excellent. A. De Voys, A Hunter holding a Partridge. Weenix, a picture of a Swan, a Stag, and several Sorts of dead Game; and another picture by this great master, no less beautiful. Here are, likewise, numerous paintings of first-rate excellence by Wouvermans, and a most delightful landscape by Wisnants.

In the next department we come to the German school; and here the first thing that arrested our attention was two most astonishing portraits by Albert Durer. One is of Laurens Koster, the other of De l'Aretin. Those who know only the early works of Albert Durer, his hard outline, his close attention to nature, even in her commonest forms, should see these pictures; no efforts of art ever exceeded them; they must have been executed towards the close of his career, when he had attained the highest skill from practice, and had corrected what might be termed his Gothic hardness. In this room we have Holbein again, as great as at Basle. Here is a portrait he painted of Sir Thomas More, when More was a young and very handsome man. His age is stated

It was

on the picture to be 28 years. executed in 1548. The countenance is not only young and handsome but highly intellectual. Sir Thomas holds a hawk in his hand: in his time the favourite mark of distinction in the portraits of persons of ancient blood. This picture ought, unquestionably, to be engraved, as an illustration to the biography of England. There are four other portraits, of equal perfection, by Holbein, in this room; amongst them that of Jane Seymour, queen of Henry VIII., and of Robert Cheesman, with a hawk on his fist: these belong also to our English records. The others are of A Lady, and of Erasmus-the latter highly characteristic of that great man.

In the French school there is a fine landscape by Claude Lorrain, several by Gaspard Poussin, and a beautiful waterfall by Vernet. In the rooms appropriated to the Spanish school, Cereso's Magdalen is truly beautiful, and Murillo's Madonna and Infant Saviour, and a Spanish Shepherd, are no less excellent. Two pictures by Velasquez, A Landscape, and The Portrait of Charles, Son of Philippe IV of Spain, a boy of

eleven years old, are most superb works of

art.

Carlo

In the rooms of the Italian artists may be seen works that would alone constitute a firstrate collection; but these are so numerous it is impossible to do more than name a very few. Bordonne, the pupil of Titian, has here his wondrous picture of Our Saviour giving the Benediction; Annibal Carracci, The Death of Saint Sebastian, and A Holy Family, equal to any of his greatest works. Carlo Cignani, an Adam and Eve in Paradise, truly beautiful. Dolce, four pictures so admirable that I should not know which to select; but I think I should take the St. Cecilia (a copy of which, called original, I have seen at Tor Abbey, in Devonshire), -the expression of the head is that of inspiration. Giordano's Concert, Sampson and Dalilah beautiful. Guido Reni's Death of Abel, Carlo Marati's Holy Family, The Venus and Cupid of Raphael, six pictures by Salvator Rosa, another by Mazzuoli, and A Holy Family by Santafeede, in the simple and beautiful style of the early Italian masters, are all treasures of

-

ärt.

Sassoverato has two fine paintings: one of the Virgin, that is angelic; and Titian, two magnificent works: one of the Virgin and her Infant, and St. John; the other the portrait of Charles the Fifth. These are not inferior to any of his noblest productions. An emblematic picture of Love, by Alexander Veronese, and some portraits, by artists whose names are little known in England, all deserve the highest praise: but I will add no more to this account of the gallery of the Hague, hoping you may one day see it and judge for yourself.

Dear Brother,

Ever affectionately yours,
ANNA ELIZA BRAY.

LETTER XLII

TO A. J. KEMPE, ESQ. F.S.A.

Departure from the Hague to Rotterdam. - Delft.-
The
Grotesque Heads at the Doctors' Doors.
Sexagenarian's Account of his Journey to Rotter-
dam. — A Dutch Driver and a Dutch Porter.
A Race, and an Arrival at an Inn.

My dear Brother,

On the 26th of August we left the Hague for Rotterdam. We passed in our way the city of Delft; but, as we did not stop there, we saw the town only en passant. We observed in it a fine old Gothic church, canals, boats, old houses, with their mirrors outside the windows, and summer houses hanging over the ditches, as usual in Holland; and, as usual, I also remarked, that the doors of the apothecaries' and chymists' shops were distinguished by a frightful wooden head, with wide gaping jaws. What may be the signification of such decorations as these, at the entrance to a house of medicine, I cannot