Amongst the dead lions of the past, some of us have prematurely reckoned
those of Peterborough Court. MATT. ARNOLD was supposed to have
administered, if not the _coup de grâce_, at any rate a serious blow to
their gambollings in _Friendship's Garland_.
It is therefore a matter for unfeigned rejoicing to find that they are not
only alive but rampant, with all their old splendid command of polysyllabic
periphrasis. One need only turn to the notice of "The John Exhibition" in
last Thursday's _Daily Telegraph_, from which we select the following
page:--
"It [the exhibition] is a display of purposeful portraiture that helps one
to realise the effect which Theotokopoulos produced upon his watchful
contemporaries, and to understand why the Cretan continued to walk alone on
his way. If some insist on finding modern El Greco versions of Inspectors
and Inquisitors-general in this John gathering, compounded of comparatively
innocuous personalities, the privilege is, of course, permissible, and
incidentally brightens conversation in irresponsible circles."