ades the entire
composition to an unusual extent, without an offensive feature. Yet it
would not be easy to bring together a greater variety of heterogeneous
admixtures than it embraces. Fish, beasts, insects, and foliage, combine
with the human form to complete its _ensemble_. The least natural of the
group is the floriated fish, whose general form has evidently been based
on that of the dolphin. When Hogarth ridiculed the taste for _virtu_,
which the fashionable people of his own era carried to a childish
extent, and displayed its follies in his picture of "Taste in high
life," and in the furniture of his scenes of the "Marriage-a-la-mode,"
he exhibited a somewhat similar absurdity in porcelain ornament. In the
second scene of the "Marriage" is an amusing example of false
combination, in which a fat Chinese is embowered in foliage, above whom
floats in air a brace of fish, which emerge from the leaves, and seem to
be diving at the lighted candles. Hogarth's strong sense of the
ludicrous was always pertinently displayed in such good-humoured satire.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.]

The pottery manufacturers were always clever at the construction of
grotesques. We have noted their past ability, and our readers may note
their present talent in many London shops. The French fabricants furnish
us with the most remarkable modern works, and very many of the smaller
articles for the toilette, or for children's use, are designed with a
strong feeling for the grotesque. Little figures of Chinese, rich in
colour, twist about in quaint attitudes, to do duty as tray-holders or
match-boxes. Lizards make good paper-weights, and wide-mouthed frogs are
converted into small jugs with perfect ease. There is evidently a
peculiar charm possessed by the grotesque, which appeals to, and is
gladly accepted by, our volatile neighbours. We are ashamed to laugh at
a child-like absurdity, and take it to our hearts with the thorough
delight which they do not scruple to display. In this we more resemble
the Germans, and, like them, we have a sombre element even in our
amusements.

This subject, though entering so largely into the decorative designs of
all countries and every age, has never been treated with any attention
as a branch of fine art. It is by no means intended here to direct study
to the reproduction of anything so false as the grotesque; but as it has
existed, and does still exist, its presence cannot be ignored, and will
be recognised c