slanders invented by their enemies. Their genercsity to one another, and readiness to associate on friendly terms with those of other creeds, whom they do not, like the majority of Shí'a Muhammadans, regard as impure, were also noticed. The

different classes of minds attracted by Bábíism were then described, and divided into four categories : firstly, those who, having been rigorous Muhammadans, saw in the new creed a fulfilment and perfecting of the old, and who regarded the Báb as the promised and long expected Imam Mahdí; secondly, those desirous of reform and progress; thirdly, mystics, who regarded Bábíism as a systematized Súfíism; and, lastly, enthusiasts filled with admiration for the person and character of the Báb. The latter part of the paper was devoted to a discussion of certain points in the history of the sect, concerning which different authorities disagree widely. The new materials for this investigation, consisting of certain Bábí MSS. obtained by the writer of the paper in Persia, were described and quoted. By means of these, several important dates, including the birth of the Bab about A.D. 1824, were fixed. The history of the sect subsequently to the Báb's death in July, 1850, was then briefly sketched, as well as the schism which divided it, in 1866, into

two parties, Behá'ís and Ezelís, of which the former

are, at the present day, by far the more numerous. An account of Beha, the spiritual chief of the first mentioned division, was then given; and the paper was concluded by a chronological table of the chief events in the history of the Bábís from their origin till the present day. An interesting discussion followed, in which Sir F. Goldsmid, Sir M. Smith, General Schindler, General Maclagan, Mr. Kay, and Mr. Hyde Clarke took part.

NEW SHAKSPERE.-April 12.-Dr. F. J. Furnivall in the chair.-Mr. W. Poel read a paper 'On the Stage Directions in Quartos 1 and 2 of "Romeo and Juliet," and on the Stage Representation of the Play.' He showed that the stage directions in Quarto 1 were those of an eye-witness, while those in Quarto 2 were from the prompt copy, and contended that some now neglected directions of Quarto 1 ought to be followed. As Shakspeare's plays must have been acted in two or two and a half hours, the actors' delivery must have been more rapid than in our day, more like the pace of the French actors; the words were spoken "trippingly on the tongue." The whole dialogue of the play was, without doubt, spoken by Shakspeare's company. Its cutting now was due to the ruinous star system, which destroyed the balance of a play in order to force the manager-actor into prominence. Essential parts of the drama were cut out on the modern stage and in the Marshall-Irving edition; while in the last act a speech left in referred to circumstances which had been cut out. Mr. Poel con

tended for the acting of the whole of Shakespeare's

plays, and the reduction of "waits" to two minutes, or no wait at all when the action of one act was carried into its successor. Dr. Furnivall and the many other speakers joined in condemnation of the star system, and agreed that actors cared for Shakspeare only so far as he showed them off. If the star was not in the last act of the 'Merchant,' he cut it out, and put on another piece for himself; if he was not Dogberry, he shortened and hurried that worthy's part; if he could get an extra clap by patching Shakspeare with Cibber, on went the patch; he thought of himself first, and Shakespeare

last.

HISTORICAL.-April 11.-Mr. Hyde Clarke in the chair.-Mr. J. F. Palmer read a paper 'On the Scandinavian Race in Britain.'-A discussion followed, in which the Revs. W. Cunningham, W. S. Lach-Szyrma, and R. Thornton, and Messrs. C. A. Fyffe, P. Harrison, H. E. Malden, W. Moore, and the Chairman took part.

MATHEMATICAL.-April 11.-Mr. J. J. Walker, President, in the chair.-Mr. C. E. Haselfoot was admitted into the Society. The Secretary communicated the following papers: 'On the Free Vibrations of an Infinite Plate of Homogeneous Isotropic Elastic Matter,' by Lord Rayleigh,-'On the Constant Factors of the Theta Series in the General Case p=3,' by Prof. F. Klein, -'On the Generalized Equations of Elasticity and their Application to the Theory of Light,' by Prof. K. Pearson, -'On the Reduction of a Complex Quadratic Surd to a Periodic Continued Fraction,' by Prof. G. B. Mathews,

-and Construction du Centre de Courbure de la Développée de la Courbe de Contour apparent d'une Surface que l'on projette orthogonalement sur un Plan,' by Prof. A. Mannheim. -Mr. Kempe and the President made short communications.

PHYSICAL April 13.- Prof. Reinold, President, in the chair.-Messrs. J. E. Dowson, W. M. Mordey, E. A. O'Keefe, C. Priest, A. Siemens, and W. B. Willans were elected Members.-Mr. S. Bidwell

showed 'A Lecture Experiment illustrating the Effect of Heat on the Magnetic Susceptibility of Nickel,' and 'An Experiment showing an Effect of Light on Magnetism.' - The papers read were a Note on the Dark Flash seen in some Lightning Photographs,' by Mr. G. M. Whipple, -'On Quartz as an Insulator, by Mr. C. V. Boys, and 'On a Refraction Goniometer,' by Mr. A. P. Trotter.-'A Note on Apparatus to illustrate Crystal Forms, by

Prof. R. J. Anderson, was read by Prof. Perry.

ARISTOTELIAN.-April 8. Mr. S. H. Hodgson, President, in the chair.-Rev. H. Rashdall was elected a Member.-Mr. F. C. Conybeare read a paper 'On Proclus and the Close of Greek Philosophy.' The results of the philosophy of Proclus were summarized, and attention drawn to the barren and abstract character of the principle of unity invoked by him in explanation of the universe. Proclus's account of creation was based on the Platonic metaphor of the participance of the phenomenal particulars in the idea. But only that side of Platonic theory is developed in Proclus which Aristotle criticized adversely. Plato in his zeal for the conceptual element in experience sometimes wrote as if the ideas competed for reality with

phenomena. This tendency of Plato to hypostatize

the ideas is just what influenced Proclus, who insists on the oneness of ideas to the exclusion of their manifoldness and complexity. Mr. Conybeare pointed out that the religious counterpart of this theory, which renounces God as an object of thought, is ecstasy. Unable to apprehend God intellectually, the new Platonists proposed to be united instantly and without effort of thought. The close of Greek philosophy was then sketched nearly in the words of Gibbon, and mention made of the influence gained by Greek heathen thought in the far East, as is shown in the ancient Armenian and Georgian translations which remain of Plato, Proclus, Hermeias, and others.

MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK.

TUES. Horticultural.-Fruit and Floral Committee, 11; Scientific Com

mittee, 1; Lecture, 3.

Physiologists residing in Great Britain or the colonies who propose to be present are requested to communicate with Prof. G. F. Yeo, King's College, London.

THE death is announced of Prof. Paul DuboisReymond, the brother of the distinguished physicist, and himself an esteemed writer on pure mathematics.

FINE ARTS

ONE HUNDRED and NINETY-FIVE MASTERPIECES of the GREAT ROMANTICISTS NOW ON VIEW. - An important Loan Collection of Works by the most eminent French and Dutch Painters, comprising Examples by Millet, Corot, Diaz, Rousseau, Meissonier, Israëls, the three Marises. Mauve, &c.-Messrs, Dowdeswell's Galleries, 160, New Bond Street.-Admission, 1s.

'THE VALE OF TEARS.'-DORE'S LAST GREAT PICTURE, completed a few days before he died, NOW ON VIEW at the Doré Gallery, 35, New Bond Street, with 'Christ leaving the Prætorium, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem,' 'The Dream of Pilate's Wife,' and his other great Pictures. From 10 to 6 Daily.-Admission, la.

Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries. By R. Lanciani. With Illustrations. (Macmillan & Co.)

THIS is a book most interesting to the archeologist, for it shows that though Rome has been more devastated and spoiled by her enemies and friends than, perhaps, any other city now in existence, there is still no reason to suppose that further discoveries, and those of no mean value, may not yet be made by wise and careful investigation.

In the preface Prof. Lanciani says that it is of course impossible to speak in detail of all the antiquities and ruins which have

E. Owen.

THE next ordinary general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will be held on Wednesday, the 1st of May, Thursday, the 2nd, and Friday, the 3rd, at 25, Great George Street, Westminster. The chair will be taken by the president, Mr. Cochrane, at 7.30 P.M. on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and at 2.30 PM. on Friday afternoon. The president will deliver his inaugural address on Wednesday evening. The following papers will be read and discussed, as far as time permits :'Research Committee on Marine Engine Trials : Report upon Trials of the S.S. Meteor,' by Prof. A. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., chairman; 'Description of an Apparatus for Drying in Vacuum,' by Mr. Emil Passburg, of Breslau (Friday afternoon).

THE following fifteen candidates have been selected by the Council of the Royal Society to be recommended for election into the Society:Mr. J. Aitken, Dr. E. Ballard, Mr. A. B. Basset, Mr. H. T. Brown, Mr. L. Clark, Prof. D. D. Cunningham, Mr. L. Fletcher, Mr. W. B. Hemsley, Mr. C. T. Hudson, Prof. T. McK. Mr. C. Todd, Mr. H. Tomlinson, and Prof. Hughes, Mr. E. B. Poulton, Prof. W. J. Sollas, G. F. Yeo. The ballot will take place on June 6th at 4 P.M.

THE Assistantship in the Zoological Department of the British Museum vacant by the resignation of Mr. A. Dendy (now Demonstrator of Biology in the University of Melbourne) has been filled by the appointment of Mr. F. A. Heron, B.A. Mr. Heron was educated at Charterhouse and New College, Oxford, and took second class honours in Animal Morphology in

1887.

A CONGRESS of physiologists will be held at Basle, beginning Tuesday, September 10th, 1889, with the object of promoting the progress of physiology by affording an opportunity of personal intercourse and the friendly interchange of ideas between physiologists of all nations.

almost numberless, and include a stratum of archeology totally unknown before, the stratum of prehistoric or traditional antiquities. "To satisfy our critics," he says (p. xii), "whose love for art and archæology goes beyond the limits of practical good sense, it would have been desirable to have had Rome annihilated with the empire at the end of the fifth century, so that we might excavate it now with the

same ease and with the same freedom with which we excavate Ostia and Pompeii. But we must

remember that Rome has always lived, and lived at the expense of the past; every generation has, in a certain measure, absorbed or destroyed the works of the preceding one, and

it is wonderful that so much should still be left of the works raised by the ancients after a process of destruction and transformation which has been going on for fourteen centuries !"

He gives some interesting statistics here and there, to show what an amount of work has been done, and what a number of discoveries have been made since 1870 (see pp. xxii, 134, 155, 266, 297). He allows that some damage and a great deal of disfigurement has been perpetrated, but excuses it on the ground that under the increase of population it was difficult to transform Rome without spoiling its venerable appearance, or to render it more healthy without temporary disfigurement. He deplores the rows of houses erected by the jerry builder, and the abolition of the picturesque quarter of the Ghetto, and the destruction of so much of the beautiful property which belonged to the Roman aristocracy, but reminds us that what is beautiful and picturesque is not always most habitable. He shows the great danger of old ruins becoming the resort of thieves and banditti by an account of his own experiences in finding men who lived at the ruins and had no honest employment, by the story of an antiquary who was nearly murdered in the Coliseum, and by the well-known fact

The general statements of which we have spoken are contained in the preface. The author then supplies a sketch of the renaissance of archæological studies, beginning with Rienzi's book of inscriptions between 1344 and 1347, criticizing Dante and Petrarch, and commending some of the Popes while he condemns others. Paul II. has been wrongly blamed, he says, as an enemy of the Renaissance, and was really a preserver of antiquities. The palace of the Lateran was the place where some of the great works of art were preserved, as the equestrian statue of M. Aurelius, and the celebrated wolf of the Capitol. Much is due also to the Cinquecento drawings and descriptions in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence.

In the second chapter we have an interesting account of the discoveries lately made on the Alban hills, by which it has been proved (Prof. Lanciani thinks) that Rome was founded by peasants from Alba, who were driven away by fear of volcanic action in the hills. If this theory of the origin of Rome be established, as he thinks it has been by the discoveries on the Alban hills, the Etruscans had nothing to do with the foundation of Rome, and the idea that it was due to them is not based upon the evidence of recent discoveries. We have also reasons for believing a certain amount of what is told us by Livy and the other ancient writers as to the early Roman history. "In our younger days," Prof. Lanciani says,

"when we were first stepping over the threshold of an archæological school, we used to scorn the idea that a real Romulus had existed, and that such was the name of the founder of Rome. Philological researches have shown that the name of Romulus is a genuine one, and that it belongs to the builder of Rome."

The name of Rome, our author proceeds to say, comes from Rumon, a river, and Rome was the river-town in contrast to the hill-towns of Alba Longa, Præneste, Tibur, Tusculum, and others. As to the time of its foundation, he only says that Alba, to judge by the evidence of discoveries, belonged to the bronze age. The description of the Palatine hill, as "surrounded by almost perpendicular cliffs," seems to us a little exaggerated, for on p. 51 the author says that it was only "a few feet high," and could not be exempt from malaria. In this part of the book as well as in many others we should have wished for more exact references to statements, as to Macrobius quoted on p. 41, Pliny on p. 43, and some others on p. 50.

In chap. iv. the Palatine, which borders the Forum, is again described as having

lofty perpendicular cliffs. This is an exaggerated expression even when applied to the ancient state of the hill. In this chapter perhaps the most remarkable observations are those on the Curia and the Arch of Fabius, on pp. 78 and 80, accompanied by an illustration of the Curia taken from a sketch made in the sixteenth century. These are not to be seen in the ordinary books of topography of ancient Rome. In connexion with the Thermæ, a document is mentioned, which was found in 1831, giving the names and hours of employment of several servants in the Thermo of Caracalla. "In fact," says the author on p. 93, "we have discovered a fragment of the order of the day or programme of the distribution of service on the nineteenth day of April, A.D. 226." Signor Lanciani complains that attention enough has not been paid to the enormous extent of the porticoes on the Campus Martius, and their value as "an institution contrived and developed for the benefit of the public." Perhaps this particular view of them, as places where an invalid could take his constitutional, has not been before stated; but their vast size and extent were mentioned by former writers for instance, Mr. Burn in his 'Rome and the Campagna' devotes two whole chapters (forty-six pages in a quarto book) to the Campus Martius, and calls part of it a forest of porticoes. He says that they were partly intended to accommodate the flaneurs and loungers of Rome (see 'Rome and the Campagna,' p. 324).

We are glad to find that Prof. Lanciani has not adopted the opinion of some authors as to the graffito representing the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It has been thought by some writers to refer to an Oriental divinity (see King's 'Gnostics'). An interesting drawing of the Septizonium is also given, taken from the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, and some remarks upon the columbaria of the household of the imperial family. Our author's description of the house of the Vestal Virgins is chiefly a record of what has been found there. "Between the middle of December, 1883," he says, "and the end of the following January we brought to light fifteen marble pedestals with eulogistic inscriptions describing the life of the Vestales Maximæ, five inscriptions relating to historical subjects, eleven life-size statues, nine important fragments of statues, twenty-seven busts and portrait-heads, 834 silver coins, one gold coin, besides many other fragments, a treasure by themselves."

The account given of the Vestal Virgins is unnecessary, as it may be read in any book of Roman antiquities, but the illustrations are good and striking.

In the chapter on the libraries of ancient and mediæval Rome

a

a

description is given of ruined chamber in Rome which Prof. Lanciani himself discovered to be a library, from the name of a great writer being painted on one of the frames (APOLLONIVS THYAN....), which were ornamented by medallions containing likenesses of the authors. An account is also given of the arrangements in the medieval library of St. Isidorus at Hispalis; and Signor Lanciani indulges in a digression from ancient to medieval archæology, in the course of which he states some curious facts.

vigiles or police; and the main fact which it brings to light is that the barracks of the vigiles were ornamented with works of art and decorated expensively, so as to show that the vigiles were not common watchmen, but a higher class of officials. After describing the chapel of one of their stations, the author says:

"I describe it to show what an extraordinary show of art and luxury there was in a chapel belonging to ordinary police barracks. The shrine was built in the form of a small temple, circular outside, octagonal inside, and was surrounded by a colonnade of the Corinthian order, with shafts of porphyry, capitals, frieze, and cornice of Carrara marble. Each of the eight sides of the interior was ornamented with a niche for statues, of which niches four were semicircular, four square. One of these served as a door. In the corners of the octagon were eight columns of porphyry, supporting an exquisitely carved frieze."

The ninth chapter is devoted to the river Tiber and the Claudian harbour. The Tiber seems to have been discussed more than any other river in the world, and Signor Lanciani says that " a special library on the famous river of Rome would contain about eight hundred volumes." He has perhaps treated the river too much as if he were writing a geographical treatise, but some of the archæological facts he mentions are remarkable. In making the foundations of the new bridge near the island of S. Bartolomeo

"a lovely bronze statue of Bacchus was discovered, lying head downwards below the bottom of the river, a patera of gilt bronze two feet in diameter, an inscription mentioning a land survey made under Agrippa, and a prodigious number of coins and medals."

In 1878, under the Ponte Sisto were found a triumphal arch in honour of the emperors Valentinian and Valens, A.D. 367, inscriptions recording various topographical facts, "and many architectural pieces belonging to the decorations of the old bridge." This is mentioned to show what might be expected if a thorough investigation should be undertaken. The problem of the construction of Monte Testaccio is discussed, and the opinion of Prof. Dressel adopted that it was formed of the broken amphoræ brought there. The dates of the amphoræ in each layer of rubbish which was superimposed can be determined, and these show that Monte Testaccio was built up between 140 and 251 A.D. The Americans, to whom Prof. Lanciani's book is dedicated, will probably be amused at the admiration with which he speaks of the port of Ostia and the warehouses of Rome, which seem diminutive to modern eyes in comparison with the huge harbours of American and English less fit for human life. To this Prof. Lanciani might have added some historical and political and religious reasons; but he only throws a stone at the Roman aristocracy of the present day by speaking in admiration of the ancient Roman nobles and of the English aristocracy, and then saying, "How like the Roman aristocracy of the present day!" Prof. Lanciani gives his own experience to prove how much may still be discovered. "The excavations," he says,

" made under my personal supervision in 1873, 1878, and 1883 seemed like excavations made in Rome itself, so grand was the extent and magni

ficence of the buildings, the perfection of roads and drains, the abundance of works of statuary." Prof. Lanciani even admires Nero as "the Haussmann of ancient Rome." In this we cannot join him.

The closing pages of the book have a special practical view, that of ascertaining how works of art are lost, and in what way they are most likely to be found. Many instances are given of the curious manner in which sculptures have been buried and then dug up. The equestrian statue of M. Aurelius, which is so well known, was never in the Forum, but in the imperial residence at the Lateran, whence it was moved. Several instances are given of its use in despotic executions suffered by rebels. Many other well-known statues were never lost, but were kept safe in the Pope's palace at the Lateran. The Roman wolf was also used at trials and executions at the Lateran, of

which we have records from the ninth cen

tury. The famous pine cone in the Giardino della Pigna at the Vatican was never at the top of Hadrian's mausoleum, as is generally supposed, but was a fountainhead, probably at Agrippa's artificial lake, in the Campus Martius. These are instances of works of art which have never been lost, but about which many theories have been written to account for their having been found. A curious way in which statues have been confused is said to be that the heads of statues were altered or changed in order to make them suit any new dedication. Constantine, it seems, carried off many statues to Byzantium, and began the practice of changing their heads. An instance of a statue discovered in 1885 at the side of the Quirinal, which forms an illustration of the frontispiece of this book, is here given, which shows that this statue had been carefully buried for preservation from destruction in sifted earth to save the

surface of the bronze from any possible injury.

"No doubt," the author says, "many more statues may be found here; the work, however, is difficult and dangerous on account of the modern buildings." It is not attempted to give a complete account of the various destructions of works of art at Rome in the many pillages it underwent, but only to mention some of them, and to show that works of art were carried away as well as destroyed or buried. A singular case is given of graffiti on the Janus Quadrifrons and on Trajan's Column, which were written probably by one of the attendants of the Emperor Constans II., when he carried off a great quantity of plunder to Syracuse in 663 A.D. They merely record the emperor's visit, just as a name is now scratched on a monument by an idle tourist. As an in- |

stance of the singular dispersion of fragments, Prof. Lanciani mentions the curious fact that the torso of the well-known statue of the Farnese Hercules was found in the Baths of Caracalla, the head at the bottom of a well in Trastevere, and the legs in a farm ten miles from Rome.

We have much pleasure then, upon the whole, in recommending this book of Signor Lanciani's. He has avoided the repetition of too many well-known facts, but in some parts has erred in telling us much that might be learnt from books of antiquities, as in the case of the Vestal Virgins and of the public places in Rome. On the other hand, we have some new and original remarks derived from his great experience as an excavator and his knowledge of the sixteenth century drawings at the Uffizi in Florence.

His use of the words viability, dumped, and plastic (pp. 85, 87, 143) is not that of an Englishman, and the sums of money given in dollars are rather puzzling to an Englishman. The misprint in p. 3 of "bridal" for bridle is almost the only one we have found, and the printing does great credit to Cambridge, U.S.A., while the illustrations are valuable.

ROMAN DEVA.

Bebington.

EDWARD W. Cox.

NEW PRINTS.

STUDENTS of high art ought to be grateful to those who have promoted the publication of phototype reproductions in absolute and permanent facsimile of Original Drawings by Rembrandt Hermensz van Rijn (Thibaudeau), of which a folio containing the first fifty examples is before us, and in all respects admirably got up. The Print Room at Berlin and the collection of Mr. Heseltine have supplied the present fifty instances; future folios will contain specimens selected from the British Museum, Louvre, Albertina, the Print Rooms at Dresden, Munich, Weimar, and Hamburg, and the collections of the Duc d'Aumale, the Devonshire, M. Bonnat, Mr. Holford, Mr. Knowles, and others. We may decline to accept No. 1, the so-called 'Portrait of the Artist,' now at Berlin, and bearing the stamp of "J. C. R." (Sir J. C. Robinson), as a Rembrandt drawing, and should care nothing for it even if we accepted it; but as to the specimens in general-from No. 2, a number of figures, with Esdaile's marks, to No. 50, a fine group of trees with water, belonging to Mr. Heseltine there can be but one opinion of their merits and genuineness. We have heads, extremities and portions of figures, compositions of choice and studied qualities, admirable instances of landscape design, a few portraits and buildings, such as the Town Hall at Amsterdam, a watermill, a windmill, and cottages. No. 5 is an

experiment for the composition of a 'Descent from the Cross.' No. 6 is the well-known portrait of Saskia in the flower of her girlish charms, with her husband's tender inscription, "This is my wife, when she was 21 years

drawn after

old, on the third day after our betrothal, the 8th June, 1633." No. 9 is full of the spirit of fun, showing how a sturdy matron carried home her screaming and struggling urchin, who kicked off his slippers and was attended by grandmamma with a stick. No. 18 (it was Esdaile's) comprises a collection of heads full of spirit and humorous

observation, such as none better than Rembrandt could impart with a few strokes of a pen in ink. No.19 is a picturesque design for a 'Circumcision,' admirably composed and requiring little to make it perfect. No. 24 is a 'Last Supper,' plainly reminiscent of Da Vinci, and dated 1635. The design of 'Jacob's Dream' (25), notwithstanding the miserable little Jacob to whom in his sleep two angels present themselves, is worthy of Rembrandt in its style and dignified motives. Rembrandt combined the trees and figures in 'Pyramus and Thisbe' (28), and gave to the foliage a stately sort of pathos which shows what a true poet he was. Cuyp would have rejoiced in the fine composition of cows in a landscape called 'The Milkmaids' (29), which belonged to Esdaile and the elder Richardson, and, like a large proportion of the drawings which have found a home in Berlin, attests how many finə things have left this country for the Prussian capital. Among the fine things are a landscape (42) with a curving river, landmarks, and shipping; a first-rate academy study of a naked youth seated (44); and the fine group of trees (50).

The concluding two parts of 'Old Nottingham,' twelve etchings by Mr. T. T. Rowe, 5, Hounds Gate, Nottingham, are now before us, and more than justify our pleasant impressions of the work. Mr. Rowe has capital notions of the qualities of etching as applied to subjects such as these, just appreciation of the values of light and shadow severally, and of their relationship in apposition as well as in opposition. 'Bridlesmith Gate' is the best of the series, 'Castle Grounds' comes next, and there is much to praise in 'Brewhouse Yard.'

From Mr. Gain, 6, Euston Square, agent for the Librairie de L'Art, we have received two artist's-proof impressions of etchings executed in a large and bold style, with a somewhat heavy hand and blackish shadows, by M. A. Lurat, after pictures by M. Mantelet, entitled 'Les Fiancés' and 'La Femme du Marin.' They are characteristic and pathetic in their way, and may be expected to become popular.

From the Berlin Photographic Company, 43, New Bond Street, agents for Herr F. Bruckmann, of Munich, we have received the first part of Handzeichnungen Alter Meister im Königlichen Kupferstich-Kabinet zu München, a large folio containing thoroughly good photographic (collotype) facsimil facsimiles of drawings in various modes by Claude; A. Carracci; Raphael, 'The Exposition of the Body of a Bishop' (Passavant, Paris edition, No. 270), a fine composition, in the Urbinate's Florentine manner, of many figures gathered about the state bed on which the corpse of the holy man is extended; 'St. Ambrose,' Pass., 271, and 'Study of a Young Man kneeling in Prayer, Pass., 272 (both spirited and frankly drawn with a pen); an unknown artist's work which forcibly reminds us of the Raphael of Morris Moore which is in the Louvre, and of certain studies in a Peruginesque manner found in the sketch-book attributed to Raphael and preserved in the Academy at Venice; a noble design of a Muse dancing, by A. Mantegna; landscapes by Ruysdael and Hobbema, and all of first-rate quality; lions, a head, figures, and buildings by Rembrandt; wild animals, and a very fine head of a girl on blue paper, by Dürer; a striking 'Crucifixion' by Altdorfer; and a voluptuous and well-drawn 'Venus and Cupid' by F. Boucher. The selection is of the best kind, the reproduction could hardly be better. We shall write at greater length about this publication when more of it comes to notice. It is to be completed in eight parts of about twenty-eight plates each.

MUMMIES IN SPAIN.

Valencia, Spain.

MEETING recently a mining agent who is familiar with Southern Spain, I was informed by him that "four or five years ago," when he was residing at Aguilas on the coast, he heard that the peasants in exploring some caves had come across " a lot of mummies." He rode out to

the place, some fifteen miles along the Cartagena road, next day to examine them, but found on reaching it that the peasants had chopped up the mummies as dressings for their vines (!), so that he was only able to recover a few fragments of "bandages and balsam." The interest felt in similar discoveries in the Canary Islands (of which my informant was not aware) induces me to place this statement on record.

SALES.

J. H. ROUND.

MESSRS. CHRISTIE, MANSON & WOODS Sold on the 11th inst. the following drawings, from the collection. f the late Mrs. S. Austen: G.

Barret, The Gieaners, the figures by F. Tayler, 110l. H. Bone, Lady Katherine Howard, wife of George, Lord Aubigny, 531. H. P. Bone, The Lords John and Bernard Stuart, 841. R. P. Bonington, Quai du Louvre, Paris, 52l. W. Callow, The Bay of Naples, 56l. E. W. Cooke, Entrance to Ramsgate Harbour, 120l.; The Entrance to Havre, 120l.; On the Medway, off Sheerness, 115l. 115l. D. Cox, Haddon Hall, going

out Hawking, 220l.; Crossing Lancaster Sands, sunset, 2411. P. De Wint, Near Keswick, 273l.; A River Scene, with fisherman and cows, Middleham Castle in the distance, 741. C. Fielding, The Fairy Lake, 903l.; View from Bow Hill, Isle of Wight in the distance, 672l.; Harlech Castle, 5771.; Morning, 210l. H. Gastineau, Criccieth Castle, North Wales, 631. Sir J. Gilbert, The Standard-Bearer, 1471. J. D. Harding, Nesso, on Lake Como, 94l.; Bergamo, 65l.; Como, from the Milan Road, 1571. W. Hunt, Grapes and Pear, 168l.; Bullaces, 136l.; Devotion, 79l.; Flowers in Glass, 541. S. Prout, Würzburg Market-Place and Cathedral, 819l.; Augsburg Street and Golden Hall, 5881.; Cathedral, Rouen, the Butter Tower, 430l.; The Ducal Palace, Venice, 210l.; Grand Piazza, Vicenza, 1011. D. Roberts, The Palace, Maffra, 681. G. F. Robson, Durham, 147l. C. Stanfield, Klumm, Tyrol, 1571.; Innspruck, 126l.; Lago Maggiore, 378l.; Verona, 105 105l.; Murano, Venice, 731.; Ghent, 210l.; Rotterdam, 1941.; The Innspruck Valley, 781.; Strasbourg, 210l. F. Tayler, On the French Coast, with figures, morning, 521. J. M. W. Turner, L'Ariccia, 325l.; The Castle

of St. Angelo, 420l.; Off Holy Island, 2151.

The same auctioneers sold on the 13th and 15th inst. the following, from the collection of the late Mr. F. Vigne. Pictures: J. Breton, A Haymaker, 5351. P. Billet, A Shepherdess, 1571. C. Jacque, A Landscape, with peasants and sheep, 1471. L. Karl Müller, Palm Offering, 105l. A. Pasini, A Procession, Constantinople, 1591. C. Seiler, The Artist's Studio, 210l. A. Schreyer, Wallachian Carriers, 4511. Е. А. Schmidt, The Village Smithy, 231l. J. G. Vibert, The Schism, 546l. Drawings: J. Hardy, jun., A Highland Gillie, with dogs and game, 110г. B. W. Leader, The Wye at Tintern, moonlight, 5351. J. Linnell, Woodcutters, 430l.; A Landscape, with a shepherd and sheep, 420l. T. S. Cooper, A Landscape, with cows and sheep, 1571. Vicat Cole, Leith Hill, Surrey, 121l. F. Holl, Want, 441l. J. Pettie, The Young Drummer,

2881.

fine-Art Gossip.

MR. ALMA TADEMA will be represented at the Royal Academy by a picture of moderate size, now called 'In the Shrine of Venus.' The scene is the inner room of the shop of a Roman hairdresser, and two damsels are waiting their turns to pass under his hands. A stately matron clad in white is entering the apartment. Behind is seen the outer shop with assistants serving customers. This is one of the most brilliant, yet soft and rich, of the painter's works. We described it at length under another title some time ago.

of

THE Report of the Director of the National Gallery has been published, and, in addition to matters we have already mentioned, states that of the three collections of Turner's drawings and sketches available for loan to provincial institutions, No. 2 has been lent to the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, while No. 3 is still in the National Gallery of Ireland. The Treasury has agreed to insert 5,000l. in the Estimates for the current year for the purchase of pictures. Out of the 1,270 paintings only eighty remain unglazed. It is to be hoped that the whole collection will soon be thus far protected against the London atmosphere, the dust which accumulates in a crowded public gallery, and injurious exhalations. No painting ought nowadays to be unglazed in London. At Trafalgar Square, although the first outlay for glass is considerable, it will render needless that cleaning of the pictures which has hitherto been periodical, and thus in the end save expense, to say nothing of the effects of repeated cleanings. A great number of unfinished copies left by students in the Gallery are to be sold and the proceeds given to the Artists' General Benevolent Institution. Mr. Willett, of Brighton, has lent the supposed portrait of Giovanna, wife of Lorenzo de Tornabuoni, by Ghirlandaio; Messrs. Agnew & Sons have lent (with a view to purchase) Reynolds's portrait Anne, Countess of Albemarle, from Quiddenham; Miss J. E. Gordon gave two drawings by D. Cox, two by John Varley, one by Wilkie, and one by J. F. Lewis; Lord Savile gave studies, one by each, by J. J. Van de Velde, Steenwyck, Murillo, and Chardin; Mr. H. Martyn Kennard gave five Greco-Roman portraits from mummies found at Hawara, and dating from the second or third century A.D.; Mr. J. Haworth gave two similar works; Mr. J. R. Swinton gave a 'Portrait of a Young Man,' by Gainsborough; Sir Theodore Martin gave 'A Man's Portrait,' by Maes; Miss I. Constable bequeathed five works by her father, having already given three by him; the Rev. Sir E. R. Jodrell, Bart., presented Maclise's 'Portrait of C. Dickens'; Decimus Burton bequeathed A Man's Portrait,' by Frans Hals, and 'A Fruit Piece,' by Snyders; and Miss E. J. Wood gave 'Hyde Park Corner,' by J. Holland, and another view of the same place by an unknown painter. More than 550,000 persons visited the Gallery on public days; nearly 40,500 persons paid sixpence each for admission on Students' Days, Thursdays and Fridays; and 15,834 catalogues were sold. In addition to the gifts above named, Lord Savile has presented fiftynine copies in small from Velazquezes in the Prado, Madrid, and forty similar copies from Rembrandts in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. MR. ARTHUR SULLIVAN LARKEN, Richmond

Herald, whose death at Brook Green has been

recently reported, was the son of Mr. Edmund

Larken, of Bedford Square. He was born in the year 1816, and was educated at St. Alban's Hall, Oxford. Mr. Arthur Larken entered the College of Arms as Portcullis in 1878, was appointed Bluemantle in 1880, and Richmond

Herald in 1882.

MR. ONSLOW FORD, whose statuettes in bronze have often charmed us at the Academy by their fine style, exquisite finish, and spirited and original designs, has sent to Burlington House

a work resembling that happy art of the true Renaissance in Italy which approached most closely to the antique. It is about 2 ft. high and called 'The Singer,' because it gives the entirely nude and very slender figure of an Egyptian damsel, who might have been a musician of Cleopatra's court, standing in an erect and easy attitude at the side of one of those lofty harps which were called buni, while their crests rose, as in this instance, above the heads of the players and their bases extended before their feet. Bruce and Wilkinson both figured these instruments, whose graceful nobility of form is familiar to us all-a nobility of which Mr. Ford has taken advantage. The fingers of the singer's right hand are pressed against the strings and about to strike a chord, while the left hand has just left the strings. By this the sculptor wished to express that the accompaniment to her voice is very slow, while the expression of her face is intended to show that the song or recitative is the reverse of gay. She rests a little more on one foot than on the other, so that her body is very slightly inclined sideways, and in this manner favours the action of the hands; and her face, which is a little advanced, tells us that she is soft and gentle. Her drooping eyelids and composed features show that she is conscious of the presence of listeners, is accustomed to an audience, and mistress of her art. The reticence and simple grace of her attitude need no praise of ours. The type of the figure is exactly that

recorded by numberless Egyptian paintings and sculptures; the almost girlish bust and slender limbs remind us of the chaste elegance of the virgin goddess Sekhet, while the contours, though refined, are perfectly natural.

No very recent addition to the South Kensington Museum has equalled in importance or interest a large tapestry representing the 'Adoration of the Infant Jesus, which is now in the ground-floor gallery appropriated to similar fabrics. Made for the domestic chapel of some wealthy magnate, it consists of nearly life-size figures worked with a needle upon a warp of wool, with a weft of very fine wool, some silk, and much gold and silver (or tin) thread. The flesh has been delineated with water colours, according to a custom of limited use. In the centre sits the Virgin with the nude Infant in her lap, as if immediately after the Nativity. Her blue over-robe has lights of metallic thread; the local colour appears now, whatever may originally have been the case, much stronger in the darker shadows than in the half tints. This garment has a richly embroidered, apparently jewelled, border. Her white veil has similar ornaments, her under-robe is embroidered. Joseph, in a red mantle and black hood, kneels on her right, while behind him stand Mary Salome and the midwife whom, according to the 'Protevangelion,' xiv. 1-28, he went to seek. Their attire is most sumptuous. The hand of Salome is in its normal condition, showing that the miracle had been wrought in her favour; she is worshipping the Child. On the opposite side of the Virgin are three adoring angels in gorgeous copes, one of them having orphreys with figures of the apostles within architectural niches, like those represented in the brass of Warden Sever at New College, Oxford, and elsewhere. The large wings of all the angels are resplendent in colours. Behind the Virgin are four shepherds; one of them plays upon bagpipes. On either side of the shepherds is a group of three angels: the members of one group are playing on stringed instruments, including a mandoline; the other three are gathered about a book placed on a lectern and sing from it. The hood of one of the latter group is jewelled, and divided into two by the metal ornament known as a spilla, which Mr. Weale has noticed on the cope of St. Martin in Gerhard David's picture in the National Gallery. The foreground is sprinkled with flowers; in the grass among them lies open an illuminated Book of Hours. The whole composition is en