preserves them greatly from fading, keeping them in bloom double the period that pure water will. Spinning and Weaving.-In the year 1745, Mary Powlis, of East Dereham, in Norfolk, spun a pound of wool into a thread of 48,400 yards in length, wanting only 80 yards of 84 English miles; a circumstance which was considered so great a curiosity at the time, as to obtain for itself a situation upon the records of the Royal Society. Since that period, Miss Ives, of Norwich, spun a pound of wool (combed) into a thread of 168,000 yards; which wonderful success in the art of spinning wool, induced her to try her exquisite talent upon cotton, when out of a pound of that material, she produced a thread that measured the astonishing length of 203,000 yards, equal to 115 English miles and 160 yards. The last-mentioned thread, woven into cloth, would, (allowing 200 inches of it in warp and weft to a square inch of the manufactured article,) give the fair artisan nearly 28 yards of yardwide cloth, out of her pound of cotton!-251lb. of cotton, spun in that manner, would reach round the equator. Fire Shield.-Mr. Buckley, of New-York, has invented, and obtained a patent for a Fire Shield, intended to protect firemen whilst employed in extinguishing fires, but more particularly designed also to prevent fire from spreading. It is made of a metallic substance, thin, light, and impervious to heat; of a length and breadth sufficient to cover the whole person, and it may be used in several different positions. When used in the street, it is firmly fixed on a small platform with wheels, and a short ele- ́ vation from the ground. The fireman taking his stand upon this platform, and behind the shield, is drawn by ropes near the current of heat and flames, and, with the iron pipe or leader in his hand, elevates the water where it is most wanted. In this way a line of shields may be formed in close order, in front of a powerful heat, behind which the firemen may stand with safety, and play upon the houses with water-pipes. Life Beacon.-The Society of Arts have voted to Mr. Holditch, of Lynn, for his life-beacon, their silver medal and ten guineas. This life-beacon has been erected upon the sand near the port of Lynn, where, after repeated attempts, Mr. H. succeeded in fixing a main-post and a top-mast upon it; which main-post he secured by bars of iron, attached to stones of immense weight buried in the sand. Upon the beacon, seats are provided for the reception of persons who may be shipwrecked. Steam-engines of England.-M. Dupin, a scientific Frenchman, who has lately visited England, gives the following illustration of the labour of our steam-engines. The great pyramid of Egypt required for its erection the labour of above 100,000 men for 20 years; but if it were requisite again to raise the stones from their quarries, and place them at their present height, the action of the steam engines of England, which are at most managed by 36,000 men, would be sufficient to produce this effect in 18 hours. If it were required to be known how long a time they would take to cut the stones, and move them from the quarries to the pyramid, a few days would suffice. The The volume of the great pyramid, is 4,000,000 cubic metres, its weight is about 10,400,000 tons, or kelogrammes. The centre of gravity of the pyramid is elevated 49 metres from the base, and taking 11 metres as the main depth of the quarries, the total height of its elevation is 60 metres, which, multiplied by 10,400,000 tons, gives 624,000,000 tons, raised one metre. Thus as the total of the steam-engines in England represents a power of 320,000 horses, those engines moved for 24 hours, would raise 862,800,000 tons one metre high, and consequently 647,100,000 tons in 18 hours, which surpasses the produce of the labour spent in raising the materials of the great pyramid. Cornish Mines.-It is calculated that the silver lead mines, now at work in Cornwall, and others about to commence, will, in a few years, raise sufficient silver for the use of the kingdom. At sir Christopher Hawkins's mine in that county, a plate of silver has been extracted which weighed nearly 400lbs. This mine produces two, and sometimes three, such pieces a month. Visit to the Scenery of Ossian's Poems.-Mr. Campbell, the Celtic antiquary, has lately visited Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, for the purpose of completing a map of the topography of Ossian. He has since published an edition of the poems of that bard, with geographical notes, illustrative of the scenery and other local proofs of the authenticity of the father of British poets. Travelling in Greece.-The benevolent exertions and hazards of the Monks of St. Bernard, who inhabit the highest regions of the Alps, are well known. A somewhat similar institution exists among the defiles of Mount Olympus. It is maintained by five villages, the inhabitants of which pay no kind of taxes, but are bound to give their assistance to all travellers who cross the mountains, and to serve them as guides. They discharge this honourable task with the greatest alacrity and good management, and, like the benevolent Monks of St. Bernard, employ the sagacity of dogs to discover travellers who may have been so unfortunate as to be buried beneath the snow. CHAPTER CHAPTER V. STATE OF THE FINE ARTS. T would require a very extraor There are many circumstances Idinary change in the state of a in the infancy and progress of the country, or the appearance of a genius of the highest order, to produce a material effect upon the Fine Arts in the course of a year. On referring to our last volume, we see little reason to retract the opinion which we then gave, that theywere advancing, though slowly; but that there was great cause for regret that a more elevated style of art was not more cultivated or encouraged. Arts, like manufactures, are in some degree affected by the demand; but if in a commercial point of view, the demand is increasing, it by no means follows from hence that all which is expended upon them operates in the form of encouragement, or has a tendency to advance them, though we maintain, at the same time, that it is principally for want of a more enlightened patronage that they have not yet reached that height which would make our sculptors or painters as much the boast of the nation as our warriors or our poets. The general diffusion of wealth has not been so favourable to the Fine Arts in England as it has been to Literature and to the Sciences; for though it has added greatly to the number of professional artists, it has not yet in any degree promoted that grand style of painting or sculpture which can alone give dignity to the British school. Arts here, which sufficiently account for its slow growth. A cursory glance at " Walpole's Anecdotes," compared with "Vasari's Lives," will exhibit a remarkable contrast. At the period of the revival of the Arts in Italy, there were many circumstances which contributed to bring them to that surprizing degree of perfection to which they in a short time attained. The first in importance was the pure source from whence the artists of that day drew their taste, the precious remains of the Greeks. The palaces and gardens of the Italian nobles were their school of Art, and supplied them with ample materials for study; with such advantages, and employed too by the sovereign princes of Europe, (who tempted them by very flattering offers to enter into their service), the young artists were not compelled to resort to any low department of their profession for a subsistence: they had far better prospects, both in honour and wealth, in the pursuit of the highest style. It was well too for the first professors that wealth was in few hands, and that the nobles and dignified ecclesiastics, who alone had the power to foster the infancy of the Arts, were enthusiastic admirers of Grecian sculpture. The early Florentine and Roman pain ters, ters, who were certainly men of the highest endowments, were no less favoured by Fortune than by Na ture. The wealth of the church and the passion for decorating cathedrals and monasteries with pictures and statues from the sacred history, contributed not a little to give employment to the greatest masters of that day, and to infuse a taste for such subjects. "Who," says Walpole, " countenanced the Arts more than Charles I.?" But how did he countenance them? Walpole himself tells us, that immediately on his accession, he began to make a collection of the works of the Italian artists. "Cross was sent into Spain to copy the works of Titian; and no doubt, as soon as the royal taste was known, many were brought over, and offered for sale at court. He also invited many Italian masters to settle in England. Had he lived to carry into full effect the academy, called the Museum Minerve, which he established in the year 1635, painting and sculpture, from his known attachment to them, would have shared his patronage, with the other Arts and Sciences intended to be cultivated there. He in no other way advanced the Arts in England than by bringing over for his own gallery the Cartoons, and other fine pictures. But we will not enter further into the subject of royal or noble patronage than just to remark, that from that day almost to our own, we have had no school of the Arts, and we have now no public gallery, nor any fine pictures in churches or elsewhere, open continually to the artist for his daily study; nor has such splendid patronage yet attended any painter of history, or of classical landscape in England, as to form an encouragement to aspiring artists to devote their whole strength to the highest style. But we have ground to hope for a better state of things, especially if the long-desired project of a National Gallery should be carried into effect. We feel persuaded that little has been done, compared with what will be accomplished, when the genius of our artists is fairly called forth to works of noble daring. It will not be asserted, that in a lower style they are behind the best foreign schools; and if altar-pieces or pictures on a grand scale, to decorate palaces or churches, were called for, we are confident that the country which has produced the most sublime of poets and the best orators of modern days, would soon have to boast of a grand school of design. We shall commence our remarks with the works of the British artists in The Gallery of the British Mr. Jones's "Battle of Waterloo" is too smooth, and has too little of the terrible for such a battle scene. We will not dispute the accuracy of his representations, or the correctness of his portraits; but we question whether any battles of recent date are fit subjects for pictures. They appear to more advantage on the large scale of a panorama; and we recollect several, particularly those of Vittoria and of Waterloo, where the deception was so nearly complete, that they could not be viewed without the deepest interest. The spectator, placed in the centre of the action, entered with intense intense feelings into the danger of each individual combatant. The well-known dresses of life-guardsmen, or of Highlanders, instead of destroying the effect by our familiarity with their costume, increased our sympathy;-we seemed to await the result of each discharge of ordnance or of musketry, in some degree, as we should have done if spectators on the spot. But in the small scale of an easel picture, a regiment firing, or even the horribly sublime charge, becomes contemptible,-the play of boys, or soldiers at a review or sham fight. The numbers sharing in the danger, the impossibility of giving much display of the passions, and the unpicturesque forms and colours, of squadrons, and battalions in blue and scarlet, renders the scene, as a whole, ill adapted for a picture. This does not apply nearly so much to a battle-piece of other times; for in days of yore, not only the dress and armour were more varied and more picturesque than at present; but there was in the mode of fighting more room for the display of individual valour. We are happy that Mr. Cooper has given us, by his battle-pieces of the 17th century and earlier, an opportunity of illustrating our opinion. Our acquaintance, from original portraits, with many of his personages assures us, that his representations are sufficiently accurate, while the strangeness of their costume and armour gives an historical character to his pictures. His horses are, as might be expected from a professed animal painter, both well drawn and, in spirited action; and he appears to be greatly improved in the drawing of his figures. Still his pictures appear too like painted china, and there is much tameness in the execution, especially in the sky. In the class of familiar subjects Mr. Witherington is evidently advancing; but Mr. Stephanoff, in his "Poor Relations," has addressed higher faculties. We congratu late him on his success, and hope that he will continue to paint in this style. Mr. E. Landseer's "Larder invaded," is, we think, both in colour and execution, superior to any work of the kind produced by a British artist; and when his youth is taken into consideration, it may be considered a very extraordinary picture. Of the two large views of Edinburgh, we greatly prefer that of Mr. Linton: it is a better chosen view, is broader in effect, and the foreground is not so encumbered with mean buildings. Mr. Linton has also a good picture of the "Lesser Falls at Rydol Park." Neither Mr. Starke nor Mr. Vincent appear to advantage in this exhibition. The former has "A Landscape," No. 16, very clear and beautiful. Mr. S. W. Reynolds's "Sea Piece," No. 188, is in his bold broad manner, and very clever. "The Royal Academicians assembled in their Council Chamber," painted many years ago by Mr. Singleton, is a very interesting picture. The portraits were at the time thought great likenesses. The sight of this picture made us regret that no ancient painter had collected in the same way that constellation of genius which appeared at Rome and Florence, in the early part of the 16th century.— What a subject for the pencil of Titian would the great painters, his cotemporaries, have been! |