13 AUGUST 1881, Page 21

The Portfolio. August. (Seeleys.)—We might call this a "holiday number"

of the Portfolio. For those who may be meditating a visit to the Continent, there is a very vigorous etching of Frankfort by Mr. Ernest George, and for home tourists an article in the series of "Illustrations of Lancashire" on "The Seashore and the Lake District." The full-page illustration here is "Coniston," an etching by Mr. David Law. The mountain here does not quite satisfy us, and the three smaller illustrations are more pleasing. The article itself is specially interesting. Lancashire owns a larger portion of the Lake district than it is commonly credited with, while its coast is very rich in an extensive landscape beauty. Mr. George Grinder describes these attractions in a very appreciative way, and finds a charm in what most visitors are accustomed to think very dull and dreary. He who walks between Blackpool and Fleetwood should certainly have "his face turned towards the poetic west," for the view on other points is, to say the least, not lovely. The other article treats of "The Development of Genre Painting in Early Italian Art."