his architect, Vandyke his painter, and Dr. Child his musician. Indeed he patronised any or all that were "Well seene in everie science that mote be, In power of herbes, and tymes of beastes and burdes." SPENCER. This was also the period of the Earl of Arundel, who has the honour of being called the father of "virtu" in England. An anonymous French writer has well observed: "It is not to the most powerful monarchs, nor to the most opulent princes, nor to the chief rulers of a nation, that most states owe their splendour, force, and glory;" though they may do much, and the Earl of Arundel was one of those who had lent his powerful assistance. In England more particularly, "it is private persons who have made the most astonishing improvements in the arts and sciences, and even in the art of government. Who measured the earth? Who discovered the systems of the heavens ? Who invented those curious manufactories with which we are clothed? Who has laid open the secrets of natural history? Who has explored the intricacies of chemistry, anatomy, and botany? Certainly private persons, who, in the eye of a wise man, must eclipse the pretenders to greatness, those proud dwarfs who too often cherish nothing but their own vanity. In effect, it is not kings, ministers, persons invested with authority that govern the world." This important point could never be perceived by this unfortunate monarch, so his life paid the forfeit of his misgovernment. The noble Arundel, who was also "a noble of nature," began his collection about 1615. Alas! he lived to see them dispersed by the of ignorant political fanatics. "But what so agency pure that wicked wits will spare;" nothing was safe or sacred in such a state of things. "Those polish'd arts which humanize the mind, So thought and sung an ancient classic poet, but not so the modern excited rebel. The palace of Whitehall contained a collection of 460 pictures; twenty-eight by Titian, eleven by Corregio, sixteen by Julio Romano, nine by Raffaele, four by Guido, and seven by Parmegiano. So highly did Charles appreciate these treasures, that he preferred holding the great court fetes in temporary buildings, to the risk of injuring his pictures by lighting up the apartments in which they were hung. Rubens arrived in England in 1630 as an ambassador; but he was induced to use his irresistible pencil, of whom it has been said, "he seemed to have been sent by heaven to teach mankind painting" He painted the ceiling of the banqueting house, Whitehall, for which he received £3000; and among many other splendid specimens of his great abilities are the cartoons of Raffaele : they were acquired in Flanders through his means. TAPESTRY. PAINTING on walls was general during the middle ages, which afterward gave place to tapestry. The most ancient tapestry is in the church at Bayeaux, in Normandy. Lord Arundel bequeathed the tapestry hangings of his hall in 1392, which had been made in London. Probably the art was lost, and reintroduced by William Sheldon, Esq.* About 1677 France established the famous Gobelins tapestry, which supplied all Europe. In England it was attempted, but with very limited success. William Sheldon, Esq., of Weston, Warwickshire, warmly patronised it. A curious set of maps were woven under his direction, which covered two sides of a large room. This tapestry, nearly eighty feet square, when the furniture was sold at Weston in 1781, was purchased by Mr. Horace Walpole, who presented it to the Earl of Harcourt, and it is now carefully preserved at Nuneham, Courtenay. The change in religion, and the desecration under which she had undergone, left her without a school of design capable of such undertakings. De Piles informs us that "Bernard Van Orley, of Brussels, Michaelis Coxis, of Mechlin, and other Flemish pupils of Raffaele, were commissioned by him or Pope Leo X., on their return to Flanders, to superintend the working of the tapestries." "All these astonishing historical works of art, for the most part of worsted, have, down to the present day, preserved a most surprising force of tone and power of effect, except in those parts or colours of carnations which, being of silk, are now faded. But, notwithstanding these changes, they must still be allowed to form one of the most brilliant monuments of Raffaele genius."-Parthenon. Tapestry, or arras-work, was not only an ornamental embellishment in great houses, but served as screens and sly hiding places. Thus a character in the "Woman Hater " * Brown's "Principles of Practical Perspective." says: "Farewell my countrymen all, with whom Of you I have made many a scrambling meal "Tapestry was made at Mortlake, in Surry, by Sir Francis Crane, which began under James I., and was patronised by his unfortunate son, Charles. Francis Cleyn, a painter of considerable reputation in the service of the King of Denmark, recommended by Sir Henry Wotton, was employed in the manufactory, and gave designs in both history and grotesque. The civil wars ruined this concern." "In 1720 A. M. Pariport made a considerable attempt to compete with the celebrated Gobelins at Paris, and commenced an extensive manufactory at Fulham, in Surry, in which he was nobly encouraged by the then Duke of Cumberland, who assisted him with a gift of £6000; but this soon failed, and in 1759 a set of designs for tapestry, painted by Zuccharelli, and executed by Paul Saunders for the Earl of Egremont, for a house built in Piccadilly, were the last made in this country."* Vandyke's labours lay, for the most part, in portraits, which have descended down as heir looms, exhibiting the noblest and fairest of the age now living on canvass, and adding a brilliant and historical reminiscient to the other ornaments of the English baronial hall. His habits are the costumes of the times. Sir Peter Lely succeeded him, who was considered the ladies' painter, and whose lovely features 66 -On animated canvass stole The sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul." He greatly exceeded Vandyke in delicacy and softness of flesh. King Charles, in the eleventh year of his reign, planned an academy of design; but troubles thickening upon him, he was obliged to abandon it. Indeed, with the political horizon then so overcast, of what use would it have been? The whole number of English born painters and engravers for the seventeenth century are only about twenty, as many as could be expected amid such strange and sudden changes; but they were men of talent, and their works of high repute. George Vertue was an artist of great talent and unwearied industry, not more distinguished by his works as an engraver than by his researches as an antiquary. He zealously devoted himself to the occupation of rescuing from obscurity not only the objects which merited illustration through the medium of the graver, but the facts and records which relate to the history of the arts in his native, country from the earliest period to his * Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal. time. The labours of a life thus employed furnished the ore which, refined and moulded by Horace Walpole, shines forth in the "Anecdotes of Painting," a work of which the intrinsic value is in no degree deteriorated by the brilliancy with which it is invested. The laborious perseverance of the collector and the dazzling wit of the editor could scarcely, perhaps, have emanated from one mind: their union has produced a work unrivalled for the combination of instruction and entertainment. SCULPTURE. "Then sculpture and her sister arts revive, Stones leap'd to form and rocks began to live." POPE. Nor quite so fast, thou "little Nightingale of Twickenham ;” the leaping part, for a time, was downward instead of upward, for in 1643 the mistaken mischief-makers were pulling down the crosses. Indeed of sculpture little can be said; there was no memorial left at the time by the artist to designate his own work, so that what little was done is matter of doubt to whom the merit belongs. Nicholas Stone was the one most in repute: he was employed at the banqueting house. Several foreign artists came, and met with employment. In 1633 Herbert le Sœur executed the bronze statue of Charles, at Charing Cross, which, excellent as it is, was ordered to be broken up by the parliament. Oh! wondrous “omnipotence of parliament," how curious and how interesting it is to chronicle the failure of this infamous profane order.* The parliamentary brazier had strict orders to break it up; instead of doing so, he cunningly contrived to conceal it till the restoration, when it was replaced, in 1678. In the meantime he was reaping a handsome profit from the sale of toys which he pretended were made from the metal. This man's name was Rivet; and, while the relic-hunters' attention was riveted to their object of possessing some memorial of their martyred monarch, he very cunningly took good care to clinch them, and to keep the original safe for another sale, when the opportunity (which soon occurred) presented itself of the royal party coming into power. There was a statue of Queen Anne put up in St. Paul's churchyard, which now remains. It is thus spoken of: "In * I believe it was De Lolme who said, "The English parliament can do anything but make man woman or woman man ;" but the history of this Union shows it could not make this nation long tributary to it. 1712 Francis Bird had £250 for the queen's statue and enrichments. The best part of this figure is the regal mantle; though it is not easy to say which is the worst. The four statues seated on the pedestal, of England, France, Ireland, and America, were £220 each, and the white marble shield of arms, £50. This ill-contrived and tasteless group cost in all £1180. The wits of the day were very severe upon it, and on the manner in which the queen is placed, with her back to the church and her face to the brandy shop."* "It has been twice attacked by lunatics, first in 1743, when the man broke off the sceptre, and otherwise damaged the statue; and again in 1769, by a Lascar, who, when apprehended, attempted to stab the watchman. On the latter occasion both the arms, with the globe and sceptre, were broken off, and all the other figures had some damage done to them. The Lascar had the globe in his hand when he was passing over the iron railing."+ COINS. CHARLES I. established a mint at Aberystwith Castle, in Wales, to coin silver extracted from the lead mines in that neighbourhood, which then yielded about 100lbs. of silver per week, which afterward was of considerable service to him in his short war against the parliament. In his reign was introduced, by Nicholas Briot, a Frenchman, the process of fabricating coins by machinery, instead of the simple hammering. He was employed from about 1628 to 1633, and was constituted chief engraver of coins in the Tower mint: while he presided, the coins were then considered the most beautiful ever known. "One of his gold coins," says Leake, "was admirably well done, bare-headed, and the love-lock, as it was called, hanging before, which was so disagreeable to the Roundheads (so called from the contrary extreme) that Prynne wrote a book against it, called 'The Unloveliness of Love-locks,' 1630. After the civil war had commenced and the parliament had seized the Tower, Charles set up mints at Shrewsbury, Oxford, York, and other places. Most of the money coined at these places has the mint mark of the Prince of Wales' feathers, as being struck by the workmen and instruments belonging to the mint at Aberystwith. The greater part of it appears also to have been made in the old-fashioned way, with the hammer. The unhappy state of his affairs may be traced by this money, * Malcolm's London. + Gentleman's Magazine. |