and other artists with similar ambitions come within the category of made-up pictures--that is to say, were inspired by the past rather than the present--they were often of considerable charm and bore few traces of being rather second-hand in design. To achieve success with a composition relying for its incidents and accessories on scenes enacted, or supposed to have been enacted, two centuries or more previously requires gifts of no mean order. Not only must there be a proper understanding of the sentiments of the times, but the people introduced must be dressed appropriately and must take their part in the proceedings naturally. Nash, of course, studied his backgrounds on the spot, and chose the point of view which would be most picturesque. For him it was then a comparatively simple matter to imagine what scenes had taken place there long years before. He saw with his mind’s eye and recorded his impressions with due regard to historical probability and artistic requirements. Posterity owes much to the painstaking and capable artists who toured the country in search of likely material and who published the results of their labours in such a permanently attractive way. Without such drawings nothing would exist to remind us of some of the most interesting examples of craftsmanship produced in the preceding centuries. The illustrations are useful also for comparison with the modern views of buildings by means of photography, and it is curious to notice how much alike are some of the records. One often suspects photographers of taking up the same point of view as the less speedy draughtsmen of nearly a hundred years ago, not because one vantage-ground inevitably suggests itself, but because artists of the camera are inclined to follow the lead of their predecessors. This plagiarism may be forgiven, however, for it enables us to see exactly what changes have taken place in the interval of years. Our thanks are due not only to those who illustrated but to those who published the drawings which are so valuable for reference, with the appropriate comments which accompanied them. The authors made light of difficult travel, and with much evident pleasure elaborated in prose the now hackneyed lines of Mrs. Hemans: “The Stately Homes of England, How beautiful they stand Amidst their tall ancestral trees O’er all the pleasant land.” [Illustration: HENRY SHAW SIDE OF DINING-ROOM AT GILLING CASTLE, YORKSHIRE]