so famous for containing
the richest productions of Rubens, Vandyke, Jordaens, and a host of
other great Flemish artists. As we entered, we saw, with interest, the
chair of Rubens, which he used in his studio. It bears his name, and the
date of 1638. It is in a glass case. Rubens has sixteen pictures here,
of high character, and Vandyke several. We were all delighted with No.
215--a Dead Christ on a stone table, and the Virgin mourning at his
side. No. 212 is a wonderful composition--Christ crucified between the
Thieves. The look of the dying penitent at his Savior is not to be
forgotten. The Magdalene of this picture is a creation of beauty indeed.
I have purchased a fine engraving of this picture, and several others by
Rubens, and I hope, by looking at them long, to retain the impression I
had made on my mind as I gazed upon the originals. No. 221--the
Trinity--is a profane and ungracious representation of a Dead Christ in
the arms of a stern old man, who is intended for the Father. This
picture is wonderfully fine, as regards the foreshortening of the dead
body; and I never saw such an exhibition in this respect. No. 218---
Christ showing his Wounds to Thomas--is fine; but the picture has
suffered from damp.

Quentin Matsys has several of his productions here, and we looked with
interest at a fine Sir Thomas More, by Holbein; the Flight into Egypt,
by Memling; Mater Dolorosa, by Albert Durer; and many interiors, by
Flemish artists. I was greatly pleased with No. 382--the Death of
Rubens, by Van Bree, who died in 1839. This is large, and I think a most
effective picture. The two sons, the priest, the wife fainting, and the
two scribes, are admirably disposed; and the open window, through which
the cathedral spire is seen, seems to me exceedingly clever; but I fancy
I admired it more than artists have done. On leaving this noble
collection, we stopped at St. Andrew's Church to see a portrait of Mary,
Queen of Scots, over a monument to the two Ladies Curl, one of whom
waited on her at her execution at Fotheringay Castle. After dinner we
sallied out to see the Exchange, or Bourse, and from which the first
London one was copied. Of course, this gave it an interest to us, as we
could fancy we saw the royal building in which Queen Bess made such a
display, and of which Gresham had so much reason to be proud. It is a
piazza of iron arches and granite pillars, surrounding a square two
hundred feet long by one hundred and six