re.

The old method of altering the size of a design by means of a pantagraph
or some similar contrivance, was very tedious, and must have required the
instrument to be well constructed and kept in very excellent order:
whereas the photographic copies become larger or smaller, merely by
placing the originals nearer to or farther from the Camera.

The present plate is an example of this useful application of the art,
being a copy greatly diminished in size, yet preserving all the
proportions of the original.

[PLATE XII. THE BRIDGE OF ORLEANS.]

PLATE XII. THE BRIDGE OF ORLEANS.

PLATE XII. THE BRIDGE OF ORLEANS.

This view is taken from the southern bank of the river Loire, which passes
Orleans in a noble stream.

A city rich in historical recollections, but at present chiefly
interesting from its fine Cathedral; of which I hope to give a
representation in a subsequent plate of this work.

[PLATE XIII. QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD, Entrance Gateway]

PLATE XIII. QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD, Entrance Gateway

PLATE XIII. QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

ENTRANCE GATEWAY.

In the first plate of this work I have represented an angle of this
building. Here we have a view of the Gateway and central portion of the
College. It was taken from a window on the opposite side of the High
Street. In examining photographic pictures of a certain degree of
perfection, the use of a large lens is recommended, such as elderly
persons frequently employ in reading. This magnifies the objects two or
three times, and often discloses a multitude of minute details, which were
previously unobserved and unsuspected. It frequently happens,
moreover--and this is one of the charms of photography--that the operator
himself discovers on examination, perhaps long afterwards, that he has
depicted many things he had no notion of at the time. Sometimes
inscriptions and dates are found upon the buildings, or printed placards
most irrelevant, are discovered upon their walls: sometimes a distant
dial-plate is seen, and upon it--unconsciously recorded--the hour of the day
at which the view was taken.

[PLATE XIV. THE LADDER.]

PLATE XIV. THE LADDER.

PLATE XIV. THE LADDER.

Portraits of living persons and groups of figures form one of the most
attractive subjects of photography,