the decorations of a dulcimer belonging to Mr. H. Boddington, inside the lid of (which is the picture of a sunset, with figures; and of a most beautiful Ruckers virginal (plate xviii.) he remarks that in Metsu's picture in the National Gallery is depicted a precisely similar instrument, possibly the painter's own property, as it appears again in another work of his now at Richmond. Similar instruments are to be seer in other pictures. Mr. Hipkins does not mention that the famous Teniers in the National Gallery is believed to have been painted for a position similar to that of the sunset in question. The Silenus gathering -Grapes' and 'Pan teaching Apollo,' by A. Carracci, Nos. 93 and 94, are said to have *been painted for the harpsichord of the artist, who, like Terburg, G. Dou, and Gonzales Coques, delighted in introducing instru>ments of music into his pictures. The drawing of the theorbo, plate xvi., does not give us an idea of that noble instrument-doubt

less a violone, or magnified theorbo-which Kis depicted in the portrait at Penshurst of Lady Mary Sidney (born Dudley), mother of Sir P. Sidney, and which is nearly as tall as she. This makes us lament that is the illustrations were not drawn to a uniform scale, or, at least, with a scale of feet at

tached to each.

Of the beauty of these illustrations it is - our duty to write in the highest terms. Certainly no English work of the kind was ever more choicely illustrated or in a - manner so truly artistic. The drawing is particularly sound. The foreshortening of the curves, many of which are, owing to the nature of the subjects, very difficult and varying in their outlines and contours, could not be better. Of this draughtsmanship both the Celtic harps named above and the oliphant, plate vii.-made c. 1540, and cleverly carved with foliage,

on

= hunting subjects, and armorials - are signal instances. We cannot accept the legend quoted by Mr. Hipkins that the - latter is due to negroes the West Coast. There is no symptom whatever of a barbaric style in its design or execution, but, on the contrary, exactly the features we expect in ivory work in the Peninsula during the sixteenth century, a period when carving in wood was practised with great ardour in every country in Europe. Every wood-carver worked in ivory. Portuguese trade brought home much ivory from Africa, and there is nothing in the execution of

this hunting horn beyond the powers of

tolerably skilful hands. That "the arms of Portugal upside down" were often carved by negroes of the West Coast is no proof of the negro origin of this oliphant, which bears such an escutcheon right side up.

Most enjoyable is the manner in which the local colours have been reproduced; the oliphant in question is a capital instance. Not less admirable is Queen Elizabeth's virginal, plate viii.; another is the tortoiseshell back of the so-called Rizzio guitar, plate x., of which the front view represents charmingly the iridescence of the mother-o'

pearl inlays.

Mr. Hipkins thinks this in

strument is of Moorish origin; it certainly resembles much Moorish work with which we are acquainted, but this does not settle the question. Florentine work of the sixteenth century has some of its characteristics.

The drawing of the positive organ (i.e., one designed for chamber use and to occupy a stand, unlike the portable organ which is so often seen in miniatures and pictures, like the Chiswick Memline) is a capital example. Mr. Hipkins gives unusually interesting notices of the musical compass, chromatics, and character of the positive organ and its congener the regal. The former is often seen in pictures, for instance, in the great ancona by the Van Eycks at Ghent, called 'The Adoration of the Lamb,' and in various "St. Cecilias" down to a late date. A noble organ portatif is delineated in the diptych from Holyrood now in the Stuart Exhibition. The regal is supposed to have been much used in convents to accompany the nuns' voices. Regals are frequently mentioned in legal documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and to Shakspearean students they are noteworthy on account of Sir John Hawkins's ingenious suggestion "that the stage direction to the players' scene in 'Hamlet,' 'Enter a duke and dutchess with regal coronets,' should be 'with regals and cornets." To conclude we may especially notice the excellent drawing of a theorbo of ivory made in 1629 by Giovanni Krebar, of Padua, a charming piece of colour. In the back view there are cream colour and cool white, and in the front view cinnamon, black, and white. The three chitarroni, plate xxi., are exceedingly elegant in form and choice in colour. The Welsh crwth on plate xxiv., which was played with a bow, closely resembles an instrument in the hands of one of the angels in the Chiswick Memlinc. That it was a descendant of the classic lyre through the mediæval rote is a suggestion of our author's that must be received with re

serve.

His

Specimens of Antique Carved Furniture and Woodwork. Measured and drawn by A. Marshall (Allen & Co.)-Mr. Marshall is unfortunate in using for the title of his book the word "antique" in the Wardour Street sense. numerous and well-chosen examples are Gothic, Elizabethan, Jacobean, rococo, and even baroque, and all more or less ancient; but none of them is antique in any sense but that of a furnituredealer who does not know his own language. The specimens are all English. The book is valuable, and, in addition to capital drawings of examples of various kinds and dates, Mr. Marshall has given

his readers intelligent accounts not only of the decorations of carved credences, cabinets, chairs,

wardrobes, over-mantels, and many other things,

their construction carpentryaccounts which are not less useful than complete, and supplemented by views, drawn in section as well as to scale, showing details of prominent elements, and the plans of several among them. This is as it should be, and we congratulate ourselves on possessing a series of illustrations of old English woodwork, the only defect of which is the small number of Gothic examples due to

periods of fine wood-carving, and far surpassing in design and the technical skill devoted to them the productions of a later period. We have failed to find in the book misereres and canopies such as, both in this country and abroad, Gothic buildings supply in rarely-appreciated

ance; and we miss specimens of those pic

abundance; ture-frames, coffers, Bible-boxes, carriages, vergeboards, balustrades, and panels which we hope Mr. Marshall may be encouraged, by the success of this volume, to study and draw with intelligence, spirit, and skill equal to what he has shown in this book. His examples are not all of that

styles to which they belong, and

the

elaborate kind which few carvers would think of rivalling; they embrace details (see plate 2) which are anything but rare, although they are rightly chosen because they are representative periods during which they were produced. The construction of a piece of carpentry is often as characteristic of its origin and the craftsman who made it as it is valuable and peculiar to its time, and suitable to the ornaments which enrich it, and show its date and even district whence it came. The cabinet from Ugglebarnby, Yorkshire (see plate 3), is an instance in point, and remarkable rather for its typical character than its rarity or uncommon beauty. Norfolk and Suffolk, Lincolnshire, and the eastern parts of Cambridgeshire supply countless specimens. Few surpass the wonderful bedstead on plates 36 and 37, which came from Yorkshire, and is unmistakably English to the least detail. Mr. Marshall is right in mentioning the frequent existence of secret cupboards in the head-boards of such bedsteads; we have met with secret places in the testers and even in the posts. Wills and other papers, money and jewellery, were often hidden thus when bankers were unknown, and investments, except mortgages and loans, were rare. Hiding places for human beings, too, were not unfrequently constructed above the bulky architectural testers of bedsteads of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Mr. Marshall has not confined his pencil to furniture proper, and he has given us a view of the fine half-timbered front of the Feathers Inn at Ludlow, which is a capital piece of carpentry; but he has omitted all but a very bald suggestion of the vergeboards on its gables and the moulded strings of its cornice. Surrey would have supplied him with excellent specimens of vergeboards, the number of which time and thoughtless owners are diminishing year by year. We are at issue with him where he says

that we may attribute the introduction of "old furniture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries" in England to the Flemings. No doubt the Flemings who settled in East Anglia and elsewhere, especially in Pembrokeshire, where the Flemish colony did much carving, had considerable influence in changing the national English style of wood-carving into a quasi-Flemish one; but to say that they "introduced" the craft is a mistake Mr. Marshall would never have fallen into if he had studied that vast treasury of Gothic carvings which awaits complete exposition from competent hands. Much has been done in a fragmentary way to illustrate it, but there is room for a good and well-studied book on this national craft. Compilers of volumes like that before us err in claiming too much for their beloved

craft. A stone-carver was, if he chose, a wood. carver as well, and the close likeness between the productions in one and the other of these

methods which is observable in every epoch

proves how frequently the dealt with either process. Thankful as we are for this excellent body of specimens and criticisms, we should have been glad of a longer list of relics of old carving than Mr. Marshall's book

affords.

NEW PRINTS.

MR. DUNTHORNE has sent us a proof of his latest publication, a large, masculine, and brilliantly lighted etching of the western façade of the basilica of St. Gilles at Arles, by Mr. A. H. Haig. It is drawn with great force, spirit, and thorough understanding of the picturesque effect of the architecture, and in a way truly adapted to the character of the building, its statues in niches between detached columns, the entablature, and friezes, strings, dentils, and other ornaments, which add distinction to noble and grave design. The firm hand of the etcher was never better shown than in

a

the foreshortening of the mouldings massed in the head of the central doorway, and in the crisp touch employed to delineate the weathering of the sculptures. We can find no fault except that the strength of the varying tones of the stone is not sufficiently allowed for, so that the whole is practically a monochrome, and some richness of colour is lost.

Mr. Obach has sent us, as agent for M. Petit, of Paris, a proof on vellum, with the remarque, an edible chestnut, of a plate etched by that modern master of the needle M. J. Bracquemond, after J. F. Millet, of the picture called 'Autumn,' and representing two young French girls, of the type Millet affected, standing in a soft full evening light in a meadow, and watching lines of swallows flying south over the illimitable plain, where, in the foreground, some sheep are feeding, while the horizon glows and the sun descends. The luminous suffusion of the atmosphere has not been too much for M. Bracquemond, and every part of this difficult and delicate subject has been treated in a way that is worthy of Millet. The sky is charming and the keeping of the whole unchallengeable. Mr. Obach has also sent the companion plate, by the same etcher after the same painter, and representing with nearly equal delicacy and greater force the pendent subject 'Spring.' In a farmyard a woman, half-stooping, half-kneeling on the ground, scatters food to hungry poultry, and is tormented by a frolicsome boy, who pulls at her shoulder, trying to bring her to the ground. The design of this group is full of spirit; the success of Millet in dealing with strong sunlight slightl softened, but har hardly subdued by vapour,

the gradations and choiceness of his tonality, the broad coloration and simple yet subtle chiaroscuro of the original, are all so admirably reproduced that if the painter had etched his own work he could not have done it better. A vellum proof with the remarque, two hovering butterflies, is before us. M. Petit is the publisher of this etching too.

'ILLUSTRATIONS OF BAPTISMAL FONTS.'

Walton Manor, Oxford, Dec. 31, 1888.

In answer to Mr. Hudd's query in the Athenæum of December 29th, I beg to state that "T. C.," author of 'Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts,' was the late Thomas Combe, M.A., who was for many years head of the University Printing Press, Oxford, and a great admirer of

ancient architecture.

EMMA SWANN.

Diss Rectory.

I CAN quite confirm Mr. A. E. Hudd's statement that the late F. A. Paley did not edit or originate the 'Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts.' The work was issued in monthly numbers, and Paley subscribed. In 1844 he contributed drawings of fonts at Wortham, Palgrave, and Shelfhanger, near Diss; and others at Bourn

and Ewerby, Lincolnshire, taken during walking

tours the spring of that year. Before

series came to a conclusion he was invited by Mr. Van Voorst to write an introduction; and having done so, his name was placed on the title-page. I associate the initials "T. C." with the name Thomas Combe; but I can give no reasons for the opinion now.

C. R. MANNING, F.S.A.

*** We have also received a letter from Mr. Van Voorst's successors giving the same informa

tion.

NOTES FROM ATHENS.

past discoveries. Sparta, unfortunately, is far poorer in remains. Thucydides in a prophetic mood declared that no one would be able, from the remains of the temples and other buildings, to gain an idea of its former greatness. But what Sparta could not supply has been furnished by Olympia, Tiryns, Mycene, Corinth, Tegea, Mantinea, Sicyon, and other places. But how many treasures still lie buried in various parts of the country has been proved by recent excavations in spots of minor importance in Greek history. Gradually the valuable plan has been adopted of ransacking individual sites which were, owing to their religious significance, centres of Hellenic antiquity, and formed local museums of Hellenic art. Quite recently Boeotia has greatly added to our knowledge. To prove this I need only mention the excavations at Orchomenus, Cheronea, the sanctuary of the Ptoum Apollo, and the Temple of the Cabeiri. Another fortunate enterprise has been the exploration of the Temple of the Muses on Mount Helicon.

Every one knows of the worship of the Muses on Helicon. Pausanias describes with especial gusto the temple that stood in the Grove of the Muses, and the works of art contained in it (ix. 29-31). The statues of the Muses them selves were works of Cephisodotus, Strongylion, and Olympiosthenes, and belonged to the fifth century. It is the first occasion on which we find the Muses attaining the orthodox number of nine. But the grove was adorned with statues of other divinities, and also of poets and musicians. A festival of the Muses, styled the Museia, was celebrated in the grove under the superintendence of the Thespians, in whose territory the grove lay. Inscriptions previously found had informed us of the cult of the Muses, which continued into Roman times; those lately discovered are in the Boeotian dialect, and have been met with in the churches of the village of Karanda, upon the road from Thisbe to Leuctra. One of them mentions the offerings to the Heliconian Muses by Philetsærus, the son of Attalus I., King of Pergamus.

The interest which the French Archæological School showed as early as 1884, when M. Foucart published these inscriptions in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, determined him to proceed to the systematic investigation of the site of the temple. After the French had obtained the necessary permit from the Minister of Worship, they set to work in October and November last, in spite of its being the winter season. M. Jamot superintended the work, the Government being represented by Dr. Kastromenos, Dr. Schliemann's brother-in-law. The results attained have proved most interesting.

that has set in. They will be resumed in the spring. It is intended to proceed to the complete opening of a hemicycle lying at about fifteen minutes' walk from the temple, and probably the ancient theatre, although still much is needed for the explanation of the difficulties attaching to this view. No rows of seats have yet been unearthed. What has as yet been excavated appeared to be the stage; but we must wait till the spring for further information, as there is a layer of earth 5 mètres thick over all the rest of the site. So far as we can conjecture, this theatre must have been one of the largest in Greece. The view from the spot where the spectators must have sat embraces Thespise, Platea, Thebes, and some mounds of Tanagra.

On the 12th of December occurred the first annual sitting of the German Archæological Institute, which was held on the birthday of Winckelmann. Dr. Dörpfeld, the secretary, made a speech, in which he spoke of the Institute having taken possession of its new house, which has been leased to it for a term of five-and-twenty years. He also referred to the great change that has come over the views of archeologists of late years, and said that he had years ago pointed out the similarity of the remains found in Tiryns with those of many African colonies of Phoenicia, among them Carthage. Now he might go further and point out the analogies existing between the Megaron at Tiryns and the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, which we know to have been constructed by Phoenician workmen. He hoped that these lines of investigation might be traced further. After Dr. Dörpfeld had spoken, Dr. Wolters delivered a discourse on the group of Peace and the youthful Plutus at Munich. After giving the history of the interpretations of this work since the time of Winckelmann, who took it for a Leucothea holding Dionysus, he mentioned the supposition of Brunn that the group represented the goddess of Peace and Plutus, and that it is a work of the elder Cephisodotus. Dr. Wolters agrees with this, and thinks it a marble replica from the original bronze, and he also attributes to Cephisodotus a bust of Minerva in the Naples Museum, of which other replicas are known. He believes it to have been repeated from the bronze statue of Miverva Soteira by the father of Praxiteles, which was preserved in the Temple of Zeus Soter and Minerva Soteira in the Pireus. He fancies that Cephisodotus executed the work shortly after the victories of Conon. The sculptor celebrated with his chisel the victories of the Athenians under both Conon and Timotheus. Finally M. Brückner discoursed upon the remains of a pediment of Poros stone derived from the last excavations on the Acropolis. He explained their arrangement. They form three male winged figures, which end in the coils of a snake's It is probably a representation of a Typhon. A passage in Euripides mentions a

The centre of the excavations has been the modern church of the Holy Trinity, which exactly occupies the site of the Temple of the Muses. It is situated at about an hour's walk from the village of Palæopanagia, the lower eastern

slopes of Helicon. The church, of which only

The

SPYR. P. LAMBROS.

ROMAN REMAINS AT RIO TINTO.

the foundations remained, has had to be entirely Typhon with three bodies. removed. The temple below proves to have been 12.50 mètres long by 6 50 broad. entrance was on the west side. It was an amphiprostyle of four Ionic columns, similar, therefore, to the Temple of Victory on the Acropolis. It had, it would seem, neither forecourt nor opisthodomus, SO that it had the look of a cella flanked on two sides by pillars. It is noteworthy that the temple had been rebuilt in Roman

Tangier, December, 1888.

THERE will shortly be on view, it is hoped, at the British Museum the very remarkable Roman treadmill for raising water which was discovered in the workings of the Rio Tinto mine, where its woodwork was preserved in a very perfect

times, when it was lengthened 6 mètres so as state by the action of the copper in the water.

to form a square.

The discoveries of objects of art are limited to

It may be of interest to mention, in connexion with this wheel, that the Roman remains dis

manner.

ing on bars, as in the modern treadmill, they appear to have held on to ropes (like bell-ropes), of which portions still remain. The extant wheel (4) mètres in diameter) is so constructed as to utilize their weight in the most skilful The pickaxes in the same collection are so completely modern in shape that it is difficult to realize their antiquity, while the curious hoe-like spade of the Spaniards finds here its prototype. The same survival may be detected in the herring-bone work" of the Romans (of which specimens have been found at Rio Tinto), which reappears in the Giralda at Seville, and is still in full use. Among the other metal objects are two bronze urns and some stamped pigs of Roman lead, with a lead tube.

In pottery there are some interesting specimens, including one large jar, 2 ft. 10 in. high, and two amphore, one of slender and elegant form, standing in their original stone sockets. Of the smaller pieces some are precisely similar in size and shape to the pots now made at Langley, Notts. There are several fragments of Roman glass and a few perfect pieces. Some coins have been saved for the museum, but many more are in private hands, among them a fine one of Wamba (A.D. 680-687), implying that the mine may have been worked after Roman

times.

Many specimens of Roman slag are in the museum, as are also some lead weights with iron handles. Of the Roman town there are some striking remains in four capitals of columns, two of sculptured marble and two of ironstone, one of the latter measuring no less than 3ft. 4 in. square by 1 ft. 9 in. in height. One "pedestal," which I take to be an altar, has been brought down from the mine, and another is said to be up there and to be inscribed. Large roofing tiles, precisely similar to those I have found at Colchester imbedded in Norman masonry, have been found at Rio Tinto and, just recently, at Huelva itself, close to the museum.

Earlier than these Roman relics are the stone hammer-heads found about the mine, all formed as double bulbs, with depressions in the centre for handles. Coeval probably with these are the rude stone pestles and mortars, which seem to have been used for pigments.

In the same museum are a few objects from Merida, "the Rome of Spain"; among them a lamp with a most spirited bas-relief of a fighting gladiator, the details of his armour being clearly shown. In M. Sundheim's possession also is an exquisite little lachrymatory of opaque glass, lately found at Merida, each side of which represents a Medusa's head in low relief.

fine-Art Gossły.

J. H. ROUND.

THE famous Rembrandts which the public will be admitted to see at the Royal Academy on Monday next are the Queen's and come from Buckingham Palace. (1) 'The Shipbuilder and his Wife' (Smith's 161), is well known by the fine mezzotint of J. Hodges, dated 1633, and therefore is an example of the master's early early transitional period, retaining the finish and solidity of more laboured works, and exhibiting an advance towards a freer style and additional impasto (it was exhibited at the British Institution in 1819, 1826, 1827, and at the Academy in 1873). (2) The Burgomaster Pancras and his Wife' (Smith's 298), was painted in 1645; exhibited at the British Institution in 1826 and 1827; and (3) The Portrait of a Lady at a Window, with a Fan in her Hand' (Smith's 511), is signed and dated 1641, the year of the Jewish Bride, 'Analo and his Wife,' 'Saskia' (at Dresden), and 'Anna Wijmer.' It was at the British Institution in 1826 and 1827. The exhibition has no Italian pictures, but there is a selection of Watteaus from the galleries of Sir R. Wallace and Mr. A. Rothschild. Gallery I. is appropriated to a fine series of pictures by deceased British artists, lent by Mr. Miller

(the elder), of Preston, which have not been till now removed from the house of the late Mr. Miller. In this collection is 'A Huguenot,' by Sir John Millais, which, of course, is not at Burlington House. Gallery II. is filled, as usual, with Dutch pictures (not including the more important Rembrandts, which are in Gallery III.), and the Watteaus. Gallery III. contains the larger paintings of several schools, among which are two superb Turners, lent by Lord Dudley, and an important Constable. Galleries IV. and V. are filled with a selection of the works of the late Mr. F. Holl, comprising, besides portraits, some of his earlier domestic and pathetic designs. The Water

THE Fine-Art Society has appointed to-day (Saturday) for private views of the "Champion Photographic Exhibition" and of a collection of fifty drawings by Mr. W. L. Wyllie of "The Queen's Navy." The public will be admitted to the galleries on Monday next.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Times informs us of the death of Mr. James R. Swinton, of the ancient family of Swinton of Swinton, nton, who for at least twenty years was the fashionable portrait painter, in fact he was more purely fashionable than Sir Francis Grant himself, who was, of course, a much better artist. Mr. Swinton was born about 1820, and, after a somewhat irregular course of practice, began to exhibit at the Royal

Colour Room contains a magnificent collection | Academy in 1844, sending portraits of the Marof drawings by Turner, among which are several larger works from Farnley Hall, loans from Mr. A. Fawkes, for leave to describe which in "The Private Collections of England," Nos. XLVI., XLVII., XLVIII., XLIX., L., and LI., we are indebted to the owner. In No. LI. we gave a general account of the drawings Turner made during a tour down the Rhine in 1800. We then said, "Of the phase of his labours during which realism [of a noble and selected sort] and natural beauty held sway these drawings are the culminating examples, and they are illustrations of those studies in light per se in which he was the first to succeed. Made during a fortnight's tour, and fifty-one in number, they evince unflinching yet happy industry and prodigious skill; merely as sketches of phases of sunlight and moonlight they are not less marvellous. In truth, in respect to colour and natural effect, they are what the invaluable drawings of the 'Liber Studiorum' are in regard to the expression of sentiment in landscape and picturesque combinations or 'composition' proper. As lessons in many meteorological effects they are instructive, as what may be called chromatic schemes the they are simply invaluable. They show consecutively the stages of Turner's journey from Mayence to Cologne. Lightly touched and brilliantly painted, not one of them was carried far towards finishing, yet each is a complete work or scheme for a picture, in which are reproduced, with consummate art, the light and local and general colour of the subject. Here are complete epitomes of rocks, trees, water, herbage, flowers, and skies in nearly all effects of weather. The subjects include the towers, castles, towns, cliffs, bridges, islands, pools, and eddies of the ever-present river." Mr. Quilter is among those who have lent Turner drawings, and Mr. Miller the younger, of Preston, is a considerable contri

butor.

THERE is no foundation for the rumour that has been going about, that this year's Winter Exhibition at the Royal Academy comprises a room (or two) full of specimens of the so-called "art-craftsmanship" of this or any other period. Accordingly there will be no Dresden china nor Japanese wonders to be seen at Burlington House next Monday. The Academicians have enough to do to collect specimens of painting of all ages and kinds, and their late effort to represent sculpture on a small scale was sufficient addition to the labours which we are so much indebted to the President, Mr. Horsley, and successive councils for undertaking.

SIR F. LEIGHTON has made so much progress with the pictures we have lately described, being 'A Sibyl,' 'Playing at Ball,' and 'A Supplicant,' that it is probable they will all appear at the next Academy, and so will a lovely portrait

a lady. the figure pictures trait, Sir Frederic will probably be represented by a landscape, which will furnish a strong contrast to the important picture that for some time past has occupied Sir John Millais in Scotland. THE Society of Lady Artists will hold its annual exhibition of paintings, etchings, and sculpture in the Drawing-Room Gallery, Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. Days for sending in March 4th and 5th; sculpture, March 11th.

chioness of Douro, Viscountess Camden, Miss Farquhar, the Hon. Frederick Bruce, and Prof. Wilson. He had previously considerable reputation as a painter and draughtsman of portraits, especially of ladies, some of whom he delineated with much spirit, and that luxurious, not to say voluptuous grace which in a very short time distinguished all his portraits of fashionable damsels, and in artistic society gained for him the name of the painter of brides. He was generally successful in retaining the likeness, even while he exaggerated the elegance and overdid the sweetness of his ladies' faces. On the other hand, it was his good fortune to be employed to preserve the lineaments of some people of high reputation, including Mrs. Somerville (an example lacking only something like fibre to be admirable), Lady M. Alford, Lady Dufferin, Lady De Tabley, the Earl of Elgin, the present Lord Wemyss, Lady Charlotte Bury, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the Viscountess Jocelyn, the Duchess of Argyll, Mrs. Norton, Lady Seymour (the "Queen Beauty") B Lady de Blaquiere, the Emperor Louis Napoleon, Lady Burdett-Coutts, Lady Westmoreland, Lady Eastlake, the Duchess of Wellington (second time), and the beautiful Miss Herbert of the Olympic Theatre, one of Rossetti's most admired sitters. Several of these paintings have been engraved, and some of the drawings, Swinton's best productions, were lithographed. He was less happy in portraits of gentlemen, because he did not make them masculine enough. He contributed to the Royal Academy with almost unfailing regularity for thirty successive years, in all (according to Mr. A. Graves) eighty-five examples, besides seventeen sent to Suffolk Street and the British Institution. His last appearance was in 1874, since which date failing health restrained his hand.

We are glad to hear that, by means of the tax on tourists on the Nile, funds have been found which in some small degree promote the objects of the "Committee for the Preservation of Monuments of Ancient Egypt," the formation of which we mentioned on the 8th of December last. Money has thus been found for placing doors on certain tombs, and otherwise taking defensive steps, however inadequate. It is to be hoped the committee, of which Mr. E. J. Poynter is the honorary secretary, will see its way to more effectual defences than the tax on tourists can be expected to support. It is pleasant to hear that this tax has been cheerfully paid.

MR. HUISH writes :

"In the notice which you are so good as to accord to 'Japan and its Arts' your reviewer states that I am 'critical, not to say censorious, on recent acquisi

tions of the British Museum. It was certainly not

my intention to create any such idea in of the reader. So far as the British Museum is cont

cerned, everything appertaining to Japanese art that

they have acquired is worthy of its present home. could not well be otherwise with three such experts at the head of affairs as Mr. Franks, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. C. H. Read."

THE friends of M. Feyen-Perrin, such as M. J. Breton, M. Daudet, M. Bonnat, M. Bracquemond, M. Henner, and M. Yon, propose to form in Paris an exhibition of the works of the de

ceased artist, which cannot but be welcome to painters and amateurs.

It is intended to endeavour to restore, or, at least, to arrest the deterioration, of the Arc de la Paix on the Place du Carrousel, Paris, the unfortunate state of which has often attracted attention. This elegant monument has suffered greatly in consequence of that increased defilement of Paris air which is due to the extension of the city, the growth of its population, and most of all to the increased use of coal and gas in the French capital. These causes threaten the destruction of monuments of marble, such as the Arc du Carrousel, even sooner than those of limestone proper and sandstone in which Paris abounds.

AT a recent sale in Paris Daubigny's 'Les Bords de l'Oise,' a famous picture, realized 20,000 fr., while Corot's 'Pâturage sous Bois' fetched 5,000 fr.

THE Basler Nachrichten states that M. Barloud's excavations at Avenches, in Canton Vaud (Aventicum), have just brought to light in the ancient Roman theatre a number of marble tablets bearing inscriptions.

MUSIC

Musical Gossip.

LAST week a conference of Welsh musicians was held at Shrewsbury, under the presidency of Mr. John Thomas, the Queen's harpist. It was convened by the Honourable Society of the Cymmrodorion, and it was decided to establish a National Association of Music for Wales, which should encourage native talent, and develope the study of orchestral music in the Principality. The Prince of Wales will be invited to become the president.

IT is usually possible at the turn of the year to form some general estimate as to the quantity and quality of the musical work of the ensuing spring and summer season. That is the case at present, though of course new features are certain to be added to what is already settled. The Popular Concerts will be resumed on Monday, and will continue until April 15th. Herr Joachim will make his first appearance on March 4th, and Herr Grieg will play on February 23rd and 25th, and March 9th. It is uncertain whether Madame Schumann will visit England this season.

THE Royal Choral Society will perform Berlioz's 'Faust' (not Benoit's Lucifer, as originally announced) on January 16th; 'Elijah,' February 2nd; Mancinelli's' Isaias 'and Barnby's 'The Lord is King,' February 20th; 'The Redemption,' March 6th; 'Faust,' March 30th; and the 'Messiah,' April 19th.

THE Novello Oratorio Concerts will take place as follows: 'Elijah,' January 23rd; Масkenzie's 'The Dream of Jubal,' &c., February 26th; Dudley Buck's 'The Light of Asia,' March 19th; and Handel's 'Saul,' April 9th.

THE London Symphony Concerts will be resumed on the 15th inst., and will be continued

weekly until February 27th. The most interesting feature will be the appearance of Mr. Broughton's Leeds Choir in The Walpurgis Night' and the 'Choral' Symphony on thelast-mentioned

date.

We have already mentioned the principal features of the remaining Crystal Palace Concerts, and need only repeat that the most interesting novelties will be Mr. Hamish MacCunn's cantata 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel,' on February 16th, and Prof. Stanford's new Symphony in F, No. 3, on the following Saturday. Mr. Manns's benefit concert will take place on April 20th.

THE remaining performances of the Borough of Hackney Choral Association will be as follows: January 14th, Haydn's 'Seasons'; February 20th,

Mendelssohn's 'St. Paul'; and April 15th, Brahms's German Requiem and Schubert's 'Rosamunde' music.

THE Highbury Philharmonic Society will perform Berlioz's 'Faust' on March 25th, and Dudley Buck's 'The Light of Asia' on May 6th. THE Westminster Orchestral Society's concerts of English works will be given on March 13th and May 29th. The most interesting item will be the first performance of Mr. Macpherson's Symphony in c on the former date.

THE Philharmonic Society has issued a prospectus of remarkable interest, as will be seen from the following summary of the arrangements. At the opening concert on March 14th Herr Grieg will conduct his Suite, Op. 46, and his Pianoforte Concerto in A minor, which will be played by Madame Backer-Gröndahl; and Madame Grieg will sing. On the 28th Herr Joachim will perform Dr. Stanford's new Violin Suite in D. At the third concert on April 11th Herr Tschaïkowsky will conduct his new Symphony in E minor, No. 5, and his Pianoforte Concerto in G, No. 2, the latter being played by M. Sapellnikoff. On May 9th M. Ysaye, a Belgian violinist, will play Beethoven's Concerto. Dr. Hubert Parry's new Symphony in c will be performed on May 23rd. On June 6th Brahms's

Double Concerto for violin and violoncello will be played by Messrs. Carrodus and E. Howell. A morning concert will be given June 22nd. Mr. Cowen will again be the conductor.

The

THE Richter Concerts will take place on Mondays, May 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th, June 3rd, 17th, and 24th, and July 1st and 8th. programmes are not yet settled, but Berlioz's 'Faust' will probably be performed at the final

concert.

Two concerts will be given by the Bach Choir on March 5th and the afternoon of May 4th. The programme of the former will include Bach's cantata 'Halt im Gedächtniss,' and at the latter Beethoven's Mass in D will be performed.

MASTER OTTO HEGNER will give pianoforte recitals at St. James's Hall on January 28th and February 18th and 25th. Among the works he will play for the first time are Beethoven's sonatas in E flat, Op. 31, No. 3, and in c, Op. 53 (the 'Waldstein').

MISS DORA BRIGHT announces pianoforte recitals on January 30th, February 27th, and March 27th, at the Princes' Hall. Her programmes will contain a large infusion of English music, including a series of variations for two pianofortes on a theme in G minor, by Sir George Macfarren, and two smaller pieces by herself; pieces by Miss Ethel Boyce, Mr. G. J.

Bennett, Mr. Edward German, Mr. Moir-Clark, Sterndale Bennett, and Dr. Mackenzie, besides the whole of Mr. Walter Macfarren's new book

of studies.

M. DE PACHMANN will give a pianoforte recital at St. James's Hall on March 5th.

MADAME PATTI's final concerts at the Albert Hall will take place on the 8th and 22nd inst. THE arrangements for the Royal Italian Opera, under Mr. Augustus Harris, are in a forward state, and the season will open early in May. All the leading artists who contributed to the success of last season are re-engaged, and it is in contemplation to produce an Italian version of 'Die

Meistersinger,' and to revive Tannhäuser' and

Gounod's 'Roméo et Juliette.'

No arrangements have been made as yet for a London season of Mr. Carl Rosa's company.

THE usual New Year's Day performance of the 'Messiah' at the Albert Hall took place on Tuesday. Madame Albani, Madame Patey, Mr. Charles Banks, and Mr. Watkin Mills were the

principal vocalists.

THE title of the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter has been changed to the Musical Herald, "in order to remind the public that the Tonic Sol-faists are

now an integral part of the general musical life of the country."

HERR IGNAZ BRÜLL'S new opera 'Das steinerne Herz,' produced recently at Prague, is said to be a great advance upon his earlier work, 'The Golden Cross.'

A NEW sonata for piano and violin by Brahms will shortly be brought to a private hearing in Vienna.

A PERFORMANCE of 'L'Africaine' has just been given at Buda Pesth, in which the part of Nelusko was sung in French, and that of Selika in Italian, while the rest of the artists sang in German, and the chorus in Hungarian. Le Ménestrel appropriately describes this as a reminiscence of the Tower of Babel.

CONCERTS, &c, FOR NEXT WEEK.
MON. Popu'ar Concert, 8.30, St. James's Hall.
Thes. Patti Concert 8 Albert Hall.
WED. Miss Damian's Concert, 8. Princes' Hall.
SAT. AT. Popular Concert, 3, St. James s Hall.

DRAMA

An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian. With Notes and Supplement by Robert W. Lowe. 2 vols. (Nimmo.) THE new edition of Colley Cibber's 'Apology,' edited by Mr. Lowe and published by Mr. Nimmo, is a worthy companion to the edition of Doran's 'Annals of the Stage' issued under similar conditions. It is neither less creditable in literary workmanship nor less attractive from its artistic beauty. Among books on the stage, Cibber's 'Apology' осcupies a foremost place. Its value as a record is not great, and none would think of classing it with such painstaking and elaborate books as the 'Histoire du Théâtre François' of the brothers Parfaict and Genest's Account of the English Stage,' perhaps not even with the 'Dramaturgy of Hamburg' of Lessing. The space covered is short; the all but total absence of dates deprives the work of the greater part of its value as a chronicle; the views are coloured by prejudice; and the omissions are formidable and significant. None the less the 'Apology' is a work which has steadily risen in public favour, and is now accepted as a masterpiece.

Cibber was specially unlucky in the animosities he aroused. Regarded from the standpoint of to-day, his ill fortune in this respect is easily understood. He had an airy and aggressive vanity and coxcombry which were calculated to awaken wrath, and enjoyed a species of popularity and success which may well have been held an aggravation of his offence. To these things may be attributed the persistent hostility of Grub Street. His Whig politics and the rewards they brought him aroused the anger of more dangerous enemies. To the army of his assailants came a leader in the person of Pope, the motives of whose implacable hostility are not even now too obvious. Foes such as Pope, Johnson, and Fielding, Cibber could not, and did not, attempt to despise. He combated, however, vigorously and adroitly, and in the end successfully; and the splenetic outburst of Pope in substituting Cibber for Theobald as the hero of the 'Dunciad' in the end hurt no one but Pope. If, as may almost be maintained, the worst poet of his day, Cibber was one of the most successful dramatists. As a comedian he was unsurpassed, as a manager unequalled, and as a critic of acting he remains to this day paramount.

In giving to the world a new edition of the 'Apology,' Mr. Lowe has, while accepting the text of the second edition, which bears the same date, 1740, as the first, based his work upon the useful edition, 1822, of Bellchambers. Whether Bellchambers

or

another, as Mr. Lowe in his 'Bibliographical Account of English Theatrical Literature' suggests, is responsible for the notes to this edition, they have at least genuine value. With the exception of a few redundancies and with some corrections they are preserved in the latest edition. Large additions to them are now made. For his new matter Mr. Lowe has gone to MS. sources, including the Cibber collections in the Forster Library at South Kensington and the records in the Lord Chamberlain's office. He has also for the first time laid under contribution the tracts belonging to the Pope and Cibber controversy, many of them containing matter of extreme interest. Something may be said against as well as for the illustrations from actors of to-day, which Mr. Lowe sparingly employs. The result of his labours has been to throw a good deal of light upon the stage in the early portion of the eighteenth century, and to lighten the burden of those who have to deal with the actors of Cibber's epoch.

In addition to the 'Apology,' Mr. Lowe reprints some theatrical documents of interest. Foremost among them is "A Brief Supplement to Colley Cibber, Esq.; his Lives of the late Famous Actors and Actresses, by Anthony, vulgò Tony Aston." This work was printed for the author. It is in the original probably the rarest of theatrical books, not more than two or three copies being known. It is a valuable, if not an indispensable addition to Cibber, with whose shortcomings in his descriptions it deals; and it supplies much curious, trustworthy, and profitable information concerning Betterton, Underhill, Nokes, Mrs. Bracegirdle, and other actors of the Cibber period. A copy of the patent granted by King Charles to Sir William D'Avenant, and dated January 15th, 14 Car. II., 1662, is also given. Though less difficult of access than the works previously mentioned, the Historia Histrionica,' attributed to James Wright, is also a welcome reprint. It was included in the latest issue of Dodsley's 'Old Plays'; and without the preface, and under the altered title of 'A Dialogue on Old Plays and Old Players,' is printed in the third edition, two vols. 12mo., 1750, of the 'Apology.'

Mr. Lowe has given the world a scholarly, a serviceable, and a trustworthy work. In saying that it is published by Mr. Nimmo a guarantee is afforded that it is in all bibliographical respects a treasure. Paper and printing are excellent, and the binding is handsome and durable. Twenty-six mezzotint portraits of actors and dramatists, many of them rare, have been reproduced, and the various chapters have contemporary designs newly etched by M. Adolphe Lalauze. Following a practice which especially commends his books to the bibliophile, Mr. Nimmo has issued the 'Apology' in a strictly limited edition, each copy being numbered, and has distributed the type. A serviceable an attractive book has thus the added recommendation that it must inevitably become a rarity.

and

THE WEEK.

LYCEUM.-'Macbeth.' Played in Six Acts.

THIRTEEN years have elapsed since Mr. Irving was last seen in 'Macbeth.' At that time the actor, still in his early manhood, had not become a manager. He had, however, in addition to the characters in which he was first seen, and some subsequent parts of subordinate interest, thrilled the town as Mathias, moved it to tears as Charles I., assigned new interest to Richelieu, and played Hamlet for two hundred nights. In so doing he had shown practically the range of his talents. Subsequent performances have established his reputation without greatly changing the estimate of his powers. Louis XI., Richard III., Dr. Primrose, and Mephistopheles have won acceptance, and have lifted him into precedency and fortune. They have not changed the man-how should they? and they have left the limitations upon his genius the same as before. What is called a reading of a character owes more to the idiosyncrasy - including in the term the physical gifts of the actor than is popularly supposed. The Macbeth that is now seen is practically the same that thirteen years ago stirred eager controversy. It is better in some artistic respects, and it is set in a finer frame. The points, however, in which it inspires admiration, and those in which it challenges criticism, are the same as before. It is a Macbeth soldierly in exterior and bearing, heroic and unsubdued in action, but cowed by his environment, distraught by more than supernatural fears. Something of this is shown in Shakspeare. In fight Macbeth is at home. He is a fighting animal. From the first murder, long plotted, he recoils with the instinct of one unused to stab men in the dark. In the presence of the ghost of Banquo he is dismayed only by supernatural fears, and his "better part of man" would soon assert itself were the spectre, as he desires, to be alive again, and dare him to the desert. The moment after the wraith of Banquo disappears he plots the death of Macduff. These aspects Mr. Irving shows. A man more completely in the power of Fate and under the lash of the Furies has never, possibly, been seen. But the man is not a fightinganimal such as the bleeding sergeant, now restored to the acting version, describes. What is strongest in him is nervous and intellectual. Among the qualities ascribed to Macbeth by Malcolm is that he is "luxurious." This is the charge of an arch-enemy. Still, the word should not be overlooked, since of the other qualities attached to him all except one, " avaricious," are clearly deserved. A Macbeth less luxurious than is now seen cannot readily be conceived. Yet the word is apt, and furnishes a clear indication of character. Against the overintellectuality of Macbeth the imaginative power and the marvellous mobility of feature of the actor cannot prevail. The ingenuity, subtlety, picturesqueness, and power of the performance may be granted, but the new Macbeth will not replace the old. Few alterations are made in the reading of the text. As, however, the printed book issued by Mr. Irving gives correctly the speech of Macbeth on hearing of the

hereafter," we may regard the substitution (as on the first production) of "would" for should as a trick of memory rather than the absolute maintenance of an indefensible change.

Even less true to the Lady Macbeth of Shakspeare is the enchanting being whom Miss Ellen Terry presents. So exquisite a creature is she as by the flickering firelight she reads her husband's letter, so radiant in robes of indescribable beauty, and with such rhapsody of passionate longing does she lean back to wait for the coming of her lord, we decline to accept her as other than a being out of Arthurian legend. Such pangs as she subsequently feels might have afflicted Guinevere, such unrest might have disturbed the slumbers of Elaine. But the notion that the spiritual and ineffable creature could prompt to murder and assist at its committal is an insult to masculine estimate of woman. It is needless to enter upon the points concerning Lady Macbeth raised by Maginn, or the quasi-defence of the new view by Mr. Comyns Carr in the brilliantly written pamphlet which the occasion has brought forth. Lady Macbeth may have been somewhat less than a fiend, but she was not an angel.

Apart from these characters the representation may be accepted almost without challenge. We would make the murderers of Banquo young men instead of old, since such are usually chosen for deeds of violence, to which naturally they are more prone; we would assign less suggestion of heavenly worship to the concluding revels of the witches, who all but realize an ascension of blessed spirits by Blake; we would do away with the fantastic lowering of the lights in the banquet scene; and we would bring Duncan to the castle of Macbeth on a glowing summer or autumn afternoon, and not in the crepuscular light, which may be in keeping with the deeds shortly to be executed, but is at variance with the spoken words of the arriving guests. None the less the general effect is superb. Whether as regards costume or bearing, warriors such as surround Duncan and march against Macbeth have not been seen. The witch scenes are impressive and fateful; and the whole spectacle, to produce which much talent of the highest order has been secured, has probably never been equalled. To the credit of this achievement Mr. Irving is entitled. The revival is, indeed, likely to be epochmaking. There are few who will not care to see the representation more than once. A single visit is, indeed, inadequate to a realization of its beauties. Sir Arthur Sullivan's new music forms a pleasant accompaniment to the action. Full justice to it could scarcely be done on a first night, the prologue especially being unheard by the majority of the audience.

Bramatic Gossip.

DRAMATIC interest in pantomime has entirely disappeared, and it is only as a perhaps superfluous chronicle that the mere names of those produced call for mention. Drury Lane gave The Babes in the Wood,' the libretto of which is by Mr. E. L. Blanchard. The procession and ballet of birds in this is artistically satisfactory.

The Surrey gave The Forty Thieves,' the Bri

tannia 'The Magic Dragon of the Demon Dell,' the Marylebone Whittington and his Cat, the