The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

1186 balls are " elegant " and conducted with great propriety, their dinners are equal to the best in Europe, the only drawback being "the " quantity of champagne you are obliged to " drink." But, as no city is without one pro minent social vice, Ekaterineburg, so fashion able in everything else, has its pet vice. It is fond of cards. True, they have no other in tellectual amusement. "In England," said one of the sinners, "you have the daily papers, " the monthly periodicals, a literature un " equalled, and the liberty of discussing every "subject with freedom; if we had such things " to occupy our minds, we should not care fur " cards." There is a vast amount of political philosophy here. And so they expend their pent-up energies atwhist. Young and old, they are all alike. Officers overdraw their pay, and blow out their brains; and old dowagers an ticipate their quarter's salary to enjoy a good night at cards. It would be impossible here to detail at any length the incidents of travel Mr. Atkinson met with on his extended journies through the wilder districts into which he passed after leaving Ekaterineburg. The description of his adventures is given with great vivacity—there is a warmth, a reality about it which brings the picture vividly before us. We follow him eagerly from the Altai, across the Kirghis Steppes, down to the confines of China, and enter into the spirit of the writer with gel - wine gusto, so well and naturally told are the incidents of his wanderings. His descrip• tion of the pastoral Kalmucks is especially in teresting. They are a set of hospitable cut throats, at perpetual war with one another, and after entertaining you overnight with roast sheep and brick tea, will strip you naked in the morning before you are two miles from their nod. Mr. Atkinson has preserved some capital stories of bear-hunting. On one occa sion, two men, one a bear-hunter of skill and repute, tracked a huge black bear to his lair. While searching cautiously, the bear crashed out from the thicket within a few feet of them : The hunter fired, and the ball struck. but not in a vital part. In an instant the wounded animal charged,—the other man, who was less experienced, reserved his shot until within twenty paces. The rifle missed fire,—at once the brute raised himself on his hind-legs, and, tearing the earth beneath him, rushed on nis first assailant, striking him down with a blow that stripped his scalp, and turned it over his face, then seizing his arm, he began to gnaw and crush it to the bone, gradually ascending to the shoulder. The man called to his companion to load and fire; but the fellow, when he saw his friend so fearfully mangled, ran away and left him to his fate. The cowardly fellow immediately ran off to the nearest gold-mine, and next morning a party of men set out on a search for the miss ing hunter:— By the state of the grass it was evident that the man had been carried off into the :hick forest. A most dili gent pursuit was therefore made ; sometimes the track was lost, but the pursuers of the bear were too well skilled in woodcraft to be foiled, and at length diecovered his larder. He had dragged the hunter into a dense mass of wood and hushes, and, to render the place still more secure, had broken off a great Quantity of branches and heaped them over his body. These were quickly stripped off, when, to their great surprise, they found the man, though frightfully mutilated, and quite insensible, still living! The man was carried home, tended with care, and after two months spoke. The first sen• tence he uttered was about " Michael Ivanitch" (the bear). As he gained strength, so irre sistible was his desire to seek out his old enemy that it became a chronic insanity. For some months he was kept under restraint; he watched his opportunity, seized his rifle, and evaped When it was discovered that he had escaped, people were sent out in various directions to seek him ; but they returned without success. More than a week passed over, during which nothing hail been heard of him, when one day he walked into the hospital, carrying the skin of a huge black beer on his shoulders, and throwing it down, exclaimed, " I told you I would have him." This man was a fine old hunter—it was not a spirit of revenge which prompted him to this daring act; tae fact was be could not brook the idea of a defeat. Now his reputation was re-established he was happy ; his health was again re stored ; nor was this the last bear that fell before his deadly rifle. An instance of daring courage is related of a Cossack officer, who, suddenly coming upon a she bear and two cubs in a hollow tree, de. termined to capture the cubs. He armed himself with a stout sapling, and moved warily towards the tree. When within a hundred THE PRESS, DECEMBER 5, 1857. yards, the bear began to growl furiously and move to and fro in front of the tree:— Nevertheless be quietly moved on, his keen eye stedfastly fixed upon her. The ground was a fine grassy turf, with no shrubs or bushes to impede his movements, or entangle his feet. When within about fifty paces she made a savage rush, that would have daunted most men ; but he firmly stood his ground, waiting her nearer approach. At this moment the cubs began to whine, and she trotted back towards the tree ag f tin in increased fury ; the Cossack followed, and when she turned round they were standing face to face, within twenty paces of each other. There was now no retreat—the brute eyed him keenly for two or three minutes, as if calculating his strength, he returning her gaze with as searching a scrutiny. Presently she made a second rush, her e)es glaring like balls of fire. At a few paces from her enemy she rose on her hineblegs, intending to give him a settler with her powerful paws or to clasp him in her savage embrace; but on the instant he made a sweep with his club, and dealt her a blow that toppled her over. She was up again in a second, and ready for action, but another blow laid her prostrate. This added to her ferocity, and it at once became a close encounter of the most deadly and savage character. Many rounds were foug'it, her antagonist keeping clear of her paws. At last the blows began to tell on her courage — she endeavoured to get behind him, but his cudgel met her at every turn, and was so well wielded, that whenever within reach she received a stroke which drove her back step by step, till both came under the tree. Here the fight was renewed with increased fury, and every time the cubs whined she made her attack with redonbled violence. The battle continued to rage furiously, but the blows from the staff fell so fast, and were applied with so much force, that at last she began a retreat towards the forest, the skirts of which she entered ; but the moment her brave assailant moved a step towards the tree, she would rush out, taking especial care, however, not to come within his reach. The difficulty was to get the cubs out. For tunately a woodman passing by came to the officer's assistance, captured the cubs, and the two set out, followed by the she bear, who maintained her attacks on the rear with great vigour until a village was reached, when she disappeared. Mr. Atkinson did not travel entirely alone; he had generally with him a small escort of Cossacks, of whose fidelity and kindness he speaks in the warmest terms. The book is illustrated with several beautifully coloured engravings of scenery or distin guished persons, while innumerable woodcuts add life and interest to its entertaining pages. A s a volume of travels, it is one of the most presentable books of the season, for it com bines a vast amount of curious and reliable information upon the state of these far distant countries, and the condition of the nomadic tribes which inhabit them, with much spirited adventure and entertaining anecdote. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain. By Dr. Waagen. Forming a Supple mental Volume to the T:easures of Art in Great Britain, Three Vols. London : Murray. DR. WAIGEN has now published four bulky volumes on the artistic wealth of our country, and appears to have examined with praise worthy diligence every gallery to which the persevering kindness of his friends could avail to procure him admission. Yet it is pro bable, as he says, that even now many collec tons are left undescribed, and that some other explorer may on a future occasion go deeper into the vast mass of pictorial riches which slow ancestral additions. or the all-grasping hand of a modern millionaire, have accumu lated among us. Tho,le who have turned over the Manchester Catalogue will have been struck with the vast number of persons, other wise totally unknown to fame, who own not merely respectable, but really excellent, pictures ; and, as may be perceived from Dr. Waagen's volumes, they by no means ex hausted the number of those who possess such treasures. Some half-dozen private galleries, in London and the count►;y, are well known by reputation, and attract their yearly crowds of visitors ; the rest, though doubtless libe rally thrown open to those who can command any sort of introduction, are, and must remain for the most part, entirely closed to the general public. In truth, to turn the pages of Dr. Waagen's work will seem to many persons an occupation not munch more satisfactory than that of reading the bill of fare of a civic ban quet. On the faith of the reporter, and in consideration of the well-earned fame of Messrs. Bathe anti Breach, we implicitly be lieve that the turtle was adhesive enough to evoke the ghost of Sir William Curtis, and that the dindons aux trillfies would not have dis graced the Parisian Hotel deVille. In like man ner, not a few must take upon trust the justice of the admiration with which the learned author of the work before us sets down in his eata. logue raisonnie the cool tones of a Ruvsdael which is never likely to refresh their eyes, the holy simplicity of a Raphael which is never likely to exalt their earthly imaginations, or the transparency of a Claude which will never blaze upon their vision with the westering effulgence of its Italian sun. Dr. Waagen was passed on from one great house to another with that cordial hospitality which England always shows to the distinguished and intelli gent, foreigner. Even when "the family " was absent, " four lines from her ladyship to the " housekeeper" seem to have charmed that imposing functionary into a sort of harmless trance which allowed the Doctor a whole day for his examination, instead of hurrying him through " great hall, ante-room, yellow draw " ing-room, pink saloon, ball-room, my lady's " boudoir, and my lord's study," in the space of twenty minutes, which leave on his retina impressions similar to those of a thaumatropo on a large scale, wherein the dangerous bandits of Salvator invade the unsuspecting groups of Watteau, or the calm cows of Cuyp pasture unalarmed among the fierce and foaming boars of Snyders. From all such an noyances Dr. Waagen was entirely free, and the result is a work which will grow in value with time, which all collectors or amateurs of art will feel bound to possess, and the impor tance of which will not be diminished even by a change in the ownership of the pictures which it describes. Pictures aro continually coining into England, but comparatively few leave it; and an occasional reference on the margin of the " Treasures of Art " will enable the connoisseur at any time to trace the history of a work, and will in time elevate the hook before us to the dignity of a Peerage of Painting. When anything is known of a man's charac ter or habits, it is interesting to attempt to trace it in the books or works of art which he accumulates around him. In the mansions of those gentlemen with whose ancestors the " grand tour" was a religion, and who them selves frequently winter in Rome or Florence, we should naturally expect to find a greater proportion of Italian, or at least continental masters, united probably with the works of those courtly and spirted painters whose genius does not desert them in the trying ordeal of a domestic group, and in whose hands a little girl playing with a cat or a but terfly is stamped with the impress of immor tality. Thus it is in the case of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with whose works most persons considered themselves tolerably well ac quainted, until the Manchester Exhibition drew together a collection adequately repre senting his powers. Some of these were, if we remember rightly, contributed by Lord Normanton, at whose seat, Somerley, there are twenty-five of Sir Joshua's pictures, esti mated by Dr. Waagen as probably the finest assemblage of them at present existing. NVe find, on the whole, that the greater number of Raphaels, Guides, Rembrandts, &e., arc in the possession of the old territorial aristocracy ; while the millionaire of commerce inclines more evidently to the genre school of painting, and fills his gallery with Tcniers and Ostade, or with the exquisite landscapes of the modern English school. Thus, in the case of one who has but lately relinquished his well employed fortune and well.spent life—Mr. Morrison, of Basildon-park—the chief artists who figure in the London house are Dutch and Flemish, with but a slight admixture of the Italian or French schools ; while at Basil don the names of Hilton, Turner, Collins, Constable, Wilkie, Stanfield, and Ward suffi ciently express the modern, practical, domes tic, English taste which might be expect al from the antecedents of the owner. Perhaps the most generally interesting parts of the present volume will be those respec tively devoted to the recent acquisitions at the Nati mai Gallery and to the Crystal Palace. As to the former, the altarpiece by Perugino, and the Paul Veronese, are described with fulness and much admiration. 1)r. Waagen thinks that the former picture exhibits de cided traces of the hand of Raphael, and that