NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
Dr. Waagen, the accomplished Director of the Royal Gallery of Pictures, Berlin, has just presented us with three volumes, to which, as Englishmen, we may refer with pride, because they bear testimony not only to the liberality of our expenditure in works of art, but also to the good taste and judgment which have generally regulated our purchases. The Treasures of Art in Great Britain, being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated MSS., &c., as the work is designated, must become a handbook to every lover of Art in this country. It is an amplification of Dr. Waagen's first work, Art and Artists in England, giving, not only the results of the author's more ripened judgment and extended experience, but also an account of twenty-eight collections in and round London, of nineteen in England generally, and of seven in Scotland, not contained in his former work. And as the Doctor has bestowed much pains in obtaining precise information regarding the art of painting in England since the time of Hogarth, and of sculpture since the time of Flaxman; and also devoted much time to the study of English miniatures contained in MSS. from the earliest time down to the sixteenth century; of miniatures of other nations preserved in England; of drawings by the old masters, engravings and woodcuts; he is fully justified in saying that, both as regards the larger class of the public who are interested in knowing the actual extent of the treasures of Art in England, and also the more learned connoisseurs of the history of Art, this edition offers incomparably richer and more maturely digested materials than the former one. Let us add, that the value of this important and most useful and instructive book is greatly enhanced by a very careful Index.
We have received from Messrs. Johnston, the geographers and engravers to the Queen, two maps especially useful at the present moment, viz., one of the Baltic Sea, with enlarged plans of Cronstadt, Revel, Sveaborg, Kiel Bay, and Winga Sound; and the other of the seat of war in the Danubian Principalities and Turkey, with map of Central Europe.
At the Annual General Meeting of the Camden Society on Tuesday last, M. Van de Weyer, Mr. Blencowe, and the Rev. John Webb were elected of the New Council in the place of Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Foss, and Sir Charles Young, who retire.
The Inaugural General Meeting of the Surrey Archæological Society is announced for Wednesday next, at the Bridge House Hotel, London Bridge, Henry Drummond, Esq., in the chair. Objects of antiquarian and general interest intended for exhibition may be sent, not later than Monday the 8th, to Mr. Bridger, the curator.
Books Received.—The present State of Morocco, a Chapter of Mussulman Civilisation, by Xavier Durriew, the new Part of Longman's Traveller's Library, is an interesting picture of the institutions, manners, and religious faith of a nation too little known in Europe.—Deeds of Naval Daring, &c., by Edward Giffard, Second Series. This new volume of Murray's Railway Reading is well timed.—The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, Vol. III., carries on her record of the gossip of the Court during the years 1786-7.—Critical and Historical Essays, &c., by T. B. Macaulay, contains, among other admirable essays, those on Walpole's Letters to Mann, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Mackintosh's History of the Revolution, and Lord Bacon.