day only Janssen's portrait of Milton as a child of ten, the portrait of the poet at the age of twenty-one when a scholar at Cambridge, and the portrait in crayon by Faithorne. To these must now be added the bust in the possession of Christ's College, Cambridge, represented in our engraving. Knowing that Professor Masson, now so widely distinguished as the biographer of Milton and the editor of his Poems, had made a careful examination of all the existing portraits, but not finding any allusion in his book, so far as published, to the bust, we ventured to write to him, and ask for his judgment on its authenticity, and its value as a portrait. We have received in reply the following courteous and interesting let

ter:

10, Regent Terrace, Edinburgh,

November 2, 1875.

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GENTLEMEN: I regret the delay in answering your queries about the Milton Bust at Cambridge; but it has been inevitable. I I wrote a good while ago to a friend in Cambridge on the subject. He chanced to be absent at the time, but promised that he would see the bust on his return, and write to me. Time passing, I wrote to another friend; but the long vacation interfered. A day or two ago, however, I had two letters on the subject-one from Mr. W. Aldis Wright, the other from Professor Cowell; and I now send you the substance of the information which they contain.

The bust is in Christ's College, Cambridge -not Trinity, as stated under the photograph in Mr. Leigh Sotheby's book. That photograph was taken from the bust for the late Mr. Sotheby by permission of the Master of Christ's; but, by some mistake consequent on Mr. Sotheby's death near the time of the publication of his book, "Trinity" was substituted for "Christ's" in the acknowledgment. Both my informants agree in saying the photograph does not rightly represent the bust. Mr. Aldis Wright says it "makes the face much more heavy than it is in reality;" and Professor Cowell specifies "the stoutness of the lower cheek and jaw" in the photograph as a "striking discrepancy" from the original, adding that the countenance in the photograph "seems directed more upward" than it should be.

It chanced that Mr. Woolner, the sculptor, was with Mr. Aldis Wright when he last inspected the bust. As it was then under glass, and the key of the case was away, Mr. Woolner could not handle it, so as to be enabled to say whether the material was clay

or plaster. "But he was inclined to believe it to be clay (which is the tradition), and considered it to be unquestionably, in that case, an original model taken from life." So Mr. Aldis Wright tells me; and Professor Cowell, who talked with the Master afterward, says definitely: "It is a clay model. There is, however, no authority on the bust itself for the date 1654, assigned by Sotheby as the probable one.'

The bust has been in the possession of Christ's College for about sixty or seventy years. It was presented to the College by the Rev. Dr. Disney, who died in 1816. This Dr. Disney had inherited it, with much other property, from Mr. Thomas Brand Hollis, of the Hyde, Ingatestone, Essex, who died in 1804. His name had been originally Thomas Brand; but he had assumed the name Hollis on his succession, in 1774, to Mr. Thomas Hollis, the previous owner of the property. To this last Mr. Thomas Hollis (born 1720, died 1774), the possession of the bust is, therefore, clearly referred. He was a man of some celebrity, and a great enthusiast in Milton and collector of | Milton relics. His Memoirs were published in London in 1780, in two volumes 4to; and the following extract from the second volume (p. 513) is very obligingly sent me by Mr. Aldis Wright. He is so accurate in all such matters that I need not compare with the book in our Library here. You will see that the extract furnishes further interesting information about the bust:

"Mr. Hollis, in a paper dated July 30, 1757, says: 'For an original model in clay of the head of Milton, £9 12s-which I intended to have purchased myself had it not been knocked down to Mr. Reynolds by a mistake of Mr. Ford, the auctioneer. Note: about two years before Mr. Vertue died he told me that he had been possessed of this head many years, and that he believed it was done by one Pierce, a sculptor of good reputation in those times, the same who made the bust in marble of Sir Christopher Wren, which is in the Bodleian Library. My own opinion is that it was modelled by Abraham Simon, and that afterwards a seal was engraved after it, in profile, by his brother Thomas Simon, a proof impression of which is now in the hands of Mr. Yeo, engraver in Covent Garden. This head was badly designed by Mr. Richardson, and then engraved by Mr. Vertue, and prefixed to Milton's Prose Works, printed for A. Miller, 1753. The bust probably was executed soon after Milton had written his Defensio pro Populo Anglicano-Mr. Reynolds obligingly parted with this bust to Mr. Hollis, for twelve guineas."

The "Mr. Reynolds" who thus bought the bust at a sale when Mr. Hollis meant to buy it, but who afterward let Mr. Hollis have it, was probably Sir Joshua Reynolds (not knighted till 1768). If, as seems implied, the

sale was that of the effects of the engraver George Vertue (born 1684, died July 24, 1756), we arrive at Vertue as the first known owner of the bust. He was an excellent judge of portraits, and did not a few of Milton's himself; and I should place great trust in his opinion. I may mention that I have a copy of an engraving of 1801, bearing this imprint: "Milton: from an Impression of a seal of T. Simon, in the possession of the late Mr. Yeo." It is a wretched thing, and I see no resemblance in it to the bust.

Let me end this too long letter by saying, for myself, that I prefer the Faithorne portrait of Milton to all others, and see in it what I consider most truly the noble, sorrowful, blind face. The photograph opposite that from the bust in Sotheby is one form of it. I am, gentlemen, yours very truly,

DAVID MASSON. To the Editors of SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY.

To admirers of Milton, whether as poet or man, or both, the importance of this discovery-for it is, to all intents and purposes, a discovery-can hardly be overstated. We have now a portrait of Milton in the very prime of his glorious and energetic life. Mr. Sotheby considered that its probable date was 1654, when the poet was forty-six years of age; and, although he had no authority for that date, he appears to us justified in his conviction by the bust itself, which represents a man of that age-not younger, and certainly not older.

Mr. Sotheby, in his book, gives us. Mr. Disney's own description of the bust, which is as follows; he added it as a memorandum to the first volume of the copy of Prose Works of Milton, Ed. 1753, which he presented to the Library of Christ's College, Cambridge:

"A Bust in plaster modeled from, and big as life; was in the possession of Thomas Hollis, of Lincolnshire, done soon after

Milton had written his 'Defensio pro Populo Anglicano,' as some think by one Pierce, a sculptor of good reputation in those times, the same who made the bust of Sir Christopher Wren, which is in the Bodleian Library; or, as others, by Abraham Simon. A print of this bust very badly designed is prefixed to Milton's Prose Works, published at London, 1753.*

It will be seen that he speaks of the bust as plaster, and without any misgivings; whereas Mr. Woolner, the eminent sculptor, is inclined to think it clay, though, as it was locked up when he and Mr. Aldis Wright went to Cambridge to see it, he could not handle it, and so settle the matter definitely. Professor Cowell, who afterward talked about it with the Master of Christ's College, reports that the Master said definitely: "It is a clay model." But we do not understand why Mr. Wright, in reporting Mr. Woolner's suspicion that it was clay, should add," which is the tradition," since the tradition is divided. Mr. Disney describes it as plaster, and Mr. Hollis speaks of it as clay. However, this

is really of some importance, since, if it is in clay, there is the more reason for believing it to be a model from the life.

We may add that this is not the first time the bust has been engraved, though it seems to be certain that it has never before been done justice to by engraving. Disney and Mr. Hollis speak of one engraving by Vertue, after a drawing by Richardson, made for an edition of Milton's works, published in 1753. It was also engraved by Cipriani with the following title: "Drawn and etched 1760 by J. N. Cipriani, a Tuscan, from a bust in plaster modeled from life, now in the possession of Thomas Hollis, Esq., F. R. S., F. S. A.” It will be noticed that this same Mr. Hollis, in the Memoirs from which Professor Masson gives an extract, speaks of the bust as a clay model.

Sotheby. The writer of this has never seen the engraving.

will not be imitated. Its interior arrangements are being copied in every State. The peculiar method whereby the bills were paid has commanded the attention of thinking men throughout the country. It is in these two aspects that it will be here considered. Its dismal exterior may be quite omitted. First, we may consider the house itself, with some suggestions as to its adornment. Next, we may examine the far more important matter of paying for it.

Here is a new house going up. The lot is perhaps 12, 18, or 24 feet wide, by 25 to 45 feet deep. That admits of a front door and one wide or two small windows. Over these are one, two, or three windows, as the case may be. This makes the front of two stories. Steps lead up to the door, and beneath the windows are small lights for the cellar. Entering the door, we find a small hall or entry way, with perhaps another door. Then comes the front room. Next to this is the box stairway, crossing the house on a line with the street, and making a partition between the front and the back of the house. In the rear is the kitchen and the back door leading into the yard. A range or place for a stove is provided, and water is let on from the street. In the yard is an outbuilding, and perhaps a place for an open-air stove for out-door cooking in warm weather, after the Philadelphia fashion. Small outbuildings are added with a gate to the lane in the rear when the lots are deep. Upstairs are two chambers, and a small bath-room, with closet and the usual facilities. Below is an ample cellar. The walls are neatly papered and the wood-work painted. Gas is supplied, and in every respect the house is warm, convenient, and comfortable.

Over all is a simple flat roof. Closets may be placed under the stairs in the front room and against the walls of the other rooms. For a man and wife of moderate means, every convenience is supplied with one spare room. The house small, indeed, but it is good and cheap. Its rent is low, and its price is within the reach of even the laboring man. Its cost will vary from less than $1,000 up to $2,500, according to location. The rent will range from $8 to $25 per month, with taxes, water rates, gas, insurance, etc., be it more or less, according to the agreement with the landlord. Rent is rarely paid. There is a better way than that, and the great majority of people who occupy these and similar houses own their homes, or have it in prospect.

Plan A shows a house, 16x 31 feet, inclosed by brick party walls, and having a rear wall of hard brick, and the front wall of pressed brick. There is a cellar under all, and a shed for the rear. The stories are each nine feet clear, with stone sills, and heads to the front windows and doors. As the design indicates, the house fronts on the street line. The cost will vary from $1,300 to $1,500.

Plan B shows another style, 12x 29, and set back 25 feet from the street line. This leaves a small garden in front. Such houses are built in pairs, with an 8-feet walk between each pair. The second story of such houses and the posts are the same as in Plan A. Houses built in this way are designed to make the rear building of a possible house, built in the garden at some future time. Plan C shows the extension in front as the family increase in size and wealth. The elevations over plans B and C show different treatments of the same house. The twostory house costs from $1,000 to $1,300; and the three-story extension, from $1,800 to $2,200. It must here be noticed that these houses are far more attractive than Philadelphia houses generally, and are the work of an architect of reputation.*

Philadelphia is in every sense a city of homes for the people. Her people own their houses; the landlord no longer takes the bulk of the people's money; every man is his own landlord, and pays rent to himself. Small wonder is it that her people are steady, thrifty, forehanded, and domestic in their habits. Real estate rises continually ; the taxable property grows quickly; the stream of waste that flows to the dram-shops is checked; the homely virtues flourish, and marriages increase in number. The young man knows he can quickly and easily procure a home, and the young woman is more than ready to aid him if so good a house can be placed at her disposal for so little money. She can even buy and own the house herself independently of her husband, and both can combine to erect and own their own roof-tree, that shall also be their children's home, and the assured shelter for their declining years. No dreadful boarding-house stares them in the face, and with reasonable care and industry they can put away the fear of the poor-house or the asylum forever.

Next, it may be in order to consider how

Davis G. Supplee, Architect, 208 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia,-to whom we are indebted for the plans given with this article.

Philadelphia paid for her hundred thousand homes. Here is a slip or two from the advertising columns of some of the local papers.

FOURTH OF JULY! INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Young Man and Woman, stop and reflect! The money you fritter away uselessly will make you independent. To-day sign the magna charter of your independence, and, like our forefathers, in about eight years you will, in a great degree, be independent by saving only thirty-three cents each day. In that time you will realize $2,000, or have a home and be independent of the landlord. Let this, indeed, be your day of independence, by subscribing for shares in the new series, now issued, in the State Mutual Saving Fund, Loan and Building Association. One dollar per share each month. For shares or information, come to the meeting on Wednesday Evening, July 7, at 71⁄2 o'clock, at the Pennsylvania Hall, Eighth street, below Green. The auditors' and directors' reports will be distributed.

$4,000.-YOUR MORTGAGE IS DUE AND What misery this Payment forthwith Demanded. notice often causes you and family. Begin now to cancel it by easy monthly payments, by borrowing the money from the ARTISAN'S BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION. Come to the Meeting on MONDAY EVENING, Sept. 6th, at 7 o'clock, at the Pennsylvania Hall, Eighth street, below Green. $4,000 loaned at 81⁄2 o'clock, on first or second mortgage or over ground rent. Borrowers supplied with shares at

par.

$3,000.—THE TIME TO BUY YOUR HOME, pay off a first or second mortgage while premiums are low and money plenty. The Republic Building and Loan Association will meet This (Monday) Evening, Sept. 13, at 71⁄2 o'clock, at the Pennsylvania Hall, Eighth street, below Green. Money loaned on first or second mortgages or over ground rents. All who want money, come and see what easy terms you can get it on. Shares furnished at par to non-stockholders who wish to borrow after successfully bidding for the

money.

MONEY TO LOAN.—THE LUMBER MEN'S

Building and Loan Association will meet on MONDAY EVENING, August 9th, at Jones' Hall, Eighth street, above Green. Persons wishing loans on first or second mortgage are invited to attend and bid for the money Shares will be supplied in the Second Series. Premiums moderate. No bonus or commissions charged.

$3,000.-ON THE DOWNHILL SIDE OF life. How pleasant to feel secure in the ownership of a home, clear of all incumbrance. Come to the meeting of the State Mutual Building Association, THIS (WEDNESDAY) EVENING, Sept. 1, at 8 o'clock, at the Pennsylvania Hall, Eighth street, below Green, and borrow the money to buy your home, pay off your first or second mortgage. Shares furnished to borrowers after successfully bidding for the money.

Viewed as mere advertisements, they certainly display a refreshing originality. Here is wealth shouting itself hoarse in the effort to get itself loaned. When it is known that six hundred banking concerns in Philadelphia crowd the papers with their monthly announcements, it is easy to see that an effort must be made to win attention. Money in abundance, cheap and free to all able and willing to give decently good security for it! It is with this money the Philadelphia young man builds his bride a house. With the funds of these associations, poured out at the rate of half a million of dollars a month, Philadelphia has made herself what she is. This is her building capital, with a total yearly value of from seven to ten million dollars. This is the seed from which sprang up her hundred thousand roof-trees.

These associations are called building and loan associations. The name is misleading in one respect. They are not building associations in any sense. They are banks without vaults, moneyed concerns without expensive buildings or highly paid officers; and no stockholders, aside from depositors, stand ever ready to devour the lion's share of the profits. There is no great fund of money to tempt the thieving president or his A two hundred brothers, the burglars.

dollar safe will hold the companies' assets and books, and a slender bank account represents the available capital.

Let us attend one of these meetings -held in a plain, two-story brick house, and over a small fruit store on one of the plainest of these plain streets. Ascending a narrow stairway from an obscure court, we come to a small, bare hall, perhaps 20x40, provided with plain settees and a desk or two. Here we can sit and view the performance. There is nothing to suggest the bank, and all the fixtures are of the cheapest and most simple character. Over one of the desks is a faded card announcing "Money to Loan." About the desk are, perhaps, half a dozen middle-aged men. In no wise remarkable, they seem just what they are-plain, matter-of-fact men of family and well-known position. One a mason, another a solicitor, another a retired merchant, another a physician, another a bookkeeper, the others something equally honest, steady, and well-to-do. These are the honorable officers and directors of the building association that meets in this hall tonight. They were elected by the shareholders of the association and make its responsible head. The secretary enjoys a salary of from two to six hundred dollars a year. The president, treasurer, and other officers work for nothing a day. The honor of the position is their only reward, except their car-fares if they travel for the association. Though they receive nothing for their work, it is far from light or simple. They must overlook the affairs of the association, attend its stated meetings, examine the security offered for loans, and attend to the business generally. Occasionally they must give half a day to the inspection of the property loaned upon, and once in a while there is an evening meeting of the government at some private house.

The time has come for business, and the stockholders or lenders begin to appear. In long procession they come up the narrow stairs and, forming a line, take their turn'at