Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Of Decorative Art.

find its way to our museums . Then , instead of , as now , taking at second-hand , more especially from France , terms which the : best French writers reject as unfitting and inadequate for their purpose , we should have an art-language of our own , as clear and as expressive as it was English , and

to be understood by all . Not unoften do our smatterers in art-Avords bring to mind the poet ' s Madame Eglentine , of Avhom he says , —

" And Frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisly After the scliole of Stratford-atte-boAve , For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe . " Having these appliances within easy reach , it remains Avith our patrons of art to ask for , and with our artists to make themselves able to quickly

answer such a call for their employment . Augustus was wont to say that he found Rome of brick , and left it of marble . For myself , I would much rather behold our houses built of brick , yet with all that ornament upon them which those very bricks themselves can have , along with the other

various beauties that burned clay , uncoloured and coloured , can so easily bestow , than witness large blocks of marble , bought at great cost , heaped up into so-called palaces , andunartistically adorned . The sentiment of that good old English monk , MattheAV Paris , Avho , while setting down the works

done for the abbey church of St . Alban ' s , by the handicraft of his brother monks there , and telling , as it might be , of a silver frontal for the altar , a jeAvelled shrine for the patron saint , or a golden image of the blessed Virgin Mary , says In quo etiam materiam superabat opus—holds good here . It is not because a house is made of marble that

Ave should at once admire it , or think little of another built in brick ; our admiration ought to be for the art-work bestowed upon its materials , whatever they may be—slabs from Hymettus and Darrarra , or clay from the potteries . It was the boast of Cicero that his

countryhouses , small as they might be , Avere the gems of Italy—ocelli Italice , villulce mece . This could only have been from the artist's handicraft judiciously applied to these residences . Let every Englishman , with wealth enough at his command , try and make his house one among the ornaments of his

countiy in the provinces ; and hoAvever small it be , one of the stars in the square or street in London Avhere he lives , ancl thus shoAV that , like the old Roman , he is glad to lend new beauties to his native land and solace to Ms felloAv citizens .

The good result of this will be , that pur most dingy streets , our dullest thoroughfares , will put on an everlasting look of gladsomeness ; and those who have every day to walk them , if in health and happiness , Avill be still more cheered ; if in sickness and in SOITOAV—and sorrow and sickness betide us

all—will not be still more saddened by their appearance ; instead of our present , rather wide-spread meanness , we , too , shall have , everywhere about this vast metropolis , " onr streets of palaces and walks of state /'—palaces not merely so because

they are the dwellings of nobility , but palaces of literature , or arts , of sciences , and of trade . With our roofs all tiled in tiles Avell glazed , various in colour , starred in gold , or diapered in a pattern and artistically set out , Ave shall have , instead of grimy miles of dull red tiling ancl ugly

chimneypots , something beautiful to gaze upon as Ave look down from the top of Hampstead-hill or Highgate over the vast city sparkling beneath the sunshine , or as it tAvinkles in the moonlight as if it were all overspread with glass like some huge

Crystal Palace . Not long ago we had the New Zealander among us . When next he comes again—when century after century he comes—it Avill be , let us hope , each time to find London—England—richer , greater , more adorned , than before . Instead of

becoming the fnlfiller of Macaulay's dream , ancl seeing in the shattered dome of St . Paul's a picturesque ruin to sketch from a broken arch of crumbling London Bridge , it will be to discover fresh splendours all about him there . Standing on now neAV Westminster Bridge , wide ancl

beautiful as it is , he will observe that , above and below it , others wider ancl more stupendous are bestriding our noble Thames . Instead of shivered cupolas and mouldering Avails , he will behold , as fitting objects for the drawings he vrishes to take back Avith him , the magnificent streets , the splendid palaces , the glittering roofs , the artistic gardens , the majestic buildings of renovated and architectural London .

But to this important end I must recall to mind that soul-stirring , noble charge which Nelson , just before meeting the foe , and his glorious victory over him at Trafalgar , is said to have sent round all the fleet , in this short sentence , " England expects every man to do his duty . " Wishful that

that the cry I here utter may go forth hence and reach the ears of English , Irish , Scotch , and Welsh noblemen and gentlefolks , and awaken them to take their part in this great national work ; remembering , too , that of my audience there may be present individuals from every quarter of the

empire , I fain would somewhat vary Nelson ' s Avording , and say , " Britain expects every man—* aye , every woman , too—to do their duty . " I say woman , for I believe the instincts of Avoman are quicker than man's in spelling' on the face the feelings of the hidden heart ; I believe her light hands

better able than his to write upon the clay her own keen readings of our humanity ; and Ave know what a few good strokes , hoAvever slightly made , can do in bringing out all the truth and all the beauty of expression . Genius , like the soul , is of no gender ; and at all times there have been women who excelled in all the arts and sciences .

As a witness of his OAvndays , Vasari , in his " Life of Madonna Properzia de Rossi , " observes , — "There are women who have not disdained to contend , as it were , with us ( men ) for the vaunt and palm of superiority in a different arena ( of