Vandyck In England.

and the less dashing Prince Maurice of the Civil Wars . Go to Combe Abbey , in "Warwickshire , and see the daring Rupert and the dashing Maurice , thanks to Vandyck , as if they never could grow old . With what an air of unaffected ease both look from the canvas , and command

attention ! In Rupert ' s face and figure there is a touch of Mai'ston Moor , and the surrender of Bristol . Both portraits are marvellously fine . The first Lord Craven was a pet witk ^ the Queen of Bohemia , the mother of the tAvo Princes , and through that Queen the portraits of her two sons

passed to Lord Craven . Long may they remain at Combe Abbey . Neither the Church nor the Law made any great demand on the pencil of the illustrious Fleming . I can trace with cetainty an archbishop ( Laud ) ,

and with some uncertainty a lord-keeper ( Littleton ) , and no more . The Laud , a three-quarters , full face in canonicals , with black square hat on his head , went with the Houghton collection to St . Petersburgh . Though far from a good picture , the University of

Oxford offered the Wharton family £ 400 for it * A fair duplicate is at Welbeck , and another nearly as good at Lambeth Palace . Pennant saw what he calls an admirable Yandyck of the archbishop at Ampthill Park , in Bedfordshire . This I have not seenand I am unwilling to rely on Pennant .

, A fourth pprtrait of Laud ( assigned to Vandyck ) was bought , afe > v days ago , at Lord Lyndhurst ' s sale , for the National Portrait GaHery ; but the price , 72 guineas , was not a veritable Vandyck quotation in the Market of Vandyck .

Of James Stuart , fourth Duke of Richmond , and Lenox , who attended King Charles I . to the scaffold and the grave , and whose two brothers , John and Bernard , fell in the king ' s cause , there are many full-lengths by Vandyck , and all unusually good . The finest I have seen is at the

Duke of Buccleuch ' s ; the next , —but I pronounce with diffidence , —the picture at The Gzwe . At Cor sham , Lord Methuen's , there is a fine example , with variations , —the duke has his right hand on the head of a noble greyhound . The dress is black , and the light , almost flaxen hair , falls in

cavalier-shaped ringlets upon his shoulders . Another ( with dog ) at Lord Ashburnham ' s , in Sussex ; another ( with dog ) at Apethorpe , Lord Westmorland ' s ; and another at Cobham , Lord Darnley ' s . This true Stuart to the backbone was only fortyof

three years age at his death , in 1655 . Royal portraits excepted , no picture by Vandyck seems to have been so much in request as a full-length of the Duke of Richmond . Of James Duke of Hamilton , beheaded 1648 , there is a noble full-length by Vandyck at the

Duke of Buccleuch ' s , in London . His brother , the second dnke , who fell at Worcester , does not appear to have sat . Duplicates at Hamilton

Palace and Gorhambury . In this picture AVe see what Clarendon calls "that cloudiness \ yhich was not unnatural" to this vacillating and always undetermined man . At Lord Clarendon ' s , The Grove , in Hertfordshire , is a whole-length of . William Seymour ,

Marquis of Hertford and Duke of Somerset ( d . 1660 ) , another of King Charles's faithful followers to the last . This is Lady Arabella Stuart ' s William Seymour . It is not a good picture . To the rendering and transmitting to posterity the very fine head of his early patron , Thomas

Howard , Earl of Arundel , Vandyck seems to have given his greatest care and his happiest touches . That fine three-quarter and full face ( so admirably engraved by William Sharp ) is , though somewhat injured , still a masterpiece in its way . It was an Orleans picture , and is now by purchase one of the

treasures of Stafford House . Look at this picture well—Garter , Clarencieux—heralds all . You see before you as he lived " the Most Noble and Excellent Thomas Howard , Earl of Arundel ancl Surrey , Earl Marshal and Premier Earl of England , Lord Howard , Mowbray , Segrave , Brews of Grower ,

Pitzalan , Clun , Oswaldestree , Maltravers ancl Greystocke , Knight of the Most Noble Order o the Garter , and of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in the kingdoms of England , Scotland , and Ireland . " You see before you a man . supercilious and proud , who lived always within himself ancl to himself .

At Luton ( the Marquis of Bute's ) was ' a portrait ( 3 ft . 4 in . high-by 2 ft . lOin . wide ) of William Howard , Viscount Stafford , beheaded in the reign , of Charles II . on the perjured evidence of Titus Gates and others . Waagen describes it as spirited in conception and carefully finished , but less clear

in colouring than usual . This viscount , the second son of the Marble Earl of Arundel , married the sole heir iu blood of the great and eminent family of Staffords , Dukes of Buckingham . Another knee-piece , and one of his latest works ( 1639-1641 ) , represents Thomas Howard ,

Earl of Arundel ( died 1646 ) and his wife ( died 1654 ) Lady Alathea Talbot by birth . The proud earl and munificent patron of art points with his marshal ' s baton to a globe marked "Madagascar . '"^ The globe is placed between them . When this picture was paintedLord Arundel was

lan-, p ning a settlement at Madagascar . The original , at Arundel Castle , is by no means in Vandyck's best manner . A duplicate at Knowle , has Junius the earl ' s librarian , in place of the countess . Sir Edward Walker , who was " Secretary at War" to the earl when in command of the king ' s first

expedition against the Scots , calls this " an excellent piece done by that famous artist Vandyck . " * Laud ' s friend and fellow sufferer , the great Earl of Strafford , sat frequently to Vandyck . I have already described that miracle of portrait painting , " Strafford and his Secretary . " There are , how-