"_Richard, Duke of Gloucester, refusing the Crown_." This picture will
be interesting to the historical student, as it affords a solution
to a knotty point that has puzzled commentators for the last five
centuries. The wily humpback is represented in his dressing-gown and
slippers, having evidently been called from his bath to listen to
the suggestion of the courtiers, who desire him to accept the regal
dignity. The umbrella of the Lord Mayor, we fancy, is of a later date
than the supposed period of the painting, but no doubt the artist has
authority for the introduction of the quaint old lamp-post illumined
with the electric light, which began to be used some little time after
the Battle of the Roses.
"_Charles the Second in the Oak_." This is also interesting to those
who delight in folklore. According to the legend (for no doubt the
story was merely a legend), the deposed monarch was escaping from the
Parliamentary troops, when he had to seek shelter in the spreading
branches of the tree that still is emblematic of England. The artist
has placed the leafy refuge near a stream, where CHARLES seems to
have been bathing. A tragic side (not entirely free from quaintness)
is given to the tale by the discovery of the temporarily discarded
wearing apparel of the STUART by the soldiers, who are hunting him to
the death. CHARLES, with his traditional good humour, is smiling at an
accident which causes him seemingly more amusement than apprehension.
"_The Battle of Trafalgar_." The very clever arrangement of smoke in
this painting prevents the flesh-tints of the sailors from assuming
a prominence that might be objectionable to persons of fastidious
tastes. No doubt the artist felt that, if he had studied the
traditions of the British Navy at the commencement of the nineteenth
or twentieth century (the battle was fought in that period), he would
have shown the gallant tars serving the guns in a costume not more
elaborate than that assumed by the nude inhabitants of the North Pole.
It is amusing to note in this connection that, until the discovery of
the summit of the earth, it was supposed that the centre of the Arctic
Regions was bitterly cold. Our ancestors in the remote ages had no
idea that that fiery region was, in reality, hotter than the tropics!
[Illustration: "Hullo, Sunny! where were you on Whit Monday?"
"Why, off for MY Bank Holiday, to be sure!"]
"_Portrait of an English Gentleman of the Nineteenth Century_."--We
are not quite sure that we like the unconventional treatment of the
accessories in this picture. It is perfectly true that we find from
contemporary records that an invitation to dinner was frequently
accompanied by the expressed wish that the guest "was not to dress;"
but still such hints at the strange manners and customs of a bygone
age may be carried out too literally.
* * * * *
NOTICE.--Rejected Communications or Contributions, whether MS.,
Printed Matter, Drawings, or Pictures of any description, will in no
case be returned, not even when accompanied by a Stamped and Addressed
Envelope, Cover, or Wrapper. To this rule there will be no exception.