178 There has been recently struck (I think, in 1819) a medal with the same obverse and reverse, of about the size between an English farthing and halfpenny. The statue of Henry is perhaps the MIRACLE OF ART: but it requires a microscopic glass to appreciate its wonders. Correctly speaking, probably, such efforts are not in the purest good taste. Simplicity is the soul of numismatic beauty.

179 The Artist who struck the series of medals to commemorate the campaigns of the Duke of Wellington, from his landing in Portugal to the battle of Waterloo.

180 [See the OPPOSITE PLATE, which represents the upper part of the Picture.]

181 [I sent a commission for it, for a friend, at the sale of Mr. Craufurd's effects, but lost it.]

182 [Purchased by myself: and now at Hodnet.]

183 [This picture was purchased for the gallery at ALTHORP. There is an exquisite drawing of it by Wright, for the purpose of a stipling engraving.]

184 It was purchased by the late King of France for 10,000 francs.

185 [Purchased for the gallery at ALTHORP.]

186 The above quotation is incomplete; for the passage alluded to runs thus.--"Where is the painter so well sorting his colours, that could paint these faire eyes that are the windows of the body, and glasses of the soul." The continuation is in a very picturesque style. See the Theatre or Rule of the World, p. 236-7, quoted in a recent (1808) edition of More's Utopia, vol. ii. p. 143. But Primaudaye's French Academy, Lond. 1605, 4to. runs very much in the same strain.

187 A little graphic history belongs to this picture. I obtained a most beautiful and accurate copy of it by M. Le Coeuré, on a reduced scale: from which Mr. J. Thomson made an Engraving, as a PRIVATE PLATE, and only 75 copies were struck off. The plate was then destroyed; the impressions selling for a guinea. They are now so rare as to be worth treble that sum: and proofs upon India paper, before the letter, may be worth £5. 5s. Three proofs only were struck off of the plate in its mutilated state; of which my friends Mr. Haslewood and Mr. G. H. Freeling rejoice in their possession of a copy. The drawing, by Coeuré, was sold for 20 guineas at the sale of my drawings, by Mr. Evans, in 1822, but it has been subsequently sold for only nine guineas; and of which my worthy friend A. Nicholson, Esq.--"a good man, and a true"--is in the possession.

Subsequently, the ABOVE ORIGINAL picture was sold; and I was too happy to procure it for the gallery at Althorp for twelve guineas only!

188 [A magnificent whole length portrait of this first DUKE DE GUISE, painted by PORBUS--with a warmth and vigour of touch, throughout, which are not unworthy of Titian-- now adorns the very fine gallery at Althorp: where is also a whole length portrait of ANNE OF AUSTRIA, by Mignard. Both pictures are from the same Collection; and are each probably the masterpiece of the artist. They are of the size of life.]

189 [Mr. Craufurd died at Paris in 1821.]

190 ["Amateurs, connaisseurs, examinateurs, auteurs de revues du Salon, parodistes même, vous n'entendez rien à ce genre de critique; prenez M. Dibdin pour modèle: voila' la bonne école!" CHAPELET, vol. iv. p. 200. My translator shall here have the full benefit of his own bombastical nonsense.]

191 [The work is now perfect in 3 volumes.]

192 [I here annex a fac- simile of his autograph from the foot of the account for these drawings.]

193 Then, Louis XVIII.

194 ["Sir T. Lawrence, who painted the portrait of the late Duke de Richlieu, which was seen at the last exhibition, is undoubtedly of the first class of British Portrait painters; but, according to Mr. Dibdin's judgment, many artists would have preferred to have sided with our Gérard." CRAPELET. vol. iv. 220. I confess I do not understand this reasoning: nor perhaps will my readers.]

195 [Here, Mons. Crapelet drily and pithily says, "Translated from the English." What then? Can there be the smallest shadow of doubt about the truth of the above assertion? None--with Posterity.]

196 At Domremi, in Lorraine.

197 When Desnoyers was over here, in 1819, he unequivocally expressed his rapture about our antiquarian engravings--especially of Gothic churches. Mr. Wild's Lincoln Cathedral produced a succession of ecstatic remarks. "When your fine engravings of this kind come over to Paris we get little committees to sit upon them"--observed Desnoyers to an engraver--who communicated the fact to the author.

198 [The experience of ten years has confirmed THE TRUTH of the above remark.]

199 [Not so now! Mahogany, according to M. Crapelet, is every where at Paris, and at the lowest prices.]

200 A folio volume, printed at St. Nicolas, a neighbouring village, in 1518. It is a poem, written in Latin hexameter verse by P. Blaru [P. de Blarrovivo]-- descriptive of the memorable siege of Nancy in 1476, by CHARLES THE RASH, Duke of Burgundy: who perished before the walls. His death is described in the sixth book, sign. t. iiij: the passage relating to it, beginning

"Est in Nanceijs aratro locus utilis aruis:"

A wood cut portrait of the commanding French general, Renet, is in the frontispiece. A good copy of this interesting work should always grace the shelves of an historical collector. Brunet notices a copy of it UPON VELLUM, in some monastic library in Lorraine. [Three days have not elapsed, since I saw a similar copy in the possession of Messrs. Payne and Foss, destined for the Royal Library at Paris. A pretty, rather than a magnificent, book.]

201 See page 362.

202 When this 'chaussée,' or route royale, was completed, it was so admired, that the ladies imitated its cork-screw shape, by pearls arranged spirally in their hair; and this head dress was called Coiffure à la Saverne.

203 Alsatia Illustrata, 1751-61, folio, two volumes.

204 In the middle of the fifteenth century there were not fewer than nine principal gates of entrance: and above the walls were built, at equal distances, fifty-five towers--surmounted, in turn, by nearly thirty towers of observation on the exterior of the walls. But in the beginning of the sixteenth century, from the general adoption of gunpowder in the art of war, a different system of defence was necessarily adopted; and the number of these towers was in consequence diminished. At present there are none. They are supplied by bastions and redoubts, which answer yet better the purposes of warfare.

205 This work is entitled "Notices Historiques, Statistiques et Littéraires, sur la Ville de Strasbourg." 1817, 8vo. A second volume, published in 1819, completes it. A more judicious, and, as I learn, faithful compilation, respecting the very interesting city of which it treats, has not yet been published.

206 I had before said 530 English feet; but a note in M. Crapelet's version (supplied, as I suspect, by my friend M. Schweighæuser,) says, that from recent strict trigonometrical measurement, it is 437 French feet in height.

207 The Robertsau, about three quarters of a mile from Strasbourg, is considered to be the best place for a view of the cathedral. The Robertsau is a well peopled and well built suburb. It consists of three nearly parallel streets, composed chiefly of houses separated by gardens--the whole very much after the English fashion. In short, these are the country houses of the wealthier inhabitants of Strasbourg; and there are upwards of seventy of them, flanked by meadows, orchards, or a fruit or kitchen garden. It derives the name of Robertsau from a gentleman of the name of Robert, of the ancient family of Bock. He first took up his residence there about the year 1200, and was father of twenty children. Consult Hermann; vol. i. p. 209.

208 "The engineer Specklin, who, in order to complete his MAP of ALSACE, traversed the whole chain of the VOSGES, estimates the number of these castles at little short of two hundred: and pushes the antiquity of some of them as far back as the time of the Romans." See Hermann; vol. i. p. 128, note 20: whose compressed account of a few of these castellated mansions is well worth perusal, I add this note, from something like a strong persuasion, that, should it meet the eye of some enterprising and intelligent English antiquary, it may stimulate him--within the waning of two moons from reading it, provided those moons be in the months of Spring--to put his equipage in order for a leisurely journey along the VOSGES!

209 This was formerly called the bell of the HOLY GHOST. It was cast in 1427, by John Gremp of Strasbourg. It cost 1300 florins; and weighs eighty quintals;, or 8320 lb.: nearly four tons. It is twenty-two French feet in circumference, and requires six men to toll it. In regard to the height, I must not be supposed to speak from absolute data. Yet I apprehend that its altitude is not much over-rated. Grandidier has quite an amusing chapter (p. 241, &c.) upon the thirteen bells which are contained in the tower of this cathedral.

210 It was necessary, on the part of my friend, to obtain the consent of the Prefect to make these drawings. A moveable scaffold was constructed, which was suspended from the upper parts--and in this nervous situation the artist made his copies--of the size of the foregoing cuts. The expense of the scaffold, and of making the designs, was very inconsiderable indeed. The worthy Prefect, or Mayor, was so obliging as to make the scaffold a mere gratuitous affair; six francs only being required for the men to drink! [Can I ever forget, or think slightly of, such kindness? Never.]

Cicognara, in his Storia della Scultura, 1813, folio, has given but a very small portion of the above dance; which was taken from the upper part of a neighbouring house. It is consequently less faithful and less complete. [In the preceding edition of this work, there are not fewer than eleven representations of these Drolleries.]

211 I think this volume is of the date of 1580. CONRAD DASYPODIUS was both the author of the work, and the chief mechanic or artisan employed in making the clock--about which he appears to have taken several journeys to employ, and to consult with, the most clever workmen in Germany. The wheels and movements were made by the two HABRECHTS, natives of Schaffhausen.

212 [The Reader may form some notion of its beauty and elaboration of ornament, from the OPPOSITE PLATE: taken from a print published about a century and a half ago.]

213 See Grandidier, p. 177: where the Latin inscription is given. The Ephémérides de l'Académie des Curieux de la Nature, vol. ii. p. 400, &c. are quoted by this author--as a contemporaneous authority in support of the event above mentioned.

214 My French translator will have it, that, "this composition, though not without its faults, is considered, in the estimation of all connoisseurs, as one of the finest funereal monuments which the modern chisel has produced." It may be, in the estimation of some--but certainly of a very small portion of- -Connoisseurs of first rate merit. Our Chantry would sicken or faint at the sight of such allegorical absurdity.

215 [This avowal has subjected me to the gentle remonstrance of the Librarian in question, and to the tart censure of M. Crapelet in particular. "Voilà le Reverend M. Dibdin (exclaims the latter) qui se croit obligé de déclarer qu'il n'a rien derobé!" And he then quotes, apparently with infinite delight, a passage from the Quarterly Review, (No. LXIII. June 1825) in which I am designated as having "extraordinary talents for ridicule!" But how my talents "for ridicule" (of which I very honestly declare my unconsciousness) can be supposed to bear upon the above "prick of conscience," is a matter which I have yet to learn. My amiable friend might have perhaps somewhat exceeded the prescribed line of his duty in letting me have the key of the Library in question--but, can a declaration of such confidence not having been MISPLACED, justify the flippant remarks of my Annotator?]

216 [It is now published in an entire state by the above competent Editor.]

217 See the authorities quoted, and the subject itself handled, in the Bibliographical Decameron, vol. i. p. 316, &c.

218 [Here again my sensitive Annotator breaks out into something little short of personal abuse, for my DARING to doubt what all the world before had held in solemn belief! Still, I will continue to doubt; without wishing this doubt to be considered as "paroles d'Evangile"--as M. Crapelet expresses it.]

219 Fully described in the Bibl. Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 39, with a fac-simile of the type.

220 A fac-simile of this device appears in a Latin Bible, without name of printer, particularly described in the Ædes Althorpianæ; vol. ii. p. 41. Hence we learn that the Bible in question, about the printer of which there appears to be some uncertainty among bibliographers, was absolutely printed by Gotz.

221 The imperfect copy, being a duplicate, was disposed of for a copy of the Bibl. Spenceriana; and it is now in the fine library of the Rt. Hon. T. Grenville. The very first glance at this copy will shew that the above description is not overcharged.

222 "These Duplicates related to some few articles of minor importance belonging to the library of the Public School, and which had escaped a former revision. The cession was made with due attention to forms, and with every facility." Such (as I have reason to believe) is the remark of M. Schweighæuser himself. What follows--evidently by the hand of M. Crapelet--is perfectly delicious ... of its kind. "That M. Dibdin should have preferred such an indiscreet request to the Librarians in question--impelled by his habitual vivacity and love of possessing books--is conceivable enough: but, that he should publish such an anecdote--that he should delight in telling us of the rudeness which he committed in SITTING while the gentlemen about him were STANDING, is to affect a very uncommon singularity"!!! Ω ποποι!

223 There are yet libraries, and rare books, in the district. I obtained for my friend the Rev. H. Drury, one of the finest copies in England of the first edition of Cicero's Offices, of 1465, 4to. UPON VELLUM--from the collection of a physician living in one of the smaller towns near the Vosges. This copy was in its ancient oaken attire, and had been formerly in a monastic library. For this acquisition my friend was indebted to the kind offices of the younger M. Schweighæuser.

224 [This dinner party is somewhat largely detailed in the preceding edition of this work; but it scarcely merits repetition here; the more so, since the presiding Hostess is NO MORE!]

225 Hermann; vol. i. p. 154.

226 greatly benefited by the Reformation.]--Among the benefactors to the cause of public morality, was the late lamented and ever memorable KOCH. Before the year 1536, it should seem, from Koch's statement, that even whole streets as well as houses were occupied by women of a certain description. After this year, there were only two houses of ill fame left. The women, of the description before alluded to, used to wear black and white hats, of a sugar-loaf form, over the veil which covered their faces; and they were confined strictly to this dress by the magistrates. These women were sometimes represented in the sculptured figures about the cathedral. Hermann says that there may yet be seen, over the door of a house in the Bickergase (one of the streets now called Rue de la fontaine, which was formerly devoted to the residence of women of ill fame) a bas- relief, representing two figures, with the following German inscription beneath:

Diss haus steht in Gottes Hand
Wird zu deu freud'gen kindern gennant.

which he translates thus:

Cette maison; dans la main de Dieu,
S'appelle aux enfans bien joyeux.

It should seem, therefore, (continues Hermann) that this was one of the houses in which a public officer attended, to keep order, prevent quarrels, and exact municipal rights. The book, in which the receipt of this tax was entered, existed during the time of the Revolution, and is thought to be yet in existence. Hermann, vol. i. p. 156.

227 See p. 401 ante.

228 For the English metrical version I am indebted to "an old hand at these matters."

229 Since the publication of this Tour, I have received several pleasant and thoroughly friendly letters from the above excellent Individual: and I could scarcely forgive myself if I omitted this opportunity of annexing his autograph:--as a worthy companion to those which have preceded it.

230 [Madame Francs, whose kind and liberal conduct towards me can never be forgotten, has now herself become the subject of a monumental effigy. She DIED (as I learn) in the year 1826.]