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commend our work in an especial manner, as one peculiarly fitted to promote their wishes in the training of those under their charge. It will not teach them all that they must know; it is not its purpose to do so; no Magazine can do so; and those under whose charge they are placed will of course carefully guard them against the mistake of expecting from it, or from any similar publication, what can only be obtained by severe study and unwearying application, from books of probably a less inviting character. Its use in their case will be to incite them to, and prepare them for, those severe studies, in a way suited to their several dispositions, while at the same time furnishing a profitable relaxation from occupations, which, if unremittingly pursued, would crush the feeble,disgust the indolent, and wear out the prematurely expanded energies of those whose genius is of a higher cast. Such as cannot be prevailed upon to go any further

controversy, with its hateful train of paltry jealou- | entrusted with the education of the young, we sies and animosities, can never enter. There is Science in all its varied departments, before whose serene glance every angry feeling is hushed into submissive reverence for truth; there is Fancy, whose light laugh disarms controversy; and Poetry, whose chaste dignity passes it contemptuously by. If it be said, as probably it will be, that, in thus sketching the character which a Magazine like this ought to bear, the subjects which it should take up, and the manner in which it should handle them, we are inviting a kind of criticism from which, whatever our own opinion may be, the world will scarcely think we can come off with honour, we have a twofold answer. In the first place, the world cannot well have a more humble opinion of us than we have of ourselves, nor be more keenly sensible how far our execution of our plan comes short of our conception of it. But it is something to have such a plan before us,- -to have a point in our view which we are continually strug-will, if they read this Magazine, find they have gling, though we may be never able, to reach. It is a pledge of a progressive advance towards excellence, -of a daily casting off of some fault or imperfection. And, as it is notoriously but a small part of a publication whose contents are of so miscellaneous a character, the merit of which (whatever that may be) can be claimed by him who has its general management, we can, without offending against modesty or good taste, venture to express our confident persuasion, that, with the assistance which we have secured, this Magazine will be found, as it gets rid of the imperfections and irregularities incident to every newly-constructed instrument, to approach as near to the realization of the beau ideal we have sketched, as, looking to its price and expensive decorations, fair and candid criticism can reasonably demand. In the next place, happily for us, the world has already expressed a more favourable opinion, trying us by no low-pitched standard, than the objection we have supposed suggests. We have now before us a whole bundle of opinions-not one of them the mere quid pro quo of a venal criticism-the return in kind for the favour of an advertisement-but bond fide discriminating judgments, marked by the taste, good sense, and abuity by which the newspaper-press of the present day is, generally speaking, so remarkably distinguished, in which our labours are spoken of in terms to which, were it not that much the greater part of the praise must be dealt out to contributors by whom we are proud to be assisted, we should almost blush to refer. These favourable opinions, we may add, have been not the less valued, that they have been in many cases accompanied by criticisms and suggestions, by which we have used our utmost endeavour to profit.

gained some knowledge, and that not little; for it will be the result of a great deal of that severe study which they themselves decline. But to those of the young whose curiosity is ardent, and their love of knowledge sincere, it will open up continual glimpses into the wide field which lies before them, furnishing hints and suggestions by which they will be sure to profit, at once stimulating and directing them in the noble pursuit. And all this without a line or a word from which they can suffer injury, by which the fine edge of early sensibility can be blunted, the generous ardour of youth for what is good and noble damped, or its reverence for what is venerable by age, character or profession weakened; but, on the contrary, with much by which all these can be strengthened and improved.

Clergymen, whose interest in the welfare of their flocks is not limited to the performance of their peculiar and sacred duties, will find, we trust, in this Magazine, what they can safely place in the hands of the people over whose spiritual interests they watch, in full security, that, while they are giving them what will be a source of much harmless enjoyment,-what will add greatly to their knowledge of men and their doings, of nature and its works,-it will never weaken the hold which they, or the doctrines they preach, have upon their affections-will not raise on their faces one sneer at the holy mysteries of our faith, nor suggest one doubt regarding the sure foundation of our hopes.

To the rich, eo nomine, we have not much to say, except to beg them not to despise us because of the lowness of our price; nor to cast aside contemptuously a work of which neither the appearance, nor, may we be permitted to say, the intrinsic qualities, are unworthy of a place on their drawingMay we be permitted here to recapitulate the room tables, merely because it is sold so cheap as claims which we conceive ourselves to possess to admit of its being also found in the cottager's upon the support of the various classes of the window. We shall not presume to say that we can public. instruct them; but we promise them amusement To parents and guardians, and those who are and gratification of a character not out of harmony

with the tastes and associations of men of cultivated productions, now common throughout the year, is prinminds and manners.

cipally to be ascribed the almost total extirpation of kind; though the introduction of linen, tea, and tobacco leprosy, which formerly made such havoc among manare considered as having contributed very much to that happy effect."

November was anciently represented as a man clothed in "a robe of changeable green and black; or, as it is usually termed, shot-coloured;" his head adorned with a garland of fruit and olive branches, holding in his left hand turnips and parsnips, and in his right the sign Sagittarius, or the Archer, which the sun enters on the 22d of this month; "thereby emblematically expressing that the cold ether, which in the former month was gaining a predominance over the sun's heat, now shot and pierced its way into the pores of the earth and suspended vegetation." Our great Elizabethan poet writes:

But to those who are not rich we make an especial appeal. They are not often addressed as patrons. They can be patrons to us. Our price has been fixed for their sakes at a sum so low as to be extremely hazardous to ourselves. Those who can afford little else can afford this Magazine, and thereby obtain access to what would otherwise have remained hopelessly closed against them for ever. For their sakes we extract the essence of works which the savings of a lifetime could scarcely enable them to buy, and lay before them treasures of knowledge and art which were formerly the exclusive enjoyment of the rich. We come to them with our price as to the poor, but with nothing else. We assume no supercilious airs of bringing ourselves down to the level of their capacities and their tastes. We do not insult them by imagining that they will not relish a style of writing and thinking with which we do not fear to approach the richest and noblest in the land. Our writings may, and we trust will, help to raise them in the social scale; but will never be so conceived" as to degrade them in their own esteem.

In one word, ours is a theatre in which the performances are carefully selected to suit the taste of the boxes, with admission to the whole house at gallery price.

To all our friends we say-Go on as you have done. Continue to support us as you have supported us during our first year; and our exertions for your advantage and gratification will be as unwearied as our gratitude will be boundless.

Popular Year-Book.

November.

THE name of this month was assigned to it in the Alban Kalender, and is taken from novem, nine. November, as its title denotes, was originally the ninth of the twelve months; it is now the eleventh. Diana was considered its tutelary deity. The Saxons styled it wint-monat, i. e. wind-month; and it afterwards obtained the appellation of blot-monat, or blood-month, to denote that it was usual at this period of the year to kill oxen, sheep, and hogs, for purposes of sacrifice, and for food during the ensuing winter; artificial pasturage, drying of grass into hay, &c. having been then unknown. The stock of salted meat prepared was to last until vegetation again became sufficiently forward to permit the resumption of the use of fresh provisions. The custom," says Brady," of salting meat at this season, for winter consumption, was universal in this island, and throughout all the nations on the continent of Europe. In Scotland it was generally in use within the memory of man, and is still practised in the highlands. We have yet our Martlemass, or Martinmass beef, or beef cured about the festival of St. Martin,

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on the eleventh of this blot-monat. And the Spanish proverbs of His Martinmass will come, as it does to every hog,' and 'His Martinmass is coming, when we shall be all hogs alike,' that is, meet the same fate, emphatically allude to the slaughter of swine at this period. To the change from the use of salted to that of fresh meat, joined to the advantage of the vegetable

"Next was November; he full-grown and fat,

As fed with lard, and that right well might seem ;
For he had been a fatting hogs of late,

That yet his brows with sweat did reek and steam,
And yet the season was full sharp and breen ;'
In planting eke he took no small delight:
Whereon he rode, not easy was to deem,

For it a dreadful centaur was in sight,
The seed of Saturn and fair Nais, Cluron hight."2

This is generally a windy, gloomy, and foggy month, in which," remarks Leigh Hunt, "we are said by Frenchmen to hang and drown ourselves." Intervals of The writer above quoted observes: "There are many clear and pleasant weather, however, frequently occur. pleasures in November, if we will lift up our matter-of-fact eyes, and find that there are matters-of-fact we seldom dream of. It is a pleasant thing to meet the gentle fine

days that come to contradict our sayings for us; it is a pleasant thing to see the primrose come back again in woods and meadows; it is a pleasant thing to catch the whistle of the green plover, and see the greenfinches congregate; it is a pleasant thing to listen to the deep amorous note of the wood-pigeons, who now come back again; and it is a pleasant thing to hear the deeper voice of the stags, making their triumphant love among the falling leaves."

In November the mornings are often somewhat frosty, but the thin ice soon vanishes after sunrise. As the preceding month was marked by the change, so this is distinguished by the fall of the leaf. There is something extremely melancholy in this gradual process, by which the trees are stripped of all their beauty, and left so many monuments of decay and desolation. They usually lose their foliage in the following succession:walnut, mulberry, horse chestnut, sycamore, lime, ash; then, after an interval, elm; then beech and oak; then apple and peach trees, sometimes not till the end of the month; and lastly, pollard oaks and young beeches, which retain their withered leaves till pushed off by their new ones in spring. Wild animals put on their winter coats in November; and the Alpine hare, which and the hedgehogs creep into holes in the earth; bats abounds in Scotland, becomes white. Lizards, badgers, get into old barns and caves; squirrels, rats, and fieldmice shut themselves up with their hoarded provisions; dormice begin their long annual sleep, frogs hide themselves in the mud at the bottom of ponds and ditches; and moles make the nests in which they lodge during the winter. Flocks of wood-pigeons, or stock-doves (the latest in their arrival of the birds of passage,) appear at the end of the month, before which silk-tail, golden rivers to spawn. Their force and agility in leaping plover, and pocher are seen. Salmons now ascend the

over cataracts and other obstacles to their ascent are

very surprising. They are frequently taken in this attempt by nets and baskets placed directly below the

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fall, into which they are carried after an unsuccessful leap.

Our gardens retain a number of the flowers of last month; and, in addition to several of the flowering trees and shrubs, they have the fertile and glowing China-roses in bloom; and in fruit the pyracantha, with its lustrous red berries, that cluster so beautifully on the walls of cottages. November is a busy farming month. The husbandman finishes his ploughing and sowing; winter fallows are turned up, and the fields drained; cattle and horses are kept in the farm-yard or stable; sheep are sent to the turnip-fields, or, in bad weather, fed with hay; bees are put under shelter, and pigeons fed in the dove-house. Threshing begins, forest and fruit trees are planted, and timber felled. November originally consisted of thirty days, which were continued both by Romulus and Numa. Julius Cæsar gave it thirty-one, but Augustus reduced it again to thirty, which it has ever since retained.

November 1.-Feast of All Saints. "Because," says Bishop Sparrow, "we cannot particularly commemorate every one of those saints in whom God's graces have been eminent, for that would be too heavy a burden; and because in those particular feasts which we do celebrate we may justly be thought to have omitted some of our duty through infirmity or negligence; therefore holy church appoints this day in commemoration of the saints in general." This festival, also called the Feast of Allhallows, is celebrated by the Latin and English churches. Its origin is referred to the year 607, when Phocas, the emperor, wrested the Pantheon from the pagans, and bestowed that splendid edifice upon the faithful. In A. D. 837, Gregory the Fourth, at the wish of Louis le Debonnaire, altered the anniversary of this feast from the first of May to the first of November, where it has remained until the present time; assigning as the motive of such change, that, as the harvest was then gathered in, less inconvenience would arise from the vast concourse of pious poor who resorted to Rome, for the purpose of joining in devotion at this high festival. "Allhallows Day," remarks the author of Morus, "closed the festivity of the harvest. As the labourer and vintager had now received the fruit of their pains, so it was proper that the labourers in the LORD's vineyard-should be honoured with praises. The face of the country was now changed by the advance of the year, and the success of the husbandmen; the fields were naked, the leaves were falling fast from the trees, the dark clouds poured down rain, and brooks were swoln to rivers. All Halloween Day was the last joyful feast of the year."

OLD AND POPULAR CUSTOMS.

On this festival, in many parts of England, apples are ducked for, and nuts cracked, &c., as upon its vigil, Allhallow Eve. Tollett relates, "that on All Saints' Day, the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish a-souling, as they call it; i.e. begging for soul cakes, or any good thing to make them merry." Another writer observes that in the county of Monmouth a custom prevails among the lower classes of the inhabitants, both Romanists and Protestants, of begging bread for the souls of the departed on the first of November; the bread thus distributed is called dole bread. This is, no doubt, the same antique usage as is thus referred to in the "Festival" (printed in 1511):--"We read in old time good people would, on Allhallowen-day, bake bread, and deal it for all Christian souls." We shall have occasion to say more about this subject in our notice of All Souls' Day. The first of November was considered among the ancient Welsh as the conclusion of summer, and celebrated by them with bonfires, accompanied with ceremonies suitable to the event. A writer in 1788 speaks of a custom observed in some parts of England" among the Papists, of illuminating

some of their grounds upon the eve of All Souls, by bearing round them straw, or other fit materials, kindled into a blaze. The ceremony is called a Tinley, and the vulgar opinion is that it represents an emblematical lighting of souls out of purgatory."

November 2.-All Souls' Day.

"The memory of the departure of all Christian souls," writes an old author, "is established to be solemnized in the Church on this day, to the end that they may have general aid and comfort, whereas they may bave none specially." Odillon, Abbot of Cluny, in the ninth century, first enjoined the ceremony of praying for the dead on this day in his own monastery; and the practice was partially adopted by other religious houses until the year 998, when the feast of All Souls was appointed throughout the Western Church. "To mark," says Brady, "the pre-eminent importance of this festival, if it happened on a Sunday it was not postponed to the Monday, as was the case with other such solemnities, but kept on the Saturday in order that the Church might the sooner aid the suffering souls, and that the dead might have every benefit from the exertions of the living. The remembrance of this ordinance was kept up by persons dressed in black, who went round the different towns, ringing a loud and dismal-toned bell at the corner of each street, every Sunday evening during the month of November; and calling upon the inhabitants to remember the deceased suffering the expiatory flames of purgatory, and to join in prayer for the repose of their souls. This custom was general in this country until the Reformation was completely established."

OLD AND POPULAR CUSTOMS.

In the Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1784, it is stated that at the village of Findern, Derbyshire, the boys and girls go every year in the evening of the 2d of November to the adjoining common, and light up a number of small fires amongst the furze growing there, and call them by the name of Tindles: this usage has long been discontinued. "In Wales," relates Pennant, "they have a custom of distributing soul cakes on All Souls' Day, at the receiving of which poor people pray to GOD to bless the next crop of wheat." On this day formerly, in Lancashire and Herefordshire, it was usual for wealthy Romanists to dispense oaten cakes, called soul-mass-cakes, to the poor, when, by way of expressing gratitude, the partakers of this liberality offered the following homely benediction:

"GOD have your soul, Bones and all."

Aubrey relates that, in his time, in Shropshire, &c., there was set upon the board a high heap of soul-cakes, lying one upon another like the picture of the shewbread in the old Bibles. They were about the bigness of twopenny cakes, and every visitant on the feast of All Souls took one. He adds, "There is an old rhyme or saying, A soul-cake, a soul-cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake.'”

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES.

All Souls' Day was formerly devoted in England to prayer and masses for the dead, and to the remembrance of the death which awaited the living. The altars were hung with black, men kneeled upon the graves of their relations, and strewed them with flowers, and held lonely vigils, and strengthened their own hearts. During this lugubrious festival, it was the custom, as in Italy at present, for every one to appear in mourning. "When that ghostly era arrives," says Mr. Digby, devout multitude leaves every city, and repairs to the holy field for the dead, bearing lighted torches, to assist at the benediction there given solemnly. The poor, the lame, the blind, meekly and in silence line the ways, and alms are largely given to them. After the

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office each family visits its ancestral tomb and prays for the souls of its members departed. All that night the bells of the churches and monasteries send forth a solemn peal. In some places, as at Bayeux, in consequence of the affluence of the people there was the fair of the dead."

November 5.-Guy Fawkes's Day.

This is the anniversary of the GUNPOWDER PLOT. "This," writes Hone, " is a great day in the Kalendar of the Church of England: it is duly noticed by the almanacks, and kept as a holiday at the public offices." Appended to the "Book of Common Prayer” is “A Form of Prayer, with Thanksgiving, to be used yearly upon the fifth of November, for the happy deliverance of King James I., and the three Estates of England, from the most traitorous and bloody-intended Massacre by Gunpowder." The particulars of this execrable plot and its discovery are too well known to require any

relation in these pages.

POPULAR CUSTOMS.

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from the excellence of his portraits, in which THE celebrity of this eminent artist arises chiefly branch of the art he has been compared to Titian.

Anthony Vandyck was born at Antwerp, on the 22d of March, 1599; and it is a singular coinci

Poor Robin's Almanack for the year 1677 contains dence that the much-admired Spanish painter, the lines on the fifth of November :

"Now boys with

Squibs and crackers play,
And bonfires' blaze

Turns night to day."

"It is still customary," observes Brand, "for the boys to dress up an image of the infamous conspirator, Guy Fawkes, holding in one hand a dark-lantern, and in the other a bundle of matches, and to carry it about the streets, begging money in these words, Pray remember Guy Fawkes!' In the evening there are bonfires, and these frightful figures are burnt in the midst of them." The following stanza is ordinarily shouted before every house by the retinues of the effigies above

described :

"Please to remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot;

We know no reason why gunpowder treason
Shall ever be forgot.

Holla, boys! holla, boys! huzza—a—a!” "Scuffles," remarks Hone," seldom happen now; but in my youthful days, when Guy met Guy, then came the tug of war!' The partisans fought, and a decided victory ended in the capture of the Guy' belonging to the vanquished. Sometimes desperate bands, who omitted or were destitute of the means to make 'Guys,' went forth, like Froissart's knights, "upon adventures." An enterprise of this sort was called "going to smug a Guy; that is, to steal one by "force of arms," fists, and sticks, from their rightful owners. In such times, continues our informant, the burning of "a good Guy" was a scene of uproar unknown to the present day. The bonfire in Lincoln's-inn-fields was of this superior order of disorder. It was at the Great Queen-street corner, immediately opposite Newcastle-house. Fuel came all day long, in carts properly guarded against surprise. Old people have remembered when upwards of two hundred cart-loads were brought to make and feed this bonfire, and more than thirty "Guys" were burnt upon gibbets, between eight and twelve o'clock at night. At the same period, the butchers in Clare Market had a bonfire in the open space of the market, next to Bear-yard, and they thrashed each other" round about the wood fire" with "the strongest sinews of slaughtered bulls." Large parties of butchers from all the markets paraded the streets, ringing peals from marrow-bones-and-cleavers, so loud as to overpower the storms of sound that came from the rocking belfries of the churches. By ten o'clock, London was so lit up by bonfires and fireworks, that from the suburbs it looked in one red heat. Many were the overthrows of horsemen and carriages, from the discharge of hand-rockets, and the pressure of moving mobs inflamed to violence

Velasquez, was born in the same year.

Vandyck's father painted on glass with some skill, and his mother excelled in embroidery. His first instructor was Hendrick Van Balen, who had studied the works of the great masters in Italy; but Vandyck soon rivalled his preceptor, and, being an ardent admirer of Rubens and his works, he placed himself under the guidance of that illustrious man, who conceived a great affection for him, and foresaw his future excellence.

Vandyck improved rapidly, and became very useful to his master, whose manner he copied so well, that many of his productions have been ascribed to Rubens. The following anecdote affords a proof of Vandyck's powers of imitation in that respect.

It was the custom of Rubens, when the labours of the day were ended, to go out towards evening, and enjoy the relaxation of exercise in the air. On mission from his old servant, Valviken, to enter these occasions his pupils sometimes obtained perRubens's cabinet, and examine his different sketches, and his method of finishing his pieces. It happened, one day, when the young men were all eagerly pressing forward to observe a picture which Rubens had been painting during the morning, that one of them stumbled against the object of their curiosity, and effaced the arm of a Magdalen, and the cheek and chin of a Madona. The accident excited general alarm, and the whole school appeared lost in confusion and dismay, when John Van Hock exclaimed, "We have no time to lose; we must find some expedient to screen us from discovery. Let the most skilful among us endeavour to repair the mischief we have occasioned. I, for one, give my voice for Vandyck, the only one capable of succeeding." This suggestion was unanimously approved of. Vandyck alone hesitated; but the entreaties of his companions, and his dread of encountering, the anger of Rubens, induced him to comply; and he performed his task so well, that, the next day, Rubens, on examining the picture, said to his pupils, "That arm and head are among the best things I ever did."

Many have asserted, that, when Rubens was at length apprised of the circumstance, he effaced the whole; whilst others maintain that he suffered it to remain as Vandyck had finished it. The picture was the celebrated Descent from the Cross, in the cathedral of Antwerp.

In his twentieth year Vandyck went to Italy, by | Apartments at Hampton Court, and in the palace the advice of Rubens. On leaving Antwerp, he of Eltham, were likewise given to him. Vandyck presented his kind friend and master with three proved himself worthy of the king's munificence, excellent pictures. One was the portrait of Ru- for in a short time he enriched this country with bens's wife; the second was an Ecce Homo; and many chefs-d'œuvre, and supplied the continual the third represented our Blessed Saviour in the demand for portraits, not only for the galleries in Garden of Olives, when the Jews came to take the royal palaces, but for noble and wealthy famihim. Rubens valued these paintings highly, and lies. The king often condescended to visit the placed them in his best apartment. The last, in artist, and took great delight in conversing with which the figures were extremely well designed, him. beautifully coloured, and the effect of torchlight most powerfully displayed, Rubens placed over the chimney-piece, and always bestowed upon it the highest encomiums. In return, he gave Vandyck one of the finest horses he possessed; and, in his celebrated picture of St. Martin dividing his cloak with a mendicant, Vandyck has painted himself mounted upon that horse.

After having visited Rome and other parts of Italy, Vandyck took up his abode at Venice, where he studied the superior productions of Titian and Paul Veronese; and acquired that facility of outline, and delicacy of manner, by which his pictures are distinguished.

He observed minutely every tint in the works of Titian, and, by the superiority of his genius, he was enabled to discover the true principles which guided the celebrated masters of the Venetian school to the high degree of excellence which they attained.

On quitting Venice he repaired to Genoa, and, whilst there, his reputation and pecuniary advantages increased rapidly.

After a short visit to his native country, where he was warmly applauded by Rubens, and other eminent judges,-though he was assailed by the jealousy and envious criticisms of inferior artists, -he went to the Hague, where he painted the portraits of the Prince and Princess of Orange, their children, and most of the nobility, ambassadors, and wealthy merchants. He was highly paid for these portraits, in which, as in all he painted, he united the perfection of the art with the charm of truth.

At length, having heard how liberally the fine arts were patronized in England, he departed for London. There he painted some admirable pictures; but, strange to say, he met with so little encouragement, that he returned to Antwerp disappointed and disgusted.

He then resolved to retrieve the time which he said he had lost in other countries, and to signalize his return home by some of his best productions; amongst which was a picture of the crucifixion. He also painted a St. Anthony, at this period, for the Infanta of Spain.

Some excellent engravings from his works having found their way to England, a general regret was felt that greater regard had not been evinced for his uncommon talents; and Charles I. sent him a pressing invitation to visit his court.

Vandyck was at first unwilling to return to a country where he had been so unfavourably received, and it was only at the urgent solicitation of Sir Kenelm Digby that he consented to accompany him.

The king received him most graciously, and presented him with a gold chain, and the royal portrait richly set in diamonds. Soon afterwards his majesty conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and allowed him a considerable pension.

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Vandyck's portraits of the unfortunate Charles, his Queen, and family, are very numerous; and it is observable that those of the king have all that melancholy cast of countenance for which his majesty was remarkable, even before those calamities which might naturally have produced it. But Vandyck has represented him as handsomer than any other painter has done.

The artist's prosperity was now very great, but he was unreasonably expensive in his habits. He kept brilliant equipages, and a sumptuous table, to which all his friends and acquaintance were welcome. His establishment of domestics and horses equalled that of any nobleman of that period; but his gains were so great that he might have continued even these superfluous expenses, had he not absurdly wasted his money and his time in the pursuit of Alchymy.

He built a laboratory at a great expense, and the gold which was hardly and honourably earned by his pencil, soon evaporated in the crucible. The fumes from the coal, and grief at finding his attempts fruitless, added to the irregularity of his life, produced an illness which appeared likely to terminate fatally. He recovered, however, and some time afterwards he married, with the sanction of the king, one of the handsomest women of the court, the daughter of the Earl of Gowrie, a Scottish nobleman.

Vandyck went to Antwerp, after his marriage, with his wife, on a visit to his family and friends; and thence he proceeded to Paris, with the intention of offering to paint the Gallery of the Louvre ; but Poussin was already engaged for that undertaking; therefore, after a sojourn of only two months in the French metropolis, he returned to London. His state of health soon became alarming, and he gradually sank under an accumulation of diseases. It is said that the king promised to give his physician three hundred guineas if he could save Vandyck's life. But his complaints were beyond the reach of medical skill, and he expired in 1641, at the age of forty-two, and was buried with funeral honours in St. Paul's cathedral.

He left a widow and one daughter, who married Sir John Stepney, a gentleman of good family in Wales. Her mother was re-married to Sir Richard Pryce, of Coguthan, in Cardiganshire.

Vandyck was a remarkably rapid painter. It is well known that he would commence a head in the morning, and, in order not to delay his work, he generally invited the person who sat to him to dine with him, and in the afternoon he finished the picture. He seldom retouched a piece after the first day.

He gave to his heads an appearance of nature and truth that could not be surpassed, and he excelled in painting the hands, which were always beautifully formed, and delicately exact in their proportions. His power of expression was

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