Jameson, Anna: Companion to the most celebrated private galleries of art in London: containing accurate catalogues, arranged alphabetically, for immediate reference, each preceded by an historical & critical introduction, with a prefactory essay on art, artists, collectors & connoisseurs (London: Saunders and Otley, 1844)

INTRODUCTION.

This gallery, long celebrated through all Europe for the
splendour and variety of its treasures, was in my younger
days one of the great sights of London, dividing with the
Bridgewater Gallery the homage and enthusiasm of all
lovers of art. The two were usually named together, as
confessedly taking the lead—rivals to each other, but by
all others unrivalled. If the Bridgewater exulted in its
Raphaels, the Grosvenor triumphed in its Claudes. There
we were enchanted by Titian, here spell bound by Rem-
brandt. There ruled the sober dignity of the Carracci, here
the gorgeous fancy of Rubens. I cannot, for my own part,
recall without emotion the hours spent in wandering freely
through these noble rooms at an age when the mind was
opening to the perception and appreciation of beauty in
every form. Images of grandeur and loveliness, harmo-
nious combinations of colour, early associated with story
or song in the childish fancy, remain ever after inter-
mingled with the sources of thought, and become a part of
life itself. Perhaps no pictures that we see, no books that
we read after the taste has been formed, and the critical
judgment habitually exercised, leave that keen and lasting
sense of delight upon the imagination, those vivid, endur-
ing, and definite impressions which we derive from early
acquaintance with beautiful pictures, or select passages of
poetry, or music of a high order. Our educators, since
education is the order of the day, may, if they will, take
this hint, and lay it to heart; for if they imagine that all