Buchanan, William: Memoirs of painting: with a chronological history of the importation of pictures by the great masters into England since the French Revolution (Band 2) (London: Ackermann, 1824)

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the expectations which he may have formed of
these galleries of art; but he must not expect to
find collections of the works of the great masters in
the possession of individuals ; such are only to be
found in Italy and in Great Britain. France, at
the present day, possesses but few of them, and in
the Low Countries they are rarely to be met with ;
while it must be remembered that such works
themselves do not multiply and increase upon us.
They are already scarce, and are every year rapidly
becoming scarcer.
Having visited Leipsic, a place not only cele-
brated for its great annual marts, but of late years
rendered particularly interesting from recent oc-
currences, especially the grand defeat of the French
army at that place, with the many circumstances
attendant on an event which decided the fate of
Germany, Mr. Buchanan continued his route to
Dresden, a city well known to every lover of art,
from its magnificent collection of pictures by the
great masters.
Were these pages devoted to giving a descrip-
tion of the country through which he passed, con-
nected with a review of military occurrences at
each of those places where important actions had
been fought, the ground of which the author of
this work made a point of visiting, considerable in-
terest might be excited in some of his readers.