PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Friday, March 19). REV. R. MORRIS, LL.D., President, in the Chair. Mr. Joseph Payne discussed the subject of the Old French or Norman element discoverable in the English patois of the Midland area. Before examining special words, he laid down the principle that many of the patois forms are explained by the difference between the laws of English and Old French accentuation. In naturalising French words the distinguishing or tonic accent, generally resting on the last syllable, was by the English rule transferred to the first or second syllable, the effect of which was to shorten or obscure the vowel or diphthong which had before been prominent and distinct. Thus enchantóur became English enchanter, batáile, báttel or battle, tiere viker, gramáire grammer, figúre figger, &c. It was also noted that the English tonic syllable became by this transference of accent almost invariably short, whatever might have been its quantity before. On these principles the writer accounted for the patois forms-nappern for naperin, lábber for labour, fávver for favour, súvver for sarvour, mitten for mitaine, dúbbler for doubler, árran for araine, sóller for solér, pizzen for poison, fizen for foisón, mánner for manúre, Márry for Marie, bottle (of hay) for botelle, cántle (a corner) for cantél, skillet for escuelette, résson for raison, eréttur crittur for creatúre, papper for papier, better for bevére, déssent for decent, &c.

It was also shown, as a mark of the Midland patois, that there is a constant tendency to fling off the syllable preceding the tonic syllable, especially in words of French extraction-fend, gree, noint, Bry, dry, tice, tend, gin, &c., from defendre, agréer, encant, descrier, destruire, enticér, attendre, engin, &c. This tendency sometimes-as was shown in reference to mend, ray, &c.-brings about a form which expresses the very contrary meaning to that of the original word. Thus, amender is to free from blots or faults, desráier to throw into disorder; hence mend ought to mean to blot, and ray to put in order.

As to special words, the writer showed that grudgeons, copper-rose (Norfolk name of the red warbles, etc., were referable to the Norman or Poppy), gofers, huspil (to disturb, harass), lucam, Old French words grugeon, coprose, gauffre, houspiller, lucarne, garbouil. The curious expression a mort of people" was also compared with the Norman patois phraseology, " il y avait du monde à mort," "charger à mort," where "à mort" means in abundance, in excess. South Lancashire idiom, "a two-three miles," was also shown to be paralleled by the Guernsey patois, "chès deux-treis choses."

ROYAL INSTITUTION (Friday, March 19). THE last Friday evening lecture was delivered by Dr. Liebreich, on "The Real and Ideal in Portraiture," but chiefly in portrait sculpture; painted portraits, though equally distinguishable as realistic or idealistic, being yet less suitable for the demonstration either of the effects of light or of anatomical facts; and these were two of the points on which the lecturer had to lay great stress. Greek sculpture, he began by saying, had worked out certain types of ideal beauty, between which and actual portraits was the difference conceived to exist between gods or heroes and ordinary mankind. In modern times the consequence of studying and copying these Greek types has been to produce sculptors who either implicitly followed out the classical models, or who sought to combine in some way Greek forms with a partial accuracy to nature and to modern habits. These realists, who apply themselves exclusively, or proare the idealists, compared with whom are the fess to do so, to the observation of nature. If each class would keep within its own limits, there realistic sculptor in particular is constantly being would be nothing to say. But unfortunately, the tempted away, even in portraiture, from the living model before him, whose general expression he is satisfied to reproduce in a way, while the details, which would require the most careful observation, are worked out with a facility acquired by copying from the antique. The forehead of the Olympian Jupiter, the neck of the Apollo Belvidere, or the thorax of the torso of Hercules, is present to his mind, and guides his hand when he is engaged on the portrait of a mortal. The result, too often, is not only the loss of likeness, but the production of an imitation of a being not recognisable by naturalists as belonging to the human species in its present state of development. It was against this proceeding that the lecture was levelled. Greek portraiture, so far as it is known, i.e., from the time of Alexander onwards, was intensely true to nature. The same may be said of the large series of Roman busts or statues still existing, with the exception of instances where an emperor was represented in the character of a god. As an example of modern so-called idealism in portraiture, a cast from Chantrey's bust of Byron was exhibited and compared with an admirably realistic old bust of Dr. Ray. It was shown that if you covered only the familiar lock of hair on Byron's brow, the likeness vanished from the rest of the face, while, if you covered even one of the eyes and part of the brow of Dr. Ray, the likeness was not in the least diminished. On the other hand, when a bad light from below was turned on both busts, it appeared that Byron's suffered the least, and this, considering the frequency with which sculpture is exposed to light of this kind, might be an argument for trying to take advantage of it, by reproducing only the accidental characteristics of a face, and neglecting the essential features! Then followed a description of the essential features in a portrait bust the skull, with the form of which not the slightest liberty was to be taken; and the skin, a source of great difficulty, requiring accurate anatomical and physiological knowledge in the artist, if he would distinguish between furrows or lines in the face formed by the habitual movement of certain muscles (and, therefore, expressive of an essential tendency of character), or by a temporary movement. But anatomical knowledge gained from the dead body must, before it is applied to copying from life, be corrected by physiological observation, and if this is fully done, the lecturer contended that a truthful reproduction of the external part of the human face might be accompanied with the animation and intellectual expression which constitutes the true idealism in portraiture. He concluded by strongly urging this method of studying on those who have the direction of schools of art, especially in cases where copying from the antique forms a large part of the training, and by its very nature tends to dull the appreciation of fine distinctions in nature. Casts

from several strikingly realistic early Florentine portraits, with some others of Greek and Roman origin, were exhibited in the theatre and referred to as illustrations of the main points of the lecture as they arose. In the library a series of modern sculptures or casts were arranged so as to show the true manner of lighting sculpture.

FINE ART.

Children of the Mobility. Drawn from Nature by John Leech. With a fine Portrait of Leech, and a Prefatory Letter by John Ruskin. Reproduced from the Original Sketches by the Autotype Process. (London: R. Bentley & Son, 1875.) THIS is a publication of six sketches of the slightest description by the excellent draftsman and humorist, who, year after year, and week after week all round the year, gave us end of his Studies on the Renaissance, the d'esprit. If, as Mr. Pater has put it at the so many witty and brilliant satires and jeux best philosophy of actual life is that which affords the greatest number of pleasurable sensations--and, indeed, nearly all our daily activities and successes go towards this end then John Leech was one of the men most deserving the gratitude of society. To how many thousands every Saturday, or Friday evening, did he not send a smile and a flash of light; and we cannot remember any instance in which he outraged good taste. On the contrary, he and the publication in which he worked were always on the right side, and must have done immense service to the minor morals, the manners, of the age. In an art point of view they were equally admirable, or nearly so: Leech's type of ladyhood and manhood was no doubt repeated over and over again, but then it always gave pleasure because it was excellent and so beautiful, and his children were ineffably charming, even when enacting the enfants terribles, first made so amusing by Gavarni. The mention of the illustrious French humourist, who was even abler as a draftsman than his English contemporary, suggests a comparison, and an instructive one, because so expressive of the national differences that indicate a substratum, we hope, still more distinct. The motive in Gavarni's pictures was very frequently a betrayal by means of the children of the infidelities of papa or mamma, or serious offences against truth, in either case by no means amusing to any party concerned, nor properly to the spectator either; while Leech's were invariably pleasantries, gaucheries, or evil manners properly punishable by laughter. The same may now be said of Leech's successors, but I am far from attributing the change to his influence; there can be no doubt at all that all caricatures take their colour and stamp exactly from the lamp-light and the matrix of the social life they illustrate and depend upon. The humblest of our comic or pictorial journals are not indecent; they may be sensational or even brutal, but direct indecency is left to our neighbours, and withwould find their occupation gone. The out it the Journal pour Rire and such like change with us had been going on ever since the day of Rowlandson, whose works were insufferably coarse; Kenny Meadows's cuts in Bell's Life were the earliest that

showed clean hands and that only occasionally, but his style of drawing was a little better than had before been seen in trivial comic prints, and he himself was far from being a vulgar or unaccomplished man.

Under the influence of Meadows, I remember John Leech first beginning his tentative designs. When I became acquainted with both of these men, Meadows was engaged on The Heads of the People, a series of sketches that still deserves some consideration as an exponent of the society and humble life of the day, while Leech had just dropped out of the ranks of medical, or rather surgical, student life, and his first productions, one or two of which I remember him then showing to the elder artist, were sketches of Parisians done on a visit to France, and published, I think, in Bell's Life. He was determined to follow the bent of his genius, but the pay was so little that he thought of painting comicalities in stead of drawing them. One or two attempts in oil colours, however, convinced him that painting was an art beset by immense difficulties, technical adaptations, and, as he called them, artificialities, that would, ere he attained to any success, warp and destroy his powers as a satirist and truthteller. The fashionable dress of the moment was as dear to him as its manners and vices; and his despair on showing his first pictures. to his friends, inspired by the evident impracticability of the square black hat and roll-collared surtout, as well as the difficulty his visitors had in answering his plaintive interrogative, why he could not be allowed to paint them and everything else simply as they were, we still vividly remember.

This was, as far as we can recollect, about 1839. Time gives a wonderful importance to events tiresome or trivial in passing, and now it is very interesting to recall this passage in Leech's life, and the contemptuous reply of Kenny Meadows that the things of the day were ephemera not worth embodying, except to get a guinea for pocket money, and then showing, very modestly, however, his own highly-finished water-colour painting, his last done, for Mr. Heath's Book of Beauty or Shakespeare Gallery. In these truth-telling was altogether ignored, that highly polished publisher requiring Mrs. Page to be represented just as young as her daughter, for the very absolute reason that nobody would buy the print unless the face was as young and pretty as a valentine.

Perhaps the reader begins to think I am wandering from my brief and its substantive, The Children of the Mobility. But it is not so; the surfeit of prettiness at last given the public by these "Books of Beauty," culminated in a volume of pictures called The Children of the Nobility, and Leech at the time made these drawings (now published apparently from imperfect tracings), to satirise the superfineness and the snobbery, which, however, collapsed and died out as suddenly as they had risen.

How these slight and evidently never finished drawings come to be published in this splendid manner requires some explanation. We should like to see The Adventures of Mr. Briggs, and various other sets of prints reproduced carefully-but perhaps that is not possible now-as they were poured

out in the shape of Pictures from the Collection of Mr. Punch, Christmas books, too soon after their first appearance, and too profusely printed, four or six or even eight on a page, to be highly valued. A selection of his best works will, no doubt, some day be done; meantime we can scarcely think the six sketches forming the subject of the present reproduction by photography, thrown off in 1841, important enough. The organist, one of the curses of Leech's later years, when continuous application to the amusement of the town had induced nervous impatience, called here The young Denticci the Italian Instrumentalist, and The Flinn Family, show something of the artist's appreciation of beauty in female children. The Family of Mr. and Mrs. Blenkinsopp has pathos, but the set as a whole is not of sufficient consequence to be produced by themselves. This the publishers have felt, as they have padded the thin quarto volume by introducing a portrait of Leech, a Coat of Arms of the Mobility, lithographic sheets of writing, and "A Preface," as it is called in the advertisements," by John Ruskin." This preface, which is no preface at all, making no allusion to the subjects, or to Leech as an artist or satirist, is printed small, like the Lord's Prayer on a sixpence, surrounded by an absurd piece of Renaissance ornament.

WILLIAM B. SCOTT.

THE LINNELL EXHIBITION.

MR. E. T. WHITE, a picture-dealer who has been a large purchaser of recent works by our octogenarian but none the less highly vigorous landscape-master John Linnell, has collected together, at the Gallery No. 48 Pall Mall, sixteen specimens of the painter's skill, associated with a moderate spondence, actively carried on by Mr. White and number of pictures by other artists. The correothers, regarding certain spurious copies of Linnell palmed off fraudulently as originals, will be fresh in many readers' recollection. Of the Linnell works now exhibited, the only one that bears a remote date is a small and fine View near Bayswater, Sunset, executed in 1820. The recent ones may be somewhat thinner and sketchier in handling than when the painter was in his prime; but, for knowledge, picturesque perception, abundance, and sureness, they would stand high, if matched against the productions of any other living master. Some of the best examples are The Barley Harvest, The Pons Asinorum, The Woodcutters, A Storm in Harvest, Down Rays, and Harvest Home. Trade-interests, rather than anything pertinent to

the essence of the exhibition, may have been served by the display of the works by other painters. Some of these are trivial or objectionable: for instance, Prince Charming, by Mr. Pettie, is of no higher rank than those photographs so numerously presented to the eye in shop-windows, gregariously termed "leg-pieces; nor should such trumpery as the Crowned with Flowers, by Mr. Baxter, have found admission here. It seems at any rate a pity that the Linnells should have been compact assemblage. Pictures of creditable standscattered over the walls, instead of forming one ing, already well known, are Calderon's British Embassy in Paris on the Day of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, Watson's Pet of the Common, and Poole's Banquet Scene from the Tempest. Prince Arthur and Hubert, by Mr. Pott, is recklessly anachronistic in showing us a tapestry proper to some such date as 1550. A View in Italy is a good specimen of William Linnell, the by Cataneo, is a refined and impressive conventprotagonist's son. Visitors from the Outer World, picture, with a peasant woman and her daughter gazing at the nuns as they pace the jealously-shut

WHEN Mr. Burne Jones's painting, The First Mirror, was yet in an early stage of progress, the It is now design was described in these pages. far advanced towards completion, and is fulfilling all the incredible promise which it gave from the very commencement. Then, Venus and her group of kneeling disciples gleamed like pale pearls in the still quiet of the solemn landscape: now, they glow before our eyes resplendent with the full passion and mystery of colour. Venus, the all-powerful goddess, has guided from afar a willing band of maidens. She stays their steps with a mute gesture of authority on the edge of a clear pool, which lies a sheet of glass fringed by myriad blooming forget-me-nots filling the wide foreground. All have sunk on their knees, and gaze entranced by the sweet magic which shows them the reflections of their own forms mirrored on the placid surface of the water. The centre figure stoops boldly forward resting on the palms of her hands, and looking intently into the depths below; behind her kneel three of her companions. Either side of this central group comes a little break, then on the left rises the dominant figure of the goddess shrouded in misty draperies, grey tissues, thin and cold as waving wreaths of morning cloud. At her right hand, stooping partly forward, stands a young girl, her eyes eagerly fastened on the face of Venus, seeking, as it seems, to read the full meaning of her leader's mind. This figure is repeated and varied in gracious balance on the opposite side of the central kneeling group, and finally the lines drop on either side like wings softly unfolding, for two other maidens kneel lowly couching close to their stooping companions. Then the circle is completed by the chain of reflected images on the water, which loops across from side to side connecting either point. The robes of the kneeling They are ranged round the dead quiet of the cool maidens burn with change ful brilliance of colour. water, which sleeps buried in its thick-set border of innumerable blue blossoms, even as might of fitful hue. Out of their midst towers the show so many lamps of live flame shooting rays grey-white form of the goddess, shining pale with a faint opalescent light, her eyes wide in strange vision looking on to the coming of many mysteries. Behind the kneeling band, grandly upheaved against the sky, rise slowly the weighty forms of bushless downs. Vast shapes of earth now poured out as in the youth of the world, unfretted and unworn by terrible agencies yet undeveloped, but destined later to tear and rend the land. The tranquil embrace of morning lies upon the hills, and folds them in the peace of promise. The great curves of the mountain background which vary and accent the sinuous chain of figures that girls with the hopeful light of early dawn. Before us about the still waters sweep across a sky serene kneel the mothers of the race which shall be. They kneel with the message of days to come on their lips, and the spirit of the tale which shall be told looks out upon us from their eyes.

Laus Veneris brings us to a later hour. Women have worked alone the long day. They are wor longing lie heavy on their weary souls.e Iwith their toil, and the dreams of unsatisfied gather about a desk near an open window. They sing. Their lips, their eyes, their repeat the refrain which we trace on the leaves of the book open before them, Laus Veneris. One has drawn apart, beneath the tapestried wall of the narrow chamber. She sits apart, too sick for

song:

66

very movements

My length of days goes swiftly down,
The thronging hours have brought no crown;
The hours, the days, no pleasure prove,
I have not seen the face of Love."

But even now fate has sent to the love-sick damsels those for whom they wait. Through the open window we see knights riding by. They hear the song, and at the hearing they will stay their steeds. This design also is resplendent with all the glory of lovely colour. It is yet unfinished, but portions, such as the orange-red robe of the damsel on the right, woven over with curious pattern of scale-work half hidden, half revealed, and again the deep cool tones of the tapestry close against which this figure sits, show the key in which the whole harmony will ultimately be pitched.

The Feast of Peleus, which has also been previously alluded to in these pages, is but a portion indeed of a large scheme, planned originally to be carried out with attendant accessories of bronzework and marble; but which it is to be feared will remain a project only realised on canvas. The framework of marble and bronze should have contained six pictures. The centre design shows The Judgment of Paris, beneath this is inserted The Feast of Peleus. Then, on the right hand, we see a vision of Aphrodite. Her statue looks to Paris, and grants him fair Helen. Beneath this design is placed a peaceful picture of happy lovers, whose bliss is guarded by the presence of the goddess herself, enthroned, and bearing on her knees the fateful apple awarded by Paris. But on the left are other sights—the fiery burning of Troy town, the fall of Aphrodite's statue, the crouching figure of Helen captured by the wrathful Greeks; and below this picture, fulfilling all its awful threat, passes the dread spectacle of the torments which are the miserable portion of unhappy love, the band of helpless sufferers driven by the cruel authority of the merciless god who sits aside, and with eager gestures appoints to each his allotted portion of woe. As a whole this design is scarcely beyond the point of commencement. The Feast of Peleus only has been painted by Mr. Burne Jones on a separate canvas, and one or two of the other subjects have but been sketched in. And now, again, in this nearly completed picture of the Feast, the colour challenges the eye with the prick of keenest pleasure. It is brilliantly lovely, and it is only when we come patiently to examine it in detail that we begin to understand how it is that this extraordinary effect of radiance is brought about. Every little passage is in itself a study for purity of tone and matchless delicacy of hue. The gleaming gold flashed with faint lilac which shows in the corselet of Minerva is a moment of effect felt with the most exquisite sympathy of quick and intense sense. Everywhere the same vivid passion of sight has gone to the seeing, not only of colour but of form. The accidents of

manner which once were sufficient to disturb the enjoyment which many might otherwise have felt in the work of an artist of the rarest type, have long since disappeared. Before work such as that of the First Mirror, for instance, we are now left defenceless, charmed by the resistless force of an attraction which sucks up from us all energy. We are absorbed in mere sight and feeling, we drop off at last after long looking in a great fatigue of soul, with senses filled to the edge with pleasure.

But the paintings which we have mentioned are but three among a number of works now lying in Mr. Burne Jones's studio. Seven designs of the Seven Days of the Week; four designs of the Story of the Briar Rose, destined for wall decoration; designs for tapestry; a painting of Merlin and Vivien; of Luna, and many others, are design and poetic invention. In all we see the there, all showing the same qualities of noble

expression of the habitual strain of a mind ever selecting from things visible those facts which may fitly give shape to the conceptions of a fervid imagination, stimulated by a precious sensitiveness to the highest forms of beauty, and sustained by unwearied industry which day by day stores up the rich results of stricter discipline, and passes onward to fresh triumphs. E. F. S. PATTISON.

THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF ARTS AT ROME.

stitution that one would imagine would readily THE British Academy of Arts in Rome is an in

commend itself to the notice of all those concerned in art matters in England. Considering the splendid Academy that the French Government is able to support in Rome, it seems somewhat hard that our poor little English school should languish for want of encouragement and subscriptions. A short time ago it seemed as if it must be given up altogether, the secretary having last year intimated his utter inability to carry on the school with the interest of the fund placed at his disposal. In this state of things a committee was formed to investigate the affairs of the Academy, January now lies before us. and the report made by this committee last

It will be seen into what a state of neglect all business connected with this Academy had fallen, when it is stated that for twenty-one years there had been no committee of management, and that its direction had wholly but illegally devolved on the late Mr. Gibson, R.A., and the late secretary, Mr. C. Coleman. No rules had been printed during this time, and when the present committee began their work of investigation the books and papers of over fifty years had to be examined in detail and classigained from the bankers, Messrs. Plowden and Co., Academy scarcely amounted to 2,300 lire (about it was too truly found that the income of the 907.) per annum, a sum obviously inadequate for the necessities of the school. Under these circumstances it was determined to appeal to the public for assistance, and accordingly circulars were printed and sent with letters to the Royal Academy, the Royal Scottish Academy, and to each individual member of those bodies, and many other influential persons in England. The Scottish Academy immediately responded by voting a sum of 50%, but, strange to say, the Council of our Royal Academy in London, which in the time of Sir Thomas Lawrence accorded the most generous have intimated through their Secretary that they support to the then infant institution at Rome, are unable to afford any help in its present difficulties. The subscription made last year among the artists of Rome was, however, most encouraging, and Mr. Halswelle also collected a sum of 100. in London, so that it is still hoped that the endeavour now being made to organise the Academy on a more efficient and extended basis will be successful. One difficulty that pressed heavily on the committee last year has fortunately been removed. It was thought then that it would be necessary to remove the Academy from the premises it at present occupies, as the landlord Signor Girelli had announced his raising the rent. This removal of the heavy casts intention of making various alterations and of and other property of the Academy would have entailed a great expense, and in the present state of things in Rome it would have been almost impossible to find premises sufficiently commodious that did not exceed in rent the resources at command. In the ACADEMY of February 27 it was stated that application had been made to our minister, Sir Augustus Paget, to obtain the sanction of government for the purchase of a vacant convent

fied. After this was done and a careful statement

on the Pincian Hill as the locale of the Academy, but all thought of removal has now been set aside by Signor Girelli agreeing to make certain necessary alterations and repairs on condition of a The committee consider nothing is now wanted to ensure the working slight increase of rent. this arrangement in every way satisfactory, and efficiency of the Academy but some little aid towards defraying its very moderate expenses. It will surely be something of a reproach to the forthcoming. Unlike the other foreign Art instiArt authorities in this country if this aid is not by their respective governments, it must be restutions in Rome that are fostered and encouraged membered that the British Academy receives no help from the State, but owes its existence to

private enterprise, and is entirely dependent on private aid. It was founded in 1823 for the purpose of maintaining "a free and permanent school for the benefit of all British artists studying in Rome," and among those who have availed themselves of its benefits may be mentioned such artists as Etty, Gibson, Eastlake, Wyatt, Rennie, Barry, Hook, Armitage, Leighton, Poynter, Yeames, Prinsep, and others of equal note.

Of late years, of course, the efficiency of the Academy under such a long era of mismanagement has greatly declined, but there seems good reason for believing that the exertions now being made will tend to raise it to a higher position than it has hitherto held. MARY M. HEATON.

THE ESQUILINE AND PALATINE HILLS.
Hotel Costanzi, Rome.

The Esquiline Hill continues to be the principal veries, most noticeable among the latter class centre of public works and antiquarian discobeing a bust of a woman (probably ideal) of much beauty, destined, with other such treasure-trove, to have its final place in the Capitoline Museum. The splendid pavement of a ruined hall (or temple), which I have already mentioned, has lately been removed, for its preservation, from the area occupied by its rich marbles and alabasters on the same hill; and it is reported that in the course of such transfer it is found to contain alabasters of no fewer than 200 species. Near the same spot have been discovered the remains of another ancient building-a mansion with paintings of some interest on the stuccoed walls. The number of houses more or less like patrician

houses found on this hill confirms the statement that in the reign of Constantine a population of 200,000, almost equal to that of all Rome at the present day, inhabited the three zones into which the Esquiline is divided.

The works on the Palatine Hill-commenced

by order of its former owner, Napoleon III.—were purchase of that ground from the ex-Emperor in prosecuted under the new Government, after the 1870, during more than a year with some vigour, but with no such valuable results as had previously been obtained. Before the end of the year 1873 they were, to the regret of many, interrupted, all activities being thenceforth diverted to the Forum and Flavian Amphitheatre. I am glad to say that on January 15 the scavi on the Palatine were resumed, and on the spots where the hitherto most interesting because marked with the characdiscovered ruins (long buried and unknown) are the western ridge of this hill, which overlooks the ter of highest and most venerable antiquity. On now cultivated and almost uninhabited valley of the Circus Maximus, were brought to light, a few years ago, groups of buildings the primaeval origin of which is strikingly manifest, and the dim twilight of a perhaps prehistoric past seems more mysterious here than among almost any other extant ruins in Rome or its environs. theory maintained by Signor Rosa-still, as under the French Emperor, the director of the works on this hill-and indicated in a quotation from the Aeneid on a tablet set up among these Palatine remains

The

"Tum rex Evander Romanae conditor arcis,"
(Aen. viii. 506.)

is that he traces here the veritable ara of Evander, near which that Arcadian king of the Ilion on the Latian coast. It is questionable prehistoric Rome received the fugitive from whether the principal ruin here before us, consisting of a low elevation of stonework, lithoid tufas in enormous square-hewn blocks, which enclose two narrow quadrangular chambers, one much smaller than the other, be the cella of a temple or the chief tower of a fortress. One may be led to decide for the latter, seeing that the edifice is so placed as to command the access to the hillsummit by a very steep approach between walls of

stonework almost alike massive, and of lithoid tufa also, ascending from the valley westward to this high ridge. The structures which fortify this approach have been enclosed, partly in ancient stonework, partly in brick. It appears that the ascent must have been by a staircase, for several blocks of hewn stone, some placed like steps, others turned over, have been found by the removal of soil from this steep pathway. To the left as we look westward rises a clay bank behind the rugged old walls; to the right extends, on a platform, another group of buildings, most curious and heterogeneous, divided into several roofless chambers, and what seems to have been a quadrangular hypaethral court. A frontage between that area and the chambers on the eastern side is formed by three arches of considerable span, built of enormous square-hewn stone blocks, but in great part restored in inferior (though ancient) brickwork; the supporting pilasters and the springings of the arches being almost all of the original and firmer structure that remains. Here, as in other of these lastdiscovered Palatine ruins, it is evident that violence must have been used, and immense portions of masonry torn off for other buildings— probably for the barbaric castles of mediaeval Rome. Most of the constructions on the platform summit, which extends near what I suppose to be the primeval fortress (or is it truly the arx of Evander ?), are similar in their stone masonry to the latter edifice; but two of the chambers (roofless like the rest) are of brick with much mortar, similar to that used for the repair of the arches, and probably (to judge from its inferior character) dating from the fourth century. In the interiors we perceive the arrangements for the bath, the calorifers for hot air set into the thickness of partition walls, and a hypocaust, into the cavity of which we may look down, though it is too narrow for us to enter or explore. It is here, amid these bath-chambers, and on the ascent by what seems to have been a lofty staircase, that we see the results of the latest resumed labours on the Palatine. A fine marble basement, apparently for statues, and mutilated epigraphs are the only other antiques recently found on the same site. Great indeed is the contrast between the actual scene on the "Imperial Mount" and what was here presented to view before the purchase of the ground by Napoleon III.-a then wild and solitary region, with the remnants of antiquity half buried under garden soil, half hidden from sight by paltry modern buildings, or more gracefully concealed by the draperies of Nature's weavingjust such, perhaps, as it had been when Goethe wandered about and picked up wrought marble fragments on this Palatine Hill in 1787. On the south-western terraces we now visit the extensive halls and courts of the Flavian palaces, completed by Domitian, long totally concealed, save in a few piles of ruins loftier than the rest; further southward we descend by zig-zag paths into a valley, where the removal of the grass-grown soil has disclosed remains recognisable as the stadium (ascribed to Domitian), with the large basin of a decorative fountain at one end; rich pavements, basements and shafts of granite columns being among the antiques lately exhumed. Above this area, on the south, rises a great hemicycle of brick buildings, divided into two storeys, the upper forming a loggia from which the Emperors and their court may have contemplated the games in the stadium or hippodrome. The lower story of this building, probably of the Flavian period, with additions perhaps the whole upper part made by Septimius Severus, is divided into three halls with paintings on the higher spaces, and in the lower, remains of panel incrustation in yellow marble' (Numidian) the paintings inferior, the marble decorations most rich. In front, on the level of the stadium, we see the vestiges of a stately colonnade, granite shafts with fine marble capitals. All that is most remarkable in these remains has come to light

of

within recent years, after being long hidden Liber Studiorum, complete set of the seventy-one under garden soil, or thickets and weeds. Here engravings, 160 gs.; Basle, 40 gs.; Windmill and many other objects, formerly concealed, have Loch, 411.; Inverary Pier, 61 gs.; Inverary Castle been brought to light; but the most vast 43 gs.; London from Greenwich, 38 gs.; The Pre and imposing among the Palatine ruins, with a mium Landscape, etching, 26 gs.; Sheep-washing, broad front of vaulted halls, in two storeys, ex- 401.; Stonehenge, 40 gs.; The Felucca, 431.; The tending along the western acclivity, the latest | Rainbow, 401. Of the engravings after Sir Joshua additions to the imperial residence ascribed to Reynolds, The Strawberry Girl, by Watson, sold Septimius Severus, stand in sternly picturesque for 70l.; Lady Catherine Pelham Clinton, 74 gs.; decay, unaltered through any of the excavations C. J. Fox, Lady S. Strangways, and Lady Sarah which have transformed so much in the regions Lennox, in the garden of Holland House, also by around. North-eastward we reach the now fully un- Watson, 66 gs.; Duchess of Ancaster, by Dixon, covered ruins of buildings evidently more ancient, 30 gs.; The Three Graces, 100 gs.; Duchess and in two spacious storeys of halls and smaller Buccleugh and Lady M. Scott, 100 gs.; Lady chambers, many still roofed over, still adorned Bamfylde, 135 gs. (these three last all by Watson); with paintings and stucco relief-work. Here are Winter, Lady Caroline Montague, by Grozer, 110; recognised on the ground-floor storey the build- St. Cecilia (Miss Sheridan), 60 gs.; and Lady ings of Caius Caesar; on the upper those of Charles Spencer, 45l., both by Dickinson; Lady Nero; though many vaulted halls and gloomy Talbot, by Valentine Green, 601. The day's sale cells of these conspicuous ruins appear, as the realised 4,000l. Some fine Italian engravings were ancient brickwork seems to attest, not earlier than sold on the following day :-Lo Spasimo di Sicilia, the time of Hadrian. after Raffaelle, by Toschi, 50 gs.; and The Descent from the Cross, after D. da Volterra, by the same engraver, 41 gs. ; the Marriage of the Virgin, after Raffaelle, 125 gs.; Guido's Aurora, 80 gs.; and L. da Vinci's Last Supper, 330 gs., both by R. Morghen; The Belle Jardinière, 44 gs.

Man's labour has done much on the Palatine Hill within late years; but still it is a spot where silence and solitude usually prevail. Yet the beauty of Nature, spread before us in a magnificent landscape, disputes with the relics of antiquity the claim to our admiration. C. I. HEMANS.

ART SALES.

THIS last week has been remarkably prolific in art sales, among which perhaps the greatest interest has been excited by the dispersion of the accumulated treasures of fifty years of the veteran collector Mr. Henry Bohn. The sale at Christie's lasted four days, consisting only of the English portion of his collection. It realised above 6,5007. A Bristol tureen sold for 651., and a sweetmeat stand of three shells with dolphin handle, 40 gs. A beautiful miniature of a lady by Skiercliff, a Bristol painter, 341. Battersea enamels sold well, a pair of small vases attributed to Paul Ferg, 24 gs.; two pink canisters, from Stowe, 307. An étui, 167. 10s.; and a set of card trays, 27 gs. A Plymouth mug sold for 247. 108., and a jug for 197. 108. A pair of Bow figures, Kitty Clive and Woodward, 431., and three rococo vases, 1107. Of the Chelsea, a two-handled cup, maroon and gold, 281.; a deep fruit dish with maroon border and peacock centre, 967.; a plate, also maroon and gold, 351., and two deep blue, 711.; a fluted vase, deep blue and gold with medallions, 1577. 108.; a pair of vases, crimson and turquoise bands with frieze of dancing figures, 1107.; another pair, alternate bands of deep blue and white, 1817.; ewer with Watteau subjects, 1007. Of the Chelsea figures, the statue of Lord Camden sold for 1077.; John Wilkes, 151. 4s. 6d.; Quin as Falstaff, 241.; shepherdess with hurdy-gurdy, 357.; lion and lioness, 247.; two figures of the Seasons, 321.; two in fancy costumes, 35 gs.; two of sportsmen with gun, and female with basket, 607.; a figure of a youth richly dressed, holding a rose, 607.; a pair, Pilgrims of Love, 321.; a Chelsea Derby covered cup and saucer, deep blue, 551.; a pair of Derby peacocks, 24 gs.; Lowestoft cup and saucer, 151. 10s. ; two Worcester tulip-shaped vases with Watteau medallions, 1291. ; a cup of the Nelson service, 87. 10s.; a coffee-cup, 77., and three egg-cups, 77. 15s.; two royal plates made for William IV., the one at Rockingham sold for 25 gs., and one at Worces

On the same day was sold the collection of Wedgwood:-One of the original copies of the Barberini or Portland Vase sold for 1891. (1917. was the price obtained at Mr. Cother's); a pair of black basalt ewers, Wine and Water, 71 gs.; a pair of oval plaques, blue jasper with white cameo, a Boar Hunt and Children of Niobe, 121 gs.; pair of blue and white jasper ewers, 165 gs.; a cabinet containing above 600 plaques, which Mr. Mendel wished to be sold in one lot, fetched 500 gs.; an ivory tankard, 110.; four figures of children, the Sciences, 100; four statuettes of children, emblematic of the Seasons, 1801.; Helen carried off by Paris, group by Simon Troger, 230 gs. On Thursday was sold the sculp ture, which produced above 6,0007.:-A Girl with a Kid, a statue by Wyatt, 350 gs.; Gibson, Venus, a bust, 85 gs.; and his Wounded Amazon, exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1862, 610 gs.; Spence, Rebecca at the Well, 160 gs.; R. Ormerod Smith, Hebe, 130 gs.; the Gleaner, 100 gs.; I. Lawlor, Poetry, 205 gs.; Bell, Babes in the Wood, 185 gs.; Macdonnell, Eve, 520 gs; Marshall, The First Whisper of Love, 100 gs; Amigoni, The Dying Spartan, 215 gs.; a pair of Capo di Monte vases enriched with figures in high relief, sold for 271 gs.; and a pair of equestrian figures of Fame, and Perseus mounted on Pegasus, 800 gs.

THE well-known collection of Prince Paul Galitzin was sold on the 10th inst. at the Hotel Drouot. The pictures sold at the following prices: Crome, On the Yare, 4,150 fr.; Fyt, Dog and Cat, 2,700 fr.; Huysmans of Mechlin, The Ravine, 2,000 fr.; Baudouin, The Indiscreet Wife, 3,080 fr.; Lépicié, La Bouillie, 3,650 fr.; Van Beyeren, The Scales, 3,500 fr.; Both, Summer Evening, 2,000 fr.; Dusart, The Old Musician, 6,000 fr.; Dirk Hals, Burgomaster of Haarlem and Family, 1,000 fr.; De Heem, Still Life, 4,000 fr.; De Hooech, Happy Mother, 4,000 fr.; Van Ravesteyn, 2,750 fr.; Ruysdael, Winter, 3,500 fr.; Terburg, Portrait of a Man, 2,750 fr., and a Woman, Glass of Lemonade, 6,700 fr. ; Caravaggio, Portrait of Ariosto, 1,010 fr.; Tiepolo, Madonna Lys," 5,000 fr.; Diaz, Assumption of the Virgin, 3,700 fr., and Dogs in a Wood, 4,000 fr.; Jules On the 16th inst. Messrs. Christie, Manson and Dupré, Return of the Flock, 5,100 fr.; Jongkind, Woods sold, at Manley Hall, Mr. Mendel's collec- Dordrecht, 1,865 fr.; Ziem, A Bridge at Amster tion of engravings after Turner and Sir Joshua dam, 1,820 fr.; Fromentin, Women of Sahara Reynolds. The following are some of the prices: returning from Drawing Water, 2,000 fr. Among -Cape Colonna, 49 gs.; and Mercury and Argus, the decorative objects were:-A drageoir or count 23 gs., both engraved by Willmore. The Ship-box of tortoiseshell, piqué with gold, 1,460 fr.: wreck, 611.; The Rivers of England, a series of six-wall clock (cartel) period of Louis XV., 3,225 fr teen, including the cancelled plates, 76 gs.; Illustrations to Campbell's Poems, 30 gs.; of Sir Walter Scott (62), 60 gs.; Turner's England and Wales, early proofs, 87 gs.; Richmondshire, 80, gs.;

ter, 321. 138.

Renaissance mantelpiece of carved oak, 4,900 fr.; sofa, Louis XIV., 1,500 fr.; small arm chair, Louis XV., 3,705 fr.; four Gobelin tapestries, after compositions of Bérain, 13,805 fr.; and a