watched him as he worked, and took a sketch, which he afterwards from memory elaborated,

The sketch (which appeared long ago in one of Cassell's publications) represents, very humorously and vigorously, the awkward, untidy dress of the painter; and the swab of a handkerchief hanging from the side-pocket of his tail-coat, the large, almost Jewish nose, the loose, slovenly trousers, and the eagle eyes, are not easily forgotten.

That most foul-mouthed of Mr. Turner's detractors, the late Mr. Rippingille, gives the following hostile view of his manner, face, and bearing. I should call it, "How Turner struck an enemy."

Personally, Turner was as much a character as his house, and as cold and forbidding in aspect. I have witnessed meetings between him and those who considered themselves in the light of friends. I have seen a friend' seize his arm in a public room, attempt to walk and to speak with him; and have seen him receive much the same treatment a butcher would meet with who attempted to put his arm under the fore-leg of an unsocial and impracticable pig. It is said he could talk, and that he had a good deal of sedate fun, seasoned with a spice of sarcasm; I have heard casual remarks from him, which betrayed neither of these qualities-except, perhaps, a little of the last, which I observed was accompanied with a certain selfcomplacent grunt. He professed to know me personally, and once or twice I have put this knowledge to the direct test by asking him who I was, and by his reply have ascertained that his recollection was about as good as his word, or his acquaintance. I know a gentleman who sat next him at a dinner-table, one, too, of such a stock of resources and acquirements as would move a stoic, but not more than a few words could be obtained from Turner. It was clear that Turner was at home, from the familiar way in which he addressed one of the ladies of the family; and his silence or sulkiness was afterwards accounted for by the master of the house calling him aside, and pointedly asking him what was the matter, when it was ascertained that, upon handing him his cheque for a seven hundred pound picture, he had forgotten to pay the hire of the coach in which Turner had

come, and brought the picture with him. There is but little dependence to be placed upon the numerous stories extant, and by no means to his credit; I therefore speak only of what I know and saw. Turner was a short, vulgar-looking man, with an ordinary head, and a coarse, red, pimply' face, utterly devoid of any degree of refinement or intelligence. I cannot recollect any other clever man I ever saw who did not carry evidence of the fact in his face; Turner was the exception. It was impossi ble to make anything of such a head, such a face, look, and expression. So far from its bearing the impress of anything like thought, there was a vulgar, half suppressed giggle, that seemed imprisoned in features too rigid or obstinate to let it escape; while in the twinkle of his eye there was a kind of triumph and self-satisfaction, as much as to say, you might look, but you could not make him out; but with this he showed no disposition to face, but to escape from, observation."

This is little better than mere spite, and the poisonous envy that ever rankles in the heart of a disappointed man. From such men too often come our satirists, our epigrammatists and our critics; and the world, leaning ever to the worst side, takes their bitterness for honesty. Yet, so far it is true, that Turner was a stumpy, ill-dressed man, with a red face and something of a satyr's mouth; but this was towards the close of his life.

Mr.

I have seen an admirable caricature of Turner by that clever colored caricaturist, Mr. Chalon, which represents him with little staring grey eyes, arched, astonished eyebrows, and very scarlet face. Mulready also possesses an inimitable little sketch of Turner furens, taken by stealth at an Academy Council where the artist was thwarted. He looks ready for a spring; Achilles chafing in his tent could not have appeared more grandly furious. Mr. Mulready has caught the true yet momentary expression.

Mr. Rippingille (who viewed Turner with the jaundiced eye of envy) also says of him, "He was short, stumpy, and vulgar, without one redeeming personal quali fication, slovenly in dress, not over cleanly, and devoid of all signs of the habits of a gentleman, or a man moving in good society."―Thornbury's Life of Turner.

Vol. V.

Nos. 57-60.

LITERARY (AND OTHER) GOSSIP.

Roderich Benedix, the familiar dramatist whom Germany has just lost, appears to have been an earnest student of Shakespeare, but in a sense very opposite to that in which many distinguished writers have been such. All the leisure he could spare from his constant work for the stage-and the forty odd dramas he produced must have taxed his time as well as powers severely-seems to have been given to careful criticism of the great poet's works, and the result has come to his executors in the shape of a MS. volume, recently completed, "Against Shakspearomania," a title which of itself discloses the object of the writer. Those who have privately viewed its pages, which are shortly to appear from Cotta's publishing house, Stuttgard, state that it goes over the whole body of Shakespeare's works, and examines them in detail, with the express object of proving to the author's countrymen out of the mouth of the immortal tragedian himself how wrong they are as well as how unpatiotic, to rate the Bard of Avon above the two giants of Weimar. He has no patience with the favorite description of the former's supremacy by his German admirers as "the unattained and unattainable Sovereignty of Poets;" and the work undertakes from actual comparison of passages to prove Schiller and Goethe at least the equals of the worshipped foreigner. Poor Benedix lived just to complete his self-set task, though not to give it to the world; and were he yet living to reply, we would only say to him what we say now, that tastes are hardly matters for set argument, and that it is not Englishmen alone who have caused Germans voluntarily to bestow on Shakespeare the kingship of the literature of all time.

"An American," says the London Spectator, "has done a very generous thing, for which Englishmen should not fail not only to be grateful, but let it be visible that they are grateful. The Dean of Westminster, having issued a circular proposing to place a memorial window in that chapel of Westminster Abbey where Wordsworth's monument stands, to George Herbert and William Cowper, who were both of them educated in Westminster school, Mr. G. W.

Childs of Philadelphia, the proprietor of the Philadelphia Ledger, has asked to be permitted to bear the whole cost of the memorial, and his offer has been accepted. This generous proposal shows that kind of love for English literature and genius which does infinitely more than mere commercial relations to bind the two countries together; and we may at least admit that, in this case, American has quite eclipsed English generosity, which seldom goes so far afield in search of the opportunity of appreciating kindred merit."

It is possible, but not useful, to gild refined gold! What would Carlyle and Macaulay have said to the following bold announcement?" A New Life and Conversations of Dr. Samuel Johnson, by Mr. Alexander Maine, with a preface by George Henry Lewes." Boswell's Life is, perhaps, the ne plus ultra of biographies; it is as undoudtedly the first in its line as are the plays of Shakespeare in theirs. And yet Tate and Bowdler "improved " Shakespeare.

The minor writings of Mr. Grote, the publication of which Mr. Murray announced some time ago, are to be edited by Prof. Bain, of Aberdeen, who will append to them critical remarks on Mr. Grote's intellectual character, writings and speeches.

The death is announced of Mrs. Alfred Gatty, wife of the Rev. Dr. Gatty, Vicar of Ecclesfield, a lady best known to the public as the editor of Aunt Judy's Magazine and author of several popular books of Juvenile fiction. Mrs. Gatty, who was in her sixty-fourth year, was the younger daughter of the Rev. Dr. Scott, who was chaplain of the Victory at Trafalgar, and in whose arms Lord Nelson died.

The Jewish Chronicle states that the Chief Rabbi, the Rev. Dr. Adler, has been for some time engaged in writing a Commentary on the Targum Onkelos, the celebrated version of the Pentateuch. This work is now in the press.

Messrs. Macmillan will issue early in the spring Sir Samuel Baker's account of his recent expedition, in two large volumes.

Minter or Minster of Tuddenham.—At Tuddenham, Coulford Hund, County Suffolk, England, in the church, under the gallery, north side, is a large table monument of red brick, covered with a thick slab of black marble, for William Minter, of Tuddenham, Gent., who died July 4, 1739, at 85 years, and Elizabeth his wife, who died Sept. 9th, 1729, at 56. Arms— Minter: "A pillar, enwrapped with an adder; impaling, a bendy of six, on a fesse, three roundels."

Can any one give the colors and descent of the above coat, and the lineage and progeny of the above-named persons, or of either of them?

William Minster or Mister, of Coventry, England, Gent., left a will dated May 10th, 1759, in which mention is made, besides others, of two grandchildren, Susanna and Martha, daughters of his oldest son William, deceased.

Was this gentleman related to the beforementioned William Minter? If so, in what degree? What were his arms? It is believed that the grand-daughter Martha married an Archbishop of York or Canterbury, or a Bishop of Coventry.

Any information relative to William Minster, of Coventry, his ancestry or descendants. will be thankfully received by INQUIRER.

Addison on Medals. Can you or any of your readers explain why in Addison's dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals certain of the plates only indicate in outline the medal to be illustrated? In an edition of the dialogues in my possession "printed in the year MDCCXXVI," the omissions are as follows: Series I, No. 14, indexed as "Saeculum Aureum, reverse of Adrian," and described in the text thus: "It seems to me from the next medal, it was an opinion among them, that the Phoenix renewed herself at the beginning of the great year, and the return of the Golden Age. * * The person in the midst of the circle is supposed to be Jupiter, by the author that has published the medal, but I should rather take it for the figure of Time. I remember I have seen at Rome an antique statue of Time, with a wheel or hoop of marble in his hand, as Seneca describes him, and not with a serpent as he is generally represented. As the circle of marble in his hand represents the common year, so this that encompasses him is a proper representation of the great year, which is the whole round and comprehension of time. * *To sum up, therefore, the thoughts of this medal, the inscription teaches us that the whole design must refer to the Golden Age, which it lively represents, if we suppose the circle that encompasses Time, or, if you please, Jupiter, signifies the finishing of the great year, and that the Phoenix figures out the beginning of a new series of Time, so that the compliment on this medal to the Emperor Adrian is in all respects the same that Virgil makes to Pollio's son, at whose birth he supposes the annus magnus, or platonical year runs out, and renewed again with the opening of the Golden Age."

*

*

That indexed"Antiochia," in Series III, No. 16, is thus described: "Antioch has an anchor by her, in memory of her founder Seleucus, whose race was all born with this mark upon them, if you'll believe the historians."

And finally, in Series III, No. 17, « ΘΥΑΤΕΙΡΗΝΩΝΚ. CMΥΡΝ. ΣΤΡ. Τ. ΦΑΒ. ΑΛ. ΑΠΟΛΛΙΝΑΡΙΟΥ. Reverse of Marcus Aurelius," is described as follows: "Smyrna is always represented by an Amazon, that is said to have been her first foundress. You see her here entering into a league with Thyatira. Each of them holds her tutelar Deity in her hand. * * On the left arm of Smyrna is the Pelta or Buckler of the Amazons, as the long weapon by her is the Bipennis or Securis."

It will be seen from the descriptions of the omitted medals, as quoted above, that the omission was not on account of their subjects, nor was this to be supposed of Addison, whose delicacy allows him to make but the briefest mention of the spintrial of Tiberius. Nor, from the mention in the description of No. 14, Series I, that an author had published it, could the omissions be supposed to be due to the lack of having the medal at hand for illustration at the time of issue of his essay. Perhaps an examination of the first edition by some one to whom it is accessible, will afford an explanation. The only editions which I have seen besides the one above mentioned (which as now bound contains no publisher's name) are those of Bohn and Putnam (perhaps a reprint of the former), and both contain omissions, if I may be ailowed the expression, though whether identical in number and series with the above I do not know. FILIUSFUSCI.

CHICAGO, August 23, 1873.

Dryden and Walsh.-In an edition, the sixth, of the works of Virgil, translated by Dryden, and "printed for Jacob' Tonson, in the Strand, MDCCXXX," I find on page 75-" Preface to the Pastorals, with a short defence of Virgil, against some of the Reflections of Monsieur Fontanelle;" and in the second volume of "The Works of Celebrated Authors, &c.," "printed for J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper, in the Strand, MDCCL;" I find the same preface

word for word, given as the production of William Walsh, Esq., with this title, to wit: "Preface to Dryden's Translation of Virgil's Pastorals, with a short defence of Virgil, against some of the Reflections of Monsieur Fontanelle." Is there an explanation of this? BLOOMSBURGer.

[TO CORRESPONDENTS.—We shall be glad to receive and publish items-literary, dramatic, or historical-of interest to the readers of the BIBLIOPOLIST. Everything of value to the American Antiquary, Book-worm, or Print Collector, will meet with especial welcome.

OUR CORRESPONDENTS will, we trust, excuse our suggesting to them, both for their sakes as well as our own—

I. That they should write clearly and distinctly-and on one side of the paper only-more especially proper names and words and phrases of which an explanation may be required. We cannot undertake to puzzle out what a Correspondent does not think worth the trouble of writing plainly.

II. That Quotations should be verified by precise references to edition, chapter, and page.

III. CORRESPONDENTS who reply to Queries would add to their obligation by precise reference to volume and page where such Queries are to be found. The omission to do this saves the writer very little trouble, but entails much to supply such omission.

IV. All communications should contain the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

A RUSSIAN LIBRARY.

Early in the Spring we were informed that the library of the well-known M. SERGE SOBOLEWSKI, of Moscow, would be sold at auction in Leipzic, and in due course we received the catalogue of this extraor dinary collection. We had been previously informed as to its magnitude and importance by Mr. Joseph Baer, of Frankfort, who, on the occasion of our visit to Europe in 1872, had strongly urged its purchase by us for sale in the United States; but not having the time necessary for the examination and valuation of so extensive a collection, we reluctantly declined the proposition, but on the reception of the catalogue concluded that the books were of sufficient importance to warrant our personal attendance at the sale, and in due course we sailed to Europe and attended the auction, concerning which we append some details.

The catalogue is a volume of 314 pages, describing 4,448 lots, arranged in classes, and made with considerable ability, by the

auctioneers, Messrs. Liste & Francke, of Leipzig, who undoubtedly availed themselves of the references which Mr. Sobolewski had made in most of the books. The preface to the catalogue is by Mr. Albert Cohn, of Asher & Co., booksellers at Berlin, and as it presents some items of interest concerning the formation of this extraordinary library, we have translated the most important portions as below:

In 1865 Mr. Sobolewski intended to quit Russia for a milder climate, but when the time arrived for putting his resolution into effect, his feelings convinced him that his books were a part of his existence, and that he could never support a separation. M. Sobolewski was a man of high cultivation, and well-known to the literati and connoisseurs of Russia, and was loved and respected by all who knew him. He was wealthy, and possessed of ample means for the formation of a valuable library. *** His passion for books was only equalled by his enterprise in seeking them. He continually visited foreign countries, and indeed hardly returned from one expedition but to prepare for another. He hunted over France, England, Italy, Spain and Germany-he sought in every direction, and ever maintained his bookish love. his first visits to foreign places his feet always lead to the public and private libraries, the houses of bibliophiles and bib. liopoles; in fact, he knew everybody and everybody knew him. His bibliographi

On

ca! knowledge was as thorough as it was varied. The older he grew, the more bibliomania became the object of his life. Not that he merely pursued the collection of books as a sterile mania, which, like avarice, amasses treasures without their enjoyment, but he possessed an enlightened pleasure in seeking and finding objects agreeable to his taste. Take a passage from one of his letters: " My library is not simply of the nature which sets bankers a running and commission agents to sales. Its chief merit is its scientific choice in general, and its bibliographical choice in certain departments. I have never purchased a book because it was rare, but I have always sought to purchase a rare book when it was necessary to the completion of one of my favorite series" However, M. Sobolewski was as fond of fine books as of good books.

The books comprising his library were in most excellent preservation. There were, in great number, copies printed on large paper, and bindings executed by the first workmen of London and Paris, and when the condition of a book was not thoroughly satisfactory its defects were indicated in the catalogue. It is not surprising that M. Sobolewski, being a traveller himself, directed a large part of his attention to the literature of voyages. It is in this department that his library possesses an exceptional richness, decidedly so in voyages outside of Europe, especially in America and Asia. The collection of the greatest importance is the voyages in America and Asia, published by the De Brys. For forty years he continually sought to gather a complete and unique set of this extraordinary and interesting "piece de resistance" of bibliomania. He possessed the best facilities, and the most favorable opportunities. occurred. He made the most thorough and extended bibliographical studies on this subject. He had a prodigious knowledge of the minute details which characterize this unique product of the publishers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One day he gave me evidence of his knowledge when he classified, with incredible rapidity, a large lot of separated leaves from almost all parts of this collection, and arranged them with th greatest certainty, giving each leaf its place according to the order of the volumes and the editions. The interesting and important letter on De Bry, addressed by him to Brunet, which is inserted in the "Manuel du Libraire," Vol. I, sufficiently proves the earnestness and the care which M. Sobolewski applied to the study and the use to which his researches were applied by the great bibliographer.

It is hardly worth while to say that the results obtained as the fruit of incessant researches were based on the copy which M. Sobolewski possessed, and which was sold in the auction. The collection of works on religious missions, out of Europe, equally merits attention; consisting of the original relations of the Jesuits and other religious orders, it comprises more than 400 volumes, and was more complete than that of the Jesuits at Rome and that of the Propaganda.

We forbear to notice the many impor