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specimens from China, Japan, the East Indies, Fiesole, Holland, and Sêvres. Why English China has not been admitted to the honour of associating with all these productions of foreign countries, does not readily appear; neither was the intelligence of our conductor of a calibre to afford us much chance of information from him. But I must dismiss this subject briefly, for I have not a particle of taste for such exhibitions, and confess myself guilty of looking upon this much vaunted collection with the same indifference with which I should enter a common village shop of earthenware. In casting my eyes over the long and interminable tables on which are displayed plates, saucers, and tureens, without number, from almost all parts of the world, I could not help being struck even in these matters, with the indole (I thank thee, idiom of Italy, for that word) of each of the manufacturing nations plainly visible in its respective productions! By the side of the solid, sober-looking, and phlegmatico-coloured ware of Saxony, the French china looked like a gay mistress decked in all the prismatic colours; but I shrunk from the ranks and files of huge monsters from China; and the enormous ollas or uglyshaped jars, which Augustus is said to have exchanged with the Great Frederick for a dragoon regiment, had no attraction for one so unworthy of this scene. As a question of chymistry, I certainly examined with some interest the first efforts of the lucky Dresden apothecary and alchymist, who is said to have realized a princely fortune by the discovery of the first brown or iron-coloured mass with which he made those beautiful and now very rare specimens, so much recherchés by the elderly Misses. The transition from this to the white mass, which he produced seven years later, is clearly accounted for by the progressive specimens we here examined.

On emerging from this cavern, the stranger has the choice of two things: either to pass between two colossal stone mandarins, which guard the approach of the grand

staircase, and ascending the latter, to penetrate into the public library which occupies the principal story, with an appendix on the second: or, crossing the court, to crave admission into the gallery of antiques. In both these places, consecrated to learning, the traveller will find many objects which will engage and interest his attention: but above all, will he be pleased with the professors who have charge of both establishments, and whose names are favourably known to the learned of this country.

I devoted some of my leisure moments in obtaining all the information I could from competent persons, on subjects of importance connected with Dresden, particularly its climate, statistics, police, industry, and political condition, and the mode of living in that capital during the fashionable season, all which particulars it was my intention to have imparted to the reader as I received them. But I am warned by my monitor in New Burlington-street, that it is high time to hasten to a conclusion, and that the work is growing to an insufferable length, in which observation heartily coinciding, I abruptly defer what I had to say upon these subjects, and proceed to other weighty considerations.

CHAPTER IV.

DRESDEN CONTINued.

The PICTURE GALLERY.-Preliminary Ceremony for visiting that or any other public Collection in Dresden.-the Building.-Internal Arrangement.-Internal and external Gallery.-Advantages of that Arrangement.-Madonna di St. Sisto, and other chef-d'œuvres.—Battoni's Magdalen. Facility afforded to Copyists.-St. Francesco of Correggio.-Cignani.-Andrea del Sarto.-Carlo Dolce.-Dosso Dossi.— Peculiar effect of Perspective.-Titian's Venus.-Magic of Light."LA NOTTE," The Gem of the Dresden Gallery.-St. George and St. Sebastian.-The Doctor's Portrait.-Colours of Parmegiano.-The Flemish, Dutch, German, French, and Spanish Schools.-Method of classing the Pictures.-Engraved Gallery.-Sum Total.-The RÜSTKAMMER. The first Pistol and the last Tournament.-MUSEUM of Natural History.-Curious effect of Lightning.-The Chemnitz Oak.— The Stag Horns.-Too much Fat.-The Giant Hound and the Chicken Hound. The Charger of Augustus II.-The RESIDENZ SCHLOSS.GRÜNE GEWÖLBE. The largest Enamel.-The Great Mogul, the Tea Service, and the Temple of Apis, by the brothers Dinglinger.-The Cameo of Augustus Octavianus.—The tri-coloured Onyx.-The Treasure.-The Green Diamond.-Millions!-Royal Pawning.-Napoleon at the great Opera of Dresden.-Contrast.-The Heights of RÄCKNITZ. -Moreau's Monument.-The GROSSER GARTEN.-PILLNITZ.-Sachsische Schweiz. - The Bastey. - KÖNIGSTEIN.- PIRNA.-SONNENSTEIN. Establishment for the Treatment of Lunatics.

On my arrival at Dresden, I did not put my patience to too severe a trial, by deferring, longer than was absolutely necessary to procure the requisite permission, my visit to

that celebrated Gallery of Paintings, which has, for the last eighty years, given to that capital, above that of every other fair city in Germany, the reputation of being the favoured seat of the Fine Arts. The very instant I received the intelligence that Professor Schmidt was at his post ready to admit us, I hurried to that far-famed collection.

The form of introduction to the gallery, during the season in which it is not open generally to the public, as was the case when I passed through Dresden, consists in apprising the curator of the pictures, who is called a professor, that you intend to visit that establishment at a particular hour, sending him, at the same time, or presenting him afterwards, with three rix-thalers. This sum once paid, the stranger is at liberty to frequent the gallery as often as he pleases; but the professor accompanies him only on the first day, to give every necessary explanation. As the gallery is not publicly open from September till May, it follows that the professor's emoluments, from this branch alone, must be considerable. The same practice of feeing the curators exists in regard to almost every other public building or collection of importance in Dresden during the vacations; and my expenses on that point alone I found in the end to have amounted to six or seven ducats. I mention this circumstance, merely because Dresden is the only continental city in which such a practice exists. Professor Schmidt, who accompanied us, is a very intelligent artist, well versed in the history of almost every painting of note contained in the gallery, and himself a painter by no means of inconsiderable merit; for he has more than once employed his time, as his predecessor had done before him, in copying, to order, some of the most celebrated pictures in the gallery, at a very moderate charge. He is an accurate copyist, and an excellent master of colouring.

The Bilder Gallerie, as the Saxons call it, is situated not far from the Royal Château, with its front towards the Neu-Markt, a very large open space, surrounded by lofty and curious buildings, with the church of Nôtre Dame (Frauen Kirche) at one end of it. Towards the river side the August Strasse separates it from the adjoining houses; and the Royal Family have a ready access to it through that part of the Château which fronts the bridge, and crosses the principal street of the old town, over an archway. I have here introduced a view of the Gallery, as seen from the Neu-Markt.

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The present building was not completed until 1747, under Augustus III.; but it was begun by Augustus II., after that Prince had succeeded in procuring the superb gallery of pictures at Modena, containing, among other productions, the principal chef-d'œuvres of Cor

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