550 SfTKtfs St/lva 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 artisfs, 

 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, f 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 



r 



* 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. 



f 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. 



