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assembled: thus, the Grocers called themselves the fraternity of St. Anthony, because they had their altar in St. Anthony's church; the Vintners, the fraternity of St. Martin, from their connection with St. Martin's Vintry church, &c.

SECTION 4.

PROCESSIONS, FEASTS, AND PAGEANTS.

We find that the fraternities were accustomed, at the time of elections, to make processions to their respective churches in great form, accompanied by the religious orders in rich costumes, bearing wax torches, and singing, and frequently attended by the Lord Mayor and the great civic authorities in state. Stowe describes one of the processions of the Skinners' society on Corpus Christi day, when more than two hundred torches of wax, costly garnished, burning bright, were borne before them, and there were above two hundred clerks and priests in surplices and copes, singing; "after which came the sheriffs' servants, the clerks of the compters, chaplains to the sheriffs, the mayor's sarjeants, counsel of the city, the mayor and aldermen in scarlet, and then the Skinners in their best liveries."

Funerals were also observed among the brethren with great solemnity. The canons of St. Martin le Grand agreed with the Saddlers' company, in Saxon times, that for every deceased member St. Martin's bell should be tolled, "and procession made with burial freely and honourably." At a later period, the ordinances of the Grocers' company, enforce," that at the death of a member of the brotherhood in London, the warden of the year should order the beadle to warn the brothers to go to the dirge, and on the morrow to the mass, under pain of viii. s." And if any of the company died and did not leave sufficient to bury him, then it was to be done "of the common goods, for the honour of the society." These funerals appear to have been conducted with great pomp, each company being possessed of a splendid state pall, (sometimes of two or three,) to be used on such occasions. These palls are described at some length in Mr. Herbert's interesting work, and appear to have been some of the most superb examples of ancient embroidery, representing sacred and angelic personages, flowers, network, and other devices wrought in gold, silver, satin, velvet, and other costly materials. The state pail of the Fishmongers exceeds the rest in magnificence, and is still kept in the hall of that company. Funeral dinners were frequently given to the company on these solemn occasions, and it was not uncommon for a sum to be left by the deceased for this express purpose. Plenteous entertainment was also provided during the ceremony; for it is stated, that during the dirge, "there was a drynkynge in all the cloisters, the nuns halls, and parlors of the said place, and every where ells, for as many as would come, as well the crafts of London, as gentilmen of the inns of court." But it is from the account of election feasts, as given by these companies, that we gain the best ideas of the growing luxury and magnificence of their several societies. Though the sums mentioned as the price of their dainties may appear very small, it is to be remembered that money was then of five times its present value. In the fifteenth century the entertainments of the different crafts began to be attractive to those who loved the good things of life, so that the company's dinners were often graced with the presence of persons of rank and consideration. In an election-feast of 1425, the fish course, and the prices paid, were as follows: "Porpeys, 10d.; oysters and muscles, 6d.; salmon and herring, with fresh ling, 15d.; a salmon, 21d.; for codling's head, 8d.; for five pykes, 6s. 8d.; lampreys, 6s. 8d.; turbot, 3s. 4d.; eels, 2s. 4d.; eight hundred herrings, 10s. 6d." The different sorts of bread used at the feast are distinguished as white bread, trencher bread, payncakes, wassel bread, cocket bread, and spice bread, all included under the head of Pannery. The poultry is entered as follows: "Twenty-one swans at 3s. 9d..-31.18s. 9d.; two geese at 8d.,-1s. 4d.; forty capons at 6d.,-20s.; forty conies at 3d.,-10s.; forty-eight partridges at 4d. each,-16s.; twelve woodcocks at 4d.,-4s. 4d.; twelve dozen and a half of smaller birds at 6d. the dozen,-6s. 3d.; three dozen plovers at 3s.,-9s.; eighteen dozen larks at 4d.,-6s.; six dozen little birds at 14d.,-9d." The more substantial portions of the feast, under the head of Butchery, include, among other meats, the noble baron of beer, eight fillets of veal, and one sirloin of beef, amounting altogether to 18s. 10d., with two rounds of beef and two fillets of pork, 10s. There is also mention of forty marrow-bones with marrow, 5s.; five pieces of suet, 1s. 4d.; and three gallons

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and a half of fresh grease at 16d. per gallon. For the spicery and kitchen there were collected, among other articles, 94 lbs. of "poudre de pepir, 3s.; 2 lbs. de sugre blanch, 2s." with saffron, ginger, mace, cloves, honey, figs, almonds, dates, "reysons de Corince, cynamon, nottemeg, flower de ryse and sanders; also costards, wardens, and other sorts of fruit; oatmeal, vinegar, virjuice, onions, and garlick, twelve gallons of cream, and eight gallons of milk." There is also a curious account of the crockery, pewter ware, rushes for the floor, napery or table linen, cost of cooks, and other attendants, &c., all mixed up in French and English.

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Even at this period, the culinary art was in no despicable state, since we find a notice of such agreeable preparations as their Leche Lombard, a kind of jelly made of cream, isinglass, sugar, and almonds, with other compounds. A curious modification of the same, called a cury, was composed of pork pounded in a mortar with eggs, raisins, dates, sugar, salt, pepper, spices, milk of almonds, and red wine; the whole boiled in a bladder. Their mottrews was a rich soup or stew made of pork and poultry, pounded in a mortar and strained. In the form of a cury this mo!trews was compounded with blanched almonds, milk, and white flour of rice. Doucettes, or little sweetmeats and confections, formed a garnish to the larger dishes, as did also various kin kinds of fritters, and payn-puff, or a preparation of bread stuffed with several sorts of forces and ragouts. Sometimes the payn-puff was directed to be made of marrow, yolk of eggs, dates minced, raisins, and salt, in a delicate paste, and moulded in an orbicular form. There is reason also to believe that the halls were "aromatized" with the precious Indian wood called sanders, thus adding to the luxury of entertainments, which were of no ordinary kind. The brilliancy of the feasts was also increased by the presence of the female members of the several companies. Amidst so many attractions which these ancient feasts held out, it was not one of the least to have the company of females at them. This curious, we had almost said indecorous, custom, but which must, at the same time, have greatly heightened the hilarity, occurred in consequence of the companies consisting, as we have seen, of brothers and sisters; and which practice they seem, on their reconstitution, to have bor rowed from the religious gilds. Not only did widows, wives, and single women, who were members, join the joyous throng, but from the Grocers' ordinances of 1348, we find the brethrene' could introduce their fair acquaintance, on paying for their admission; and that. not, as in modern times, to gaze in galleries, the mere spectators of good living, but as participants. There is an amusing simplicity in the ordinances alluded to of the Grocers on these points: they enjoin, that every one of the fraternity, from thenceforward, having a wife, or companion, shall come to the feast, and bring with him a damsel if he pleases, (ameyne avec luy une demoiselle si luy plest,) if they cannot come, on account of sickness or maternal duties; they are then, and not otherwise, to be excused." Every man paid for his wife 20d.; or man and wife, 5s.; that is to say, 20d. for the man, 20d. for his wife, and 20d. for the priest. Women, not members, but who should afterwards marry members, were to be entered, and looked upon "as of the fraternite for ever, and be assisted and made one of us." If left a widow, such female member was to come to the annual dinner, and to pay, if able, 40d., but, in case she married again to one who was not of the fraternity, she was to be expelled, and so to remain during such marriage, nor none of us ought to meddle or interfere in anything with her on account of the fraternity, so long as she remains married." The admission of different companies, of course, varied with circumstances: the brothers of the Brewers' company were to pay 12d., the sisters 8d., and a brother and his wife 20d.; whilst among the Fishmongers, the members were to pay towards the feast, on their quitting church, every man 12d., and for his wife 8d., and each "for his gest in the same manere at the assemble, as the wardeyns shall reasonabilly ordeynne;" and, it is added, "every body that omyteth to come to the foreseide fest or assemble, and is absent, shall pay redely as othir or here condicion that be present; and atte same fest or assemcient persons of the same fraternite to governe and rule in ble every yere shall be ordeyned or chose from other suffigode manere most profitable to the encrece and worship of the same fraternite."

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The election ceremonies took place after the feast, and differed in different companies; but seem all to have included the practice of crowning the newly-elected principals.

In the ancient records of the Grocers it is enacted that the wardens were to come "with garlandes on their hedes, after the mangerie was finished," and the fraternity was to choose as wardens for the year ensuing, "them upon whom the forseid garlondes shullen be so sett," and to them was to be delivered all money, papers, and other things which belonged to the fraternity, under a penalty of ten pounds. Refusal of office was followed by fine and expulsion. In the wardens' accounts of the same company, for 1401, the sum of twenty pence is debited for "the two chapellettes pour couron. les novels mestres," and sixteen shillings for refreshment. Minstrels were present at these feasts. Sometimes harpers played and sung, in the intervals of more sonorous strains from cornets, shalms, flutes, horns, and pipes. Theatrical entertainments were also introduced, but the pieces appear to have been sacred, and the actors, in some cases, ecclesiastics.

The place in which all these ceremonies were enacted is thus described by Mr. Herbert.

"The hall was an immense room, giving name, as now, to a whole collection of contingent buildings, which the fraternity themselves generally and more appropriately termed their house.' It mostly had an open timber roof, for the Fishmongers suspended the leading articles of their pageants from it, as was probably the case with the other companies. A lantern, or lover, in the centre, and elevated gothic windows on the sides, 'richly dight' with the arms of the benefactors, threw the dimmed sunbeams on a glare of gorgeous tapestry, filling the space between the windows and the floor, and which, in the Merchant-Tailors' Hall, contained the history of their patron, St. John the Baptist. The floor was only strewed with rushes; the tables, boards placed on tressels, except perhaps the great cross table on the haut pas, for superior guests. Pewter vessels, though hired at the Brewers' dinners, were chiefly for the use of the kitchen; for the tables of the other companies were, according to their inventories, resplendent with donations of plate. All the halls were traversed by the reredos, or grand screen. The Merchant-Tailors had a large sylver vmage of St. John, in a tabernacle,' on the top of theirs. These screens concealed the entrance to the buttery, larder, kitchen, and offices. The minstrels were placed somewhere aloft, and there were temporary platforms or stages for players. Other passages branched to the wine and ale cellars, and to the chambers, among which latter, one was always reserved for the bachelors.' Annexed to the buttery, but at a greater distance, were the bakehouse and brewhouse; the kitchen passage, which lay on a gradual descent, was guarded from hungry intruders by a spiked hatch: the kitchen itself was stored with the 'spittes, rakkes, and rollers,' and all the other massy and capacious culinary implements and utensils which characterized these establishments in the rude days of England's stout yeomanry. The city Guildhall, on the lord mayor's day, now affords the best idea of the company's ancient halls and feasts, though certainly on a scale of greater magnitude and splendour."

Though the different companies had probably halls or places of meeting, from the time of their first establishment; yet there is no recorded account of them before the time of Edward the Third, when their charters were bestowed. Besides the hall itself, and the offices connected therewith, the companies were required, in the time of the Stuarts, to keep a granary and armoury. Almshouses also adjoined the principal building, that the almsmen might be at hand to join in any public processions or pageants.

"One of the first of these halls, which apparently corresponded with the increased consequence of the newly chartered companies, was the Goldsmiths' Hall, which must also have ranked with the earliest in point of age, as their fraternity had an assay office in the reign of Edward the First. In this, Bartholomew Read, goldsmith, and lord mayor in 1502, is stated to have held a feast of such magnitude, that Stowe treats Grafton's account of it as fabulous, observing, that Westminster Hall itself would scarcely have sufficed.

"Most of the halls which existed before or near the Reformation, seem to have been formed from the deserted mansions of the great, and subsequently from religious buildings, and they in consequence possessed, in many instances, gardens. Drapers' Hall was the mansion of Lord Cromwell, and still retains its fine gardens. Salters' Hall was the town seat of the Earls of Oxford, and had a garden attached, said to have been the place where Empson and Dudley met in Henry the Seventh's reign, and part of

which forms the forecourt of their present hall. The Grocers built on the site of Lord Fitzwalter's town mansion, and had a fine garden, part of which is also still preserved. The minor companies, in several instances, bought and converted the halls of the dissolved religious houses into trade halls: as the Leather-sellers, who fitted up the fine hall of the nuns of St. Helen's; the Pinners, who occupied the Austin Friars' Hall, afterwards called Pinners' Hall Meeting-house; the Barber-Surgeons, who built on part of the site of the hermitage of St. James in the Wall, and others.

"The greatness or convenience of most of the companies' halls, not only adapted them for the immediate uses they were built for, but enabled them to give grand feasts to various monarchs, who honoured them with their suites, by enrolling themselves members. In the interregnum they were the meeting-places of the various government commissioners, and occasionally superseded the senate-house as an arena of politics. By the parliamentary commanders they were converted into barracks, by the puritanical clergy into preaching places, and by succeeding lord mayors they were afterwards used as temporary mansion-houses."

The pageants next call our attention, and we can only glance at so extensive a subject, leaving the reader to seek fuller particulars in Mr. Herbert's work, or in the authorities which are there referred to. These pageants were called by the common people ridings, and were so frequent that Chaucer, in describing an idle apprentice, makes them the great cause of drawing him from his work. When there any ridings were in Chepe, Out of the shoppe thider wold he lepe; And till that he had all the sight ysein, And danced well, he would not come agen.

On the return of Edward the First from his victory over the Scots in 1298, the trades made their "severall shew, but specially the Fishmongers, which, in a solempne procession, passed through the citie, having, amongst other pageants and shews, foure sturgeons gilt carried on foure horses, then foure salmons of silver on foure horses, and after them six and forty armed knightes riding on horses, made like sluces of the sea, and then one representing St. Magnus, (because it was on St. Magnus day,) with a thousand horsemen, &c."

The sluces above mentioned are explained to mean luces, a fish introduced in the Fishmongers' arms.

In 1446, is an entry thus: "This yeare came Quene Margaret into England, with grete roialte of the kyng's cost, and was receyved at London the 28th day of May in the moost goodly wise, with alle the citizeins on horseback riding ayenst hir to the Black-heth in blew gownes and rede hodes; and in the citie in diverse places goodly sights ayenst hir comyng."

When Henry the Fifth arrived at Dover from France in 1415, with his prisoners, he was met by a procession, thus described by Lydgate:

The mayr of London was redy bown
With alle the craftes of that cite,
All clothyd in red throughout the town,
A semely sight it was to see;
To the Blak-heth thaune rod he,

And spredde the way on every syde;
XX M men might well see,

Our comely kyng for to abyde.

The reception of Henry the Sixth on his return from being crowned King of France, also appears to have been very magnificent. The mayor's dress on this occasion is described as being of crimson velvet, with a great velvet hat furred, a girdle of gold about his middle, and a jewel of gold about his neck, trailing down behind him. He was followed by three hundred huntsmen on great coursers, in entire suits of red, all spangled with silver. The whole commonalty of the city, who seem mostly to have been liverymen, were clothed in white gowns and scarlet hoods, with divers conuzances embroidered on their

sleeves.

Their clothing was of colour full covenable;
The noble mair clad in red velvet,
The shrieves, the aldermen, full notable,
In furryd clokes, the colour of scarlett;
In stately wyse whanne they were met,
Ich one were wel horsyd, and made no delay,
But with there maire rood forth on their way.

The citezens ich on of the citee,

In their entent that they were pure and clene,
Ches them of whit a ful faire lyvere

In evry craft, as it was wel sene;

To shewe the trow the that they dede mene, Toward the kyng hadde mad them faithfully In sundry devyses embrowdyd richely. The "Merchant Strangers," consisting of the "Geneweys" (Genoese), Florentines, and also the Easterlings, (all of which nations had their residences in the city,) were dressed in their country fashion, or as it is stated, "clad in there manere," and attended by serjeants and other officers, "statly horsyd," passed through the suburbs, riding after the mayor. At Blackheath, (the general place of rendezvous on these occasions,) the whole arranged themselves in two ranks, leaving

A strete between ech party lik a wall;

All clad in whit, and the most principalle
Afore in red.

The precedency of the companies was a point of etiquette scrupulously adhered to in all the pageantries, and was regulated by the mayor and aldermen, though it does not seem to have been reduced to a fixed principle until a comparatively late period in the history of the companies. To prevent disputes it was arranged that the mayor's company should always precede, and that the others should have alternate precedence. In the reign of Henry the Eighth a court was summoned for the especial purpose of settling the order of processions.

An attempt at scenic display was made on this occasion, a pageant being placed against the Great Conduit between Grocers' and Mercers' Halls, representing a grove of such foreign fruits as were peculiar to the trade of a grocer, (the mayor being of that trade,) and in the midst of the grove three wells, whose waters, at the king's presence, seemed miraculously changed into wine. At these wells the three virtues, Mercy, Grace, and Pity, were represented serving out the wine, and two aged men, representing Enoch and Elias, approached the king as he passed the wells, presenting him with fruit, and giving him their blessing.

That God conferme his state ay to be stable,
Thus old Ennock the processe gan welle telle
And praid for the kyng as he rood be the welle,
After Elias, with his lokkes hore,

Well devoutly seyde, lokyng on the kyng,
God conserve the, and kepe the evermore,

And make hym blessyd in erthe here levyng,
And preserve hym in al manere thing,
And special among kynges alle,

In enemyes handes that he nevere falle.

At the coronation of Elizabeth, queen of Henry the Seventh, in 1487, "at her coming forth from Grenewich by water, there was attending upon her there the maior, shrifes, and aldermen of the citie, and divers and many worshipfull comoners, chosen out of every crafte, in their liverays, in barges freshely furnished with banners and stremers of silke, rechely beaton with the armes and bagges of their craftes; and in especiall a barge called the bachelor's barge, garnished and appareleed, passing all other, wherein was ordeyned a great redde dragon spowting flames of fyer into the Thames; and many other gentlemanlie pagiaunts, well and curiosly devised, to do her highness sporte and pleasoure with."

The procession in honour of the marriage of the unfortunate lady Ann Boleyn, appears to have been as splendid as any of the foregoing. But in addition to the city companies, Apollo with the muses, and St. Anne with her children, had their appointed places. The three Graces took their stand in Cornhill, and the Cardinal Virtues in Fleet Street. A fountain of Helicon ran Rhenish wine, and the Conduit in Chepe foamed forth claret. The great red dragon casting forth wild fire, was again put in requisition, wild men also cast fire, "making a hideous noise." Three years afterwards the mayor, aldermen, and city companies, are described as being among the mournful spectators of the execution of this ill-fated lady.

The wild men spoken of in this pageant, were fellows dressed like savages in hairy dresses, partly covered with green leaves. These men marched before the procession flourishing large clubs to keep off the mob, who were assisted by others whimsically attired, and disguised with droll masks, having large staves or clubs headed with cases of crackers. These assistants were sometimes called green

men, trom the colour of their dress. Four of these men was the number usually employed, but sometimes as many as twenty wild and green men preceded the pageant.

The respect paid by the city companies to the memory of deceased royalty, also added greatly to the grandeur of public funerals. At the interment of Henry the Fifth, 1422, every householder was charged to provide a black or russet gown, and a black hood, and after the charge to be present at the king's funeral. Certain of the crafts were ordered to find two hundred torches for the funeral. The Brewers provided eight torches, weighing one hundred and thirty-eight pounds of wax, price 51s. 9d. The chamberlain gave white gowns to the torch-bearers, and the Brewers paid to each three-pence a day for two days. "The royal corpse was brought to London on Thursday, November 5th, and was met at St. George's Bar, Southwark, by the mayor, sheriffs, and citizens, on foot; the Brewers stood at St. Margaret's (Southwark) churchyard, until the procession had gone by, preceded by the torch-bearers, and then followed to St. Paul's, where a dirge was performed. On the next day several masses were sung by many bishops and others, who, after eating, preceded the corpse to Westminster, with the mayor and civic authorities. The torches were held at the gate of the abbey until all had entered; and when brought back weighed one hundred and twelve pounds, and were sold for 28s. Every householder, from the church of St. Magnus to Temple Bar, had a servant holding a torch at his door while the procession passed. The burial was solemnized on Saturday, November 7th, when there were offered at the high altar four steeds royally trapped, with a knight full and whole armed with the king's coat armour, and a crown upon his head, sitting upon one of the steeds. After mass, two hundred cloths of gold were offered.

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"At the burial of Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry the Seventh, 1503, amongst the honest persons, citizens of London, on horseback,' we find the aldermen of London, and of the foreign gilds, the Easterlings, the Frenchmen before them, the Portingalls before them, the Venetians before them, the Janavys (Genoese) before them, and the Lewknors before them; and all the surplus of the citizens of London that rode not in black, stood along from Fanchers (Fenchurch) to the end of Cheap.' Besides these were ordeyned divers torch-bearers of certain crafts of London, which torch-bearers had gownes and hoods of white woollen cloth."

Thus, up to the time of the Reformation, whether at seasons of public rejoicing or of national mourning, the Livery Companies of London were always ready to add to the imposing nature of public ceremonies by their presence and powerful aid. In another Supplement will be described the effect of that great national blessing, the Reformation, on the state and dignity of the City Companies.

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POUSSIN AND HIS WORKS.
I.

FEW artists present a more instructive example than
NICHOLAS POUSSIN, of diligence and patient perse-
verance, which under circumstances of peculiar diffi-
culty, enabled him fully to triumph over the various
obstacles by which caprice, bad taste, and malevolence,
attempted to arrest his course. "He did not fix his
standard on the highest pinnacle of art, but having selected
a more humble station, it is his great praise that he accom-
plished, more completely than almost any other artist, the
objects which it was his ambition to attain. From his
earliest years he appears to have been blessed with a calm
philosophical mind, free from strong passions, but replete
with energy, and with an amiable and contented disposition,
which enabled him to live in amity with his fellow men,
to circumscribe his wants, and to concentrate the whole
force of his mind upon his professional pursuits. These
rare endowments appear, at an early age, to have afforded
him an almost intuitive power of discovering that line of
art best suited to his capacity, from the strength and sim-
plicity of which he was never led aside, either by the
blandishments of colouring and effect, or the more dignified
attractions of the highest departments of painting. From
the study of the works of almost every artist of eminence,
he appears, indeed, to have obtained occasionally useful
hints, which he dexterously interwove with his own pecu-
liar style, but without in the slightest degree diminishing
its originality. His pictures, with the exception of those
of a very few distinguished artists, possess greater unison,
in their respective parts, than the productions of any other
painter. Whether his subject partook of the gay, the
lively, or severe, he uniformly made it his successful care
not to impair the general character, that ought to pervade
the whole, by the introduction of extraneous or incon-
sistent matter. *
Those artists who are anxious
to acquire the general rudiments of art, will derive one
great advantage from serious reflection on the works and
example of Poussin; whatever they may acquire from him
may be considered as real gain, for they will, at least, have
nothing of it to unlearn in their after progress*."

* *

NICHOLAS POUSSIN was descended from a noble

increased his reputation in Andelys, this circumstance, joined to the pressing entreaties of Nicholas, at length overcame the reluctance of the father to permit his son to follow the bent of his inclination, and he was permitted to become the pupil of Varin.

The great interest which Varin took in the progress of his young pupil, and the rational course of study which he prescribed, had, doubtless, considerable influence on the future success of Poussin. But after a time, the studies of Varin and the little town of Andelys, afforded no models that could satisfy his genius. He felt that greater excellence might be attained, but that the means of attainment were in a distant place. his father's consent, he set out for Paris without the One of his biographers states, that in despair of getting knowledge of any one. This, however, is contradicted; first, by the general character of Poussin, and the scrupulous regard with which he fulfilled all the duties of life, whether as son, husband, or citizen; secondly, by the fact that Poussin was able to procure the assistance of masters on his first arrival at Paris.

Paris. His first master was Ferdinand Elle, a FlemPoussin was eighteen years old when he entered ing, who enjoyed considerable reputation as a portrait painter; but he soon quitted him, and became a pupil of L'Allemand, who, though superior to Elle, soon found himself far behind Poussin in all but the mechanical part of the art, and their connexion did not last many weeks. Poussin was full of ardour to enter upon the bold and difficult career of historical painting, and could not devote his time to the assistance of those who painted nothing but portraits, whose highest merit was to produce striking resemblances, and who knew nothing of the ideal beauty which Poussin was striving to ap preciate and to secure.

secuting his studies.

Poussin's means of subsistence were exhausted, when he fortunately succeeded in forming a friendship with a young nobleman of Poitou, who was then pursuing his studies at the university of Paris. This gentleman was family of Picardy, established in the compté of Sois-Poussin, that he furnished him with the means of profond of the arts, and entertained so great a regard for sons. His father left his country in consequence of civil war, and followed the fortunes of the King of Navarre, afterwards Henry the Fourth; but the poverty of the royal treasury during that unhappy period, had thrown all the expenses of a military life upon himself. On the establishment of peace, the elder Poussin settled at Andelys, a little town situate among the pleasant hills on the banks of the Seine, in Normandy, where in the year 1592, he married, and in June, 1594, the subject of the present memoir was born.

The early history of Nicholas Poussin resembles that of many other artists; he was led, as it were, by an irresistible impulse to copy the forms of natural objects, covering his books, and the white walls of his school and his home, with his sketches, and constantly incurring the censure of his schoolmaster and parents, who lamented that a boy of so much talent should be continually wasting his time in such trivial, profitless

pursuits.

But it happened, fortunately, that during the boyhood of young Poussin, an artist of some repute, Quentin Varin by name, came to reside at Andelys. He discovered in the infantile attempts of Poussin, some indications of genius, and encouraged his inclination to devote all his energies to the arts. But the elder

Poussin did not share in the enthusiasm of his son;

on the contrary, he regarded the life of an artist as one

incapable of producing either profit or happiness; but by degrees, the performances of Varin having greatly

The above excellent remarks occur in a notice of Mrs. Graham's Memoir of the Life of Nicholas Poussin, contained in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 1821. The materials for our notice are mostly derived from M. Landon's voluminous work, Les Vies et Euvres des Peintres. We have also to acknowledge our obligations to Mrs. Graham's excellent Memoir.

With the greatest eagerness for instruction, Poussin sought in vain for masters who would confirm and rea

lize to him the exalted idea which he had formed of the pervaded France; the school of Raffaelle had been exart of painting. At this epoch a bad taste in painting tinguished by civil wars, and that of the Caracchi, which in Italy had begun to restore good taste and correct principles, had not yet exerted any influence north of the Alps.

But Poussin was not left altogether without aid. Through the kindness of his young patron, he made the acquaintance of Courtois, mathematician to the king, assembled there a beautiful collection of engravings by who occupied apartments in the Louvre, and who had Mark Antonio and others, after Raffaelle and Giulo Romano, together with a number of original drawings by those masters, all of which he generously lent to

Poussin.

This treasure afforded the young artist a glimpse of that light he had so ardently longed for, and taught him to conceive his subjects nobly and historimoulded by the systems of schools, nor submitted to His love of the beautiful not having been the contracted view of a master, he proceeded with the chaste style which distinguishes his works. He needed force of genius to form his taste for that grand and

pieces now before him; he eagerly and carefully copied not to be instructed in the beauties of the masterthem; and often afterwards talked of this event as one

of the most fortunate of his life.

Poussin's young patron being recalled by his mother to his country seat, engaged the artist to follow him. He wished to embellish his house with pictures, and the grateful artist acceded to this request with joy, as

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