skill, and was always ready to receive favourably every new invention or improvement. Almost yearly a novelty was produced with some striking feature stamped with fine conception and good taste; but in

many of the series of his productions were grades of quality to suit various markets, and to adorn and furnish the board of the cottage as well as the tables of the mansion and the palace. There yet may be found, here and there, the remains of tea services in black basaltes; but the choicest works in this material, such as busts, vases, with basreliefs, cameos, medallions, &c., are become scarce; and the seals, which seem to have been made by hundreds of thousands, are so rare that they are now bought up and treasured as rarities. The last were subjected to imitations by unscrupulous adventurers, who passed them off as Wedgwood and Bentley's with great success; the tea services were also imitated and sold in large quantities; but they are nearly all to be instantly detected by an eye familiar with the genuine, from their

inferior material and workmanship. The well-known Tassie was a rival, but an honourable one, as well in seals as in cameos, before the perfection of the jasper body. Wedgwood said it was a credit to emulate such a man; and many of Tassie's portraits in wax of eminent personages of his time were afterwards copied by Wedgwood. But copying was never resorted to unless legitimately, and from the necessity

that arose, owing to the enormous demands from all parts of the world. The fame of Wedgwood rests upon his own unflagging industry, his genius, and his noble-mindedness and liberality.

By the courtesy of Messrs. Hurst & Blackett, the publishers, we have been allowed to select a few of the engravings from the hundreds which adorn this sumptuous volume and add so much to its value; but as it is quite impossible to do more than give, by a selection, a faint notion of what Miss Meteyard has achieved by the prodigality with which her work is illustrated, we must refer our readers to these volumes as the only means for affording a fair notion of a treasury of art so fertile and splendid. As an example of the high perfection of one branch of Wedgwood's profession, Flaxman's medallion of Mrs. Siddons may be indicated. For force, grace, and expression it cannot be surpassed; it is lifelike, and at once it conveys the impression the N. S. 1867, VOL. III.

M

great actress must have made as "Lady Macbeth," one of her favourite and best characters.

The Chessmen, also by Flaxman, are perfect gems of miniature sculpture. Then we come to pedestals, tripods, vessels for the table or sideboard, graceful in form, and of infinite variety in elegant patterns;

and at last approach what may be called the period of artistic perfection, embracing the last ten or twelve years of Wedgwood's life, and including his successful copy of the celebrated Portland vase, referred to in our former notice. It is truly a rich and varied collection, ranging from the finest vase of classic form, varied by modern art which rivals the antique, to the most elegant personal ornaments, which royalty would now be proud to wear.

A work such as this would have been incomplete without an introduction, not only to the home-life of its hero, but also to those adjuncts and appliances which formed the habitations and conduced to the recreation of the toiling mind. Whatever has been connected with the good and great is naturally prized by all who esteem them; and

thus the surroundings of Wedgwood-his house, his park, and his workshops are all objects of interest which serve to bring, as it were, the man more vividly before our eyes. Thus Miss Meteyard introduces us to views as well as descriptions of the chief places connected with Wedgwood from his cradle to his grave; and, among others, to the works at Etruria (which, by the way, are well described by a writer in THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, for 1794); and from these illustrations we select one, quoting the words of the authoress :

"Even at this day the works at Etruria are picturesque: they must have been much more so in the days of their great master, when the immediate neighbourhood had still its patches of heathland and pleasant field-paths; and mines and iron furnaces had not defaced the soil and filled the atmosphere with smoke. A conspicuous object, on entering the works, is a weather-worn flight of wooden steps, which lead up to what was Mr. Wedgwood's private office or counting-house. Here he probably wrote the majority of his letters to Bentley, and here the friends conferred when the latter came on his brief visits to Etruria. These old steps must, so long as they last, be an object of intense interest to those who can fully understand the part Wedgwood played in the industrial and artistic history of his country. Like all other master-potters, he ascended many hundred steps a-day to his various workshops and rooms, and the peculiar thud or stump of his wooden leg was a well-known and welcome sound. He had always a kind and cheery word for his people, a sympathising look, an approving nod; and it is handed down that no sound was more welcome through the long day's labour than that which gave the sign of the good master's approach."

To the Authoress and to the Publishers these volumes do very great credit and honour. The public is also deeply indebted to Mr. Joseph Mayer for collecting, as he has done, the works of Wedgwood, and for rescuing from what seemed imminent destruction the manuscripts which Miss Meteyard has used with so much good taste and success.

THE RISE OF THE PLANTAGENETS.
BY THE REV. BOURCHIER W. SAVILE.

CHAPTER I.

COWARDS the close of the 9th century there dwelt, not far from the mouth of the Loire, a worthy Breton named Torquatus, who belonged to a class which in our own country, and in our own time, would be termed that of a small country squire. His name savours of a Latin origin, and as in all probability he was descended from some Roman soldier, who had settled in Gaul after one of the many invasions with which that country had been visited by the conquerors of the world, it is

possible that this Torquatus was in reality a descendant of that stern old Roman whose name has been rendered famous on account of having ordered the execution of his son.

Of this incident, so repulsive to our natural feelings, so terribly characteristic of that grand race in its palmy days, and so suggestive of the contrast presented by its degenerate descendants, history records as follows:

In the year 344 B.C., T. Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus, of the Patrician family of the Manlii, obtained a great victory over the Latins, not far from Mount Vesuvius, which was mainly won by the self-sacrifice of his colleague, P. Decius Mus. Previous to the engagement, when the two armies were encamped opposite to each other, the consuls published a proclamation that no Roman should engage in single combat with a Latin on pain of death. Notwithstanding this prohibition, the young Manlius, son of Torquatus, provoked by the insults of a Tuscan noble, named Mettius Geminus, accepted the challenge, killed his opponent, and bore the spoils of conquest in triumph to his father. Death was the reward he obtained for this act of patriotism and valour. The consul could not overlook this breach of discipline; and his unhappy son was executed by the lictor in presence of the assembled army. This severe sentence rendered Torquatus an object of detestation among the Roman youths as long as he lived; and the recollection of his unnatural severity was preserved in after ages by the expression, Manliana imperia, in condemnation of a father's slaughter of so noble a son.

Three centuries later another Torquatus was consul of Rome at the time of the Cataline conspiracy, and mainly assisted Cicero in the suppression of that great danger to the republic. Another of the same name sided with Pompey, and fought against Cæsar at the battle of Dyrrachium, B.C. 48. The last mentioned in Roman story was living at Milan at the time when the Emperor Claudius made his expedition to Britain, A.D. 43. His fame appears to have been very different nature from his great namesake, as it rests solely upon his surpassing powers as a "wine-bibber." Pliny in his "Natural History," relates that he obtained the surname of Tricongius by drinking three congii of wine at a sitting, and as this amounted to nearly eighteen English pints, it would have procured him high rank among the "six-bottled" gentry of the last century.

of

From some branch of this numerous family we may fairly assume that our Torquatus sprung; and since he was the undoubted