THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN. 157 



blend into one another, until they finally disappear, and we 

 have before us a flat, even tint of colour. The knack of 

 laying in a sky cannot be gained without a great deal of 

 practice ; but the operator may feel assured that when he 

 has once conquered this initial difficulty half his labour 

 is over. 



If we merely want a plain blue sky, and where the 

 amount of sky is small it is often expedient that this should 

 be the cas.e, we can consider this portion of our picture 

 finished with the dabbing ; but if we want to indicate 

 clouds, this must be done before the colour has commenced 

 to dry. Here comes in the work of the artist. From what 

 I have seen exhibited in the shop windows, I conclude that 

 many slide-painters classify clouds under two general 

 heads, namely, large masses called "feather-bed clouds," 

 and small ones, called " bolster clouds." These are created 

 by means of a leather stump, moved with a semicircular 

 motion, by which clouds of either pattern can be wiped 

 out to order. The student of nature will, however, aim 

 at something higher than this ; for he will know that no 

 two clouds, of the thousands he has gazed upon, have ever 

 been alike. For convenience sake, meteorologists write of 

 cumulus, cirrus, stratus, and nimbus forms of clouds, but, 

 in reality, although each term describes a typical form of 

 vapour, they convey very little information to the mind's 

 eye. Each form so constantly blends with the other to delight 

 the eye, that no words can sufficiently describe the vast 

 variety of cloud beauties presented to us. In attempting 

 to imitate some of these effects of nature in glass-painting, 

 I find that a piece of kid wrapped round a pointed stick 



