16 
tions relative to those who have written 
concerning this gallery. Nicholas de 
Pigage, chief architect to the Elector in 
1779, published a work entitled: De la 
Galerie Electorale de Dusseldorrf, ou Ca- 
talogue Raisonnée et Figures de ses Ta- 
bleaux. ‘This description is embellished 
with thirty large plates, engraved by 
Christian Mechel of Basil. All the 
pieces are there represented in the erder 
in which they are hung. They are in 
general well engraved, and in the true 
style of the different masters. In en- 
graving each part of a gallery on a single 
plate, the dimensions must of course be 
attended to; hence the subjects of the 
smaller pictures are rendered so con- 
fused, as not to be distinguishable. Such 
is the fate in this work of the perform- 
ances of Vanderwerff. The designs for 
the engravings and the plates themselves, 
cost the Elector about one hundred 
thousand francs, (upwards of four thou- 
sand pounds sterling), ‘These plates are 
so worn that no more impressions can be 
taken off. Eight copies still remain at 
the gallery for sale; the price is six louis 
dors. The descriptive part of the text 
is well executed, but with respect to the 
epinions, the author is in general too la- 
vish of his praise, conceiving that the 
name of a great painter is sufficient to 
protect his porlormances, from all impu- 
tation. 
J. R. Forster treats at considerable 
length of this collection in his Tour of the 
Lower Rhine, which, for its style, may 
- justly be considered a miaster-piece. 
Many of his judgments are correct, and 
evince the man who combines genius and 
knowledge: others display the amateur 
prepossessed against the Flemish school, 
end who sotnetimes finds fault only that 
he may be consistent with his system, 
In the Calendrier du Bus Rhin, by F. 
Muhr, a publication which has appeared 
annually since 1799, are given descrip- 
tions and engravings of the principal ar- 
ticles in this admirable collection. The 
engravings are executed with care by 
Hess; and the descriptions, written with 
discernment, afford an accurate idea of 
the artist and of his work. In short it is 
such a performance as every lover of the 
art would wish to see in his library.* 
* Since the above letter was written, M. 
Langer, the director of the gallery, has pub- 
lished thirteen engravings from designs by. 
celebrated masters, preserved in this cyllece 
tig. 
Account of a Tour through Spain. 
[Feb. J, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N looking over some volumes of your 
excellent miscellany, I met with a 
passage in a letter, subscribed D. F. in 
the Magazine for June, 1800, which not a 
little surprised me. The writer of that 
letter, m elucidating: the following, line 
of Milton’s Lycidas, 
*¢ Looks towards Numancos and Bagonis hold,” 
makes this observation, “I conceive Nu- 
mancos must have been intended_for the. 
ancient Numantia, near Tarragona, on the 
coast of Catalonia; and, that Milton has 
given a Spanish termination to the word.” 
Now, Mr. Editor, the position here 
assigned, for Numantia, appears to me, ut~ 
terly irreconcileable with the descriptions 
left us of that most interesting town, 
by the histortans, and geographers, of 
antiquity, as also to the opinions of every 
modern. writer of character, on the sub- 
ject; and, as 1 have not been able to 
trace, in the subsequent numbers of your 
Magazine, any remarks on this head; 
I am induced to transmit to you the fol- 
lowing, partly drawn from the best au- 
thorities, ancient and modern, and partly 
the result of my own observation and 
enquiries, in a tour through Spain, eigh- 
teen years ago. ; 
I had entered Spain, from France, by 
Bayonne, crossed the west end of the 
Pyrenees, to Pampelona, the capital of 
Spanish Navarre, and proceeded south= 
wards to the river Ebro*. 
The river there flows in a broad deep 
channel, with moderate rapidity, and is 
crossed in a large bark. At Ingh floods 
it overflows the plain in the north, but 
the banks on the south side are too ele- 
vated to be ever exposed tv inundation, 
A couple of miles above the ferry, 
on the south side of the river, stands 
Alfaro, a small town, supposed, by 
some writers, to occupy the site of Grac- 
curris, a town founded and enlarged by 
the celebrated Tiberius Sempronius 
Gracchus, after his conquest of the Cel- 
tiberians; in the year 179, A.C. It is, 
however, asserted, and with more pro- 
bability, that Graccurris stood where is 
the present town of Agreda, which is 
situated in the line of the great Roman 
road from Tarragona, westward by Nu- 
mantia to the Atlantic Ocean, on the 
coast of Portugal. 
From the ferry on the Ebro, the road. 
See Monthly Magazine for December, 
ihe p- 392. 
leads. 
