thought that the explanation was that the ancient patrons of
art were gentry with a very strong idea of the fitness of things. For
"their churches and cathedrals," said B., "they had painted all those
virgins and martyrs and over-fed angels that you see everywhere about
Europe. For their bedrooms, they ordered those--well, those bedroom sort
of pictures, that you may have noticed here and there; and then I expect
they used these victual-and-drink-scapes for their banqueting halls. It
must have been like a gin-and-bitters to them, the sight of all that
food."

In the new Pantechnicon is exhibited the modern art of Germany. This
appeared to me to be exceedingly poor stuff. It seemed to belong to the
illustrated Christmas number school of art. It was good, sound,
respectable work enough. There was plenty of colour about it, and you
could tell what everything was meant for. But there seemed no
imagination, no individuality, no thought, anywhere. Each picture looked
as though it could have been produced by anyone who had studied and
practised art for the requisite number of years, and who was not a born
fool. At all events, this is my opinion; and, as I know nothing whatever
about art, I speak without prejudice.

One thing I have enjoyed at Munich very much, and that has been the
music. The German band that you hear in the square in London while you
are trying to compose an essay on the civilising influence of music, is
not the sort of band that you hear in Germany. The German bands that
come to London are bands that have fled from Germany, in order to save
their lives. In Germany, these bands would be slaughtered at the public
expense and their bodies given to the poor for sausages. The bands that
the Germans keep for themselves are magnificent bands.

Munich of all places in the now united Fatherland, has, I suppose, the
greatest reputation for its military bands, and the citizens are allowed,
not only to pay for them, but to hear them. Two or three times a day in
different parts of the city one or another of them will be playing _pro
bono publico_, and, in the evening, they are loaned out by the
authorities to the proprietors of the big beer-gardens.

"Go" and dash are the chief characteristics of their method; but, when
needed, they can produce from the battered, time-worn trumpets, which
have been handed down from player to player since the regiment was first
formed, notes as soft and full and clear a