PROGRESS OF THE Angs.—The keeper of a gin-shop having lost
his licence by the destruction of his house in order to make way for the New London Bridge approaches, and being refused another for a new house, appealed to the Magistrates at the last Surry Sessions, by the dear memory of his former lucrative abode. Like a disconsolate widower, he had not been content to grieve over the departed, but had its portrait taken—after death, we pre- sume, " A very well-executed picture, representing the condition of Mr. Wallis's former house, was then put in and exhibited to the Court."
These gin-shop proprietors are the modern patrons of art. A paragraph from London's Encyclopedia of Gardening is going the rounds of the press, under the name of" Gin-shop Finery,' giving an account of the expensive carvings, &c. they place hi their temples of Bacchus. Let the artists look to this : here may be their public after all. A gin-retailer would be a famous customer, provided the painter were not too prejudiced in favour of classical associations. The Juniper-berry is in fact the true Grape of the modern Silenus. Whatever the painters attempt, it must be some- thing homely, and also "something short ' —that is to say "strong."
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