583 Portrait of a Foreign Prince, with the 609 A Cavalier on a White Horse. A. Vander

584 Villiers Duke of Buckingham. C. Janssen. 610 A Cavalier on Horseback. A. Vander 585 Robert Walker, by himself.

599 The second Lord and Lady Clarendon 621, 622 Views of Portsmouth. Dankers.

714 St. Christopher, with Saints. L. Cranach.
715 Portrait of William III.

In which are placed the state-beds of King 716 The Queen of James I. Van Somer.

THE KING'S PRIVATE DRESSING-ROOM.

Hung with tapestry, representing the Battle of Solebay. The Delf Vases in this room were brought to England by King William III.; and in the centre of the room is a Marble Bust of a Negro.

754 A Portrait of a Female with Flowers.
755 Fruit. M. A. Campidoglio.
756, 757 Boys with Flowers. S. Ricci.

IN THE NEXT CLOSET,

A Model of a Palace, intended by George II. for Hyde Park, designed by Kent.

726 Over the fire-place, Caroline Queen of 758 Judith with the Head of Holofernes.

George II.

759 Lord Holderness.
760 Lucretia.

761 The Destruction of Popery by the Evangelists.

762 Chiron instructing Achilles in the use of
the Bow,

763 Judith with the Head of Holofernes.
764 Virgin and Child.

765 Still Life. Roestraten.

748, 749 Two Flower Pieces. Mario di Fiori. 766 An Encampment. Vander Meulen. 750 Grapes. M. A. Campidoglio.

767 King of Prussia.

751-753 Flower Pieces, with Insects. Withoos. 768 The Judgment of Paris.

We are now about to enter the Gallery built by Sir Christopher Wren for the reception of the Cartoons of Raphael—the grand attraction of Hampton Court, and which, were all else destroyed and gone, would still draw thousands of pilgrims to this place, as to a shrine. It is to be regretted, perhaps, that we are now somewhat weary and eye-sore with much pictureviewing, and foot-sore, it may be, with much perambulating palace halls—so that, on coming here into the presence of these reflections of a master spirit -these truly great creations of a mighty mind-our enthusiasm may not amaze ourselves, and we may marvel why we are not wonderstruck: wait a little-it is with the Cartoons of Raphael as men say it is with the majestic Temple of St. Peter's-by long looking, their grandeur and their beauty swell upon the eye and fill the mind; they are not to be seen only, but to be meditated upon in seeing.

Yet it is as well that these works are where we see them: they form a climax in our picture-viewing; and who would care after perusing these great works we say perusing, for it is to the understanding that they recommend themselves rather than to the eye-who would pore upon imitative groves and flowers, or lineaments of the human face divine transcribed on painted canvas? Let imitation do its best; it is but imitation still.

Here is creation-noblest, loftiest faculty vouchsafed to man; loftiest we say, and noblest, because of its divinity. Here we have it in these pictures, if you choose to call them such; but we rather say in this epic poem, in these seven magnificent cantos. Alas! that we should have lost other three. Here we have all that is highest, greatest, in poesy or painting, which you will-grandeur of conception, grandeur in the working of it out; expression of human passion, powerful as nature and as true; dignity, beauty, grace, wondrously harmonized to one majestic purpose-mind, predominant over all. But to return to our humble descriptive duties:

The Cartoons, a series of designs drawn with chalk upon strong paper, and coloured in distemper for the purpose of being worked in tapestry, were executed by Raphael Sanzio d' Urbino for Pope Leo X. in 1514.

The tapestries worked from them in wool, silk, and gold, were completed at Arras, and sent to Rome the year before the death of their great composer.

The Cartoons meanwhile lay neglected and forgotten in the lumber rooms of the manufacturer at Arras; three were unfortunately lost, but seven remained, when Rubens, just a century after, advised Charles I. to purchase them for the use of his tapestry-weavers at Mortlake. The advice so given was attended to; and these inimitable works of art arrived safely in England. On the death of the unfortunate King Charles, Oliver Cromwell purchased them for the nation for three hundred pounds. They remained neglected in Whitehall until the arrival of King William the Third, who had them repaired, the slips pasted together, and stretched upon linen; by that monarch's order Sir C. Wren erected the gallery in which we now behold them.

Before we proceed to examine them severally, we will direct the reader to the observations of Hazlitt upon these works; he will find them an excellent preparative, and, whether he be a connoisseur or simple admirer, he will at once acknowledge their truth and accuracy.

Compared with the Cartoons, all other pictures look like oil and varnish : we are stopped and attracted by the colouring, the pencilling, the finishing, the instrumentalities of art; but here the painter seems to have flung his mind upon the canvas. His thoughts, his great ideas alone prevail; there is nothing between us and the subject: we look through a frame and see scripture histories, and are made actual spectators in miraculous events. Not to speak it profanely, they are a sort of a revelation of the subjects of which

they treat; there is an ease and freedom of manner about them, which bring preternatural character and situations home to us with the familiarity of every day occurrences; and while the figures fill, raise, and satisfy the mind, they seem to have cost the painter nothing. Everywhere we see the means; here, we arrive at the end apparently without any means. There is a spirit at work in the divine creation before us; we are unconscious of any steps taken, of any progress made: we are aware only of comprehensive results, of whole masses and figures; the sense of power supersedes the appearance of effort. It is as if we had ourselves seen these persons and things at some former state of our being, and that the drawing certain lines upon coarse paper, by some unknown spell, brought back the entire and living images, and made them pass before us, palpable to thought, feeling, sight. Perhaps not all this is owing to genius; something of this effect may be ascribed to the simplicity of the vehicle employed in embodying the story, and something to the decaying and dilapidated state of the pictures themselves. They are the more majestic for being in ruins. We are struck chiefly with the truth of proportion, and the range of conception. All the petty meretricious part of the art is dead in them; the carnal is made spiritual, the corruptible has put on incorruption: and amidst the wreck of colour and the mouldering of material beauty, nothing is left but a universe of thought or the broad imminent shadows of 'calm contemplation and majestic pains.""

The subjects of these exquisite masterpieces of art are the following:

769 THE DEATH OF ANANIAS-" Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God." -Acts v.

770 ELYMAS THE SORCERER STRUCK WITH BLINDNESS.

THE ANTE ROOM.

776 A Chalk Drawing, after Raphael's Transfiguration.

777 John Lacey, a comedian of the reign of Charles II.

771 THE HEALING OF THE LAME MAN 778 James praying at the tomb of Lord