Dr. Waagen, the accomplished Director of the Royal Gallery of Pictures,
Berlin, has just presented us with three volumes, to which, as Englishmen,
we may refer with pride, because they bear testimony not only to the
liberality of our expenditure in works of art, but also to the good taste
and judgment which have generally regulated our purchases. _The Treasures
of Art in Great Britain, being an Account of the Chief Collections of
Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated MSS., &c._, as the work is
designated, must become a handbook to every lover of Art in this country.
It is an amplification of Dr. Waagen's first work, _Art and Artists in
England_, giving, not only the results of the author's more ripened
judgment and extended experience, but also an account of twenty-eight
collections in and round London, of nineteen in England generally, and of
seven in Scotland, not contained in his former work. And as the Doctor has
bestowed much pains in obtaining precise information regarding the art of
painting in England since the time of Hogarth, and of sculpture since the
time of Flaxman; and also devoted much time to the study of English
miniatures contained in MSS. from the earliest time down to the sixteenth
century; of miniatures of other nations preserved in England; of drawings
by the old masters, engravings and woodcuts; he is fully justified in
saying that, both as regards the larger class of the public who are
interested in knowing the actual extent of the treasures of Art in England,
and also the more learned connoisseurs of the history of Art, this edition
offers incomparably richer and more maturely digested materials than the
former one. Let us add, that the value of this important and most useful
and instructive book is greatly enhanced by a very careful Index.
We have received from Messrs. Johnston, the geographers and engravers to
the Queen, two maps especially useful at the present moment, viz., one of
the Baltic Sea, with enlarged plans of Cronstadt, Revel, Sveaborg, Kiel
Bay, and Winga Sound; and the other of the seat of war in the Danubian
Principalities and Turkey, with map of Central Europe.
At the Annual General Meeting of the Camden Society on Tuesday last, M. Van
de Weyer, Mr. Blencowe, and the Rev. John Webb were elected of the New
Council in the place of Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Foss, and Sir Charles Young,
who retire.
The Inaugural General Meeting of the Surrey Archæological Society is
announced for Wednesday next, at the Bridge House Hotel, London Bridge,
Henry Drummond, Esq., in the chair. Objects of antiquarian and general
interest intended for exhibition may be sent, not later than Monday the
8th, to Mr. Bridger, the curator.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The present State of Morocco, a Chapter of Mussulman
Civilisation_, by Xavier Durriew, the new Part of Longman's _Traveller's
Library_, is an interesting picture of the institutions, manners, and
religious faith of a nation too little known in Europe.--_Deeds of Naval
Daring, &c._, by Edward Giffard, _Second Series_. This new volume of
Murray's _Railway Reading_ is well timed.--_The Diary and Letters of Madame
D'Arblay_, Vol. III., carries on her record of the gossip of the Court
during the years 1786-7.--_Critical and Historical Essays, &c._, by T. B.
Macaulay, contains, among other admirable essays, those on Walpole's
Letters to Mann, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Mackintosh's History of the
Revolution, and Lord Bacon.
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