CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PAGE
Preface [vii]

Sketches of Art, Literature, and Character, Part I.
in Three Dialogues.

I. A Scene in a Steam Boat [4]
A Singular Character [20]
Gallery at Ghent [25]
The Prince of Orange's Pictures [27]
A Female Gambler [38]
Cologne—the Medusa [44]
Professor Walraf [51]
Schlegel and Madame de Staël [55]
Story of Archbishop Gerard [64]
Heidelberg—Elizabeth Stuart [68]
An English Fanner's idea of the Picturesque [85]
II. Frankfort [88]
The Theatre, Madame Haitzinger [92]
The Versorgung Haus [98]
The Städel Museum [103]
Dannecker, Memoir of his Life and Works [106]
German Sculpture—Rauch, Tieck, Schwanthaler [147]
III. Goethe and his daughter-in-law [160]
The German Women [167]
German Authoresses [177]
German Domestic Life and Manners [187]
German Coquetterie and German Romance [199]
The Story of a Devoted Sister [205]

Sketches of Art, Literature, and Character, Part II.
Memoranda at Munich, Nuremberg, and Dresden.

I. Munich [241]
The Theatre—representation of "Egmont" [245]
Leo von Klenze [250]
The Glyptothek—its general arrangement—Egina Marbles—Account of the Frescos of Cornelius—Canova's Paris and Thorwaldson's Adonis [252]-[273]
The Opera at Munich, the Kapel Meister Stuntz [274]
The Poems of the King of Bavaria [279]
A public day at the New Palace [281]
Thoughts on Female Singers—Their condition and destiny [284]
The Munich Gallery—Thoughts on Pictures—their moral influence[287]
Rubens and the Flemish Masters [295]
The Gallery of Schleissheim [304]
The Boisserée Gallery—The old German School of Painting—Its Effects on the Modern German School of Art [304]
Representation of the Braut von Messina [310]
The Hofgarten at Munich [313]
The King's passion for Building [316]

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THE AUTHOR TO THE READER.

It seems a foolish thing to send into the world a book requiring a preface of apologies; and yet more absurd, to presume that any deprecation on the part of the author could possibly win indulgence for what should be in itself worthless.

For this reason, and with a very deep feeling of the kindness I have already experienced from the public, I should now abandon these little volumes to their destiny without one word of preface or remark, but that a certain portion of their contents seems to require a little explanation.

It was the wish and request of my friends, many months ago, that I should collect various literary trifles which were scattered about in print or in manuscript, and allow them to be published together. My departure for the continent set aside this intention for the time. I had other and particular objects in view, which still keep full possession of my mind, and which have been suspended not without reluctance, in order to prepare these volumes for the press;—neither had I, while travelling in Germany, the slightest idea of writing any thing of that country: so far from it, that except during the last few weeks at Munich, I kept no regular notes: but finding on my return to England, that many particulars which had strongly excited my interest, with regard to the relative state of art and social existence in the two countries, appeared new to those with whom I conversed,—after some hesitation, I was induced to throw into form the few memoranda I had made on the spot. They are now given to the public in the first and second volumes of this little collection, with a very sincere feeling of their many imperfections, and much anxiety with regard to the reception they are likely to meet with; yet in the earnest hope that what has been written in perfect simplicity of heart, may be perused both by my English and German friends, particularly the artists, with indulgence; that those who read and doubt may be awakened to inquiry, and those who read and believe may be led to reflection; and that those who differ from, and those who agree with the writer, may both find some interest and amusement in the literal truth of the facts and impressions she has ventured to record.

It was difficult to give sketches of art, literature, and character, without making now and then some personal allusions; but though I have often sketched from the life, I have adhered throughout to this principle—never to give publicity to any name not already before the public, and in a manner public property.

Two of the tales of the third volume, "The False One," and "The Indian Mother," were written at different times, to prove that I could write in a style which should not be recognised as mine even by my most intimate friends, and the ruse so far succeeded, that both, as I am informed, have been attributed to other writers.