Webster, sister of the A.R.A.; the Chapter-house entrance, p. 36; statue in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, p. 66; screen of St. Edmund's chapel, p. 75; St. Paul's chapel, p. 93; St. John's, p. 96, 97; Sir F. Vere's monument, p. p. 109; and the sculpture, at p. 112. All these are 100, very spirited, though slight; St. Edward's Shrine, strikingly characteristic: gallantry apart, the ladies have here beat the "stronger sex;" for the four etchings are by far the least meritorious of all the illustrations; the chapel of Henry VII. is a sad failure, and must have made friend Summerly, who is a lively, sensitive person, the reverse of his cognomen-very infelix.

when the bonds of all society were burst by the French revolution, Bernadotte would hardly have emerged from the south of France to become a great General, still it was little else than a fortuitous combination of circumstances which raised the French Marshal to the Swedish throne, an elevation, on the other hand, which his talents alone enabled him to keep. But to return, many go so far as to say that these papers must be handed over to the Prince Wasa, as the lineal descendant of Gustavus; but prince or no prince, one thing is certain, he is not, nor never was, "the reigning king" of the Wasa family, and therefore cannot be the person pointed out in the instructions. Others, in despair, say the papers must be kept close sealed for ever-a long time. But it is not to be doubted that the Government, if so inclined, might fairly exercise a right which few perhaps would deny it to have, and settle the case of casuistry at once, by breaking the seals, much in the same way as Alexander treated the unmanageable Gordian knot; thus proclaiming, once for all, that the reigning family has not only succeeded to all the rights actually possessed by the former dynasty, but to those also which, fifty years back, it fancied it would possess at the present time. There is one other thing to be said before this notice, al-Street, on the west; King street, on the north; or College

ready too long, is closed. No reader can have failed to wonder at the marvellous spelling of the French words in the King's instructions; but this astonishment will surely be increased when we say, that the whole Swedish document is as anomalous, both in construction and orthography, as the French with which it is so strangely relieved-another proof, if any were needed, that a man, not to say a king, may enjoy the reputation of a great author, without even knowing how to spell.

New Books.

A HAND-BOOK FOR WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

THIS very elegant manual is from the pen of "Felix Summerly," whose Hand-book for Holidays has, inadvertently, perhaps, afforded our readers some amusement. But the present work, we should explain, is altogether a very superior production to the shilling brochure lately under our notice. With an illuminated cover, (the arcades in the Chapter-house, at Westminster, as originally decorated,) fifty-six embellishments on wood, engraved by ladies, and four etchings by David Cox, jun.-we do not hesitate to pronounce this volume the most tasteful book of its class. It is very nicely executed by the Messrs. Vizetelly, whose skill in ornamental printing sustains the well-earned reputation of their ingenious father: it is rarely that such talent descends from sire to son, and to mark this example of it is with us a most agreeable duty.

First, as to the ladye artistes: the title-page, a very pleasing composition, is drawn by Lady Callcott, and engraved by Miss E. H. Thompson; the reputed statue of St. John, said to be one of the oldest in the Abbey, and never before copied, is here drawn by Lady Palgrave's artistic pencil; the other artistes are twenty-one in number: and, to the author of this little book is due the merit of having suggested, we think in the Westminster Review, four years ago, that wood engraving might prove one of the few employments not degrading to his fair countrywomen. Since that time, the ladye-professors of this delicate art have increased at least six-fold; and the experiment has so far succeeded, as to have induced the Government School of Design to contemplate the formation of a class, for the instruction of female pupils in the art. This circumstance invests the present Hand-book with considerable interest as regards its embellishments; and though it may be thought partial in us to particularise individual success, we must point out as of superior execution, the North Cloister, p. 33, drawn by Miss

The letter-press is cleverly arranged: we have not the "history," with which the Pictures of London are overcrammed; but in its place a very brief though satisfactory sketch, and then some clever observations upon the best exterior views, as,

"Ask any of our great painters-Callcott, Roberts, Turner, Stanfield-where the best views of the Abbey are to be seen, and without doubt, they will refer you to some part―Tothill

Street, on the south-where a modern street builder would say the Abbey was smothered with buildings. About 200 yards down Tothill Street are two very fine views of the Abbey. On the south side of the street, the full western front; on the north side one of the towers, with the profile of colouring, against picturesque gables of near houses, still the north transept, forming a distance in fine atmospheric fortunately standing." (Oh, spare them!) "In hazy sublimity, not less picturesque, does the full front of the north transept appear at a few paces down King Street. Those who regard first impressions should prefer King Street before Parliament Street, (it is in a parallel line,) in wending their footsteps to the Abbey from Charing Cross. How fine the sight must have been through the old footway, which stood at the end of King Street! No satisfactory view of the Abbey can be obtained from any point in the large open space between Palace Yard and the Westminster Hospital; and yet this space, within the memory of many, was opened expressly to show the Abbey to advantage, and the handsome ancient houses,' spoken of by Sir Christopher Wren as close to the north side, thrown down, a mistake no one who felt the spirit of pointed architecture could have committed." (Unfortunately, Wren did not.) "Distant peeps of the Abbey towers, springing lightly above the trees, may be caught on the rising ground of the Green Park, and from the bridge over the Serpentine; and the superior elevation of the whole Abbey is seen with great effect from the hills about Wands

worth and Wimbledon."

We regret, with the author, that the restorations by Mr. Blore do not proceed more rapidly; for, actually, one restored buttress loses its colour before its neighbour is friable stuff, soon acted upon by our acidified London completed. The stone employed in some parts is poor atmosphere. Wren's western towers are next criticised; the best that can be said of them is that they are most attractive at a distance, when their incongruous details are imperceptible. Yet, how many hundred visitors regard these towers as the beauties of the Abbey fabric. Here we may mention that Felix Summerly's object is to point out what the show-folk know nothing of the artistical merits of the structure-as its architecture and architectonic sculpture. We are delighted with his appreciation of the old grey south cloisters:

"There is little here, save a few sheep sometimes browzing on the grassy area, to break the charm of solitude: associa turbedly. Every angle offers a picture so gloomy and mystic, tions of old monastic life rise in rapid succession, and undisthat Rembrandt himself would be in extacies with it, and words feebly translate the emotions here suggested. The graceful spring of the groined arches in this and in a similar quadrangle adjoining, mark them as belonging to the latter part of the fourteenth century."

We have occasionally strolled into these cloisters; and, independently of the attractive memorials of men of genius, who lie sleeping here, we have found it a welcome retreat from the turmoil of the living, more especially in summer, when its coolness serves as a frigidarium to the over-heated streets in the neighbourhood. Abbot Litlington's Hall, temp. Richard II. is now used as the dining hall of the Westminster scholars :

"A circular stone hearth, in the centre of the hall, is piled with blazing fagots daily, at the hour of dinner. The light flashes upon the rafters, and the volumes of smoke find egress through the lanthorn or chimney in the roof, similar to that seen piercing the unrivalled roof of Westminster Hall. This dining-hall is one of the few places in England, probably the only one in London, where the ancient mode of heating is

retained."

Still, the application of "chimney" to a lanthorn is incorrect; since it conveys the idea of a confined passage for the smoke to the roof to escape, such as we rarely find even in the halls of three centuries later.

equal the ancient colours, "ruby red" and all; we should think the question to be only settled by time, so that the reputed excellence, if thus it turn out, will be a legacy to posterity.

The mention of the monument of Francis Holles, an Irishman in Roman armour, to whose figure Walpole attributed "the most antique simplicity and beauty," reminds us that the collector of Strawberry Hill is a very unsafe authority upon sculpture; on antique furniture, china, and relics of the great, he may be more orthodox. The abbey-fees are much reduced: the entrance-money Third's children! Would it not be more appropriate to to the chapels you pay down on the tomb of Henry the put it into a till, or a breeches-pocket, than post it upon a This almost equals "the tables princely monument ? of the money-changers," and is strangely indecent. Eltham's monument is in the collection at Strawberry At page 79, it is mentioned, that the canopy of John of Hill, and that it would be a gracious act in the Earl of

hint will be taken, and the lot withdrawn from the current sale, unless the dean and chapter can afford to purchase it with their reduced fees. At page 82 is noticed an odd jumble: in St. Nicholas's Chapel, the brass effigies of the Bishop of Durham having been long since removed, the figure of Lady Catherine St. John has been laid upon the bishop's tomb in its place. This is far less ingenious than the cunning sexton changing the coffin-plates, and affixing them to the soundest coffins, the better to gratify a party of relatives of the defunct about to visit the vault!

The public records, and other curiosities in the Chapter-Waldegrave to restore it to its proper place. We hope the house, are glanced at; and we agree with the author, that our national muniments would form a most interesting exhibition, especially as our records are "the most extensive and perfect series in all Europe." The remains of paintings on the walls here are very curious; and the colouring and gilding of the arcades and mural ornaments above them, furnish excellent authority for the employment of colours in Gothic architecture, such as we hope to see used in the new Houses of Parliament. Sir Christopher Wren is next rescued from the blame for spoiling this once beautiful building, hitherto attached to him; for its fine old groined roof was removed by some "Goths," about 1744.

The criticism on the tombs is clever and impartial: those erected in the last two centuries are, indeed, ill suited to the holy place, and their self-glorification is very objectionable. It is, therefore, quite a mistake to suppose these tombs, (many of them contemptible as works of art,) to be worthy of illustration, merely because they commemorate great men; for that circumstance renders them even less interesting. The ancient tombs are venerable objects, but the moderns do not seem to understand anything beyond their common-place earth and working-day world. The author properly asks, "does it not seem like profanity, that in God's house, the orator, the warrior, the actor, should each be exhibiting himself in the appropriate attitude of his calling, in self-glory ?" We say, yes; but this is characteristic of a matter-of-fact, unpoetic age, like the present.

*

The objection to the black and white marble floor is in good taste, and Dr. Busby almost deserved to be flogged with his own birch for this bequest-a barbarism in a Gothic structure. A little more information on the stained glass would have been acceptable; for we scarcely think, with the author, that " every eye must detect the inferiority of depth and lustre between the ancient and modern colours." Indeed, many purchasers of this Handbook, at six shillings, will be found unacquainted with the distinction; and living painters assure us that they can

Flaxman refers to them as "specimens of the magnificence of such works of their age; the loftiness of the work, the number of arches and pinnacles, the lightness of the spires, the richness and profusion of foliage and crockets, the solemn repose of the principal statue, representing the deceased in his last prayer for mercy, at the throne of grace; the delicacy of thought in the group of angels bearing the soul, and the tender sentiment of concern variously expressed in the relations, ranged in order round the basement, forcibly arrest the attention, and carry the thoughts not only to other ages, but other states of existence." This is masterly criticism.

Henry the Seventh's Chapel is neatly described: we perfectly agree with the author, that the banners of the Knights of the Bath-the stage properties of chivalryought not to obscure, as they do, the sculptured angels, "the work most likely of English artists." We read with regret also, that the exterior of this chapel, the restoration of which cost £42,028, is already beginning to decay, and that "fragments of the canopies are constantly peeling off, so that the modern work, in fifty years, will probably be as ruinous as the original fabric was after three centuries." This is, doubtless, owing to the use of defective stone; but how short-sighted are the architects who employ such fragile material, by which their labours do not last their own time! they do not take a life-interest in their works. It is worth mentioning that the monuments of Queen Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scots, in this chapel, are instanced as specimens of the cinque-cento style, by Mr. Hope, a good authority upon this branch of art: the tombs in St. Paul's chapel, too, show the picturesque mag"with its mixture of all nificence of the cinque-cento, orders, obelisks, arches, scrolls, variegated marbles, gilding, and colour." The objection to Chantrey's Grecianized statue of James Watt is very spirited: hiding "the sculptures on Henry the Fifth's chantry, which reminded Flaxman of the simple grandeur of Raphael," with this intrusion of Watt's statue, is indeed symbolical "of the power now in active antagonism to art and beauty;" but we despair of its removal to St. Paul's cathedral, as our author suggests.

The criticism on Roubiliac's monument to Lady Nightingale is well supported; the whole conception of Death emerging from the tomb as a skeleton is, as the writer considers, vulgar and undramatic, and altogether unworthy of the sculptor's art: it should be left to the horn-books of superstition, and such pictorial vulgarities as "Death and the Lady;" why, it is almost banished from our stage mechanism, or never appears but it excites ridicule. The condition of the Confessor's Chapel is thus graphically told :

"The desolation of this chapel, where, on all sides, the

The Appendix is in itself a guide-book: it contains a chronological table of the architecture; general admeasurements; ancient canopies, brasses, paintings, glass, mosaics, sculptures, and images; and a list of the monuments, and their sculptors' names. In short, the utmost diligence has been used in assembling and arranging dates and details, in this division of the Hand-book, as well as in the historical, descriptive, and critical portion which French-English.-" What has become of your famous precedes it; and the result is a complete Guide, in accord-general Eel?" said the Count d'Erleon to Mr. Campbell. ance with the advanced taste and demand of the day. Eel, I thought to myself, that is a military fish I never Such a work was much wanted; for Westminster Abbey is heard of;" but Mr. St. John at once enlightened my mind by not only our most celebrated edifice, but almost equally saying to the Count, "General Lord Hill is now commanderfamed throughout the civilised world. St. Paul's Cathe-in-chief of the British forces." dral is a showy creation of yesterday, of pagan taste, in comparison with the ancient minster of six centuries since, and its admirable Christian architecture; its sculptured tombs, hallowed with "the divinity that doth hedge a king;" and its sumptuousness and brilliancy of decoration that time has partially spared, as if to remind us of the injustice of the term "dark ages," to the epoch at which such works of consummate art were executed.

LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL.

CONDUCTED BY JOHN TIMBS, THIRTEEN YEARS EDITOR OF "THE MIRROR," AND "LITERARY WORLD."