*

Were I to proceed to the examination of the other figures, and all the considerations they present, I should overstep the limits within which I ought to confine myself. But there is a question of more consequence than any question of detail, which still remains unsettled among many contradictory opinions; namely, what is the subject of the piece, and who are the principal personages. The first glance at the composition, places it beyond a doubt that the battle is between the Greeks and Persians; details of costume, very exact and extremely rich, indicate the presence of both nations, by signs so marked and so conformable to all the testimony of history, that it is impossible to mistake them. But, this first point admitted, a wide field of conjecture remains open, in that long and terrible struggle, in the course of which the national hatred between them displayed itself on so many fields of battle; and artists and antiquaries have exercised their imagination on this subject with almost equal activity. The authors of the only four pieces, which have yet appeared on the mosaic in question, have each discovered in it a different subject: one, the battle of Platea, and, consequently, Pausanias commanding the Grecian army, on the one side, and, on the other, Mardonius and Artabasus: a second, the battle fought, at the passage of the

From the most remote antiquity, the Greeks exercised themselves in representing on their monuments of every description, and even on the embroidered stuffs, of which they made so much use, all the details of costume peculiar to the various Asiatic nations. On subjects of the times of mythology, connected with the wars of the Greeks against the Phrygians and Amazons, there are so many evidences of this, in the class of painted vases alone, that it would be useless to mention others; and, for the historical ages, it is sufficient to cite the curious instance of the Sybarite Alcisthenes, who in the Panegyris of Juno Lacinia, at Crotona, displayed a broad purple mantle, embroidered with figures, ¿adios ivupacμivos, among which were seen, on one side, the inhabitants of Susa, on the other, those of Persia, ἄνωθεν μὲν Σουσίοις, κάτωθεν δὲ Πέρσαις, Aristot. de Mirabil. c. xcix, p. 201, ed. Beckman.

This opinion, the latest given on the subject, is expressed by M. Bonucci; but I must say that it rests on no certain data. The token by which this antiquary recognises Aristides in the warrior placed behind Pausanias, viz. the helmet wreathed with laurel, is not a peculiarity sufficiently marked to characterize, under any circumstances, any Grecian hero whatever; it is a part of the costume common to all. There is, further, in the Memoir of M. Bonucci, an error of sufficient moment to be noticed here: it is the idea that, among the paintings that adorned the temple of Minerva, built in commemoration of the victory of Platea, was a picture of this very battle, of which this mosaic must be a copy. Now, M. Bonucci either did not observe, or has forgotten, that of these paintings, seen by Plutarch, (Aristid. § xx, Vol. II. p. 527, ed. Reiske,) and described by Pausanias, (IX, 4, 1,) one represented the Victory of Ulysses over the Suitors; the other, the first Theban war; consequently two passages of heroic history; an opinion long since admitted in the history of art among the ancients. See Winckelmann's Werke, I, 507; H. Meyer, Geschichte der Bild. Künste, II, 147, 148.

‡

Granicus, between Alexander and Mithridates, son-in-law of Darius ; *—the third, the battle of Issus, in which Darius came in sight of the Macedonian hero; †-and the last, an episode in the battle of Arbela. Among explanations so different, we may well wonder at the insufficiency and vanity of learning, which leaves us in such doubt, while beholding so rare a monument of art. Common sense, however, and that sort of instinct, which is often of more value than criticism, and frequently supplies the want of it, lead us to reject the first of these explanations, for which no sound argument can be offered. The battle of Platea thus excluded from the field of discussion, it only remains to choose between the three battles of Alexander; and it is a source of confidence and satisfaction, on any hypothesis, to have identified the great Macedonian conqueror with the hero of our picture. This is neither the place nor the time, to discuss the various arguments drawn from history, or from the monument itself, which may have been brought forward in support of the three different opinions; and I do not know how far it would be prudent for one who has not actually seen the original monument, to involve himself in this contest, and side with either of the three champions. There is, however, a testimony in favor of the battle of Arbela, not adduced by any of the four antagonists; independently of the importance of this victory, which ended that struggle of two centuries' duration, between the two nations, closing that great drama, and which must, consequently, more than any other feat of arms, have dazzled the imagination of the Greeks, and exercised the talents of their artists. It is the testimony of a votive basrelief, carved in antique yellow marble, and representing, in a succession of figures both grouped and single, disposed on the circular border of a shield, the battle of Arbela, and, in the centre of this shield, Alexander on horseback, as he appears in this mosaic, and in the small equestrian statue of bronze, found at Her

* Opinion of M. Avellino, p. 51-54, founded almost entirely on the circumstance of Alexander's helmet having fallen to the ground, and on the action of the Greek hero, piercing with his long sarissa, the breast of a barbarian warrior. But this latter circumstance cannot be exclusively referred to the battle of the Granicus; and the former is not sufficient to determine the subject of a piece.

+ Opinion of M. Quaranta, which this learned man has defended so well, in an ingenious dissertation, as to make it appear very plausible, p. 55-68. His mode of explaining the group of the Persian warrior, keeping his horse in reserve as a means of saving the vanquished monarch, is a thought as just as it is ingenious, and is founded on the history of Quintus Curtius himself, III, 11, 11; and most of the circumstances of this history are actually discovered in the mosaïc of which we speak.

Opinion of M. Niccolini, which I cannot admit without many limitations.

culaneum.* The bas-relief I have just mentioned, may be seen at Rome, in the collection of Prince Chigi, and has been made known to the public by Visconti. † The antiquaries of Italy, then, have possessed every facility for acquainting themselves with this monument; and we cannot but feel astonished that no one of them has mentioned it in a controversy, in which this representation of the battle of Arbela (conceived indeed on quite a different plan, from the very nature of the work,) might present a weighty argument, by showing, that, in the latest epoch of ancient art, the chosen subject of imitation was this last victory of Alexander. I

But while antiquaries are settling the question at issue between them, all must be agreed on one point, the extreme importance and great excellence of this mosaic regarded as a work of art. Most of the ancient monuments daily brought to light restore to us one production only of art, reveal to us a single passage of the history, mythology, or religion of the ancients; here, in one monument alone, we find a representation of almost an entire branch of ancient art, which has perished beyond recovery. It is, indeed, but an imperfect image, a faint reflection. A mosaic, however skilfully executed, and in a period and place less remote from those in which Grecian art was most flourishing, than Pompeii in her last days; a mosaic, like the one under consideration, must, of necessity, represent the master-pieces of Grecian painting, by feeble touches, and in faint colors. The scientific and chaste design, the delicacy and depth of expression, the magic of the coloring, the effect of the perspective, must lose much in being transferred to marble, even by a practised hand. And if we may believe that this Pompeian mosaic was a copy of the celebrated picture of Philoxenus, we can merely have the pleasure of supposing that we possess a shadow of that picture. Yet even this shadow acquires inestimable value in our eyes, when we think of that total wreck of antiquity, in which Grecian painting utterly perished; and we bow in homage before this unique and precious relic of ancient art, as our descendants may one day venerate the mosaics of the Vatican, should these become the only remains of the master-pieces of modern painting. RAOUL-ROCHETTE.

Bronzi d' Ercolano, ( Bronzes of Herculaneum,) book II, p. 51, 52.

At the end of the Critical Examination of the Historians of Alexander, by Sainte-Croix, p. 777-788. This little work of Visconti has lately been republished, from a copy with marginal corrections by the hand of the "author, in the edition of the Miscellaneous Works of Visconti, Vol. III, p. 63-83. Milan, 1830.

An expression found on the very marble mentioned in the preceding note, ἡ ἐπὶ πᾶσι μάχη.

ART. IV. - ILLUSTRATIONS OF MANNERS IN ENGLAND.

Two elaborate articles have lately appeared in "The Quarterly Review," one on the great hunting establishments of the English nobility and gentry at Melton Mowbray and in its neighbourhood, and the other on the system of horse-racing as it now exists in England. Both contain many details wholly devoid of interest out of the country in which they were written. But the articles are on kindred topics; and contain some striking passages illustrative of the state of manners in a certain class in England. These we have selected and shall quote without comment. We begin with the article concerning Melton Mowbray.

use.

-

"Melton Mowbray generally contains from two to three hundred hunters, in the hands of the most experienced grooms England can produce, the average number being ten to each sportsman residing there, although some of those who ride heavy and rejoice in long purses, have from fourteen to twenty for their own The stud of the Earl of Plymouth has, for many years, exceeded the last mentioned number. It may seem strange, that one man should, under any circumstances, need so large a number of horses solely for his personal use in the field; and it must be admitted that few countries do require it. In Leicestershire, however, the universal practice is for each sportsman to have at least two hunters in the field on the same day,- a practice found to be economical, as it is from exhaustion, the effect of longcontinued severe work, that the health of horses is most injured. And when it is also borne in mind, that hounds are to be reached from Melton, Leicester, &c., every day in the week, that one horse out of six, in every man's stud, is, upon an average, lame, or otherwise unfit for work, and that a horse should always have five days' rest after a moderate, and at least seven or eight after a severe run with hounds, it will seem not surprising that ten or twelve hunters should be deemed an indispensable stud for a regular Leicestershire sportsman.'

"At no distant date, within almost twenty-five years, -Melton Mowbray was an insignificant-looking little town. It is prettily situated in a rich vale, through which the river Stoure passes; but had nothing an artist would have called a feature about it, except its beautiful church. But of late it has put on a very different appearance, owing to the numbers of comfortable houses which have been erected for the accommodation of its sporting visitors, who now spend not less on an average, than 50,000 per

annum on the spot. It stands on one of the great north roads, eighteen miles from Nottingham, and fifteen from Leicester, which latter place has also become a favorite resort of sportsmen, as it is well situated for the best part of the Quorn, and Lord Lonsdale's countries, and many of the favorite covers of the Atherstone (lately better known as Lord Anson's) country can be reached from it."

*

"The uninitiated reader would be surprised by an enumeration of the persons of rank, wealth, and fashion, who, during months of every year, resign the comforts and elegances of their family mansions for a small house in some town or village of Leicestershire, to the eye of any one but a sportsman, nearly the ugliest county in England; nor can any foreigner visiting this country, and a sportsman in his own, fail to be greatly surprised at the magnificence of our hunting establishments, whose sole object is the fox. The kennels and stables at Quordon Hall, celebrated as the residence of the great Mr. Meynell,' and subsequently, until within the two last years, of every proprietor of the Quordon or Quorn hounds, are specially worthy his attention. The former are perhaps the most extensive at the present day in England; among the latter is one holding twenty-eight horses, so arranged, that, when a spectator stands in the centre of it, his eye commands each individual animal; - which, being furnished with seats, and lighted by powerful lamps, formed a high treat to the eye of a sportsman on a winter's evening; in addition to this, there are several loose boxes and an exercise ride, as it is called, under cover for bad weather. The usual amount of the Quorn establishment has been forty efficient hunters; and from sixty to one hundred couples of hounds. Mr. Osbaldeston, however, during his occupation of the country, had a still larger kennel, and no wonder, for it was his custom to turn out every day in the week, weather permitting; and, after Christmas, as the

"The Earl of Wilton has lately built an excellent house in the capital itself, for the accommodation of himself and his Countess, an event hailed with pleasure by the Meltonians, as their permanent residence there will probably induce many other married amateurs to visit the place, and, thereby refine its society. At Melton Lodge, within a mile of the town, the Earl and Countess of Plymouth have been domiciled for several years past. The Earl and Countess of Chesterfield, Lord and Lady Edward Thynne, and the Marquis of Worcester, are occasional residents in the town. Lords Alvanley and Rokeby keep house there together; as do Sir Harry Goodricke, Mr. Little Gilmour, and Lord Gardner; Lord Robert Grosvenor, Lord Kinnaird, Mr. White, of Parkhall, Derbyshire, with many others, too numerous to mention, are among the habitués of Melton; and, at Leicester, are to be found Lord and Lady Sarah Ingestrie, Lord and Lady Stormount, Colonel Drummond, &c. &c."