Wilson, J. G. Lockhart, Sir David Wilkie, and
other eminent men of the day. His writings,
spread over the periodical literature of his timeparticularly
the Edinbu& Magazim and Annual
Registw-are very numerous, and he was the first
among modern Scotsmen who made art the subject I feri-ed to in Peter?s .(? Letters to
and study had suggested, it is not to be wondered
at that in exercises of this sort he took particular
delight and obtained great excellence. He was
secretary of the Dilettanti Society of Edinburgh.
The establishment of the Bridges is thus re-
OLD TIMBER-FRONTED HOUSE, LAWNMARKET.
of systematic criticism; and from the purity and
clearness of his style, his perfect knowledge of
the subject, and the graceful talent he possessed
of mingling illustration with argument, he imparted
an interest to a subject, which, to many, might
appear otherwise unattractive. And when it is considered
that it was to the acting of the great Mrs.
Siddons, John K e d e , Kean, and Miss O?Neil,
that he had to apply those rules which his taste
his Kinsfolk?:-
? Wastle immediately conducted me to this dilettanti
lounge, saying, that here was ?the only
place where I might be furnished with every means
of satisfying my curiosity. On entering, one finds
a very neat and tasteful-looking shop, well-stocked
with all the tempting diversities of broad-cloth and
bombaseens, silk stockings and spotted handkerchiefs.
A few sedate-looking old-fashioned cits are
probably engaged in conning over the Edinburgh
newspapers of the day, and perhaps discussing
mordi~us the great question of Burgh Reform. . .
After waiting for a few minutes, the younger partner
tips a sly wink across his counter, and beckons
you to follow him through a narrow cut in its
famous Hercules, the Dancing Fawn, the Iaocoon,
and the Hermaphrodite, occupy conspicuous
stations on the counters, one large table is entirely
covered with a book of Canova?s designs, Turner?s
? Liber Studiorum,? and such like manuals ; and in
GLADSTONE?S SAND.
mahogany surface, into the unseen recesses of the
establishment. X few steps downward, and in the
dark, land you in a sort of cellar, below the shop
proper, and here by the dim religious light, which
enters through one or two well-grated peeping
holes, your eyes soon discover enough of the
furniture of the place to satisfy you that you have
reached at last the sanctum sanctorum of the
tine arts. Plaster of Paris casts of the head of the
the corners where the little light there is streams
brightest, are placed, upon huge piles of corduroy
and kerseymere, various wooden boxes, black, brown,
and blue, wherein are locked up from all eyes, save
those of privileged and initiated frequenters of the
scene, various pictures and sketches, chiefly by
living artists, and presents to the proprietor. Mr.
Bridges, when I asked him on my first nsit what
mightbe the contents of thesemysteriousreceptacles,
