HANDBOOK TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY THE NATIONAL GALLERY is open to the Public on week-days throughout the year. On MONDAYS, TUESDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and SATURDAYS _admission is free_, and the Gallery is open during the following hours:-- January From 10 A.M. until 4 P.M. February } From 10 A.M. until dusk. March } April } May } June } July } From 10 A.M. until 6 P.M. August } September } October } November } From 10 A.M. until dusk. December } On THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS (_Students' Days_) the Gallery is open to the Public _on payment of Sixpence each person_, from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M. in winter, and from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. in summer. On SUNDAYS the Gallery is open, free, from 2 P.M. till dusk, or 6 P.M. (according to the season). --> _Persons desirous of becoming Students should address the Secretary and Keeper, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, S.W._ The NATIONAL GALLERY OF BRITISH ART ("Tate Gallery") is open under the same regulations, and during the same hours, as those given above, except that _Students' Days_ are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A POPULAR HANDBOOK TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY INCLUDING BY SPECIAL PERMISSION NOTES COLLECTED FROM THE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN VOLUME I.--FOREIGN SCHOOLS COMPILED BY E. T. COOK WITH PREFACE BY JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., D.C.L. EIGHTH EDITION MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1922 A picture which is worth buying is also worth seeing. Every noble picture is a manuscript book, of which only one copy exists, or ever can exist. A National Gallery is a great library, of which the books must be read upon their shelves (RUSKIN: _Arrows of the Chace_, i. 71). There, the long dim galleries threading, May the artist's eye behold Breathing from the "deathless canvass" Records of the years of old: Pallas there, and Jove, and Juno, "Take" once more their "walks abroad," Under Titian's fiery woodlands And the saffron skies of Claude: There the Amazons of Rubens Lift the failing arm to strike, And the pale light falls in masses On the horsemen of Vandyke; And in Berghem's pools reflected Hang the cattle's graceful shapes, And Murillo's soft boy-faces Laugh amid the Seville grapes; And all purest, loveliest fancies That in poet's soul may dwell, Started into shape and substance At the touch of Raphael. Lo! her wan arms folded meekly, And the glory of her hair, Falling as a robe around her, Kneels the Magdalen in prayer; And the white-robed Virgin-mother Smiles, as centuries back she smiled, Half in gladness, half in wonder, On the calm face of her Child:--