PAINTED GLASS.
IF we were asked to name one of the greatest peculiarities of this overgrown town, we should perhaps say, that it was that of pos- sessing sights that only require to be known to be admired, and yet are at the same time so little public as to be actually unknown to an immense majority of the inhabitants. If in a country town each man knows his neighbour, still bet- ter does he know the remarkable, the curious, and the extraor- dinary within his range ; but the very reverse is the case in London, —the citizen not only knows not the person who lives next door, but has not even the slightest conception that "there is a lion in the way," worthy of the observation of the most heedless passenger. Each man has his own particular business to attend to, his own particular pursuits to follow ; and it is marvellous how precisely he adopts the same means of arriving at them, from one year's end to another, without ever turning to the right or to the left. The genuine Londoner looks upon every thing beyond his own imme- diate circle as heterodox in the extreme ; and not all the eloquence M the world can persuade him, that to turn another corner—to venture on a different angle in his daily route—can produce some- thing to repay the exertion.
We would venture to gage a pretty round sum—though our forte
does not lie in calculating the long odds—that many thousands pass along the Strand daily without having the slightest notion that, when traversing that portion of it which is called Picket Street, they are within a few yards of stumbling upon one of the most in- teresting exhibitions that London contains. Let our readers, the next time they pass that way, take cognizance of each name on the south side, and they will presently perceive that of " Collins " over one of the doors, with the honourable title attached to it of "Glass-Enameller to the King." Mr. COLLINS has not received this designation for nothing, as the contents of his gallery will at all times show. The art of painting on glass was, we believe, for a period supposed to be lost ; but if it was indeed extinct, Mr. COLLINS has succeeded in reviving it in all its ancient splendour. The specimens that have been produced by him are numerous, and at present grace some of the finest edifices in the world : among others, may be mentioned a portion of the Cartoons of RAPHAEL copied for the great church-window at Calcutta ; and a painting after MARTIN'S celebrated picture of l3elshazzar's Feast,—the original of which, by- the-by, is in Mr. COLLINS'S gallery. Both of these examples not only show the perfection to which the art has been brought, but display the merits of the respective artists in an extraordinary light. In the Belshazzar's Feast this was more particularly the case : the principal,effect of that painting consists in the strong contrasts of light and shade ; and these were exhibited most forcibly in the copy on glass, which, depending in a great measure on a strong light from behind, showed this peculiarity in a remarkable degree. This painting is now in the possession of the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Mr. COLLINS at present exhibits in his gallery a large window which he has just completed for the family-mansion of Sir ROGER GRESLEY in Derbyshire. It is divided into twenty-four compartments, and displays the variations and quarterings that have taken place in the family arms since the period of the Con- quest. These heraldic antiquities make a good subject for the brilliant tone of which we have already spoken so highly, and with the:accompanying Gothic ornaments, render the whole window what one of our elder poets would call " a dainty device." If there is anything at all objectionable, it is that the head of the window is semicircular, instead of terminating in a Gothic point ; which, both from shape and association, would have been much more appro- priate to the subject the window introduces. This, however, was impossible; as the window-frame itself was prdbably built by an architect who little dreamt of the rich jewel his setting was des- tined to contain.
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