too, that ingenious effects might be obtained by suspending gauzes between the scene and the spectators.  These are now, of course, but commonplace contrivances; they were, however, distinctly the inventions of De Loutherbourg, and were calculated to impress the playgoers of his time very signally.  To Garrick De Loutherbourg rendered very important assistance, for Garrick was much inclined for scenic decorations of a showy character, although as a rule he restricted these embellishments to the after-pieces, and for the more legitimate entertainments of his stage was content to employ old and stock scenery that had been of service in innumerable plays.  Tate Wilkinson, writing in 1790, refers to a scene then in use which he remembered so far back as the year 1747.  “It has wings and a flat of Spanish figures at full length, and two folding-doors in the middle.  I never see those wings slide on, but I feel as if seeing my old acquaintance unexpectedly.”

Of later scene-painters, such as Roberts and Stanfield, Grieve and Telbin, and to come down to the present time, Beverley and Calcott, Hawes Craven and O’Connor, there seems little occasion to speak; the achievements of these artists are matters of almost universal knowledge.  It is sufficient to say that in their hands the art they practise has been greatly advanced, even to the eclipse now and then of the efforts of both actors and dramatists.

Some few notes, however, may be worth making in relation to the technical methods adopted by the scene-painter.  In the first place, he relies upon the help of the carpenter to stretch a canvas tightly over a frame, or to nail a wing into shape; and subsequently it is the carpenter’s duty, with a small sharp saw, to cut the edge of irregular wings, such as representations of foliage or rocks, an operation known behind the curtain as “marking the profile.”  The painter’s studio is usually high up above the rear of the stage—­a spacious room, well lighted by means of skylights or a lantern in the roof.  The canvas, which is of course of vast dimensions, can be raised to the ceiling, or lowered through the floor, to suit the convenience of the artist, by means of machinery of ingenious construction.  The painter has invariably made a preliminary water-colour sketch of his scene, on paper or cardboard.  Oftentimes, with the help of a miniature stage, such as schoolboys delight in, he is enabled to form a fair estimate of the effect that may be expected of his design.  The expansive canvas has been sized over, and an outline of the picture to be painted—­a landscape, or an interior, as the case may be—­has been boldly marked out by the artist.  Then the assistants and pupils ply their brushes, and wash in the broad masses of colour, floods of light, and clouds of darkness.  The dimensions of the canvas permit of many hands being employed upon it, and the work proceeds therefore with great rapidity.  But the scene-painter is constant in his supervision of his subordinates, and when their