A rather careless but masterly Raeburn; another great Turner marine; and then a family group brought to life with a thousand delicate touches by the accomplished Zoffany: No. 3678. Note the painting of the silks and the little Vermeerish points of light. Turner's great impressionistic riot, "Rain, Steam and Speed," next confronts us and reminds us of how wide a span his career covered, for it was painted as recently as 1844 ; and then his golden placid "Ulysses," perhaps as fine a piece of colour as any painter ever produced, studies for which will be found at the Tate. And on the other side of a soft and pleasing Hoppner is the wizard again, this time with the famous "Temeraire," one of the most beautiful pictures in the world. "The Fighting Temeraire towed to her last Berth" is the full title, and the painter's brush is as emotional as his pen. After such a work James Ward's landscape in the manner of Rubens falls flat, and we are glad of the interposition of Raeburn's full-length of "Miss Mary Hepburn" before we come to another of the masterpieces of the Gallery, the first of four of the greatest landscapes in the world. This is "Household Heath" by Old Crome : that mellow spreading prospect, with wild flowers at our feet and the golden sky over all. Strange are the vicissitudes that masterpieces can suffer. This picture, now one of the most treasured possessions of the Gallery, was once torn in two and used as a sunblind ! Next is that extraordinary piece of realism, Turner's "Frosty Morning," which almost causes one to stamp one's feet for cold as one looks at it. Turner, as we shall see again at the Tate, was a jealous man, only too conscious of the success of other artists, and there is plenty of proof that he often trespassed into rivals' fields just to show how various and accomplished he could be. But for Crome's fame we might never have had this picture. Next, and after a splendid Raeburn, is Constable's famous "Hay Wain." There are examples of Constable's genius that one may think finer, but this is a great picture. Next it, however, is a greater Turner's, "Crossing the Brook." I don't say that jealousy of Constable led to this lovely work, but it would not surprise me. Look at the country in the middle distance. No painter, not even Koninck, has ever suggested more square miles, Room XXV is the most popular in the whole Gallery because it contains the pick of the British portraits; and portraits are, ultimately, the favourite form of art with British people. The dominating figures are Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney and Hogarth; but Van Dyck's full length of Charles I on horseback is the largest canvas.

Beginning at the right we come at once to some little glowing Wilsons, of which No. 1064 is the most beautiful. Nothing indeed in the Gallery is more beautiful. An example of the clean-cut method of Francis Cotes is here, and also a work by a painter rarely met with, Henry Walton, a pupil of Zoffany, who has been called the English Chardin, but is a long way behind the French master. We now come to Gainsborough and Reynolds, the one with a happy little woodland scene and the other with a dashing sketch of a portrait group. And then Gainsborough's famous Mrs. Siddons in the blue dress and the black hat. Mrs. Siddons was then, in 1784, twenty-nine. In the portrait which we saw by Lawrence, in the last room, where she is so unlike Gainsborough's representation of her, she was in the small one forty-two and in the full-length forty-nine. We now come to our first Hogarth No. 1663 and have the opportunity of seeing what a colourist he could be and what a master of broad brushwork. A few steps farther on we shall find "The Shrimp Girl," that astonishing feat of dexterity, almost magic, which increases our regret that he should have given so much time to the dramatic series : that the satirist and moralist should have so triumphed over the painter. Between the Hogarths is a fine dignified Reynolds full-length, Captain Robert Orme. And now comes one of the gems of the collection, Gains-borough's delicious cool painting of his two little girls, both so young, fresh and flowerlike. Another golden Wilson and another Hogarth, where the painting of the woman's bodice such a pretty arrangement of mauve and green and white ruffles! is again marvellous.

MADONNA AND LAUGHING CHILD,

FROM THE CLAY STATUETTE BY ANTONIO ROSSELLINO (OR DESIDERIO DA SETTIG -NANO) IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

On the other side of the door is Hogarth's curious "Calais Gate" where so much is happening, even to a procession of priests in the distance, touched in with delicate precision. The Romney next it is one of the favourite pictures in the Gallery, a "mother's picture," a remark that applies also to two of the Reynolds' on the same wall the "Heads of Angels," and "The Age of Innocence" and possibly also to the group of Lady Cockburn and her children, one of the pictures by our great British master which has kept its original glowing hues. His rival is here too, with the famous "Dr. Schomberg." At the end of the wall is another Hogarth a group of heads and next it the sketch for a mural work by Sir James Thornhill, with whose daughter Hogarth eloped.

We now pass a number of early English portraits, including a curiously realistic unknown picture of Mrs. Joshua Horton, a sinister old lady, and come to the other long wall, where another beautiful work by Sir Joshua is waiting for us the "Two Gentlemen," so mellow and distinguished. A rather hard group by Romney, then a classical landscape by Wilson, and then a comic group by Gainsborough, the Baillie family, where Mr. Baillie, the proud father, is at least eight feet high, but is atoned for by the prettiest of little girls at the left, and we have reached the great Gainsborough: "Wood Scene, Cornard, Suffolk," where his mastery of landscape is absolute. Reynolds' "Three Graces" has never much delighted me, but the dignity and repose of his Countess of Albemarle are never without their appeal. This is one of the pictures in which the colour is fading away. The same artist's "Holy Family" retains its richness, but it is not a work that carries any conviction, and Joseph is made older than by almost any other painter. In fact the disparity in age between Joseph and the Madonna is grotesque, and Reynolds ought to have known better. The large "Stable Interior" by Morland, so comfortable and woolly, completes this wall.

At the end we find a vivacious Downman, a quaint Devis, and some not very pleasing Highmores. The gems are the portrait of Constable's wife, painted with great tenderness by her husband, and a tiny masterpiece by Gainsborough ,Miss Singleton where every touch is joy.

In Room XXVI are, at the time of writing, the Sargents : that brilliant series of portraits of members of the family of Asher Wertheimer, the art dealer. Among them have been hung a number of specimens of the work of the great English masters of portraiture, Reynolds, Gains-borough, Opie, Lawrence; but to my mind our modern master does not in the least suffer by comparison. For such assurance and certitude of brushwork you have to go back to Frans Hals to find a parallel. I look upon the portraits of Mrs. Wertheimer and of Alfred Wertheimer in his laboratory as two of the great pictures of the world. The others have all astonishing passages, but these two seem to me to be on a higher plane.

Among the other pictures in this room are a very good example of the genius of George Stubbs, proving him to have been a great painter not only of horses but of England, and one of Gainsborough's most charming landscapes. There is also a very pleasant Downman, No. 3544.

Room XXVIII and last is given to Turner and Claude the two Turners which were specifically left to the Gallery to be hung next the two Claudes that the artist believed himself to have surpassed. With that opinion I agree. And I go further. I believe that there is no more beautiful picture in the world than "The Sun Rising through Vapour," No. 479. Other of Turner's oils are here too, all remarkable ; but of them and of the many water colours in the cases I say nothing, as they are periodically changed. Enough that the greatest genius in English painting may be studied here in great comfort.

For the bulk of his work, which he bequeathed to the nation, you must go to the Tate.