the sum of two hundred and threescore pounds." More: "the said Sir Colin gave to the said George Jamesone for the knight of Lochore's lady, and the first countess of Argyle, and six of the ladies of Glenorchy, their portraits, and the said Sir Colin his own portrait, which are set up in the chamber of Deas at Balloch, one hundred and fourscore pounds."

In spite of all this apparent penury of price, Jamesone died rich. His works still maintain their original reputation; and he goes down as the first native of this island who excelled in works of art as large as life.

An anecdote is related of Charles, which it would be wrong to omit. The king wished to employ Bernini the sculptor, and tried in vain to allure him into England. Not succeeding in this, and still desirous to have one of his works, he employed Vandyke to draw those inimitable profiles and full face now in the royal gallery, to enable the sculptor to make his majesty's bust. Bernini surveyed these materials with an anxious eye, and exclaimed, "Something evil will befall this man; he carries misfortune on his face." Tradition has added, in the same spirit, that a hawk pursued a dove into the sculptor's study, and, rending its victim in the air, sprinkled with its blood the finished bust of King Charles. I have also heard it asserted, that stains of blood were still visible on the marble when it was lost in the fire which consumed Whitehall.

It would be instructive to ascertain how far art had resumed its old sway in our churches under the friendly governments of James and Charles-to learn how many windows were refilled with painted glass, and how many altar-pieces, representing scripture story, had reappeared-when the fierce Puritans vanquished the chivalry of Charles, and purged anew the sanctuary, to the fullest sense of the proclamations of Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth. This cannot now be known.

The fierce war which ensued, and the strange desolation which fell on rank, station, and all established things, was sure to make art a victim. The "pulpit, drum ecclesiastic," assailed the beloved paintings of the monarch, as things vain, frivolous, and sinful; and stigmatized their admirers and abettors as persons possessed with an unclean spirit. The fury of the parliament fell upon the royal galleries. The presence of art in the land was accounted superfluous; to despise whatever increased external dignity was meritorious; and to lop and prune the blossomed boughs from the stately tree of civil and religious government, was not only deemed a merit but a duty. To strip off therefore the exterior magnificence of the old government, was the first act of the new; and they proceeded to sell by common auction the hereditary furniture of the palaces, the heir-looms of the monarchy, and the collection of paintings made under the auspices of their kings. A list of these works of art was made out, imaginary prices attached to each, and the public purpose named-the war in the northto which the money arising from the sale should be applied. The Puritans affected to despise those productions, because they wished to insult the king's memory; and they desired to sell them because they had need of the money. But not finding this a sufficient justification, they pretended a fanatic hatred to certain classes of works, and ordered these to be burned-as Henry and Elizabeth had done before. The following is transcribed from the Journals of the House of Commons of 23d July, 1645. "Ordered, that all such pictures and statues there (York House), as are without any superstition, shall be forthwith sold for the benefit of Ireland and the north. Ordered, that all such pictures there as have the representation of the Virgin Mary upon them, shall be forthwith burnt. Ordered, that all such pictures there, as have the representation of

the second person in the Trinity upon them, shall be forthwith burnt." "This was a worthy contrast," says Walpole, "to Archbishop Laud, who made a star-chamber business of a man who broke some painted glass in the cathedral at Salisbury. The cause of liberty was then, and is always, the only cause that can excuse a civil war; yet if Laud had not doated on trifles, and the Presbyterians been squeamish about them, I question whether the nobler motives would have had sufficient influence to save us from arbitrary power. They are the slightest objects which make the deepest impression on the people. They seldom fight for the liberty of doing what they have a right to do, but because they are prohibited or enjoined some folly that they have, or have not, a mind to do.”

The wild order for the dispersion and destruction of the royal collections was not immediately, and indeed never was fully, obeyed. The sales lingered for six or eight years; they were retarded by the unsettled state of the republican government, and by the intrigues of Cromwell. It appears that even the order for the destruction of paintings representing the Virgin and the Saviour was very imperfectly fulfilled. The Puritans, having put them down by a vote as superstitious, allowed not a few of them to escape the flames, and pass silently into the possession of private purchasers whom they were unwilling to disoblige.

They stigmatized art; silenced dramatic actors; shut up the play-houses; and, having conquered and dispersed all their enemies, had full leisure to dispute and quarrel among themselves; and they did not neglect the opportunity. As they were debating about the booty, a wily and daring spirit interposed, and seized at one grasp the fruits of all their deliberations, prayers, mortifications, plots, and battles. Cromwell, with all his talents, had little feeling for the higher excellency of art. His

chief instruction to the painter of his portrait was to remember the warts and moles. He was not insensible, however, that lustre is proper to a court; and as soon as he became possessed of absolute power, put an end to all sales of the royal furniture and paintings. For many fine works this order came too late; they had been dispersed beyond recall. Some of the best were bought by the king of Spain, and arrived at Madrid, at the same time with the ambassadors of the exiled king--a circumstance which puzzled sorely the Spanish etiquette. Many were sold to persons connected with the old court, many to mere picture-dealers, and some to the more sensible and spirited of the Puritans. 'The celebrated Colonel Hutchinson was an extensive purchaser; Oliver Cromwell's name appears early in the list of buyers. Some had the misfortune to purchase just when the Lord General was about to assume sovereign power, and their bargains were declared void! Into a dozen galleries Charles had collected upwards of twelve hundred works of art; most of these were dispersed by public sale during the years from 1645 to 1652, and they produced to the republicans thirty-eight thousand pounds. Another fate befell the gallery of the duke of Buckingham. The pictures were sold privately, to sup

* I shall transcribe the prices of some of the most celebrated pictures, more for the sake of amusing the reader, than with the hope of instructing purchasers. The Cartoons of Raphael, £300; the Royal Family, £50; King Charles on horseback, £200: the Triumphs of Julius Cæsar, £1000; the Twelve Cæsars of Titian, £1200; the Muses, by Tintoret, £100; the Nativity, by Julio Romano, £500; Sieeping Venus, by Correggio, £1000; the Venus del Pardo, by Titian, £600; Venus, attired by the Graces, by Guido, £200; a little Madonna and Christ, by Raphael, £800; St. George, by Raphael, £150; our Lady, Christ, and others, by Palma, £200; Erasmus and Frobinius, by Holbein, £200; Batyr Flayd, by Correggio, £1000; Mercury teaching Cupid to read in the presence of Venus, by Correggio, £800; the head of King Charles, a bust by Bernini, £800; and Christ washing the feet of his Disciples, £300. This list contains, as the reader will observe, several pictures condemned to the flames as superstitious. We have no means of knowing into whose hands the whole of those works went. The St George was purchased by France.

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port the second duke during the misery of exile, and, what is worse, they were chiefly purchased by foreigners.

There is no doubt, after all, that very many of the royal pictures remained in England. At the Restoration, when Pepys visited the royal gallery, he declares that he missed few of his old favourites; and we see by the catalogue of James the Second, that the crown was in his time repossessed of many of its ancient paintings. But the unfortunate fire at Whitehall completed what the Puritans did imperfectly, and destroyed a vast number of noble works.

Of the painters who appeared during the Commonwealth little need be said. Painting and sculpture are of slow growth, and seldom thrive amid wars and convulsions. Men have not peace of mind nor leisure during rebellions and treasons to cultivate what is elegant; and when a man's head is not safe on his shoulders, it is not likely that he will spend his time in sitting for his likeness. James the Second indeed acted otherwise. He was sitting for his portrait, as a present to Pepys, when word was brought to him of the landing of the Prince of Orange. The artist was confounded, and laid down his brush. "Go on, Kneller," said the king, betraying no outward emotion, "go on, and finish your work: I wish not to disappoint my friend Pepys."

For the character of those times and their influence on art, I transcribe, without entirely approving, the words of Walpole. "The arts were in a manner expelled with the royal family from Britain. The magnificence the people have envied they grow to detest; and, mistaking consequences for causes, the first objects of their fury are the palaces of their masters. If religion is thrown into the quarrel, the most innocent are catalogued with sins. This was the case in the contest between Charles and his parliament. As he had blended affection to the VOL. I.-E