of Christ have, however, suffered a little. The figures are about a third the size of life.

"The finished sketch for the celebrated picture, known by the name of La Gloria di Tiziano, which he afterwards, by the command of Philip II., king of Spain, painted for the church of the convent where the emperor Charles V. died, is also very remarkable. It is a rich, but not very pleasing composition. The idea of having the coffin of the emperor carried up to heaven, where God the Father and Son are enthroned, is certainly not a happy one. The painting is throughout excellent, and of a rich, deep tone in the flesh. Unfortunately it is not wanting in re-touches. The large picture is now in the Escurial.

"As the genuine pictures of Giorgione are so very rare, I will briefly mention a young knight, small full-length, noble and powerful in face and figure; the head is masterly, treated in his glowing tone; the armour with great force and clearness in the chiaro-oscuro.

"The original sketch of Tintoretto, for his celebrated picture of St. Mark coming to the assistance of a martyr, is as spirited as it is full and deep in the tone.

"The rich man and Lazurus, by Giacomo Bassano, is, in execution and glow of colouring approaching to Rembrandt, one of the best pictures of the master.

"There are some fine cabinet pictures of the school of Carracci : a Virgin and Child, worshipped by six saints, by Lodovico Carracci, is one of his most pleasing pictures in imitation of Correggio. Among four pictures by Domenichino, two landscapes, with the punishment of Marsyas, and Tobit with the fish, are very attractive, from the poetry of the composition and the delicacy of the finish. Another likewise very fine one of Bird-catching, from the Borghese palace, has unfortunately turned quite dark. A Christ, by Guido, is broadly and spiritedly touched in his finest silver tone."

In a

"There is an exquisite little gem by Claude Lorraine. soft evening light, a lonely shepherd, with his peaceful flocks, is playing the pipe. Of the master's earlier time; admirable in the impasto, careful and delicate, decided and soft, all in a warm golden tone. In the Liber Veritatis, marked No. 11. Few pictures inspire, like this, a feeling for the delicious stillness of a summer's evening.

"A landscape by Nicolas Poussin, rather large, of a very poetic composition and careful execution, inspires, on the other hand, in the brownish silver tone, the sensation of the freshness of morning. There is quite a reviving coolness in the dark water and under the trees of the foreground.

"Two smaller historical pictures by Poussin, of his earlier time, class among his careful and good works.

"Of the Flemish school there are a few, but very good specimens.

"There is a highly interesting picture by Rubens. During his once in Mantua, he was so pleased with the Triumph of Julius

Cæsar, by Mantegna, that he made a fine copy of one of the nine pictures. His love for the fantastic and pompous led him to choose that with the elephants carrying the candelabra; but his ardent imagination, ever directed to the dramatic, could not be content with this. Instead of a harmless sheep, which in Mantegna is walking by the side of the foremost elephant, Rubens made a lion and a lioness, which growl angrily at the elephant. The latter, on his part, is not idle, but, looking furiously round, is on the point of striking the lion a blow with his trunk. The severe pattern which he had before him in Mantegna has moderated Rubens in his usually very full forms, so that they are more noble and slender than they generally are. The colouring, as in all his earlier pictures, is more subdued than in the later, and yet powerful. Rubens himself seems to have set much value on this study; for it was among the effects at his death. During the revolution, Mr. Champernowne brought it from the Balbi palace, at Genoa. It is 3 ft. high and 5 ft. 5 in. wide.

"The study for the celebrated picture, the Terrors of War, in the Pitti palace at Florence, and respecting which we have a letter in Rubens's own hand, is likewise well worth notice. Rubens painted this picture for the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Venus endeavours, in vain, to keep Mars, the insatiable warrior, as Homer calls him, from war; he hurries away to prepare indescribable destruction. This picture, 1 ft. 8 in. high and 2 ft. 6 in. wide, which I have seen in the exhibition of the British Institution, is, by the warmth and power of the colouring, and the spirited and careful execution, one of the most eminent of Rubens's small pictures of this period.

Lastly, there is a Moonlight by him. The clear reflection of the moon in the water, its effect in the low distance, the contrast of the dark mass of trees in the foreground, are a proof of the deep feeling for striking incidents in nature which was peculiar to Rubens. in another picture the flakes of snow were represented, he has here marked the stars.

As

"I have now become acquainted with Rembrandt in a new department; he has painted in brown and white a rather obscure allegory on the deliverance of the United Provinces from the union of such great powers as Spain and Austria. It is a rich composition, with many horsemen. One of the most prominent figures is a lion chained at the foot of a rock, on which the tree of liberty is growing. Over the rock are the words, Solo Deo gloria." The whole is executed with consummate skill, and the principal effect is striking.

"His own portrait, at an advanced age, with very dark ground and shadows, and, for him, a cool tone of the lights, is to be classed, among the great number of them, with that in the Bridgewater Gallery; only it is treated in his broadest manner, which borders on looseness.

"A landscape, with a few trees upon a hill, in the foreground, with a horseman and a pedestrian in the background, a plain with a bright horizon, is clearer in the shadows than other landscapes by

Rembrandt, and therefore with the most powerful effect, the more harmonious.

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Among the drawings I must at least mention some of the

finest.

"RAPHAEL. The celebrated Entombment, drawn with the utmost spirit with the pen. From the Crozat collection. Mr. Rogers gave 120/. for it.

"ANDREA DEL SARTO. Some studies in black chalks, for his fresco paintings in the Chapel del Scalzo. That for the young man who carries the baggage in the visitation of the Virgin is remarkably animated.

"LUCAS VAN LEYDEN. A pen drawing, executed in the most perfect and masterly manner, for his celebrated and excessively rare engraving of the portrait of the Emperor Maximilian I. This wonderful drawing has hitherto been erroneously ascribed to Albert Dürer.

"ALBERT DÜRER. A child weeping. In chalk, on coloured paper, brightened with white; almost unpleasantly true to reality.

Among the admirable engravings, I mention only a single female figure, very delicately treated, which is so entirely pervaded with the spirit of Francisco Francia, that I do not hesitate to ascribe it to him. Francia, originally a goldsmith, is well known to have been peculiarly skilled in executing larger compositions in niello. How easily, therefore, might it have occurred to him, instead of working as hitherto in silver, to work with his graver in copper, especially as in his time the engraving on copper had been brought into more general use in Italy by A. Mantegna and others; and Francia had such energy and diversity of talents, that in his mature age he successfully made himself master of the art of painting, which was so much more remote from his own original profession. Besides this, the fine delicate lines in which the engraving is executed indicate an artist who had been previously accustomed to work for nielloplates, in which this manner is usually practised. The circumstance, too, that Marcantonio was educated in the workshop of Francia, is favourable to the presumption that he himself had practised engraving.

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Among the old miniatures, that which is framed and glazed, and hung up, representing, in a landscape, a knight in golden armour, kneeling down, to whom God the Father, surrounded by cherubim and seraphim, appears in the air, while the damned are tormented by devils in the abyss, is by far the most important. As has been already observed by Passavant, it belongs to a series of forty miniatures, in the possession of Mr. George Brentano, at Frankfort-onMaine, which were executed for Maître Etienne Chevalier, treasurer of France under King Charles VII., and may probably have adorned his prayer-book. They are by the greatest French miniature painter of the fifteenth century, Johan Fouquet de Tours, painter to King Louis XI. In regard to the admirable spirited invention, which betrays a great master, as well as the finished execution, they rank uncommonly high.

"An antique bust of a youth, in Carrara marble, which in fort and expression resembles the eldest son of Laocoon, is in a very noble style, uncommonly animated, and of admirable workmanship. In particular, the antique portion of the neck and the treatment of the hair are very delicate. The nose and ears are new; a small part of the chin, too, and the upper lip, are completed in a masterly manner in wax.

"A candelabrum in bronze, about ten inches high, is of the most beautiful kind. The lower part is formed by a sitting female figure holding a wreath. This fine and graceful design belongs to the period when art was in its perfection. This exquisite relic, which was purchased for Mr. Rogers, in Italy, by the able connoisseur, Mr. Millingen, is unfortunately much damaged in the epidermis.

Among the elegant articles of antique ornament in gold, the earrings and clasps, by which so many descriptions of the ancient poets are called to mind, there are likewise whole figures beat out in thin gold leaves. The principal article is a golden circlet, about two and a half inches in diameter, the workmanship of which is as rich and skilful as could be made in our times.

"Of the many Greek vases in terra cotta, there are five, some of them large, in the antique taste, with black figures on a yellow ground, which are of considerable importance. A flat dish, on the outer side of which five young men are rubbing themselves with the strigil, and five washing themselves, yellow on a black ground, is to be classed with vases of the first rank, for the gracefulness of the invention, and the beauty and elegance of the execution. In this collection, it is excelled only by a vase, rounded below, so that it must be placed in a peculiar stand. The combat of Achilles with Penthesilea is represented upon it, likewise in red figures. composition, consisting of thirteen figures, is by far the most distinguished, not only of all representations of the subject, but in general of all representations of combats which I have hitherto seen on vases, in the beauty and variety of the attitudes, in masterly drawing, as well as in the spirit and delicacy of the execution. It is in the happy medium between the severe and the quite free style, so that in the faces there are some traces of the antique manner.

This

Besides these, the articles of ancient and modern art, in sculpture, ivory carving, illustrated missals and MSS., specimens of Egyptian, Greek, and Italian artistic manufactures, were almost endless.

To these treasures of art were added those of his sister, chiefly paintings. Miss Rogers died on the 29th of January, 1855; and the poet himself on the 18th of December of the same year. The poet, his sister, and another brother, Henry Rogers, are all buried in the same vault in Hornsey churchyard, with inscriptions bearing the dates of their respective births and deaths, and adding that Samuel was the "Author of the Pleasures of Memory."

It remains only to add, that Mr. Rogers embellished his printed works with the same exquisite taste as his house. They are splendid specimens of typography, and are rich in the most beautiful designs by Stothard and Turner, from the most celebrated burins of the

day. I believe more than fifty thousand copies of them have been circulated. Since his death Mr. Moxon has published a volume of Rogers' Table-Talk.

Mr. Rogers, even in advanced age, was an active and persevering walker. We recollect seeing him some time before the decease of Joanna Baillie, returning from a call upon her, and walking down the hill towards Frognal Lane at a rate which made it difficult to overtake him. His carriage was following him, and a servant, close at his elbow, kept a careful watch lest he should stumble over any loose stone. Soon after this he met with his accident, which disabled him from walking altogether. Returning from a dinner-party in town, again on foot, in crossing a street, and endeavouring to avoid a cab, he fell, and fractured the thigh-bone. Nothing in the world was more likely than such an accident. Old gentlemen who are excessively deaf, and have carriages, should ride in them at night in the streets of London, when they are approaching ninety.

All the art collections which enriched the poet's house are dispersed by the hammer of the auctioneer, except three of his best paintings. These Mr. Rogers, by his will, bequeathed to the nation -namely, his celebrated Knight in Armour, by Giorgione; Ecce Homo, by Guido; and Noli me Tangere, by Titian; which are now in the National Gallery. Besides these, the Trustees of the National Gallery purchased at the poet's sale :-Rubens. The Triumph of Julius Caesar, a grand composition from a design by Andrea Mantegna, painted at Mantua, 1,1027. 10s. Giotto. Heads of Peter and John in adoration before the body of Jesus; a fragment of a fresco from the church of the Carmelites of Brancacci in Carmel at Florence, 78/. 158. G. Bassano. The Good Samaritan, from the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 241/. 10s.; and Rubens. The Horrors of War, from the Balbi palace, at Genoa, 2107.

The sale of the poet's effects occupied twenty-two days, and produced the following amount, as kindly furnished to me by Messrs. Christie and Manson, the auctioneers: