The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-02 00:00:00

PORTRAITS OF THE PRINCE AND

PRINCESS OF WALES.

Engraved by William Holl, from Photographs
by Mayall, taken at Osborne, March 14, 1863.
London : John Mitchell.

By the publication of these exquisite engravings
Mr. Mitchell has signalised, with extraordinary
rapidity, the fitness of his own special appointment
as Bookseller and Publisher to their Royal High-
nesses. How works of art, so minutely and
delicately touched throughout as these are, can have
been produced with anything like the rapidity here
manifested, is certainly little less than marvellous.
The date, given above, indicates when the photo-
graphs by Mayall were taken, down at Osborne,
on the fourteenth of March, that is on the fourth
day of the stiil unfinished honeymoon ! And yet,
though the honeymoon itself is even now unfinished,
the engraved portraits, taken from the original pho-
tographs, have been finished to the utmost nicety by
the swift and dexterous hand of Mr. Holl. These
engravings, which in shape aro companion ovals,
are in merit, and when simply viewed as specimens
of the art, nothing short of masterpieces.
Still better than this, immeasurably better than this,
they are truly wonderful as likenesses. Both Prince
and Princess are in morning costume in all save
that their heads are uncovered. The Prince is even
equipped in his great coat. So that they bear
all the appearance of being just prepared for
a stroll in Osborne Gardens, or a walk in Os-
borne Park. The Princess, more charming than
ever somehow in this picture—possibly from the
more becoming arrangement of her hair, here not
swept so entirely from her forehead as in her pre-
vious portraitures—wins upon our loyal admiration
the more familiarised we become with the beauty
of her fair, ingenuous, thoughtful, animated face.
In the countenance of the Prince, too. as it is here
revealed to us in this faithful presentment,
we seem more distinctly than ever to recog-
nize a mingled resemblance to his Royal
Father and his Queen Mother. Under each
engraving is a facsimile of the respective sig-
natures, here of the Prince, here of H.R.H.
the Princess. The autograph " Alexandra" being
as flowing and,delicate as that of " Albert Edward,
P," is bold and masculine. Recognising in these
Portraits, as we do, incomparably the best en-
graved likenesses of both Prince and Princess
yet published, we cannot be surprised that her
Majesty has graciously permitted the engrav-
ings to be dedicated to herself—thereby attesting
her Majesty's estimate of their value and excel-
lence.

Precocity (says a Saturday Reviewer), in all its
stages, is more or less amusing from its odd knack
of fastening upon the foibles of the model which
is for the moment the object of its admiration.
We mean, of course, where the model is not radically
vicious, and the blemishes copied are only transitory, and
do not get into the blood. A precocious boy in petticoats,
when he begins to feel ripe for jackets and the society of
bigger brothers, puts his feet through bonnet-boxes, and
melts down the nose of his sister's favourite doll. Promoted
to jackets, he makes himself sick on strong cigars, and gar- '
nishes his conversation with manly expletives. But it is
when he is just entering into the Canaan of visiting. cards
and tail-coats that his precocity assumes its most grotesque
form—it is so quaintly compounded of servile imitation and
a swaggering self reliance, whi h now and then breaks out
into positive ferocity. A precocious youth of seventeen is
delighted to find himself in the society of his superiors in
age and whiskers, copying with abject eagerness their
general tone in conversation and dress, and unconsciously
caricaturing their absurdities. But still he is always
ready to fire up on the slightest suspicion that he is being
slighted or snubbed. At a wedding-breakfast, or an archery
party, it makes him wretched to discover that his gloves
are darker, or his buttons larger than those of his favourite
model ; but this homage turns in a moment to the liveliest
hate, if he fancies that the model, not content with robbing
him of the prettiest bridesmaid, is making her laugh by
some brutal reference to razors, or to the blighted young
gentleman who has so often hung his harp on the willow-
tree, before going off to the wars again. He thirsts f r the
blood of the bearded beast, and yearns for a revival of the
tournament or the duel. He even speculates on the best
• kin, a
way of plc quarrel in the hall, and convulsively
clenches his fist under the table—hastily opening it, how-
ever, as the horrid thought occurs to him that, among
grown-up men,
fisticufEXTRAORDINARY BIRT/IS.—On this morning
fing is considered school. boyish.
(Wednesday) a poor woman, the wife of a labouring
man, named Brien, who resides in May-lane, off Bally-
bricken, and is in the employment of Mr. Casey, pig-buyer,
was safely delivered of four children— two boys and two
girls. They all died within a couple of hours afterwards.
On two previous occasions of a similar nature this very
prolific woman gave birth to twins each time, making eight
children—from the first birth to the last—in two years and
two months I—Waterford Nail.
PLEASANT PUNISHME_VT.—"That's what I call
capital punishment," as the boy said when his mother shut
him up in the closet amongst the preserves,