hung around us, could alone delineate. May heaven preserve our country from experiencing a similar stroke of humiliation and abasement! But their honest nature will, I trust, pardon my British sternness, if, on my return home, I endeavour to exculpate myself, by suggesting the following addenda to those Notices de Plusieurs precieux Tableaux recueillis by the philosophers of the Institute, pour multiplier les jouissances du public; Ce tableau, peint sur toile, est tiré de l'autel de l'eglise Cathedrale de Windsor-ce vitre, vient du college du Roi, à Cambridge-ce tableau, peint par un forgeron de Ghent, est tiré de la galerie du ci-devant Roi d'Angleterre à Windsor-Ce tableau de Shakspeare vient de la bibliotheque de l'Université de Cambridge-Ce tableau de la mort du Général Wolfe est tiré du cabinet de la ci-devant Reine à Buckingham-house-Cette statue d'Hercule vient du cabinet du Milord Lansdowne -Ce tableau, peint par Claude est tiré de la collection du Milord Gwydir,

The business will be thus brought home to their own bosoms, and let those who censure my indifference, chew the cud.

Having expressed with candour what my sensations have ever been when I have visited the Gallery of Paintings, I now proceed to fulfil the impartial duty of an historian.

It will be readily conceived that a gallery filled with rare and beautiful pictures, and extending

above a quarter of a mile, is no common object, and must impress the mind of the spectator with its grandeur and magnificence. There is nothing comparable to it in the whole world-the power of language is inadequate to the description of its enchanting and sublime effect. Above twelve hundred paintings from the Flemish, Lombard, Italian, and French schools, are suspended from every side of the gallery, and fill the whole space from the ceiling nearly to the floor. The commission entrusted with their arrangement, and superintendance, have placed the historical painters in a chronological series, according to the dates of their birth; and the works of every artist are classed together, with as much precision, as the proper disposition of the whole collection will admit. You cannot expect from my confined limits a minute detail, or even a general view of these master-pieces; I must therefore refer you to the catalogues, which are sold for a trifling sum at the door of the gallery. They are entitled, "Notice des Tableaux des Ecoles Française et Flamande, exposés dans la grande Galerie dont l'ouverture a eu lieu le 18 Germinal an VIII. et des Tableaux des Ecoles de Lombardie & de Bo logne, dont l'exposition a eu lieu le 25 Messidor an IX." also, "Notice de plusieurs précieux tableaux, recueillis à Venise, Florence, Turin, & Foligno." These catalogues serve as indexes to the pictures of the different masters, all of which

are

are numbered, and contain a short, but very inadequate explanation of them.

Mrs. Cosway, whose taste and skill are universally known, is now occupied in copying all the paintings of the gallery on a small scale, and in subjoining an enlarged account of them, together with the biography of their respective masters, I know not which most to admire, her resolution or her indefatigable industry; for this is not the work of a single year; it embraces a length of time, the utmost variety of execution, and exacts a patience that would put Job himself to trial. She has already executed several compartments, and all the fascinations of society, and the gaieties of this capital, do not deter her from the daily pursuit of the labours of her choice. I tell her that the Gallery of the Louvre is her drawing-room, for when she is at work, all the English here gather around her. However, she loses no time, for she enters into mixed conversation, and paints also; and indeed, it is difficult to affirm in which she most excels.

The object of Mrs. Cosway is to represent by etchings all the pictures precisely as they are fixed in the gallery, so that we shall be enabled to lay out our apartments in such a manner as to afford us an exact resemblance of the Parisian gallery. The Hon. Mr. E****** is so struck with the undertaking, that he has appropriated a particular part of his house at H for the display of

her

her works. There are besides, a great number of English nobility and gentry who have patronized them; and when it is considered that the whole, completed, will not much exceed seventy pounds, and that sum to be advanced only in proportion as each number is finished, I think it will be universally acknowledged, taken in an economical sense, that it is the cheapest production ever offered to the British nation *.

The

* On my return to England, I announced this undertaking in the following terms-It is well known that the French, who are remarkable for their taste, as well as integrity, have, during their campaigns in different parts of the world, kindly removed from the countries they conquered, the precious remains of taste and arts which they contained. Full of the milk of human kindness, they were apprehensive that the inhabitants were not in a condition to preserve them, and therefore, they generously undertook to take care of them in their stead; and thus an immense quantity of paintings, sculpture, vases, and ornaments, was transmitted to Paris, which M. Chaptal calls the Capital of the world, in the name, and, no doubt, for the benefit of the people of Italy, Brabant, Holland, Germany, and Florence. They are so fond of this trade, that they have lately imported some cats and a wild African, for the sake of preserving them too for the benefit of mankind. Mrs. Cosway, greatly to her honour, has determined that the department of the Thames shall not be altogether without a sample of the delicacy of taste displayed by the French armies, and transported to the capital of the universe. The first number of these etchings has already crossed the ditch, and has been greeted by the citizens of the department, with the liveliest expressions of

gratitude,

The French themselves seem to be fully sensible of the advantages of extending the knowledge of these chefs-d'œuvres, as well as of affording employment to another branch of their artists. They have accordingly directed engravings of all the pictures in the gallery to be executed on a larger scale, by their most eminent artists. This costly work will necessarily occupy the space of perhaps twenty years; but when completed, it will form a National Gallery of Engravings, which will enrich their present collection, and thus unite the two branches of the imitative arts. In such a gallery, the genuine production of French talents and industry, and accomplished without rapine and violence, I could find great pleasure in passing away my leisure hours. But the work is at present but little advanced.

M. Rosaspina, a celebrated engraver of Bologna, has just finished, in a most masterly style, Corregio's Descent from the Cross, which is suspended at the further end of the long gallery. He

gratitude. The world itself is always in motion, why, therefore, should not paintings and sculpture keep moving? Many of these master-pieces of art have travelled a long way in a southern direction, as if they were fond of warm and genial climates. However, it is not impossible that they may hereafter point to the North, or to the West, and in after ages finally establish themselves in the snowy region of Petersburg, or the milder one of Washington.

has