FOR 1829; OR, A Complete Guide to the Almanack : CONTAINING AN EXPLANATION OF Saints' Days and Holidays; WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF BRITISH HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES, SKETCHES OF COMPARATIVE CHRONOLOGY, AND CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY. ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES IN EVERY MONTH; COMPRISING REMARKS ON THE PHENOMENA OF THE CELESTIAL BODIES: AND THE NATURALIST'S DIARY; EXPLAINING THE VARIOUS APPEARANCES IN THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE KINGDOMS. With numerous Engravings on Wood, From Drawings by Eminent Artists. PRINTED FOR THE ASSIGNEES OF SHERWOOD AND CO. Harvard College Library. Gift of of Cambridge, Entered at Stationers' Hall. Compton & Ritchie Printers, Middle Street, Cloth Fair, London. DESCRIPTION of the FRONTISPIECE. THE charming picture, of which our artist has given so admirable a copy, was painted by David Teniers the younger, a pupil of his father and of Adrian Brauwer. This piece appears to have come from the easel of the master when his touch and composition had reached the period of their most refined delicacy and greatest facility: it is full of character, and is valuable as being free from any of that grossness which too frequently intrudes itself into his exquisite productions. The original picture is about 7 inches by 10: Le Bas, who engraved it in 1739, has, oddly enough, christened it 'Solitude,' and subjoined the following verses : De la tranquillité séjour délicieux, David Teniers the younger was born at Antwerp, in the year 1610: he obtained the sobriquet of the 'Ape of Painting;' for there was no style but what he imitated so exactly, as to deceive even the nicest judges. He improved very much on the talents and merit of his father; and his reputation introduced him to the favour of the great. The Archduke Leopold-William made him gentleman of his bedchamber; and all the pictures |