Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/154

 122 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. VII.-AUG. u, 1920. type, judging from the helmet on which she rests her left foot. The foreground shows a tiled floor with walls on each side in classical Ionian style with two pseudo-peripteric pillars and sur- mounted by two flower-vases. The back- ground is filled by two rows of poplars with chestnuts on each side. Beneath the stage a band of five musicians play the fiddle, spinet, flute, clarionet, and mandoline. Perselide (vol. ii.). In the foreground Perselida, a very graceful figure, languishes on the knee of a servant, dressed in robes and a turban. The background shows on the right a massive column with a square pediment, further back arches in Renaissance style adorned with classical deities. Ificjenia. The landing of Orestes and Pylades in Tauris. Iphigenia, a graceful, drooping figure clasps the hand of Orestes. She is dressed in robes of wonderful softness. Orestes stands at her right with the image of Diana in his left hand just visible over i Iphigenia's shoulder. The figure of Pylades j on the right turned sideways towards Iphigenia is vivaciously engraved, the arm holding the tunic and the left leg exquisitely rendered. The background, very faint, represents the sea and a rocky coastline, while above, beyond a slight shadow of trees, the Furies are rushing. Eachele. A group at a table. The back ground two great trees crossing trunks to form a bower, and behind them a square campanile beside a domed temple. Alceste. Perhaps the finest in chiaroscuro. Fereto sits on a throne mounted on two steps and shadowecl by a heavily-folded curtain wound round a fluted pillar. The back- ground contains the beginning of a circle of arches, fluted Corinthian pillars alternating with massive columns crowned by a goddess. Round the edge runs a balustrade. M. Tullio Cicero (vol. iii.). The back- ground shows the base of a classical building with a statue in a niche. The foreground, very spirited, holds a page dressed in mediae- val garb presenting the head of Cicero to Octavian whose gesture of repulsion with both hands outstretched and averted face is well done. A figure beckoning behind with one hand on Octavian's shoulder is equally good. A shadowy figure on the left bending over a page has been softly rendered with filmy robes. (Edipo Coloneo. In the foreground blind CEdipus, a tragic ^figure with arm out- stretched, rushes eagerly forward while a female attendant prevents him from falling over a stone which has Gorgon heads on its sides. Three elders stand resignedly in the middle distance beside a brazier, while the background is filled with beautifully foliaged trees. Sisera (a magnificent plate). Jael, hammer in hand, steps over the dead body of Sisera, who lies like a mediaeval knight with his helmet at his feet. The figure of Jael with her flowing garments and head bent forward and sideways, pointing with one shapely arm to the dead captain, pulses with splendid life. On a table to the right stand pots, and a snake-like tree on the left, with a forest behind, completes the frame. HUGH QUIGLEY, ARTHUR AIKIN IN WALES, 180?. FROM LUDLOW TO DOLGELLEY. IN 1807, the year of John Aikin's tour in Kent (ante, p. 101), his elder son Arthur Aikin made an expedition in Wales, and the following journal, which he kept from Ludlow to Dolgelley, is now given as it stands in manuscript. Arthur Aikin (born at Warrington, 1773, and died in London, 1854) was the author of a ' Journal of a Tour through North Wales and part of Shropshire,' published in 1797. He was a man of varied scientific accom- plishments, being one of the founders of the Geological Society (1807); the author of a manual of Mineralogy ; a lecturer on chemistry, which subject he had studied under Priestley, at Guy's Hospital from 1816 to 1852, and first treasurer of the Chemical Society ; secretary of the Society (now Royal Society) of Arts from 1817 to 1840 ; and first hon. secretary of the Institu- tion of Civil Engineers (1818). Ludlow, '"September 10,fl807. Walked to the Castle. Called on Mr. Merrick who lives in one of the best houses in the place with a delightful garden. Walked on the S. bank of the Teme greatly superior to the Northern bank the river's side well lined with trees that dip their branches in the stream and many rapids caused by ledges of rock that run across the river. The hill opposite the town on the other side of the river composed of beds of calcareous flag- stone not capable of burning into lime, but abounding in shells declining gently to S.E. and E.S.E. The banks are more compact the deeper-