166 



FINE ARTS. 



IScottand, by William Beattie, IM. D., illudrated in a series of 

 Views, by Thomas Allora, Esq. Parts 1 to 5. London : Vir- 

 tue. 



Illustrated publications are now "plenty as blackberries,** 

 tbeir name is Legion, and, as might be expected in such a motly 

 crowd, few rise above mediocrity, while many rank even lower than 

 that unenviable standard. The true gems are rare ; and carefully, 

 kindly must we distinguish them from the counterfeits ; if the pub- 

 lic would do likewise, the taste for the fine arts would srain ground, 

 whereas now the demand for " illustrated works*' proceeds, in very 

 many instances, from a mere drawing-room-display appetite, and as 

 this is bat a fashionable disease for the time being, the ca- 

 terers {i e, artists and publishers) need not be any way parti- 

 cular in the choice of materials for a banquet, not desired as an 

 enjoyment, but required as a ceremony. However, this is neither 

 the time nor place to enter upon a discussion of such length as the 

 state of art, and taste for art, in England, would require ; it is 

 time to tell our readers that the brightly-clad volume now before us 

 is not of the garbage class, only fit for the foLshionahle patrons of 

 picture-books: it is one which the artist may rejoice to lay beside 

 his easel, the poet love to feast his fancy upon, and the late or ex- 

 pectant tourist consult as a guide to ftiture wanderings, or a most 

 pleasant reminder of past ones. Beattie's — we would rather say 

 Allom*s — Scotland is a good and highly-interesting design, worthily 

 executed. Whoever loves Scott, and the creations of his boundless 

 genius— and who does not love them ? — should possess this beauti- 

 ful realization of scenes whicli his wizard words have often so liv- 

 ingly painted to our mental eyes. We do not pretend to affirm the 

 work a faultless one, as our remarks will prove ; but, as by far the 

 best of its kind, it is " worthy of welcome and worthy of honour." 

 All Mr. Allom wants, to do more justice to his own talents, is a 

 deeper feeling for the beautiful, the sublime, and the essentially 

 poetic subjects of his fine drawings. Scotland and Scott are so in- 

 dissolubly linked in our imaginations, that views of the mere coun- 

 try seem incomjilete : we would fain see the spots as the mighty 

 Wizard gives them to us in the magic circle of his airy creations. 

 He has so established each in the assigned " local habitation," that 

 we expect to find our heroes " at home," when the painter's wel- 

 come aid ushers us into their domains. In the very beautiful vig- 

 nette to the volume, where **The Pass of the Trosachs, Loch 

 Katrine," is delineated with the most perfect and picturesque efiect, 

 is an apt instance of the unpoelical vein to which we have alluded. 

 The scene is one of surpassing grandeur ; from the opposite shore 

 of the clear smiling loch, mountains — crag above crag — lift their 

 proud heads into the very sky ; lake- ward, girt with rich hanging 



