A LONG VACATION IN CONTINENTAL PICTURE GALLERIES. BY THE REV. T. W. JEX BLAKE, M.A. ONE OF THE ASSISTANT MASTERS AT RUGBY SCHOOL. INTRODUCTION. THE following notes were chiefly made during a four months' tour, from July to November, 1857. A foundation for them had, however, been laid in a previous tour of three months, in the earlier part of the same year, over much of the same ground. The earlier and shorter tour was confined to Italy alone. : All the notes were made from personal observation on the spot, jotted down, with the number of the picture, then and there. The German galleries were worked up into their present condition before the tour ended. The Italian galleries remained in pencil and embryo till the early part of the present year. The writer had the advantage of carrying Vasari (Mrs. Forster's translation, published by Bohn) about with him; and the simple old biographer, as naïve and fresh as Herodotus, was of the greatest use and pleasure. Since his return to England, he has been able to use him in his original dress, in Lemonnier's excellent Florentine edition. He is also indebted to many of the local guides |