and beautiful taste now in abeyance: it is now rarely practised by our painters. There is, however, a very fine picture in the Royal Academy Exhibition, by Mr. Goodall, which is, strictly speaking, an emblem, though the artist calls it an historical episode. Now it appears to me an episode cannot be reduced into a representation; it might embrace a complete picture in writing, but as I read the picture it is an emblem, and would have been still more perfect had the painter treated it accordingly. The old man at the helm of the barge might well represent Strafford, because, though he holds the tiller, he is not engaged in steering right, his eyes are not directed to his port. Charles himself, rightly enough, has his back to the port, and is truly not engaged in manly affairs, nor attending to his duty; but the sentiment of frivolity here painted cannot, I should say, attach itself to him, for he is not to be reproached with idling away his time with women and children, as this more strictly must be laid to his son. But the port where some grim-looking men are seriously waiting for him, completes a very happy and poetical idea, but incomplete as an emblem, which it really is; and were the emblematic rules more cultivated, it would have told its story much better. At present, the taste of the day lies in more direct caricature, and our volatile friend _Punch_ does the needful in his wicked sallies of wit, and his fertile pencil. His sharp rubs are perhaps more effective to John Bull's temper, who can take a blow with Punch's truncheon and bear no malice after it,--the heavy lectures of the ancients are not so well suited to his constitution. WELD TAYLOR. Bayswater. * * * * * Minor Notes. _Old Lines newly revived._--The old lines of spondees and dactyls are just now applicable:-- C[=o]nt[=u]rb[=a]b[=a]nt[=u]r C[=o]nst[=a]nt[=i]n[=o]p[)o]l[)i]t[=a]n[=i] Inn[)u]m[)e]r[=a]b[)i]l[)i]b[=u]s s[=o]l[)i]c[)i]t[=u]d[)i]n[)i]b[=u]s." W. COLLYNS. Harlow. _Inscription near Cirencester._--In Earl Bathurst's park, near Cirencester, stands a building--the resort in the summer months of occasional pic-nic parties. During one of these visits, at which I {77} was present, I copied an inscription, painted in old characters on a board, and nailed to one of the walls, and as the whole thing had not the appearance of belonging to modern times, and, as far as I could decipher it, it referred to some agreement between Alfred and some of his neighbouring brother kings, concerning boundaries of territory, I send it to you for insertion. A. SMITH. [cross] "FOEDVS . QUOD . AELFREDVS . ET . LVTHRVNVS . REGES . OMNES . ANGLIAM . INTOLEBANT . ORIENTALEM . FERIERVNT . ET . NON . SOLVM . DE . SEIPSIS . VERVM . ETIAM . DE . NATIS . SVIS . AC . NONDVM . IN . LVCEM . EDITIS . QVOTQVOT . MISERICORDIAE . DIVINAE . AVT . REGIAE . VELVNT . ESSE . PARTICIPES . JVREJVRANDO . SANXERVNT." [cross]