HOME GOSSIP FOR THE EVENING STAR.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1968, 26 April 1875, Page 2

HOME GOSSIP FOR THE EVENING STAR.

LosDOtf, Feb. 10,1875.

Ecside our little cremation controversy, which " pits along " mildly in a manner suitable to the subject, and the controversy between Canon Liddon and Morisignore Capel, which got on anything but mildly, but seems now happily ended, we have had a couple of discussions. lately which w ere not of very much importance to any but the individuals concerned, except inasmuch as they helped those individuals to make themselves funny, which nature, apparently, had declined to make them. We could scarcely, I suppose, pick out two men less inclined—as far as we can judge by their public works —to promote cheerfulness, not to say mirth, with which to enliven our dull, season than Mr Buskin, and Mr Holman Hunt. Yet Mr Buskin and Mr Holman Hunt hare been quite our funny men of ■ late. Mr Kuskin, as you perhaps know, is our one infallible guide in pictorial art, our one perfect teacher of it, on the indisputable grounds of not being *an artist himself; of, in fact, defying or being ignorant of the greater number of what practical artists consider as the fundamental rules of art. Well, one Mr Tyrwhitt lately published a book called " Our Sketching Club," at the instance, as it seems of Mr Buskin, he being a devoted admirer—worshipper we may say, of that gentleman. Mr Buskin says that his object in thus urging au* thorship upon Mr Tyrwhitt was that that gentleman's book "Our Sketching Club," as above named, might take the place of his own former publication ".The Elements of Drawing. Ifow here,we say parenthetically that if it doei, it will ; be, in, racing parlance, nowhere; not even on the second-hand book-stalls; since a couple of years ago a friend of ours made a vain endeavour to get it under some delusion as to its value for a beginner in drawing, and was assured that the book was so worthless it was useless to keep it as an article of tradeit would not sell. This book of Mr Tyrwhitfc's was rather severely, and certainly very amusingly, reviewed by an artist, Mr William B. Scott; -whereupon Mr Buskin, assured that bis name alone would be sufficient to humble: into the dust any, the most daring of art critics, avowed the fact of his having commanded Mr Tyrwhitt to indite the book, and also his thorough approbation of the book when it had been written. Unfortunately some people are irrepressible—even by Mr Buskin. Mr Scott replied to this avowal that whatever Mr Buskin's opinion of "Our Sketching Club" nu>ht be, he (Mr Scott), simply considered it " the worst book extant" on the subject of art; adding further that he had never read Mr Buskin's " Elements tof Drawing," but supposed it "might rank as the second „ worst I" It is beginning to be feared that 'such appalling profanity as this must have given a shock to Mr Buskin's nervous system from which he has not yet recovered, as he has made no rejoinder. Some " pestilent fellow did indeed write a letter under the cognomen of Fuiskin, to one of our weekly papers, stating what he knew to be one of Mr Buskin's most cherished principles, namely, that "to question any dogma which he has laid down is a proceeding highly displeasing to him, and' involves .an impertinence which must be put down; " but it cannot be thought that Mr Buskin would fight under an assumed name. No, no; a man and a genius who comes boldly to the front to proclaim himself the greatest man and genius that ever lived wouid not,^ so desert his " platform." as the Yankees/ say. The cause which has brought MrVl Holman Hunt into the field, is just this. His picture of " The Shadow of Death," which to many ordinary observers appears the most extraordinary production of art ever seen; has been upheld by himself and his disciples of the realistic school as the most perfect in detail and execution which it would bo possible to conceive or produce. A perfect gamboge complexion, bright scarlet hair, and other little " details" may not be familiar to us in England, and we may even doubt this being the general type in Syria ; but Mr Holman Hunt assures us he studied every fact and every effect of his picture in Syria—we suppose even to the incomprehensible shadow; incomprehensible as to the usual " effect" of the setting sun— and that all is strictly correct. We must, admit too —any of us who have not been in Syria—that Syrian complexions seen in Ijondon may have been altered by onr climate. That is settled then; but what spirit of mischief made an honest gentleman of the name of Allan, hailing from North Britian, find out what we Londoners never perceived, that Mr Holman Hunt had made the Saviour left-banded.

This excellent county gentleman—for we suppose him to be such—being, no doubt, in the habit of using saw, plane, or hatchet, capable of mending a fenoe of cutting down a tree, was struck at once by the faot that the Sariour is standing before the carpenter's bench in such a manner that he could not hare used the

saw (still sticking in the timber) with, his right hand. His good old con-

serratiye religious principles, as well as his mechanical skill, being scandalized, no doubtj by the discovery, he expressed himself accordingly —■ in print. JEntre nous, we all here incline to the belief that Mr Holman Hunt was not aware of the fact until it was thus pointed out to him by Mr Allan ; but such an admission would never do ; never. Mr Holman Hant therefore condescends to explain to this literal minded correspondent, that he, Mr Holman Hunt, being "a realist of the most extreme aims, sticks to the letter and rejects the spirit of a subject altogether: " and that consequently he " intended the spectator to suppose that Christ had just stept over tbe plank to the other side, intending to speak tq his mother, but finding that the sun was.setting, and that it was too .late .to .resume-.his. work, yawned and stretched his arms, as represented in the painting, preparatory to laying by his tools for the night." In other words Mr Holman Hunt, having abjured imaginations in his works, requires very powerful imagination in the spectator,, and an amazing amount of it too. If the subject of his picture were not too serious a one for contempt to approach even remotely, the fitting answer to bis " explanation" would be bosh ! Asa pendent to these little squabbles we have had a law case lately, illustrative of the amenities of certain among us, 'who are supposed to be more friendly in their relations with each, other than we who belong to merely general society ; in which, as all well-bred people know, a little—indeed a good deal—of envy, hatred, and malice does not .by any means disqualify one for being considered well-bred. It'appears we haye among us an order of brethren ■tylinjr. themselves "The Antediluvian Order of, Buffaloes ;'' from which designatipn> no doubt, came the custom among fast young men of the Dick Swiveller type of calling old gentlemen " Ancient Buffaloes," tne " Antediluvian Buffaloes " being, of course, a highly dignified and honorable fraternity. According to what we learn from the report of the case in question it is the custom of the brethren when performing their mystic rites, to adorn arid also arm themselves with culinary utensils, wearing saucepans and dishebvers for helmets, tea-trays for cuirasses; and so forth, and brandishing rolling pins, spits, toasting forks, etc. In these days of culinary education, doubtless all this is symbolical of the advance of science as applied to domestic avocationi and so forth, but th^ uninitiated are rather at: a loss to know why the junior members of the order should be called Kangaroos, having been in the habit of supposing that Kangaroos and Buffaloes were distinct species. However, it is possible that "The Antediluvian Buffaloes " are more deeply learned in the theory of development than we are, so the fact may be let pass at present at least. It happened lately, however, that during the.ceremony of elevating a Kangaroo into the Buffalo proper rank, one brother hit another a rather sharp blow of a "rolling pin, which smashing his dish cover, went also very near smashing his scull beneath. According to his own account he "felt dizzy and sick;" he certainly was floored according t® the account of hii witnesses, he bled profusely, and had to be removed from the scene of the ceremonies and put to bed. Whether he might net at a later stage of the ceedings have found himself on the floor, without the blow, and might not have l^eeii very thankful to any brother who would^beinj* able, have put him to bed, does not appear. The paternal attention of the rolling-pin, was more than he bargained for, evidently, for he brought an action for assault. Mr Justice Blackburn, before whom the case was tried, thought " that in going through these foolish masquerades it was natural for some horse play to take place, but that that was no justification far a violent assault; the jury thought differently, however, 'and found for the defendant;' so the buffalo has had to pocket up his wrongs. - . . Prince Leopold is: recovering his late attack, which seems to have been more severe than any of his former illnesses. The Marchioness of Lome (Princess liouise) arrived at Osborne at an early period, and has stayed during the whole period of his sickness and recovery. We are to r .haye a new Opera House, on the Thames Embankment. The site has "been already marked" out; and yet the Haymarket Opera House has never been occupied as such since it was rebuilt; the enormous expense, it is said, deterring any one from undertaking the lesseeship. ' _ The proposed removal of Temple Bar has led to the removal of-piles of old documents which have lain in the rooms over the arch since they were used, in former times, as the strong rooms of Childs' Banking House; Some of the papers thus turned up are very curious ; one is a banking account of Nell Gwyne s. Sir Sterndale Bennett has been buried in Westminster Abbey. # / Yesterday was the centennial anniversary of Charles Lamb's birth, and there has been already a proposal made to collect funds for a memorial to him m Christ's Hospital, where he was educated.