FINE ARTS.
L'ALLEGRO, ILLUSTRATED BY THE ETCHING CLUB.
Is' a proof were needed of the service that such exercitations as these might do to English art, it is furnished by the present volume. The worst and most prevalent fault of the English school of design is want of invention: Which may be traced to a variety of causes,-constrained manners, and consequent defect in the sense of physical expression; constrained costume; trading customs in art; want of opportunity for practising design with a free hand; and many more. The volume before us is got up by men to whom the etching-needle is mainly a toy for recreation, and they feel that they escape into a more playful corner of their practice. The designs are very varied-from the knightly joust to the rustic labours of the field; from the towered city to the "two aged oaks," for which the landscape is but a background. The artists are Cope, Horsley, Townsend, Creswick, Tayler, Stonhouse, and Redgrave. The most equal in skill is Creswick; Whose effects are 'excellent. But we are struck with the success of some of the others in specimens which may be deemed out of their usual" walk": Horsley is very happy in scraps of landscape architecture, especially in the castle " bosomed high in tufted trees "; a simple view of the plough- man Emd.hiefinsowed field, by Townsend, breathes the very air and life of morning; 119114 s.4 tech may be said of Redgrave's shepherd; the friar's lantern is a vigorous night effect; if the same artist's " poet" is rather 'a "arawney," the unsubstantial effect of his- airy-pageant is capital; und the knightly contest, by Frederick Tayler, is full of action and animation in the best spirit.
The text of Milton is exactly copied from the original edition, printed iii 1645.
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