PLACES AND PEOPLE ABROAD.       135
meet in mid-air : one star is alone visible. Sailing in
vacancy are the shadows of the lovers. The countenance
of Francesca is expressive of hopeless agony. The de-
lineations are sublime, the conception is of the highest
order, and the execution admirable. Dante is seated in
a marble vestibule, in a meditating attitude, the face
partly concealed by the right hand upon which it ia rest-
ing. On the whole, it is an excellently painted piece,
and causes one to go back with a fresh relish to the
Italian's celebrated poem.
In coming out we stopped a short while in the upper
"room of the gallery, and spent a few minutes over a
painting representing Mrs. Siddons in one of Shaks-
peare's characters. This is by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and
is only one of the many pieces that we have seen of this
great artist. His genius was vast and powerful in its
grasp, his fancy fertile, and his inventive faculty inex-
haustible in its resources. He displayed the very highest
powers of genius by the thorough originality of his con-
ceptions, and by the entirely new path that he struck
out in art. Well may Englishmen be proud of his name.
And as time shall step between his^day and those that
follow after him, the more will his works be appreciated.
We have since visited his grave, and stood over his
monument in St. Paul's.