that it opened new views, which yielded glimpses of the sublime, and dreams and visions that art had not hitherto displayed; and that others, better prepared by previous study, working after him, have delighted, and are still delighting, the world with their works. [Illustration: BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. _By_ JOHN MARTIN. _Exhibited at the British Institution in_ A.D. 1821.] THE NORWICH SCHOOL. We must now speak of a provincial school of landscape painters which was founded by JOHN CROME (1769--1821). The father of the Norwich Society of Artists is generally known as "Old Crome," to distinguish him from his son, who was likewise a painter. Crome, the son of a journey-man weaver, born in a small tavern at Norwich, was in due course apprenticed to a house and sign-painter. The young house-painter spent his spare time in painting something more attractive than the walls of houses, and chose the scenery round Norwich for his subjects. The flat, sunny landscapes, dotted with farms and cottages, through which the sleeping river glided slowly, and the Norfolk broads, with their flocks of wild fowl, remained to the last the frequent subjects of Crome's pencil. Determining to be a painter in good earnest, Crome, when his apprenticeship was over, eked out his scanty resources by giving lessons in drawing and painting. At the Royal Academy he exhibited only fourteen pictures, but in his native town one hundred and ninety-six. With the exception of _The Blacksmith's Shop_, all the works shown at the Academy were landscapes. "He wanted but little subject: an aged oak, a pollard willow by the side of the slow Norfolk streams, or a patch of broken ground, in his hands became pictures charming us by their sweet colour and rustic nature." "Crome seems to have founded his art on Hobbema, Ruysdael, and the Dutch school, rather than on the French and Italian painters; except so far as these were represented by our countryman, Wilson, whose works he copied, and whose influence is seen mingled with the more realistic treatment derived from the Dutch masters." (_Redgrave._) In the National Gallery are his _Mousehold Heath_, _View of Chapel Field_, and _Windmill on a Heath_: all views near Norwich. _A Clump of Trees, Hautbois Common_ (Fitzwilliam Gallery, Cambridge), is another favourable specimen of his art. JAMES STARK (1794--1859) was a pupil of Crome, and takes rank next to him in the Norwich school. In 1812, he was elected a member of the Norwich Society of Artists. In 1817, he came to London, and became a student in the Royal Academy. There appeared some of his best works: _Boys Bathing_, _Flounder Fishing_, and _Lambeth, looking towards Westminster Bridge_. Illness obliged Stark to return to Norwich, where he produced his "Scenery of the Rivers Yare and Waveney, Norfolk;" a series of illustrations engraved by Goodall and others. Stark lacked the vigour of Crome in colour and drawing.