It was left, however, for Rich to shew what could be effected by the aid of scenery and machinery, in the pantomimes which he projected for his theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, himself being the best harlequin that ever tripped upon the magic field of these fascinating exhibitions, which, notwithstanding wondrous Shakspeare, and all that appertains to sober judgment and superior taste, have maintained their popular influence with old and young, with gentle and simple, with all tempers, and all ranks. Yes, in spite of wisdom, or its counterfeit, gravity, the grotesque and the picturesque, the eccentricity, the frolic and the fun of the ever-varying scene of magic pantomime, which passing presto before the mind, to the captivating transitions of a well ordered band, has continued, and perchance will still continue to excite wonder, and provoke the joyous laugh, at due times and seasons, for ages yet to come.

Rich invited hence, a celebrated foreign scenepainter, a Signor Servandoni, whose taste in this department was highly extolled; another foreigner, Monsieur de Voto, was employed as an occasional assistant; so was also that prime spark, dramatic author, musician, painter, engraver, and joyous convive, Jack Laquerre, a son of the worthy who assisted Signor Verrio in painting the plafonds at Windsor Castle, and other royal palaces; to whose works, see Pope's satirical allusion:

"Where sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laquerre." But the principal fabricator of scenic splendour was the still more joyous convive of those mirthful days, George Lambert, so long the principal scene-painter to this enterprising manager. When Rich removed to his newly-erected and more splendid theatre in Covent Garden, he prepared a capacious sceneroom for the ingenious worthy, in which, so the genii of good fellowship decreed, amidst all the crowded arcana of this wholesale manufactory of magic, was established that Beefsteak-club, which has continued to perpetuate its founder's fame, and will continue as long as national feeling shall endure to acknowledge a becoming taste for genuine native landscape, and a corresponding relish for unsophisticated British rump of beef.

Rich, who was unsparing in expense to render his new theatre superior in splendour to all others, employed Signor Amiconi to paint the ceiling, which represented a magnificent display of Apollo, the Muses, and a galaxy of the immortal beauties,

This Italian artist owed the great practice which he enjoyed in England, for he designed and, in part, painted the magnificent plafond and walls at Buckingham-house, to the friendly exertions of his countrymen, the Signors Popora and Farinelli, who on being invited hither to join the renowned musical corps at the Italian opera, the painter made one of the party. This triumvirate played into each other's hands; hence, it was stipulated, that Amiconi should be employed to paint the scenery at the great theatre in the Haymarket, then in the zenith of its splendour.

Frank Hayman, another bon-vivant, the very counter-part of George Lambert, designed the scenery for the theatre of Drury Lane. Fleetwood the manager, and the worthy painter were inseparable, until Death, who from early time has broken up good fellowships, divided them; when Fleetwood's widow, the prescribed time for wearing the weeds being terminated, became the wife of her late husband's colleague, and died Mrs. Hayman, leaving him in possession of a considerable addition to his property. Thomas Dall, a native of Denmark, painted some admired scenes for Covent Garden theatre.

Hogarth designed and painted a camp-scene for the private theatre of his honoured friend, Dr. Hoadley, the dean of Winchester; he, moreover, attempted to play a part in one of the dramatic pieces performed therein; but such was his abstraction, or the deficiency of his memory, that he could not proceed. That Hogarth was well acquainted with the arcana of the scene-room, is evident from the materiel which he has displayed in his incomparable picture, "Strolling actors rehearsing in a barn." The scene exhibited in his humorous print, entitled Southwark-fair, on the outside of "Bullock's-booth," was copied from a stage-scene, painted for the theatre in Well-close Square, by his early friend and convive, Jack Laquerre.

Richards, secretary to the Royal Academy, was, subsequently, for many years principal scene-painter to Covent Garden theatre; his coadjutors, Messrs. Bowles and Carver, were also employed there in the same department. Two designs, by Richards, painted for Covent Garden stage, for the "Maid of the Mill," are perpetuated by two line engravings

by Rooker; and serve to shew the state of the scenic art coeval with the days of Garrick. It is a subject of regret amongst the amateurs of topographical design, that so very few sketches of the respective scene-painters have escaped the wreck of time; for doubtless many a beautiful, interesting and romantic scene must have been exhibited, when it is considered that so great a congregate of talent had been almost exclusively employed in designing pictorial decorations for the stage.

The

Michael Angelo Rooker was for several years principal in this department to Colman's theatre in the Haymarket. No contemporary English painter was better fitted for this appointment, as he is justly entitled to the credit of being one of the founders of our native topographical school of art. prints, which for so many years consecutively appeared as graphic ornaments to the Oxford Almanac, were painted and engraved by his ingenious and masterly hand. In no coeval theatre, were the scenes rendered more pictorial or effective, than those displayed on the stage of the little theatre in the Haymarket.-Walmsly, French, and the younger Catton, were also scene-painters at various theatres. Coeval with Richards, flourished Signor Novosielski, who for several years was principal scenepainter at the Opera-house, when the scenic display on that stage was, not unfrequently, very grand and imposing. He was an architect, and designed the new eastern front of that theatre, after the fire which consumed the interior in 1790.

Hodges, the pupil of Wilson, was appointed principal scene-painter to the Italian Opera stage, when the company opened the theatre in the Pantheon, after the destruction of the old King's Theatre in the Haymarket by fire. His scenic labours, like those of Novosielski's, were also doomed to destruction, as they were consumed by the fire which so soon converted into a ruin that master-work of modern architecture, the Pantheon of the illustrious James Wyatt.

It was, at length, reserved for that prince of scene-painters, Philip James de Loutherbourg, to shew the amateurs of stage-effect, what his art was capable of effecting: his genius created a new and splendid epoch for the stage.

The fame of this great landscape-painter had travelled to England, before his arrival here. Garrick, though then within a short period of his having made up his mind to quit the stage, determined to invite De Loutherbourg to preside over the scenic department, which being accepted, the whole economy of the painted scene, and the costume of

the stage, on the re-opening of the theatre, underwent alteration and improvement. The first display of his superior skill in stage spectacle, for Garrick was unsparing in expense, was in the representation of the Winter's Tale, which admitted of all that scenic art, and machinery was capable of producing, the scenes being entirely of the romantic or terrific cast; tremendous rocks, caves, wild woods, and the diabolic regions of fire, peopled with devils, demons, dragons, and all that could combine to excite the imagination in this species of dramatic exhibition. The spectacle produced, delighted and astonished the audience, for every change, by the effective. assistance of transparencies, and reflections rendered the scene illusive.

Previous to this period, little attention had been bestowed on the costume department of the stage; hence, the anachronisms and anomalies that offended good taste, and excited the displeasure of the advocates for propriety. The most grave could not but smile at the personification of Alexander or Julius Cæsar, attired in the costume of a beau of the court of Queen Anne; or Othello, in a Ramillies' flowing wig, and the uniform of a colonel in George the First's body-guard. Garrick had long contemplated a reformation of these glaring improprieties, and De Loutherbourg was deputed to the office of reformer; who, being skilled in all the characteristics of costume, set about the business in earnest, when some of the favourite stock plays were prepared and performed to the satisfaction of the public, with becoming attention to historical propriety. Garrick quitted the stage, and De Loutherbourg lost his appointment; and what they had jointly done in this work of reformation, was left for John Kemble to improve, which, by successive years devoted to that important desideratum, he achieved almost to completion.

Many other artists, of various grades of merit, have practised in this department of painting at the several minor theatres in the metropolis and environs, as well as in the provincial theatres; amongst others, Charles Dibdin, the celebrated lyric composer; his son, the distinguished dramatist; Robert Dighton; Lampe, the dramatist and musician; and last of all the departed worthies, our ingenious and esteemed old friend, William Capon, who had studied under Novosielski; he of all the fraternity was the most deeply skilled in the topography of the ancient metropolis. His architectural scenes, painted for Covent Garden Theatre, when under Kemble's management, were strikingly characteristic,

THE worship of" Graven Images," had its origin in the East, which was alike the cradle of religion, the nurse of superstition, and the inventor of allegory and fable. The eastern nations were so strongly addicted to the personification of abstract ideas, that not a quality of creation, nor an attribute of the mind, was suffered to remain unrepresented by some arbitrary form, or combination. The vast mass of mythological tradition thus engendered, at length overflowed the continent of India, and thence pervaded almost every part of the ancient world. Hindostan and China, Egypt and Phoenicia, and, in later ages, Greece and Rome, were most prolific of their deities; but happily for mankind, Judaism and Christianity arose "with healing on their wings,"

| and intervening to arrest the progress of idolatry, directed the erring sense to the contemplation and the worship of the ONLY ONE AND TRUE GOD.

In the collection of antiquities made by Mr. Soane, the "time-honoured" and venerable architect, who has so nobly devoted his invaluable Museum to national purposes,-are a number of small bronze figures, representing the divinities or idols of Hindostan, Egypt, the Gold Coast, and other countries. The objects delineated above, which have been thus picturesquely grouped by the artist, were selected from those half-human and half-animal monsters,which the benighted understanding first designed in a dark spirit of abstract association, and afterwards worshipped from ignorance and fear.