[The Engravings are very numerous and effective. First, we have three whole-page portraits, -one Chimpanzee and two Orangs, admirably drawn by Harvey, engraved in the first style, and exquisitely printed in tints. In addition to these firstclass embellishments, there are no fewer than twenty-three incidental illustrations of a very attractive character; one of which we have introduced.]

QUEEN VICTORIA FROM HER BIRTH TO HER BRIDAL.

[THIS work is understood to be from the pen of Miss Agnes Strickland, the accomplished authoress of Lives of the Queens of England, from the Norman Conquest. Its object is to narrate the leading events of the life of Queen Victoria; "together with all the domestic traits and anecdotes that could be gathered from authentic sources of information, personal observation, or through the medium of the journals of the day, carefully collated." Of the latter material there is, probably, a superabundance in Miss Strickland's pages; and seeing that the lady was an eyewitness of Her Majesty's coronation and marriage, the reader has a right to expect a more original account of these two important events than he will find in the work before us. Miss Jane Porter has contributed two original letters, containing her own reminiscences of Her Majesty's childhood, and a description of her appearance on her return from her coronation. From these recollections we quote a few passages:]

Childhood of the Queen.

"My home for many years was, as you know, in the village of Esher, a favourable spot for your object; and the little rambling old dwelling my dear mother inhabited, venerable like herself, was almost next door to royal Claremont; the low ivy-crowned paling of her garden forming part of that which bounds the rich woodlands of the King of Belgium's English park. His pheasants, indeed, often proved their sense of the rights of neighbourhood, by crossing the easy fence, to feed on my mother's gooseberries; and their royal master (when Prince Leopold) did not less frequently make them pay tribute for their invasions of her hospitality. In grateful truth I must add, that, during his Royal Highness's residence at Claremont, he never failed sending, in their due seasons, to my revered mother, (whom he had long honoured with his esteem,) game and fruits, and all other products of his gardens which might be acceptable to the delicate health of one at her venerable age. His Royal Highness presented to my

mother a fine likeness of himself, by Hayter. He also told her, that the last book he and our Princess Charlotte read

together, before her confinement, was my lamented sister's romance of The Knight of St. John, and that he kept it turned down at the page at which her beloved voice had left it.

"My mother had warmly loved the noble virtues of Princess Charlotte. She did not less admire their corresponding continuance in the Prince; and she delighted in thinking the young Princess Victoria resembled Princess Charlotte in her infancy.

"My mother, attended by a favourite little white poodle dog, with a crookheaded stick in her hand, assisting, but not yet supporting, her still unenfeebled steps, generally chose her places for walking where she would be most likely to meet the young hope of England, taking her morning exercise; and great was the pleasure with which she marked every animated movement of the young Victoria; whether walking by the side of her governess, or running forward in the eagerness of childhood's happy impulses, with which full health only, or the spring of a bounding elasticity of active enjoyment

earliest youth, can know.

"My own opportunities were not less than my gratified mother's in seeing the Princess; being, indeed, with my dear sister, a sharer in these walks; and we had yet more frequent occasions given to us of knowing her most interestingly developing character, from persons whose duty, or other circumstances, brought them almost domestically under the royal roof.

"In describing the infancy of the Princess, I would say she was a beautiful child, with a cherubic form of features, clustered round by glossy fair ringlets. Her complexion was remarkably transparent, with a soft, but often heightening tinge of the sweet blush-rose upon her cheeks, that imparted a peculiar brilliancy to her clear blue eyes. Whenever she met any strangers in her usual paths, she always seemed, by the quickness of her glance, to inquire, Who, and what they were?' The intelligence of her countenance was extraordinary at her very early age; but might easily be accounted for, on perceiving the extraordinary intelligence of her mind."

[The following information is very gratifying :]

Her Majesty's Accomplishments. Her Majesty is, undoubtedly, one of the most accomplished ladies in her dominions. She is mistress of all the modern languages, in which she expresses herself with equal grace and fluency. Her love

of music developed itself at a very early age; she plays with great taste and expression on several instruments, and has inherited her royal grandfather George the Third's predilection for the organ. She is said to evince a decided preference for Italian music, but she takes great delight in the compositions of Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart. Her voice is a remarkably sweet mezzo soprano, and her singing is not only scientifically good, but very pleasing Her Majesty inherits her great musical talents not only from the royal family from whom her descent is paternally derived, but, also, from her illustrious mother, who is herself a composer.*

The Queen's talents for drawing are so remarkable, that one of her masters, before her accession to the throne, when speaking of his royal pupil, of whose progress he was justly proud, said: "The Princess Victoria would have made the best female artist of the age if she had not been born to wear a crown."

Her Royal Highness told this gentleman "that her pencil was a source of great delight to her; and that, when fatigued by severer studies, it was always a refreshment to her mind to devote an hour to drawing, an employment in which she would have willingly spent more of her time than any other."

So affable was this amiable Princess in her deportment to her instructors, that she was beloved by them all. One of her drawing-masters ventured to make known to Her Royal Highness, that a lady whom he knew had expressed the most ardent desire to possess something sketched by her hand.

"Indeed," replied her Royal Highness, with a smile, "I wish it were in my power to gratify the wish of every one as easily;" and dipping a pen in the standish as she spoke, she rapidly executed a free, graceful sketch of a horse's head, in that peculiar style called etching, and kindly presented it to Mr. Westall for his friend.

The lady was astonished at the beauty of the design and execution, but observed, that no one would believe that it was really the work of the Princess Victoria, unless it were distinguished by the autograph of the illustrious artist.

When this remark was repeated to the Princess Victoria, she good humouredly completed the happiness of the fortunate possessor of this valued drawing, by adding her autograph.

* Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent recently composed a very beautiful military march, which Mr. Nickel, one of the Queen's private band, has arranged for the piano-forte, and dedicated to Her Majesty, by whom it is much admired.

Her Majesty writes a very fine hand, free, bold, and legible, yet the character is perfectly feminine. She is, also, an excellent arithmetician, and examines the most complex accounts with the ease of an experienced financier.

Soon after her accession to the throne, one of her ministers submitted to the youthful sovereign's attention papers containing statements of a variety of matters connected with the financial department. Her Majesty took her pencil, and after rapidly summing up the figures, whose lengthened phalanxes might have appeared somewhat formidable to a more experienced calculator than a young lady scarcely nineteen, returned them with these words, uttered with her usual impressive dignity: "My lord, these accounts are, as I expected to find them, correct."

In her private expenditure, Her Majesty is both economical and generous. She has been more liberal in her gifts, and more magnificent in her hospitality, than any of her immediate predecessors; yet the privy-purse is unembarrassed. We have afforded, in our previous detail, a solution for this apparent enigma:-Her Majesty is an excellent accountant.

The Queen's caution with regard to public business is remarkable. In the first week of her reign, her premier gave a list of the papers which, he informed her, would be prepared for her signature on the following morning. When the papers were submitted to Her Majesty, she compared them with the list she had received on the preceding evening, and, turning to Lord Melbourne, said :—

"My lord, your list specifies only sixteen papers, and here are eighteen; this requires explanation."

His lordship said, in reply, "that Her Majesty's signature was required for the two additional papers, a necessity for them having arisen since the list had been prepared."

"Then," said the Queen, "I shall retain them for examination. I sign nothing without being fully aware of its purport."

The first time the Queen Dowager came to pass a few days at Windsor, Her Majesty requested that she would make choice of a bed-room from all the apartments in the castle. The choice of Queen Adelaide naturally fell on that which she had been accustomed to occupy during the life of William IV. It was freely resigned to her use by Her Majesty, who with equal delicacy and kindness caused the fact carefully to be concealed from the Queen Dowager, that it was her own bed-chamber she had chosen.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

THIS magnificent and prosperous line has just been opened as far as Faringdon, thirty-eight miles from Cheltenham, and forty-one miles from Gloucester. In October, another advance will be made to Swindon, upwards of eighty miles from London; "and it is expected that the Cheltenham and Great Western Union

Railway Company will, very shortly after wards, open that portion of their undertaking which connects Swindon with Cirencester. When this takes place, the main stream of traffic to and from Gloucestershire and the westward-and, for a time, that of Bath and Bristol-will pass through Cirencester, and the journey from Gloucester to London be brought within the compass of four or five hours!* Within the memory of persons now living, it took four days to accomplish a journey, by coach, from this city to the metropolis:

now even York is within ten hours distance of Bow bells! These marvellous changes form curious subjects for speculation at this transition period.”— Glouces

tershire Chronicle.

The permanent rails are now lain from Bath nearly to the terminus at Temple Gate, Bristol, and the works there are in a very forward state.

"The Cheltenham and Great Western is, to Gloucestershire, the London line. It will embrace the county town, and intersect an important manufacturing and agricultural district. It will thus confer a most important public benefit upon its particular locality, by placing it on the same footing as almost all our great manufacturing districts now stand on; and there cannot be a question that the vantage ground at present possessed by the northern counties, with respect to facilities of internal communication, would

progressively operate most unfavourably

The distance from Steventon to London, upwards of fifty-six miles, is, at present, performed in an hour and three-quarters, inclusive of stoppages.

on competing districts in the south. The line from Swindon to Cirencester has been leased to the Great Western Railway Company, at a rent of £17,000 per annum. The prospective traffic on the line, when complete, is very favourable, and it may be observed, that the traffic on all lines hitherto opened has very greatly exceeded the estimates; indeed, railways invariably produce a large traffic which did not exist prior to their formation."

The Gloucester and Birmingham Railway has been partially opened, by running five trains a-day between Cheltenham and Broomsgrove, about thirty-one miles; and upwards of £1,000 have been taken in six days.

Some important alterations have been made in the construction of the Great Western locomotive engines. The tenfeet wheels attached to them not being found to answer; in future, wheels of seven feet diameter are to be employed. The result has been the attainment of the speed of fifty-six miles an hour. Lately, the Firefly, a new engine manufactured Co., of the Viaduct Foundry at Newton, on this principle by Messrs. Jones and made an experimental trip from Paddington to Reading, and the following is a statement of her performance. She left the station at Paddington at thirteen minutes eighteen seconds past eleven, a.m., and reached Reading at fifty-nine minutes forty-three seconds past eleven, having passed the first mile-post at eleven hours fifteen minutes fifty-seven seconds, and the thirty-fifth at eleven hours fifty-eight minutes and forty-four seconds, which is equivalent to one mile in one minute and fifteen seconds and a half, or nearly fortyeight miles an hour. During the journey, one of the tender springs broke and caused some additional friction on the axles. The load was two carriages and one truck. At three hours nineteen minutes and two

seconds, the party started on their return to London with two carriages. They stopped to take in water at Twyford, forty-four seconds, and finally arrived at Paddington at twenty-one minutes three seconds past four. The twenty-ninth mile-post from London was passed at three hours forty-four minutes fifty seconds, and the second at four hours sixteen minutes twenty-one seconds, which is equal to the speed of one mile in one minute eleven seconds and three-eighths, or an average of fifty miles and a half per hour. The greatest speed attained was from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-fourth milepost, which was done at the rate of fifty. six miles an hour. This is the greatest speed at present attained in the history of locomotive power.

which detained them fourteen minutes and

Fine Arts.

ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS OF THE REIGNS OF ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. BY C. J. RICHARDSON, F. S. A. PART II.

THIS livraison completes the first volume of the most valuable Illustrations of Elizabethan Architecture that have yet been produced. The first portion was noticed, at some length, in the Literary World, vol. i. pp. 82-84; our critique being illustrated with an engraving from Mr. Richardson's elaborate view of Holland House, Kensington.

The present section is entitled even to higher praise than it was our duty to award its predecessor. The subjects are more richly decorated; and their execution is, altogether, of superior delicacy and finish. Indeed, we do not know a more accurate or effective means of representing olden architecture, than by tinted lithography, as in the drawings before us.

In a prefatory notice, Mr. Richardson explains that his volume is different, in many respects, from the more artistical publications of the present day, on the same subject. His series is intended "to afford illustrations, in a more professional manner, of the buildings erected during the best times of the Elizabethan period, both exterior and interior; and, especially, to lay before the architect and the man of taste correct copies of the elaborately ornamented designs, in the carving, the plaster-work, and the compositions of the painter, on a larger scale than has hitherto been attempted; and, at the same time, carefully avoiding all the second-rate performances of that period." This selection is important, since the Elizabethan style is occasionally in objectionable taste; its picturesqueness scarcely compensating for its overloaded and florid details, and want of that purity which is the distinctive characteristic of classic architecture.

The illustrations of this volume are, principally, the chef-d'œuvres of the architect John Thorpe, who was in high practice during the last half of the sixteenth century, as is proved by his building no less than six palaces for Queen Elizabeth's ministers; viz. Theobald's, Burghley, Wimbledon, Holdenby, Kirby, and Buckhurst. Of these, four are illustrated in the present Part. A volume, containing 200 drawings, by Thorpe's own hand, of the plans, elevations, &c. of his various buildings, is still in careful preservation, in the Soane Museum. Mr. Richardson is making a selection from these drawings; as he considers the publication of the entire collection too hazardous a speculation, which he, therefore, leaves to some established Society,

like the Antiquarian or Camden. Surely, such a labour would be more beneficial to the arts and public taste than the reprinting of nugæ antiquæ-literature neglected from its uselessness-ever can be to the present active generation, There is, as Mr. Richardson observes, "a noble desire, now evidently prevalent amongst the British public, to revive and encourage both its ancient class of workmen and the ancient style of its native architecture;" and the publication of such works as the Remains, so long as they are conducted with that discrimination which they have hitherto evinced, merits the warmest encouragement.

The first plate in this Part, (IX. of the Series,) consists of Exteriors by John Thorpe: two elevations of the Manor-house at Godstone, with plans; and a border, made up of details from the Charter-house, St. Lawrence, St. Nicholas, and St. Helen's, churches, pilasters at Canonbury-house, &c.; the whole forming admirable specimens of the style which is now so generally introduced into every class of decoration; but especially in buildings and their interior fittings, as chimney-pieces, stoves, draperies, paper-hangings, furniture, &c. This plate is entirely from the original MSS. in Sir John Soane's Museum; and its elaborate beauty must be admired by every one. With such facilities of cost and finish as the lithographic art now presents, the publication suggested by Mr. Richardson ought to be undertaken without further delay.

Plate X.-Basement and Ground-floor Plans of Theobald's, in Hertfordshire, unaccompanied with elevations, are acceptable, in the absence of any satisfactory representations of this once famous place. It was commenced about the year 1570, by the great Lord Burghley, then Sir William Cecil, as a residence for his second son; and was, subsequently, enlarged by him to receive Queen Elizabeth. King James I. afterwards procured it in exchange for Hatfield; and he died here in 1625. The palace was destroyed by order of the Parliament, about 1650. These plans are bordered with ceiling ornaments.

It was

Plates XI. and XII.-Burghley, Northamptonshire, one of the finest structures in Europe; erected by the illustrious Lord Burghley: and it has had the rare fortune of remaining to this time the seat of his descendants; the present noble owner being the Marquis of Exeter. finished about the year 1587. It is questionable whether the architect was Thorpe; but most accurate plans of the building are given in his collection. Very little of the interior remains in its original state: the entrance-hall and a curious stone stair

case are the principal portions. The exterior views are, the north front, and the approach to the mansion from the northwest, from Stamford: "after winding through a noble park, it suddenly opens upon the visitor; its singular chimneys, the variety of its turrets, towers, and cupolas, and the steeple of the chapel rising in its centre, giving it the appearance more of a small city than a single building." In Plate XVII. is a view of a summer-house in the garden at Burghley, with a beautiful pierced parapet, and twisted columns rising from the angles of the roof. The ornaments over the doorways remind one of a modern fanlight.

Plate XIII.-Rushton Hall, about three miles N.E. from Kettering, Northampton; commenced by Sir Thomas Tresham, who was attainted for his participation in the gunpowder plot, and died in the Tower of London. The building was afterwards completed by the Cockayne family. The views are, part of the hall, and a highly decorated triangular hunting lodge, at the extremity of the grounds.

Plate XIV.-Coombe Abbey, Warwick shire; the seat of the Earl of Craven. "The garden porch and fire-place, represented in this Plate, form a portion of the alterations made by the Lord Harrington, in the reign of James I., for the reception of the Princess Elizabeth who remained here, under his tuition, till the year 1613. The above porch led from the end of the gallery on to a raised terrace, which had steps down to a small ornamented garden. The fire-place of the great chamber is exquisitely enriched; the panels are filled with tapestry; and the centre of the fine architectural composition above the fireopening is occupied with the royal arms, in fine, bold style. Even the fire-back is highly enriched.

Plates XV. and XVI.-Kirby, Northamptonshire; commenced by Thorpe, in 1570, for Lord Chancellor Hatton, by whose lineal descendant, the Earl of Winchelsea, the property is now possessed. It had braved neglect for nearly a century; but is now in a rapid state of decay. "The building is one of the most picturesque examples remaining-of solid construction. The approach is through a fine, triple avenue of trees, three quarters of a mile in length. The first court-yard is like that at Holdenby, a balustraded enclosure, with two grand archways; the external front of the building is by Inigo Jones. Passing through this, the visitor enters the principal quadrangle. (Plate XV.) The centre is profusely decorated with fluted columns and pilasters, the characteristics of "the revival" of Inigo Jones's period; and the parapets being surmounted with dragons,

each bearing, erect, a spear-headed vane, has a very grotesque effect. The garden side (Plate XVI.) has a fine series of enriched and pointed gables, and columnar chimneys-those " windpipes of hospitality." This front has its raised terrace, (now a corn-field;) the slopes and a few ornamental buildings still remaining.

Plates XVI., XVII., and XVIII.-Burton Agnes, Yorkshire; the seat of Sir Henry Boynton, Bart.; situated six miles southwest of Bridlington. It was built early in the reign of James I., but by what architect is unknown. Inigo Jones was employed here about 1625. The exterior (Plate XVI.) is less decorated than either of the specimens yet mentioned; but the interior is mostly in ancient style, and unsparingly enriched: some of the rooms are by Inigo Jones; and a few panels have landscapes, by Rubens: the carving is, in part, Italian. The staircase (Plate XVII.) is a singular example of carving, difficult to describe. The great gallery, (Plate XVIII.) with its semicircular ceiling of scroll-work and roses, is exquisite; and, as it may be copied in papier-mâché, is detailed by Mr. Richardson. The chimney-piece, with its sculptured figures, is fine; and there are introduced a noble fire-back and dogs, and a superb cabinet, which are not the furniture of the mansion.

The Appendix of two Plates of fire-places, and three of details, from the subjects described. Plate II. is a Fire-place in the Old Governor's Room, Charter-house, formerly the great chamber of the old mansion. It is a very fine specimen of the highly decorative art of the time of Charles I.; and is the work of Rowland Buckett, who received £50 for his performance. The general design is arabesque, painted on a gold ground. In the centre are the royal arms, with the initials C. R.; at the angles are four small circles, containing the evangelists, in gold outline on a black ground; the columns have the heads of the twelve apostles, in small, ornamented circles. The pedestals under them are adorned with very delicate representations in gold outline, of the Salutation, and the Last Supper. Between them are the arms of Sutton, with his initials. Immediately over the fire-place are three small tablets, with groups, of Faith, Hope, and Charity. With pleasure we find that, at the instance of the Rev. Archdeacon Hale, preacher of the Charter-house, this fire-place has lately been cleaned and repaired.

It only remains to be added, that the accuracy of Mr. Richardson's pencil has been beautifully transmitted to stone, by the press of Messrs. Daye and Haghe, who, in this superb work, have proved that zinc and stone may be made the means of