uffs and
starched collars and stiff farthingales of the women. In one picture
you may see the careful housewife mournfully inspecting a moth-eaten
garment which she has just taken from a chest that Wardour Street
might envy; in another she is energetically cuffing the 'foolish
fat scullion,' who has let the spotted Dalmatian coach-dog overturn
the cauldron at the fire. Here an old crone, with her spectacles on,
is cautiously probing the contents of the said cauldron with a fork;
here the mistress of the house is peeling pears; here the plump and
soft-hearted cheese-wife is entertaining an admirer--outside there
are pictures as vivid. Here are the clumsy leather-topped coach with
its masked occupant and stumbling horses; the towed _trekschuit_,
with its merry freight, sliding swiftly through the low-lying
landscape; the windy mole, stretching seaward, with its blown and
flaring beacon-fire. Here again in the street is the toy-shop with
its open front and store of mimic drums and halberds for the martial
little burghers; here are the fruiteress with her stall of grapes
and melons, the rat-catcher with his string of trophies, the fowler
and his clap-net, the furrier with his stock of skins."

In 1860 a number of Van der Venne's best pictures were redrawn by John
Leighton to accompany translations of the fables by Richard Pigot. As
a taste of Cats' quality I quote two of the pieces. Why the pictures
should have been redrawn when they might have been reproduced exactly
is beyond my understanding. This is one poem:--

LIKE MELONS, FRIENDS ARE TO BE FOUND IN PLENTY
OF WHICH NOT EVEN ONE IS GOOD IN TWENTY.

In choosing Friends, it's requisite to use
The self-same care as when we Melons choose:
No one in haste a Melon ever buys,
Nor makes his choice till three or four he tries;
And oft indeed when purchasing this fruit,
Before the buyer can find one to suit,
He's e'en obliged t' examine half a score,
And p'rhaps not find one when his search is o'er.
Be cautious how you choose a friend;
For Friendships that are lightly made,
Have seldom any other end
Than grief to see one's trust betray'd!

And here is another:--

SMOKE IS THE FOOD OF LOVERS.

When Cupid open'd Shop, the Trade he chose
Was just the very one you might suppose.
Love keep a shop?--his trade, Oh! quickly name!
A Dealer in tobacco--Fie for shame!
No less than