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    years were fagged at criciet for more than a few minutes . But there were many who hated cricket , and had no wish to learn , as they did not enjoy games ; their health or beat of mind preventing' their taking any interest in it . To these it was hard work indeed to stand hehind the wicket , frightened out of their self-possession by the terrific bowling ; to run from place to place , fetching- " hard-hit outs ; " to " long off , " often half a mile away , or " long leg , " which it took a long time for their short ones to read . Besides , of all perverse and obstinate things , a cricket-ball is the most pigheaded ; place yourself where you may , go where you will , it invariably slips through your fingers ; there is a kind of twist about its progressive motion which defies all youx attempts to arrest its onward flight . Many a cricket-ball , instead of rushing into hands ready to receive it , has leaped over my head after pitching on some hard sod , and given , me a weary run to the other end of the playground to fetch it . I have heard monitors explain that cricketing was much more healthy than lying by murmuring streams reading foolish novels ; but we fags did not agree with them : it kept the fags out of mischief , and taught us how to play at manly games , they urged ; but we did not wish to be kept out of mischief , and liked playing cricket amongst ourselves . The most unanswerable argument "was , that it put a check on the clay pipe , which at one time obtained among- the " mauvais sujets" of the school .

    There was also racket-fagging , but as it employed but four fags at one time , and was only unendurable from its extreme dullness and idleness , it need hardly be mentioned . The school was essentially a cricket-playing one , and the cricket-fagging-was the severe out-door work . Lastly , there was the foot-ball fagging , wlich the little boys disliked most , and in which masters , mothers , and the public had the greatest interest . Nurses and doctors must have disliked it most , as it lessened their occupation and their gains , so beneficial was the influence it exercised on the health of the school . During the autumn halfyear— -leaf-falling and showery October , bleak , rainy , foggy November , and clear frosty December—cricket being abandoned , foot-ball was in full vogue .

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    THE COUNTESS OF ST . ALBAN . The Countess of St . Alban . Translated from the German of Hacklsender , by Franz Demmler . Hodgson , Paternoster-row . IThe translator of this book tells us that Hacklaender in his own country is spoken of as the " German Boz , " and his popularity at home " certainly has equalled , if not surpassed , that of his great English model . " This is said to be the masterpiece of a writer whose long-established and wellearned fame " rests in a great measure on qualities of gemus similar to those by which one of the most popular humourists of England has endeared himself to the reading world . ' ^ Looking at the book from this point of view , we were at a loss to recognise the meaning of the comparison to Dickens , except , perhaps , in some bits of miniature paintinff . The leaning towards Dumas is ratner more apparent .

    The romance , the manners , and even the low life , are certainly more of that school than any other . There is in the Countess of St . Alban plenty of romance , incident , and some humour—a trifle hard , perhaps—but little story . It is rather a succession of scenes than a tale - It is however , more than merely readable , it is interesting , and often amusing . The author is evidently at home in tlie " coulisses . " Here is a scene minutely finished . It is the rehearsal-roorn of the theatre of a Parisianised small" German capital This apartment was very long , but rather narrow in proportion , and the floor somewhat inclined , like the stage itself , so that the young artists of both sexes might he enabled even here , to overcome the difficulty of dancing back , up hill , as it -were . Along the walls long poles were fastened horizontally , which the ladies took hold of whilst executing with their feet the strangest and most fanciful contortions .

    They were a very gay company , and the merrier in the absence of their chief Signor Benetti , who was in an inner room , with the solo-dancers . Here they stood , in the most remarkable costumes , in which curling papers and small caps covering the head prevailed ; tight boddices of coloured or white stuff showed off their thin waists , besides which are to be mentioned the indispensable silk tricots , ending in old halfworn-out dancing-shoes . Loud laughter and gay conversation prevailed through the room . Here a group of three were standing together , their toes painfully turned outward , and with their hands on their backs , telling each other remarkable or funny stories ; on another side there were two trying a new pas with a lanky gentleman of

    the corps de hallet ; several others ,-in a distant corner of the hall , wore polking for their own private amusement , and some diminutive beginners , in the professional slang of the ballet called " rats , " were trying an exceedingly difficult final group , which somehow or other would never succeed . Now one and then the other would not pay any attention—then they tumbled over one another , rolled on the ground , scrambled up again , and tried their luck once more . The whole appearance of the dancing-room , in broad daylight had a sort of threadbare , washed-out look about it ; it was like a ball which lusts until dawn of day , when the dresses and the coiffures of the fair dancers are deranged , and themselves look jaded and worn .

    Again , —the rehearsal of a scene in a forthcoming ballet : — Well then ladies , " said Signor Benotti , " now comes the scene where you , Mademoiselle Paulino ( this was the name of the fair-haired danaeuee ) , are to execute your pas de deux with the Knight Aatolfo . Alroady , in the adagio , he tells you pantomi-Hucally that ho lovea you , and then expresses by dancing , ' What arc the charms of tho bride which ia appointed to mo by Fate , in comparison with thino , O sweet one ?' His first pirouette times with the words , O sweet one ! ' then ho stops , longingly strotching out hiB arms towards you , and you , frightened by hia confession , fly from him in dismay . So : one , two , three , four , five , six , sovon , eight—pirouette : ' , swcotonol ' fly , Mademoiselle Paulino—that ' a it ! but you should express the dismay more forcibly ; othorwiao it was not so bad ; more dismay , if you plonso ; only consider tho 5 mportanco of tho moment I the catastrophe of tho whole ballet hinges upon it . Onco more—one , two , three , four , 11 vo , eix , seven , eight—pirouette , ' O aweot one 1 '—stretch out your arms much more imploringly , air—much moro imploringly I Bravo I

    Mademoiselle Paulino , your diamuy waa delightful—very good indeed . Let us go on s , in your solo , you anawer him that you cannot lovo him , aa ho ia another's ; at tho same time you express your regret at its being : so , aa in reality you love him after nil ; that's it j now follows your pirouette ; then you express by pantomime , « Alaa ! Fato eovcrs us . '—Beautiful , very well dono I Wow follows tho grand aolo of tho Knight Astolfo ; h « cannot live without you , ho will pine » way in sorrow and despair ;—very well dono , sir!—In your aolo , Madomoinollo Paulino , you rclunt , you become moro yielding . Excellent !—your relenting is admirable . —Now begina tho allegro , tho pas < Je dewo ;—you fly from tho knight ; ho brings you back—you hold your hands bashfully before your face - ho tnkoa tho roso from your hair—you snatch it away from Mm again .. —Bravo I Mademoiselle Paulino—Bravo !—you defend your rose moat « Uvin « lyl— -that ' s it ;—Knight Aatolfo , moro pressing , if you ploaao—moro pressing Ifcomm !—bomm ! — bodomin 1—bomm !—bomm !—ho holds har fast—aho sinks on hia breast ;—» ow o dull roll of kotUo-drume . —Sixth scono , — Enter tho black knights 3 ' '

    The translation is too good—mistakenly anglicised down to many of the names . On the whole , this is a good accession to a " Parlour Library , " and if the experiment succeeds , our public may thus rapidly reach a knowledge not only of . " The German Boz , " but " ¦ the Gernaan Thackeray , " " the Ge r - man Sue , "—to the end of the list of lumbering Teuton imitators in light literature . °

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    PICTURES AND DIRT . Dirt and Pictures Separated in the Works of the Old Masters . By Henry ftlerritt . Holyoake and Co-Is it possible that where beauty is acknowledged paramount , ugliness and dirt should be tolerated ? Yes , even admired , and certainly beloved . Such mers antiquarianism of the Dryasdust type is an affliction of art very much to he lamented . It is a mortifying thing to liear men like Haztttt enthusiastic over * . a dark , invisible , very fine old picture / and ascribing some merit of the Cartoons of Raphael * to the decayed and dilapidated state of the pictures

    themselves , which are the more majestic for being in ruins ; ' ' that all the petty meretricious part of the art is dead in them—the carnal is made spiritualr-the corruptible has put on incorruption—and amidst the wreck of calm , and the mouldering of material beauty , nothing is left but a universe of thought or the broad imminent shadows of calm contemplation or majestic pains . ' Traces of time and 'beautiful obscurities , where doubts and curiosities go Jiand in hand and eternally exercise the speculations of the learned , ' as Mr . Merritt says , " awaken quite as much interest and admiration when discovered on the surfaces of old pictures as when found on half obliterated coins and battered armour . "

    We treasure a mud-brick from Babylon because of Its age , but a "wormeaten panel with a few patches of paint left upon it , that once was a picture , retains abundant evidence of its age , but has lost its true interest , and it would be ridiculous to treasure it now . We must beware of affectations in art , for they may lead us to be influenced by the errors of superstition and ignorance . It is for , us to take a clear and pure riew of art , to which , ' the beautiful' is the A p ^ i ? . With the old Greeks there was a superstitious veneration in placing the genuine old originals of Zeus and Pallas—the ' Simulacra mcesta I ) eorum 'all ^ rude and dirty as they -were—side by side with the sublime creations of Phidias : so at the present day , with the Italians ,, themost beautiful pictures of Raphael are not chosen as the shrines of the devoted , but it is some wretched daub of a Madonna scarcely visible ; probably some Byzantine deformity blackened with the smoke of incense and many tapers . Amongst ourselvesthere is escaping from the charge of taste for ugliness all ¦ i / \ 5 ± \ xivui kic Ui Litatt

    , no a : v ***»*?* » * - , u * vx * o xs y ^ ois < i | jaia ££ a » A ; uaigt ; mx ; xyjL Ugliness , < Ll . l the nnxnsters of Chinese art and the terrible grotesques of Gothic gurgoyles are positively admired . Quaintness is a beauty . Every kind of old-looking picture that shows some heads with a petergrievous cast of countenance ( saints of course ) , attached to impossible bodies and limbs , is sought after ; and if it happen to possess the legends coming out of the mouth after the style of Gilray ' s caricatures , the value of the work of art is much enhanced . If these things are esteemed only as marking the stages of the art of painting , all very well ; but when they are a choice of the day , they are looked upon with a prejudiced eye in a morbid and artificial taste . With artists , the academies have made them sick of beauty , and ' the school experiences a revulsion in favour of ugliness . If young art progresses much further in search of sentiment and feeling , we shall have a spasmodic school of painting—the heads full of grimace and convulsive sorrow , with a moral in the pattern of the carpet .

    We must be faithful to our lovo of beauty . Whatever is not beautiful must he proportionally disregarded . Time certainly brings very little beauty to pictures , which are not to be estimated as works of antiquity ; it does infinitely more harm than good , and if there are means of hiding the traces of time , which are in fact decay , they should be adopted in company with every preventive possible . Mr . Merritt is a practical and conscientious restorer of pictures , not a conceited forger that has neither the eye to detect nor the lovo to preserve the beauties that linger on the panel . Upon cleaning , he says : — Is it possible to clean old dirty picturos with beneficial results , and without injury to tho original tints and touches ? ' No , " exclaims " A . Tory in Art , " in tho Times ,- " it is na idle to taljt of restoring a picture to what it waa , aa to try and push back the iron hand of time . Wo must pinko up our minds to put up with a

    certain amount of dirt , and study tho works of departed g-cnius through tho warm haze of time . " Much may wo profit by tho contemplation of delicate beauties—aa they appear through a dark crust of dirt 1 Wo may ventuie tho assertion that the old masters would bo tho first to object to tho prcacnt dingy condition of thoir productions . Tho questions hero to bo asked arc , " Did tho old paintora calculate that their pictures would come to need cleaning ? " am ! "' Did they make any provision to that ond ? " Certainly they did . When oil painting first caino into uao , one of its useful virtues , as noted by tho painters of tho tim . 0 , was , that it would wash . Long before Italian pictures wore rcmurkablo for correct drawing or harmonioua colouring , painters had manifostod anxiety for tho future preservation of their works . AntonLo

    da Messina , about the year 1494 , seeing an oil picture of John Van Eyok's at Nap les , and perceiving that " it might bo wash « d with water without suffering uny injury , " waa so satiallcd of tho advantagca of oil painting over tho old method of colouring in distemper , that he immediately sot out for IJrugos , and there , by presents and services , succeeded in prevailing on John Van Eyck to divulgo his precious secret . It ia recorded that the art of painting in oil taws found its way into Italy . Any how , tharo is no want of evidence that tho early Italian painters wore desirous that their pictures should bo so painted that thoy might afterwards bo kept clean and sightly . Wo find tho venerable Leonardo da Yinci speculating on a method of painting n picture " that will laat for over . " Thin dumbilil . y wn « to bo onnu-Tod by a layer of glnsa placed over tho pioturo , so as to proaorvo it from tho action of tho air . " Wo find varnishes of soino

    sort in repute « 8 far back oh tho year 1410 , after -which timo thoy caino into general use , and havo continued ho to- tho present day . " When wo witih to preaorvo a print vrltlx its white margin from dust , wo placo aglnss over it , and there is no doubt that painters , over » lnco tho jiivontion of oil painting , havo fccon accustomed to varnish thoir piuturoa with a viow to- tho preservation of tho colours . Tharo can bo no queation of tb-o long and general usa of varnittlios , or of tho one aolo reason for thoir use .

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    952 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 7, 1854, page 952, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2059/page/16/