a fact which, repeated to Queen Mary II. by the desire of his enemies to bring him into discredit, only drew from her the answer, "I have heard as much. It is a sign that the unfortunate woman died penitent; for if I can read a man's heart through his looks, had she not made a pious and Christian end, the doctor would never have been induced to speak well of her."

The parish of St. Martin's, now much subdivided, was formerly the largest in London. Burnet speaks of it in 1680 as "the greatest cure in England," and Baxter tells how its population consisted of 40,000 persons more than could find room in the church. The labyrinthine alleys near the church, destroyed in the formation of Trafalgar Square, were known as "the Bermudas;' hence the reference in Ben Jonson-—

"Pirates here at land

Have their Bermudas and their Streights in the Strand."

Ep. to E. of Dorset.

In the time of the Commonwealth St. Martin's Lane was a shady lane with a hedge on either side. It was open country as far as the village of St. Giles's. In a proclamation of 1546, Henry VIII. desires to have "the games of Hare, Partridge, Pheasant and Heron," preserved from the Palace of Westminster to St. Giles's in the Fields. In Faithorne's Map of London, 1658, St. Martin's Lane is the western boundary of the town. At one time the Lane was the especial resort of artists, and in one of its entries, St. Peter's Court, was the first house of the Royal Academy. Sir James Thornhill lived in the Lane, at No. 104; Sir J. Reynolds lived opposite May's Buildings, before he moved to Leicester Square; Roubiliac lived in Peter's

Court in 1756; Fuseli at No. 100 in 1784; and the interior of a room in No. 96 is introduced by Hogarth in the "Rake's Progress." Cecil Court, on the left of St. Martin's Lane, commemorates the old house of the Cecils, created Earls of Salisbury in 1605, and Cranbourne Alley took its name from their second title.

The ambition of London tradesmen might justly feel encouraged by the almost European reputation which was obtained in his own day by Thomas Chippendale, a cabinetmaker of St. Martin's Lane, and which has not diminished, but increased, since his death. He published here, in 1752, that exceedingly rare work, the "Gentleman and Cabinet Makers' Director."

The north of what is now Trafalgar Square is the place where the king's hawks were kept in the time of Richard II. Sir Simon Burley is mentioned as keeper of the falcons "at the meuse + near Charing Cross." The site was occupied by the Royal Stables from the time of Henry VIII. to that of George IV., when they gave place to the National Gallery, built 1832-38 from designs of W. Wilkins, R.A. The handsome portico of the Prince Regent's palace of Carlton House has been removed hither, and in spite of the wretched dome above it, if it were approached by steps like those of St. Martin's, it would be effective: as The, till lately, fine view from the

it is, it is miserable.

See Rev. W. G. Humphry's "History of the Parish of St. Martin's in the Fields."

The word mew was applied by falconers to the moulting of birds: it is the French word mue, derived from the Latin mutare, to change.

The National Gallery is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednes. days, and Saturdays: on Thursdays and Fridays it is open to students only. The hours of admission are from 10 to 5 from November to April, and from 10 to 6 in May, June, July, August, and the first fortnight in September. During the last two weeks of September and the whole of October the Gallery is closed.

portico has been utterly ruined by the destruction of Northumberland House.

This unhappy structure may be said to have everything it ought not to have, and nothing which it ought to have. It possesses windows without glass, a cupola without size, a portico without height, pepperboxes without pepper, and the finest site in Europe without anything to show upon it."-All the Year Round. 1862.

The National Collection of pictures originated in the purchase of Mr. Angerstein's Gallery on the urgent advice of Sir George Beaumont, who added to it his own col'ection of pictures, in 1824. It has since then been enormously increased by donations and purchases. sum of £10,000 is annually allotted to the purchase of pictures. The contents of the gallery were rehung in

A

1876, when many new rooms were opened, which allow an advantageous arrangement of the pictures, but are full of meretricious taste in their upper decorations, and of tawdry colour injurious to the effect of the precious works of art they contain. The collection (according to the numbers attached to the Rooms) begins with the specimens of the British school; but alas! the curators are only beginning to realise the truth of Ruskin's advice that

"It is of the highest importance that the works of each master should be kept together; no great master can be thoroughly enjoyed but by getting into his humour, and remaining long enough under his influence to understand his whole mode and cast of thought."

It is impossible to notice all the pictures here: they will be found described in the admirable catalogues of Mr. Wornum which are sold at the door. But "in a picture gallery," as Shelley says, "you see three hundred pictures. you forget for one you remember," and the object of the following catalogue is to notice only the best specimens of each master deserving attention, or pictures which are important as portraits, as constant popular favourites, or for some story with which they are connected. Such works as may be considered chefs-d'œuvre, even when compared with foreign collections, are marked with an asterisk. When the painters are first mentioned the dates of their birth and death are given.

"A fine gallery of pictures is like a palace of thought."—Hazlitt. "The duration and stability of the fame of the old masters of painting is sufficient to evince that it has not been suspended upon the slender thread of fashion and caprice, but bound to the human heart by every chord of sympathetic approbation."-Sir J. Reynolds.

"Painting is an intermediate somewhat between a thought and a thing."-Coleridge.

At the foot of the Staircase on the left are

Statue of Sir David Wilkie, 1785-1841, by S. Joseph-his pallet is inserted in the pedestal.

Bust of Thomas Stothard, 1755-1834, Weekes.

Bust of W. Mulready, 1796-1863, Weekes.

Relief of Thetis issuing from the sea to console Achilles for the loss of Patroclus-T. Banks.

Troilus and Cressida, painted in 1806 by John Opie, 1761-1807. Manto and Tiresias, painted by Henry Singleton, 1766—1839.

The Collection is supposed to begin in the room farthest from the head of the Staircase. We may notice (beginning on the left) in—

Room I.

430. E. M. Ward. Dr. Johnson waiting neglected for an audience in the ante-room of Lord Chesterfield.

* 604. Sir E. Landseer, 1802–1873. "Dignity and Impudence ". a bloodhound and a Scotch terrier looking out of the same kennel.

449. Alexander Johnston. Tillotson administering the sacrament to Lord and Lady William Russell at the Tower on the day before his execution.

432. E. M. Ward. The South Sea Bubble, a Scene in Change Alley in 1720-a picture full of excitement and movement.

* 621. Rosa Bonheur. The Horse Fair-a repetition from a larger picture.

810. Charles Poussin (Modern French School). Pardon Day on the fête of Notre Dame de Bon Secours at Guingamp in Brittany-a multitude of peasants in costume, in a sunlit wood.

616. E. M. Ward. James II. receiving the news of the landing of William of Orange in the palace of Whitehall, 1688.

425. 7. R. Herbert. Sir Thomas More with Margaret Roper watching the monks of the Charterhouse led to execution from his prison window.

620. Frederick R. Lee. A River with low-lying banks: the cattle by T. S. Cooper.

427. Thomas Webster. A Dame's School-full of nature and charm. 410. Sir E. Landseer. "Low Life" and "High Life"-two dogs. 615. W. P. Frith. The Derby Day, 1856-a gaudy and ugly, but popular picture.