550 Strutt’s Silva Britannica. 
formances, and some few others which we have seen *, we 
now feel bound in candour to retract. We really did not 
believe it to have been within the scope and compass of the 
lithographic art to have produced such beautiful specimens as 
those which are now before us. Free from the vapid insipidity, 
the mealy meagreness, so usual with their kind, they exhibit 
all the brilliancy of stroke and vigour of effect to be found in 
pure etchings, for which, as already stated, they are commonly 
taken, and may bear no mean comparison with the more racy 
productions of the Dutch and Flemish school. Mr. Strutt’s 
plates are by no means all of equal merit; what artist’s, 
indeed, are so? Nor do they, in every instance, appear to 
have been taken off with the same degree of care, so as to pro- 
duce equally bright and strong impressions. + But, without 
hesitation, we call upon our readers to admire along with us, 
among other portraits in the volume, particularly those of the 
Bull Oak, the Gospel, Wotton, Cowthorpe, and Shelton Oaks, 
the Cedar at Hammersmith House, and the Willow at Bury St. 
Edmunds, with its silvery and delicate foliage so exquisitely 
delineated. In some instances our artist’s plates would have 
been much improved had they been rather more finished, and 
a little additional labour been expended on them; for ex- 
ample, the Swilcar Lawn Oak, Gilpin’s Maple, and still more 
some of the Scotch subjects, are too slight and sketchy, and, 
consequently, strike us as deficient in force and effect. From 
the same cause, the views of the Scotch Fir at Dunmore, and 
the Silver Fir at Roseneath, and, we might add, the Larches 
at Dunkeld, actually remind one of snow scenes ; and, as they 
lie in “the north countrie,” perhaps Mr. Strutt intended 
them as such. The Creeping Oak in Savernake Forest, one of 
* We allude more particularly to a large and interesting plate which 
we have seen at the office of Mr. Netherclift (No.8. Newman Street, Ox- 
ford Street), representing the Martyrdom of Charles the First, together 
with portraits of Bradshaw, Cromwell, Ireton, and Fairfax (all copied from 
old prints), fac-similes of the death warrant and of the autographs of the 
regicides. We believe the plate was executed by Mr. Netherclift, or by 
some one employed in his establishment ; and for clearness and brilliancy of 
stroke it is not to be exceeded by engraving on copper. 
+ All the copies of the work which we have inspected, amounting to the 
number of about eight or ten, contain one or more weak impressions, which 
ought to have been thrown aside, and not suffered to be bound up in the 
volumes offered for sale. As these failures do not always occur in one and 
the same plate, but in various ones, they must be attributed, not to the 
incapability of the plates themselves to produce good impressions, but to 
the manner in which they have been worked off. We have particularly 
observed that many of the copies of the Wallace Oak are weak and poor. 
The greatest care ought to have been taken in the press-work, and every 
copy bordering on a bad impression discarded. 
