They are vested solely in that member of the government, for the time Leine. " charged with the promotion of art education now under taken by the Department of Science and Art." Finally, if these "terms and conditions be not strictly adhered to," the pictures and drawings are to be transferred to the University of Cambridge, "and for ever after to form part of the Fitzwilliaut Museum." These conditions were fully acceded to by the government. A convenient and well brick building, and one admitting of easy extension, was erected adjoining the iron 31useuin of Ornamental Art at Feud, Is eusington, and opened to the public in June, 1857. The rooms in which the Vernon pictures are now hung adjoin these, and the two galleries open into each other. Like the Museum of Ornamental Alt these rooms are open to the public free on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday during the day, and ou Monday and Tuesday evenings; and on the other three days and Wednesday evening ou the paiment of sixpence —rather a curious arrangement in a national institution, and one that we may hope will not be followed when the British and foreign pictures are re-united in the National Gallery.
The collection of Mr. Sheepshanks, like that of Mr. Vernon, was formed for a private house, and consists therefore entirely of cabinet sized pictures. Far more than the Vernon collection, however, is it characteristic, of the taste of the founder. Mr. Sheepshanks evidently bought and commissioned pictures only in accordance with his own personal likings. Even more exclusively than Mr. Vernon's does it consist of genre and landscape-paintings. The examples of historical or purely imaginative works are extremely few. But in its way the collection is an admirable one. It comprises no fewer than 234 oil paintings, =zing over a period of about 50 years. and embracing very choice examples of many of the most eminent painters of the time.
Especially is it rich in the works of 3Iulready and Leslie, sonic of whose best pictures are here ; but it is rich, also, in the works of Landseer, 1,1 ilkie, Stothard, and Webster. Of 3Iulready th re are no less than 31 examples, the earliest painted in 1806, the latest in 1848. Some of these are very small, and comparatively unimportant : but among them are his famous' Choosing the Wedding Gown ' —one of the gems of British art ; his very beautiful ' Sonnet,' and ' First Love ; ' the popular Giving a Bite,' the ' Fight Interrupted,' and the ' Butt—Shooting a Cherry,' three of his most humorous works ; his most elaborate though not his most successful picture of ' The Seven Ages; ' and his interesting ' Interior, with a Portrait of 3Ir. Sheep shanks.' By Leslie there are 21 paintings, the elated ones extending from 1S23 to 1845. The of them are his illustrations to Shaks pere, Moliere, and Sterne, of whom ho gives always a genial often a suggestive reading, and one marked by a quiet refined humour : it will be enough to name the ' Katherine and Petruchio," The Dinner Scene from the Merry Wives of Windsor," Queen Katherine and Patience,' Florizel and Perdita," Autolycus.' Le Bourgeois Geutilhomme," Les
Femmes Semites," Le Malade Imaginaire,' and the popular rendering of ' Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman.' By Landsoer there are 16 paintings, of which the dates extend from 1814 to 1842 ; and we may notice, in passing, that among the drawings presented by Mr. Sheepshanke are some of special interest to the admirers of our great animal painter, being some of his very earliest pea and pencil drawings and sketches.— almost unique examples of precocity in fact,—a hound; for example, inscribed " drawn at five years of age," a • Calf, " drawn by E. L. when he was first breeched," a' Mead of a Bull,' and a Group of a Sow and Piga,' "drawn from nature at the age of eight years and two months, and so on. The largest of Landscer's paintings here (and one of the largest pictures in the collection) is the ' Drovers' Departure—scene in the Grampians,' one of his moat characteristic and elaborate works, widely known by Mr. Watt's admirable line engraving. Among his other pictures are the ' Highland Breakfast," The old Shepherd's Chief Mourner," There 's no Place like Hume," The Twa Dogs," Jack in Office,' and one or two more in which not only his power, unrivalled among living painters, of representing the form, clothing, and expression of animals, is fully displayed, but also his humour and his pathos. By Turner there are five pictures, all but one English—the Vessel in Distress off Yannouth," Line-Fishing oil' Hastings," St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall," East Cowes Castle,' and ' Venice: By 11'ilkie there are six pictures, but only one of any value, The Refusal—Duncan Gray,' and that, we are told in the official cata logue, "was in a most dilapidated state from the use of asphaltum, but has been repaired by Mr. Bentley." The six pictures by Webster are all good examples of that painter's genius : among them are the excellent companions painted in 1838—' Going to the Fair,' and ' Returning from the Fair ;' *The Village Choir ;' and Sickness and Health.' By Stothard there are 10 paintings, including several of his Shakapere pieces, ' Sancho and the Duchess," Sir Roger de Coverley and the Gipsies,' and two of his most humorous efforts—• John Gilpin' and • Tam o' Shanter.' Further, there are 9 examples by Collins, 0 by Constable, as many by Itedgrave ; 3 each by Stanfield, Roberts, Lee, and Denby ; 2 each by Etty, Eastlake, and Creswick ; 9 by Calcott ; II by Cooke; 9 by Cope ; 4 by Uwins, and so on. The drawings, which are varied and interesting. are exhibited in a room adjoining those which contain the oil-paintings. Among them are some flue drawings by Turner, ('rout, &c., but the greater part arc sketches and studies. To these has recently been added a small collection of drawings in water colours, the gift of Mrs. Ellison, which is valuable not only in itself, but as serving as the nucleus of a comprehensive ' collection of works in that essentially British line of art.