The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-06
SPIRIT OF WESTMINSTER
 BREATHES IN THE STONE
The British Museum With Its Master pieces of Art Is Wonderful
 Fairyland-The Great Dome of St. Peters.
EY MARION KELLY.

We nave taken the train for London, That city of all in the world the largest. Who has not heard of little Dick Whit tington? Who does not know that he was told of a city whose streets were paved with yellow gold? Who has not heard that he ran from street to street trying to find those rich ways with al- ways the same results till he learned years afterward that the wealth was in the streets only as those passed whose minds led them to such financial success. Net, these men being residents of this wealthy city gave 1t the fame of their names.
 London began with us with the beauti- fuf side uppermost, the pictures in the National Art Gallery.
 The art gallery faces on Trafalgar liSquare, where there is a great column isurmounted by Nelson's statue, and hround are other columns supporting fig ures of generals who did much to make the memory of their battle immortal. The gallery is well arranged, each school of art having it's own room. One may see Fra Angelica and his contemporaries with the work that has advanced little above the flat figures on gold background. So superior was his work to that of his contemporaries that it is said he was given the name Angelica" as a result of his faces having an etherial, heavenly expression that led all who saw them to prayer and thought of heaven.
 In another room surrounded by a num- Der of pictures, is Botticellls Madonna and Christ-chd The other pictures seem expressionless when one compares them with that of the tender, youthful Madon- ma whose eyes are clear and truthful, whose sensitive lips might quiver were she the woman one half believes one sees. There is the slightest touch of sadness in the little droop of the beauti- ful mouth so unconscious that one looks again to be assured, and again and again. I suppose a critic would find some faults as well as many charming virtues, but being no critic l only tell how l loved her and was conscious of no fault in coloring composition. In this gallery Rrs many famous pictures by Tintoretto, some by Titan, who painted beautiful women with golden hair, and golden 'hadows on their flesh some by Raphael 1ose Madonnasis ranked as>one of the twelve pictures of the world, and one by Leonardo da Vinci. The Florentine school shows rich shadows and perfect sense of color harmony, but one can bet ter understand this when he knows that the Florentines did not draw, as we say. They put the patches of color in the proper places and then pulled them to- gether. This seems so strange to us who are taught that draughtmanship is so important primarily, or, as one teacher puts it, 'If you can draw, you can paint anything" Art galleries are so wonderful: they like Oxford, must be lived with for one to appreciate their beauty.
 At another time we saw Hampden Court and the British Museum. Hamp- den Court was for years the home of English kings, then of Cardinal Wolsey, and now of crown pensioners, though part Is used for an art gallery. The old court beds, used by members of the roy al family. and one used by the cardinal are shown. They are alike In being heavily canopied and looking entirely uncomfortable. The room used by the car dinal was heavily brocaded with satin hangings and upholstering It was evil dently pink room, and one .n which a person need never feel lonely as the ceiling is covered with naked yenuses and other nude figures. Very many of the pictures are bad, and often they are not even good limitations, so the gallery is not interesting from an art standpoint. But I felt much interest in following the different suits of rooms, those of the king, of the queen and of the Prince of Wales being in the same part of the palace There are bed chambers, robing rooms, audience chambers, and ante rooms, and one that was very impressive was labeled "The Queens Guard"
 In the great banquet hall the walls are covered with tapestry. One may imagine how luxurious the palace became under Cardinal Wolsey, when told that a piece of tapestry two inches wide and six inches long was considered a days work for one man. But after the cardinal came here to live. he seemed to inherit all the extravagant and luxurious tastes