1829.] 



Domestic and Foreign, 



461 



Were steeped, thy fertile fancy did create, 



Have flowed from auulit but an inspired source. 



I love tlie graceful cliivali^tliat bath trarbed 



Woman's fair form in attributes so bright. 



She may be placed in man's adoring mind, 



Upon a pedestal, his baser thoughts 



Dare not profane. Mine ear receives 



The stately measure of those antique rhymes 



With a most deep deliplit. Whenever I 



Do syllable in .>lemory's trace thy verse. 



It seems to me as if a thousand lutes 



Of fairy sweetness touched by hands unseen. 



With melody tilled all the air around : 



Or that I heard some river lapse away 



In liquid music o'er Arcadian plains. 



On the old man's death occurs a stanza of 

 great pathos and beauty : — 



With what a solemn, what a chastened feeling, 

 Cross we the threshold of the newly dead ! 



As if therein the spirit sat revealing 

 The words its mortal accents might have said, 



Although we feel thence it fur aye hath fled. 

 The vacant hearth, the vestments lately worn. 

 That fearful truth throughout the mansion 

 spread ; 

 Books, handled oft, lig'.:t toils conjointly borne, 

 Challenge aC'ection's uote, and make the scene 

 forlorn. 



Among the smaller pieces are several 

 marked by deep feeling. The " Estranged," 

 for instance — young married persons, pas- 

 sionately attached, separated on a sudden 

 quarrel. The husband flies to the wars ; 

 and when, after many years, he retinns, he 

 finds his wife in a convent, and hastening to 

 the grave. The " Seal-hunters" is harrow- 

 ing, from the suspense of two youths, who 

 were left, by the breaking away of their boat, 

 upon an ice-berg : the revulsion of feeling 

 on the sight of a sail, which, at the end of 

 six days, rescues them, is powerful and 

 striking. 



FINE ARTS' EXHIBITIONS. 



Sculpture. — Mr. Lough's new, and, at 

 present, unfinished work, is an elaborate and 

 complicated composition, wliich we would 

 fain have space to describe and criticise at the 

 length that its various and extraordinary me- 

 rits deserve. This may not be ; nor, indeed, 

 would it be quite fair to do so in its present 

 incomplete state. But as its progress to. 

 wards completion is sufficient to enable the 

 spectator to judge with perfect trutli as to 

 the skill which has hitherto been expended 

 upon it, we cannot refrain from making a 

 hasty allusion to it, in the absence of other 

 objects of public interest in tliis department 

 of art. It consists of a group of several 

 warriors, (ten or twelve in number) of two 

 opposing parties, all engaged together in 

 active and personal contest for a standard, 

 which is in the centre of tlie group, and 

 about wljich all are gathered into a circular 

 and pyramidal cluster. Some of the com- 

 batants are on horseback — others have been 

 unhorsed, and their horses lie wounded or 

 dead beside them ; and the wliole are so 

 disposed as to produce that true triumph of 

 art in works of this kind — the evident pre- 

 sence of tlie most elaborate art, producing a 

 general and individual effect in all respects 

 correspondent with nature. The critical know- 

 ledge of anatomy displayed in every |)art of 

 thisnoble group is, perluips, unrivalled forex- 

 tent and variety by any production of modem 

 art in the same cliiss ; and the execution is 

 in no degree inferior to the knowledge 

 which ha.s been employed in directing it. 

 An a composition, too, the work dis]))ays a 

 conipreliensive power of C()nce])tion tliat is 

 of the higliest and the rarest class, and a 

 flower of design and execution worthy of the 

 concei,tion. Finally, that most difficult of 

 all the achievementn of the modeller and 

 itculptor, moral and ch.aracteristic exprcs- 

 »ion of face, of attitude, and of form, is at 



least as conspicuous in this work as any 

 other less rare or valuable attribute. The 

 figures in this admirable group are con- 

 siderably less than the size of life ; but 

 the whole is managed vifith such singular 

 force and spirit, that no pettiness of effect 

 is felt, while a certain effect of one-ness is 

 accomplished by it wliich could not be gained 

 by any other means. If tlie figures were 

 much larger than tney are, it would be im- 

 possible for the eye to contemplate them as 

 one connected whole, unless they were placed 

 at a distance that would preclude the obser- 

 vation of all the anatomical details. 



The Annuals. — The embellishments of 

 the Annuals of this year promise to surpass 

 in merit and value, no less than in variety 

 and extent, those of any previous year. We 

 have already seen several of those which are 

 to grace the pages of the " Winter's Wreath ;" 

 and we remember nothing of the kind that 

 has merited from us more immixed com- 

 mendation. There is a view of Derwent- 

 water, engraved by Brandard, from a paint- 

 ing by Wavel, which is perfectly exquisite, 

 for the delicacy of its touch, and the truth 

 of its effect. Another landscape, an ima- 

 ginary scene, of great richness and beauty, 

 into which is introduced a numerous group 

 of dames and cavaliers, is of equal merit in 

 point of execution, and still more elaborate 

 in design and composition. It is engraved 

 by Ooodall, from a painting by Bone. A 

 third, an in-door scene, called " II t!ava- 

 liere Pittore," is an exquisite little gem, 

 representing a great variety of objects, and 

 at the same time illustrating, with perfect 

 truth and eloquence, a scene of lunnan 

 passion and character — the whole included 

 in a s|)ace so small, with reference to 

 the matter crowded into it, that a single 

 false or careless stroke would have produced 

 a ruinous effect, and one whicli the least 



