. of the CARICATURES of GILLRAY; with Historical and Po litical Illustrations, and Compendious Biographical Anecdotes and Notices. To expatiate upon the originality of style, the fertility of imagi nation, the fidelity of character, the force of expression, or the endless variety displayed in the unique designs of this Artist, would be needless; for the political works of Gillray are almost as generally known, not only in England, but on the Continent, and other foreign parts, as the events that gave them birth. Even the humorous designs of his prolific pencil, though characteristic of English manners, contain so much of" graphic point," that like the humour of his great predecessor Hogarth, they speak a language intelligible to the whole world-hence, these are equally, with his political subjects, sought by the foreign collector. By the English people then, a republication from the choicest plates, designed by their ingenious countryman, of sufficient dimensions to convey the entire spirit of the originals, cannot, we presume, be received with indifference. Many of the plates of GLLRAY are become scarce, some are worn out or destroyed, and the expence of making even a selection from his best designs, amounts to a sum, which but a small proportion of the admirers of his talent and humour could conveniently spare. The work proposed, will comprise enough of the POLITICAL, to form a connecting chain of history, during the administration of the illustrious PITT, and his able compeers: and of the HUMOUROUS, sufficient to prove that to genius, every epoch affords enough of absurdity, inconsistency, and folly, to excite the laughter, pity, or contempt of mankind. This work will contain all the best designs of this celebrated Carlcaturist; and will be published in Monthly Parts, each part to contain Nine Coloured Plates, printed on Imperial Quarto, with descriptive letter-press, price 10s. 6d. each Pait: and will, it is expected, be completed in Nine or Ten Parts-London: Published by John Miller, 5. New Bridge-street; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and Sold by all Booksellers. square J. and R. BURFORD are now EXHIBITING in their Great Room a "Second View of Pompeii," containing the Tragic Theatre, Covered Theatre, Temple of Isis, Small Forum, and many other interesting Remains, which, from their situation, could not be introduced in the First View exhibiting in the Strand. These Views were taken by Mr. J. Burford, who resided several months at Pompeii for that purpose. Open from Ten till Dusk.-Admittance Is. A VIEW of LAUSANNE is now also Exhibiting. Admittance Is Published by WETTON, 21, Fleet-street, 4to. price 10s. 6d. THE MEDICAL MAN'S COMMON PLACE BOOK. A book of this nature has long been a desideratum with medical practitioners and students. There are few men who have not, in the course of their practice, occasionally met with cases of peculiar interest, which, on some future period they have been most anxious to recal to their minds, but without success. A few intelligent practitioners, have already rendered great service to the medical profession, by keeping faithful records of the cases that have been under their inspection; and many important discoveries we are convinced would be made in the nature of the disease, if such a prac tice were to become more general. The present work is proposed with the view of enabling those gentlemen who are thus desirous of benefiting themselves and the public, to accomplish this desirable object without difficulty and with little trouble; great pains have been taken in the selection of the most useful terms, that occur in the extensive duties of a general practitioner. The leading terms in the Practice of Physic, Surgery, Midwifery, Chemistry, &c. will be found arranged alphabetically, and under each list, a blank space has been left for the insertion of any additional names that may be hereafter found necessary. Such a book kept by a hospital pupil, under the direction of the visiting surgeon and physician, would be a highly useful and valuable work to the students, and its publication be productive of great benefit to society in general. To shew the use of this work, we will suppose a surgeon meets with a case of bronchocele, in the treatment of which he is eminently successful, and after the patient is discharged, he thinks it might be useful to him at a future period, if he were to make a few memorandums of the symptoms and treatment of the disease, which he does. In the course of a few months, perhaps, a patient with a similar affection comes to him. He then wishes to find the notes he made in the former case, but for want of a properly arranged book he is unable to succeed-had such a one as the present been in his possession, he would have looked in the index, and at the word bronchocele, have marked down the number of the first blank page, and on it have written down his account of the case. At any subsequent period, however distant, if he had occasion to refer to it, it might have been found, without the slightest difficulty, or loss of time. In addition to the above, which applies equally to gentlemen in practice, and to medical students attending hospitals and dispensaries; we wish to point out to the latter, the great benefit they would derive, in carefully noting down any circumstance connected with their profession, which they may have heard or seen in the course of their day's study. It is a practice much censured by public teachers, for pupils to take notes during a lecture, as they inust unavoidably lose one part of the discourse, while writing down another. But, if in the course of their daily studies, any thing in Surgery, Chemistry, &c. should particularly strike them, on their return bome, they can set it down in their common place book, marking the page to its proper head in the index, which will enable them to find it with ease, whenever they may have occasion to recur to the subject. This will be productive of great advantage in affording them an opportunity of describing in their own words, the principal points connected with their profession, and give them an excellent opportunity of exercising their memory. And Literary Museum: OR, WEEKLY MISCELLANY OF FINE ARTS, ANTIQUITIES, AND LITERARY CHIT CHAT, By Ephraim Hardcastle. No. XXXIII.] A stamped Edition for Country Circulation, postage free, Price Tenpence. [SIXPENCE. erected, and the novelty of the scene was beautiful on Thursday, in seeing the company ascending on one, and descending the other, within a few yards of each, whilst the approach to either, was the whole circuit of the state apartments, with the addition of the newly erected long gallery. CURIOSITY has rarely been more generally excited than on the occasion of the recently completed alterations and improvements of the state apartments in St. James's Palace. The old suite of rooms were more remarkable for their space, than for their elegance, The present suite of rooms, which comprise the whilst the avenues to the great staircase, and the stair-state apartments, and those for the accommodation of case itself, and the general scite for ingress and egress, His Majesty on the same floor, are first the two guard was so intricate, narrow, and inconvenient, that a court chambers, on the landing of the entrance staircase: day in the palace was a continued scene of crouding these have been fitted up in the style of an ancient and confusion. armory. The walls are ornamented with swords, shields, daggers, guns, pistols, and pikes, forming stars of the six orders of knighthood, of which the king is sovereign. In designing the plan for the late alterations, the first consideration appears to have been the removal of these impediments; but here difficulties were to be overcome, that demanded a vast extent of skill and contrivance. The openings exteriorly which have been seen, by the public, are easily comprehended, and have been universally admired. In designing a new structure every accommodation is easily obtained. In attempting the same, where all is to be effected by the laborious efforts of alteration, is a far different operation: for even where the mind of the architect is prolific in contrivance, the further he proceeds, he commonly discovers the greater difficulties, from the hidden impediments which occur, in pulling down, or perforating of ancient walls. We have been frequent observers of all the alterations on this venerable site, and have often smiled as the workmen advanced, at the old adage, "making a silk purse of a sow's ear." We live in an age, however, when human ingenuity can effect many great purposes in art, which to the last age would have appeared schemes too wild even for speculation and madness to undertake. Among the ingenious contrivances for ingress and egress, and perhaps the work of the clearest perception amidst the whole of the alterations, is that of the double staircase. In the late court, the company ascended the old staircase, and descended by the same-there was no other; hence the lords with their swords, and the ladies in their hoops met, and the consequent pressure and annoyance were insufferable. To the timid sex, the approach of a great court day was an object The thought is novel and appropriate, and the effect striking. The centres being three feet in diameter, and richly painted with their respective devices. Over the gothic chimney-piece in the king's guard chamber, is a complete suit of bright steel armour; the panels are hung with helmets and cuirasses, between which are bright shields, forming the centres of Maltese stars, composed of daggers and swords. The yeoman's guard chamber is ornamented in the same style. The greatest taste is displayed in the arrangement of the arms in these chambers. Adjoining, is the presence chamber, in which is the fine gothic chimney-piece, discovered hidden behind the walls, in the recent alterations, with the anagrams of Henry VIII. and Ann Bullen. This room is hung with rich old tapestry, and opens to the anti-room, a new building on the site of the old privy-chamber and 1.vee room, formerly occupied by King James the Second. This grand apartment is sixty-one feet in length, by thirty-four in breadth, and twenty-four in height, with a coved ceiling, enriched with gold. The walls are of drab coloured flock; from the ceiling is suspended a superb brass lustre. The candelabra are splendid ormolu, supported by rich carved brackets; the curtains, crimson satin damask, with magnificent glasscs, and gilt pier tables between each window. On the walls are two battle pieces, representing the English and confederate armies, at the memorable sieges of Tournay and Lisle, with portraits of the Duke of MarlIt occurred to the architect that by breaking through borough, and a multitude of other officers of distincthe wall of the old staircase, and cutting it down to ation, of each nation, engaged in those glorious camcertain level, an open space might be effected, which would add grandeur by its length, and admit of another staircase so that the remaining height of wall would separate them, and yet each flight be seen through the opening. On this wall columns have been of terror. VOL. II. paigns. These have been removed from the royal palace at Kensington, where they had remained from the days of King George the First, by whose order they were painted by Wotton, and over the chimney is a whole length portrait of King George the Second. LONDON, MAY 22, 1824. |