the bridge they passed to the conduit in Gratious-street, which was finely painted; and among other things were the nine worthies: of these King Henry VIII. was one. He was painted in harnesse, [armour] having in one hand a sword, and in the other hand a booke, whereupon was written Verbum Dei. He was also deliveringe, as it were, the same booke to his sonne King Edward VI. who was painted in a corner by him.' This device, it seems, gave great offence; and the painter, at the Queen's command, was summoned before the Bishop of Winchester, then Lord Chancellor, where he met with a severe reprimand, and was ordered to erase the inscription; to which he readily assented, and was glad to have escaped at so easy a rate from the peril that threatened him: but in his hurry to remove the offensive words, he rubbed out the whole booke and part of the hand that held it."

These motley displays of pomp and absurdity were never more fashionable than in the sixteenth century, and especially during the reign of Henry VIII. His daughter Elizabeth appears to have been equally pleased with this species of pageantry, which therefore was constantly provided for her amusement by the nobility, whom she visited in her excursions to various parts of the kingdom. From one of the most splendid of these entertainments, which was given by the Earl of Leicester, in 1575, at Kenelworth, and described in a small pamphlet, entitled "The Princely Pleasures at Kenelworth Castle," Mr. S. has given an abstract. The account may be seen at large in the "Progresses and public Processions of Queen Elizabeth," edited by Mr. Nichols, Vol. i,

Mr. Strutt's work is divided into four books: 1. Rural exercises practised by persons of rank. 2. Rural exercises generally practised. 3. Pastimes usually exercised in towns and cities, or places adjoining to them. 4. Domestic amusements of various kinds, and pastimes appropriated to particular seasons: with an appendix, descriptive of the engravings which accompany the work.

The contents of the several books will be so interesting to antiquarian readers, and form so complete an analysis of the production, that we shall offer no apology for giving them in detail.

BOOK I.

CHAP. I.Hunting more ancient than hawking-State of hunting among the Briton-The Saxons expert in hunting-The Danes also-And the NormansTheir tyrannical proceedings-The progress of this sport-Laws relating to hunting-Hunting followed by the clergy-The manner in which they pursued this pastime The English ladies fond of hunting-The privileges of the citizens of London to hunt-Private privileges for hunting-Two treatises on hunting considered-The names of beasts to be hunted-Wolves not all destroyed in Edgar's

time-Dogs for hunting-Various methods of hunting-Terms used in huntingTimes when to hunt.

CHAP. II.-Hawking practised by the nobility-Its origin not well known-A favourite amusement with the Saxons-A romantic story relative to hawking-The Grand Falconer of France, his state and privileges-Edward the Third partial to hawking The ladies fond of hawking-Its decline-How it was performed-The embellishments of the hawk-Treatises concerning hawking-Laws respecting hawks-Their great value-The different species of these birds, and their appropriation-Terms used in hawking-Fowling and fishing-The Stalking Horse described-Lowbelling.

CHAP. III.-Horse-racing known to the Saxons-Races in Smithfield, and why-Races, when practised-The Chester races-Stamford races-Value of running horses-Highly prized by the poets-Horse-racing commended as a liberal pastime Charles the Second and other monarchs encouragers of horseracing-Races upon Coleshill-heath.

BOOK II.

CHAP. I. The English famous for their skill in archery-The use of the bow known to the Saxons and Danes-The form of the Saxon bow-Archery improved by the Normans-The ladies fond of archery-Observations relative to the cross-bow-Its form, and the manner in which it was used-Bows ordered to be kept-The decay of archery, and why-Ordinances in its favourThe fraternity of St. George established-The price of bows-The necessary utensils for archery, and directions for its practice-The marks to shoot at-The length of the bow and arrows-Extraordinary performances of the archers-The modern archers inferior to the ancient in long-shooting-The Duke of Shoreditch, why so called-Grand procession of the London archers-A good archer, why called Arthur-Hard guns, and other weapons of like kind-Prizes given to the archers.

CHAP. II. Slinging of stones an ancient art-Known to the Saxons and Normans How practised of late years-Throwing of weights and stones with the hand-Casting of the bar and hammer-Of spears-Of quoits-Swinging of dumb bells-Foot races-The game of base-Wrestling much practised formerly-Prizes for-How performed-Swimming-Sliding-Skating-RowingSailing.

CHAP. III. Hand-ball, an ancient game-The ball, where said to be invented-Used by the Saxons and by the school-boys of London-Tennis Courts erected-Tennis fashionable in England-A famous woman-player-Hand-ball played for Tansy Cakes-Fives-Balloon-ball-Stool-ball-Hurling-Foot-ball

-Camp-ball-Goff-Cambuc-Bandy-ball-Stow-ball-Pall-mall-Ring-ball

-Club-ball-Crickett-Trap-ball-Northern-spell-Tip-cat.

[To be continued.]

Lectures on Painting, delivered at the Royal Academy, March 1, 1801. By Henry Fuseli, P. P. with additional Observations and Notes. 125. Johnson. London. 1801. (Concluded from page 396. Vol. XII.)

Mr. Fuseli is learned even to redundancy, and his style exhibits all the stores of profound erudition, though not uncontaminated

with the ridiculousness of pedantry, or exempt from the confusion of metaphor, and perplexity of expression which result from an unbounded copiousness of matter, not presided over by a strictly regulated judgment. In the following period the lecturer seems to have descended to the mean artifice of surprising the vulgar auditor (if vulgar auditors can be found in the Royal Academy) by the jingle of names, lugged in for the mere purposes of vanity and ostentation. "Vasari fancies to have discovered in the last judgment of Michael Angelo, traces of imitation from the Lunetta, painted by Luca, in the church of the Madonna, at Orvieto ; but the powers which animated him there, and before at Arezzo, are no longer visible in the Gothic medley with which he filled two compartments in the chapel of Sixtus IV. at Rome."

The following paragraph contains all the faults of the former, with some peculiar to itself. "The heterogeneous principle of the eclectic school, soon operated its own dissolution: the great talents which the Carracci had tutored, soon found their own bias, and abandoned themselves to their own peculiar taste. Barto Schidone, Guido Reni, Giovanni Lanfranco, Francesco Barbieri, called Guereino, differed as much in their objects of imitation as their names.”.

But if the sweet sound of Italian names reconcile the ear to the foregoing, what organ can endure a period of a mile confused, perplexed, and rendered almost unutterable, by a needless complication of German and Italian appellatives?" Lucas of Leyden was the Dutch caricature of Albert; but the forms of Aldegraver, Sebald Beheim, and George Pentz, appear to have been the result of careful inspection of Marc Antonio's prints from Raphael, of whom Pentz was a scholar; and ere long, the style of Michael Angelo, as adopted by Pelegrino Tibaldi, and spread by the graver of Georgio Mantuano, provoked those caravans of German, Dutch, and Flemish students, who, on their return from Italy, at the courts of Prague and Munich, in Flanders and the Netherlands, introduced that preposterous manner, the bloated excrescence of swampy brains, which in the form of man left nothing human, distorted action and gesture with insanity of affectation, and dressed the gewgaws of children in colossal shapes; the style of Golzius and Spranger, Heynz and Ab Ach: but, though content to feed on the husks of Tuscan's design, they imbibed the colour of Venice, and spread the elements of that excellence which distinguished the succeeding schools of Flanders and of Holland."

We shall conclude our instances of faulty style, with a metaphor so strangely mixed, that it would form no obscure part in a lecture

on the art of writing ill. "Guercino broke like a torrent over all academic rules, and with an ungovernable itch of copying whatever lay in his way, sacrificed mind, form, and costume, to effects of colour, fierceness of chiaroscuro, and intrepidity of hand."

Let not the reader, however, imagine, that these errors in composition are characteristic of Fuseli's style. They are the spots which shew the more conspicuously on the satin vest; they are the negligences or the over-laboured trifles which occasionally disfigure, but do not depreciate an exquisite picture. Were it necessary to compensate for these few errors by exquisite passages, great numbers could be produced; we content ourselves, however, with the elegant, though, perhaps, too ample homage to the genius of Rembrandt. "Shakspeare alone excepted, no one combined with so much transcendent excellence, so many, in all other men unpardonable faults---and reconciled us to them. He possessed the full empire of light and shade, and of all the tints that float between them: he tinged his pencil with equal success in the cool of dawn, in the noonday ray, in the livid flash, in evanescent twilight, and rendered darkness visible. Though made to bend a stedfast eye on the bolder phenomena of nature, yet he knew how to follow her into her calmest abodes, gave interest to insipidity or baldness, and plucked a flower in every desart. None ever like Rembrandt knew how to improve an accident into a beauty, or give importance to a trifle. If ever he had a master he had no followers; Holland was not made to comprehend his power. The succeeding school of colourists were content to tip the cottage, the hamlet, the boor, the ale-pot, the shambles and the haze of winter, with orient hues, or the glow of setting summer suns."

Many of Fuseli's definitions of terms are extremely correct and happy, as nature, grace, taste, and his distinctions judicious without the affectation of subtilty, as those between copy and imitation; style and manner. From his rules and observations of general criticism we select two no less useful and important than justly conceived and expressed. The one cautions the student against the captious desire of confounding the style of masters by officiously intruding their casual aberrations into the point of view which ought to be occupied by their general characteristics. "Form not your judgment of an artist, he says, from the exceptions which his conduct may fur nish from the exertions of accidental vigour, from deviations into other walks, or from unpremeditated flights of fancy, but from the predominant rule of his system, the general principle of his works. The line and style of Titian's design, sometimes expand themselves

like those of Michael Angelo. His Abraham prevented from sacri ficing Isaac; his David adoring over the giant trunk of Goliah; the Friar escaping from the murderer of his companion in the forest, equal in loftiness of conception and style of design, their mighty tone of colour and daring execution: the heads and groups of Raphael's frescos and portraits sometimes glow and palpitate with the tints of Titian, or coalesce in masses of harmony and undulate with graces superior to those of Correggio; who, in his turn, once reached the highest summit of invention, when he embodied silence and personified the mysteries of love in the voluptuous group of Jupiter and Io; and again exceeded all competition of expression in the divine features of his Ecce-Homo. But these sudden irradiations, these flashes of power, are only exceptions from their wonted principles; pathos and character own Raphael for their master; colour remains the domain of Titian, and harmony the sovereign mistress of Correggio.

Another rule of criticism, with which we shall close this protracted article, may serve to caution the reader against the folly of coming with prepared admiration to the contemplation of a subject, and thus betraying himself into an absurd exaggeration of beauties, or a laboured discrimination totally incompatible with the style, or inconsistent with the main design of the artist. "From these observations on the collateral and unsolicited beauties which must branch out from the primary expression of every great idea, it will not, I hope, be suspected, that I mean to invalidate the necessity of its unity, or to be the advocate of pedantic subdivision. All such division diminishes, all such mixtures impair the simplicity and clearness of expression in the group of the Laocoon, the frigid ecstacies of German criticism have discovered pity like a vapour swimming on the father's eyes; he is seen to suppress, in the groan for his children, the shriek for himself-his nostrils are drawn upward, to express indignation at unworthy sufferings, whilst he is said, at the same time, to implore celestial help. To these are added the winged effects of the serpent-poison, the writhings of the body, the spasms of the extremities to the miraculous organization of such expression, Agesander, the sculptor of the Laocoon, was too wise to lay claim. His figure is a class, it characterizes every beauty of virility verging on age; the prince, the priest, the father are visible, but absorbed in the man, serve only to dignify the victim of one great expression; though poised by the artist, for us to apply the compass to the face of the Laocoon, is to measure the wave fluctuating in the storm: this tempestuous front, this contracted brow, the immersion of these