portions of the ground, shining through leaves upon other leaves, and multiplying in an endless way the transparency of the picture. If the chance be given him he mirrors all these things in the still pool near a cottage, the reaches of a sluggish river, or the swirl of the stream that feeds a busy mill. The same spot will furnish him with several pictures. One mill gives him repeated opportunities of charming our eye; and this wonderful artist, who is only second to Ruysdael because he had not Ruysdael's versatility and did not extend his study equally to downs and rocky eminences, or torrents and estuaries--this is the man who lived penuriously, died poor, and left no trace in the artistic annals of his country! It has been said that Hobbema did not paint his own figures, but transferred that duty to Adrian van de Velde, Lingelbach, Barendt Gael, and Abraham Storck. As to this much is conjecture. The best of Hobbema's dated pictures are those of the years 1663 to 1667. Of the former, several in the galleries of Brussels and St Petersburg, and one in the Holford collection, are celebrated. Of 1665 fine specimens are at Grosvenor House and the Wallace collection. Of seven pieces in the National Gallery, including the "Avenue at Middelharnis," which some assign to 1689, and the "Ruins of Breberode Castle," two are dated 1667. A sample of the last of these years is also in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. Amongst the masterpieces in private hands in England may be noticed two landscapes in Buckingham Palace, two at Bridgewater House, and one belonging to Mr Walter of Bearwood. On the continent are a "Wooded Landscape" in the Berlin gallery, a "Forest" belonging to the duchess of Sagan in Paris, and a "Glade" in the Louvre. There are other fine Hobbemas in the Antwerp Museum, the Arenberg gallery at Brussels, and the Belvedere at Vienna. (J. A. C.)