iii'T.o 
 
 POPULARLY PORTRAYED WITRPEN«ENCIE 
 
 CUTHBE-RT BE'D-E , 
 
 AUTHOR OF- ''..VERDANT ’GREEN 
 
 ' s-rAfir //vro light, and Make: the l/G 'hter s tar t / y 
 
 - ■ REJECTED ADDRESSES 
 
This is a reproduction of a book from the McGill University Library collection. 
 
 Title: Photographic pleasures: popularly portrayed with pen and pencil 
 
 Author: Bede, Cuthbert, 1827-1889 
 
 Publisher, year: London : T. McLean, 1855 
 
 The pages were digitized as they were. The original book may have contained 
 pages with poor print. Marks, notations, and other marginalia present in the 
 original volume may also appear. For wider or heavier books, a slight curvature to 
 the text on the inside of pages may be noticeable. 
 
 ISBN of reproduction: 978-1-926748-05-4 
 
 This reproduction is intended for personal use only, and may not be reproduced, 
 re-published, or re-distributed commercially. For further information on 
 permission regarding the use of this reproduction contact McGill University 
 Library. 
 
 McGill University Library 
 www.mcgill.ca/library 
 
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POPULARLY PORTRAYED WITH PEN & PENCIL, 
 
 BY CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "YeRDA/Zt GREEj'f." 
 
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POPULARLY PORTRAYED 
 
 WITH PEN AND PENCIL, 
 
 BY 
 
 CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF “VERDANT GREEN,” &c. &c. &c. 
 
 “ Start into light, and make the lighter start.” 
 
 Rejected Addresses. 
 
 SLontijm : 
 
 THOMAS McLEAN, 26, HAYMAKKET. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY BEYNELL AND WEIGHT, 
 LITTLE PULTENEY STBEET. 
 
TO ALL THE 
 
 LIGHT-HEARTED FRIENDS OF 
 LIGHT PAINTING, 
 
 THESE PAGES OF LIGHT LITERATURE 
 
 ARE, 
 
 WITH NO LIGHT REGARD, 
 Uelucateti. 
 
 Leigh, Wobcesteb, 
 Jan. 1855 . 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 TO THE READER ix 
 
 Chap. I— PHOTOGRAPHY REGARDED AS A LIGHT SUBJECT 13 
 
 Chap. II— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A LEGENDARY LIGHT ... 16 
 Chap. Ill— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A HIGH-ART LIGHT ... 24 
 
 Chap. IT— PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN ARTISTIC LIGHT ... 32 
 Chap. Y— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A PORTRAIT-PAINTING LIGHT 35 
 Chap. YI— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A LOYE LIGHT .... 43 
 Chap. YII— PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN AMATEUR LIGHT . . 47 
 
 Chap. YIII— PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN ARISTOCRATIC LIGHT . 54 
 Chap. IX— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A NEGATIYE LIGHT ... 60 
 
 Chap. X— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A POSITIVE LIGHT . . .64 
 
 Chap. XI— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A DETECTIYE LIGHT . . 69 
 
 Chap. XII— PHOTOGRAPHY IN ALL MANNER OF LIGHTS . . 75 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 I— FRONTISPIECE 
 
 II— TITLE-PAGE . 
 
 III. — THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TENT 14 
 
 IV. — PHOTOGRAPHY IN A LEGENDARY LIGHT ... IS 
 
 V. — PHOTOGRAPHIC TABLEAUX 20 
 
 VI. — SIMPLE MODE OF LEVELLING” A CAMERA . . . 22 
 
 VH.— PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES. No. I 26 
 
 VIIL— PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES. No. II .... 2S 
 
 IX.— A PHOTOGRAPHIC FIX 32 
 
 X— PHOTOGRAPHIC FANCIES 36 
 
 XI.— TO SECURE A PLEASING PORTRAIT IS EVERYTHING . 3S 
 
 Xn— A PHOTOGRAPHIC BATH : &c, 40 
 
 Xin— ONE OF THE PLEASURES OF PHOTOGRAPHY ... 44 
 XIV.— PHOTOGRAPHIC FACETLE 45 
 
 XV— A PHOTOGRAPHIC POSITIVE 50 
 
 XVI— A PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURE 54 
 
 XVII— WHAT IT HAS, AND MAY, COME TO .... 56 
 
 XVIII— HOW TO PROCURE A PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVE . 60 
 
 XIX— PHOTOGRAPHIC FACES 62 
 
 XX— EXCITING FOR THE SENSITIVE 66 
 
 XXI— PHOTOGRAPHIC PEOPLE 70 
 
 XXII— PHOTOGRAPHY IN A DETECTIVE LIGHT ... 72 
 
 XXIII— A PHOTOGRAPHER ASTONISHING THE NATIVES . 75 
 
 XXIV— PRESENT ATTITUDE OF PHOTOGRAPHY . 80 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 In days when calotyping young ladies in civilised 
 society talk about their “ blacks ” — with all the 
 unctuousness of a Mrs Steecher Bowe, when she 
 converses on a subject of a kindred saturnine cha- 
 racter — it would be a work of supererogation if the 
 humble author of these pages were to inform his 
 readers that Photography is a highly popular 
 scientific amusement. But, he may be permitted 
 to remark, that this popularity of Photography is 
 rather increased than diminished by the fact of the 
 science being yet in its infancy. 
 
X 
 
 preface. 
 
 By a kind provision of Nature, there appears to be 
 implanted in the breast of womankind an untiring 
 and inevitable love for infants. And, although the 
 tender expressions bestowed upon infants (in the 
 presence of females) by the male sex, may be re- 
 ceived by credulity with a shrug of the shoulders 
 of doubt (vide Dr Johnson) yet, upon the whole, 
 the womanly affection for infants is shared by the 
 race of men. 
 
 It is to this, that the Infant Photography owes 
 many of those loving words which have been so 
 freely bestowed upon him since his birth, by men 
 as well as women. The ladies are enamoured of him : 
 the gentlemen evince their affection by suggestions 
 for his improvement, and by general attention to his 
 welfare. All are fond of him : every one is declaring 
 that he is the most beautiful baby yet born to 
 Science. 
 
 They joy to behold him in his little crib of a box; 
 they (even the young ladies!) see in him fresh 
 graces when he is in his bath. They admire his 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 light hair ; they make a marvel that he is even 
 now so strong. They say that he will achieve 
 wonders ; they foretel for him the most brilliant 
 future ; and, if you venture to assert that he is, 
 in his disposition, rather too Positive, they will at 
 once meet you with a Negative. 
 
 Photography being an infant for whom I confess 
 to entertain an unusual degree of admiration, I do 
 not content myself with gazing on it in speechless 
 rapture, but I relieve my feelings by talking to it, 
 with that kind of innocent prattle which the world 
 permits even its great men to use, when they address 
 their observations to infants. 
 
 And, I not only prattle to it, after this childish 
 fashion, but I also endeavour to keep it well-pleased 
 and in good humour, by making merry faces, and 
 by using any other nonsensical means in my power 
 to tickle it into laughter. For this purpose, I 
 occasionally bring out certain whimsical plates, at 
 the sight of which the infant manifests great delight, 
 and crows and chuckles immoderately. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xii 
 
 The production of these plates # having been thus 
 successful in private life, I am now induced to give 
 them publicity, from the hope that they may afford 
 some pleasure to the friends and admirers of Photo- 
 graphy. And, in the letter-press that accompanies 
 the plates, I trust that there may be found u amuse- 
 ment blended with instruction.” 
 
 * Pour of them have already presented themselves before the 
 public in the pages of ‘ Punch.’ They were there drawn by me on 
 the wood, and are now given (by the permission of the Editor), in 
 their improved lithographic form. The portrait of Mr Priggins 
 (vide “ The Photographic Detective,”) originally appeared in No. I 
 of £ Cruikshank’s Magazine.’ The other designs are now published 
 for the first time. 
 
PHOTOGRAPHIC PLEASURES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY REGARDED AS A LIGHT SUBJECT. 
 
 For the benefit of the lady reader, who is supposed to 
 lie under the stigma of being a has bleu if she owns to 
 any knowledge of a dead language, I may remark that the 
 word photography is formed from two Greek words, 
 signifying “ light-painting and that the Photographic 
 art is, therefore, the art of producing pictures by the 
 agency of light. 
 
 Thus, Photography is essentially a light subject, and 
 ought to be treated in a light manner. If you doubt this 
 proposition, I would refer you to the discoverer of “the 
 instantaneous process,” Mr F. Maxwell Lyte, who from the 
 very first, as is self-evident, has treated his favourite art in 
 a Lyte manner. 
 
 Begone, therefore, ye cavillers, who would carp at 
 
 B 
 
 me 
 
14 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY REGARDED 
 
 for writing lightly on a subject which you would have 
 treated in ponderous essays and hard-to-be-digested trea- 
 tises. Hide yourselves beneath the hoods of your cameras, 
 ye senile A-double-S’s, who refuse to see a smile on the 
 face of science, and look upon her only as a grim old hag ! 
 Betake yourselves to your tents, O ye calotyping malcon- 
 tents ! Mount in penance upon your tripods, O ye heavy 
 fathers of the photographic stage ! Ye have no knowledge 
 of lightness ; ye are as grave as gravity itself. 
 
 Why should I not treat Photography lightly? Why 
 should I not have my jest upon it ? There is a humorous 
 side to most things ; and it was even said of Charles Lamb 
 that he could make a joke at a funeral. Yet, for every- 
 thing there is a season — even for Lamb. When we ought 
 to be grave, let us be grave ; but, where we may have our 
 laugh, let us have it, and that right heartily. We shall be 
 none the worse for it, my friends. 
 
 I have the greatest respect for Photography ; I hold it in 
 the highest estimation. Should I, therefore, shed tears over 
 it, or write elegies upon it ? Should I, even, talk about it in 
 the stilted phrases of Johnsonian discourse, and treat it in 
 the manner of the didactic ‘ Spectator ? ’ No ! to derive 
 pleasure from it shall be my primary, and not my secondary 
 consideration. Though I will not “demean myself” by 
 grinning at all that is to be said by my friend Photography, 
 yet I will permit myself to laugh at what he says and does, 
 where I think that I may do so without giving him offence. 
 He is yet in his youth, and may have hot blood in his veins, 
 but he will be generous and forgiving, and, even if I should 
 
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AS A LIGHT SUBJECT. 
 
 15 
 
 hurt his feelings, will believe me when I say that I did so 
 unintentionally. 
 
 In the light style in which I shall treat the subject, I do 
 not seek to rival Mr Lyte. I cannot speak of Photography 
 with the brilliant setting (forth) of a (Dr) Diamond. I do 
 not profess to hunt up the details of the subject with the 
 ability of a Professor Hunt. I cannot treat it philosophi- 
 cally, as can Sir William Newton. I cannot write of it after 
 the manner of Bacon, as can Mr Hogg. But I will buckle 
 to the subject — though without the aid or ability of a 
 Buckle ; and I will not make the subject so long as Mr 
 Long has done. 
 
 I will remember Sidney Smith’s advice, to think of Noah 
 and be brief. I will remember that, in the ark, there was 
 much matter compressed into a small compass, and that 
 people have not now, as then, ten years to devote to the 
 perusal of a pamphlet. But I will bethink myself, that ex- 
 press trains demand compressed ideas; and I will justify 
 my conduct by the thought that the age of railways is the 
 age of raillery, and that a light subject demands a light 
 treatment. 
 
16 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A LEGEND AEY LIGHT. 
 
 Although Photography is not to be regarded as “the 
 light of other days,” yet its light shines back into the past. 
 Let us, then, take a glimpse at its history. 
 
 If we were to trace the science to its source, we might 
 perchance discover that it arose amid the sun-worshippers 
 of the East, and that its mysteries were presided over by 
 the high priests of Apollo. But leaving these early times, 
 let us come to a later period, when the science began to 
 assume its character of modem magic. 
 
 Porta was the gate that indirectly led to Photography. 
 It was in the sunny land of Italy that a philosopher, Bap- 
 tista Porta by name — a Porta who thought no small beer of 
 himself for his discovery — invented the instrument called 
 the camera obscura. He inhabited an apartment to which 
 (owing probably to the oppressive nature of the window-tax) 
 the light was only admitted through a small aperture. The 
 whole of the discovery was owing to the hole, for as it was 
 of a lenticular shape, the ray of light that passed through it 
 
LEGENDARY LIGHT. 
 
 17 
 
 painted upon the wall, in cheapest of frescoes, pictures of all 
 that was passing on the outside. The philosopher saw the 
 ray — cried Hurra ! and constructed the Camera, that Pan- 
 dora’s box in which Photography lay concealed. 
 
 But it was not to jump up like a Jack-in-the-box and 
 be discovered all at once. The alchemists of past days were 
 very different to all chemists of the present day, and chose 
 rather to knock their heads against the philosopher’s stone 
 in place of boxing the Camera. They were not well read 
 in Porta’s Progress, and they allowed the Italian’s invention 
 to rest in the dust of centuries ; nevertheless, three hundred 
 years ago they blackened the character of the sun’s rays, by 
 discovering that they changed the colour of horn silver. 
 
 The light once thrown upon the subject, guided others in 
 the same path of discovery ; and we are informed, that in 
 1722, Petit “ showed that solutions of saltpetre and sal- 
 ammoniac crystallised more readily in the light than they 
 did in the darkness conduct on the part of Peter and Sal 
 which a non-chemical mind has a difficulty to understand. 
 A Swede — not a turnip, but an inhabitant of Sweden — by 
 name Scheele, and, after him, Dr Priestley, Bitter of Jena, 
 and Count Rumford, made further discoveries in the action 
 of light, V oyel, in a moment of infatuation, found that fat 
 became yellow when made air-tight and exposed to the light, 
 and acquired a taste like rancid tallow ; a propensity in the 
 fat, which we may pronounce to be quite a fat-tallow-ty. 
 
 But it was reserved for Herschel to further develope the 
 chemical properties of the prismatic colours. This philoso- 
 pher was in the habit of looking at the sun through tele- 
 
18 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 scopes furnished with a combination of glasses; and he 
 discovered that, when he used some of these glasses, he felt 
 a sensation of heat — no very great discovery, by the way, 
 as it is the sensation usually experienced by all who have 
 taken a glass too much. But the discovery, such as it was, 
 led Herschel to make experiments on the heating and illu- 
 minating powers of the sun’s rays, and, being deeply read in 
 the theory of colours, he found that the deep red rays pos- 
 sessed the greatest amount of heating power. These rays 
 raised Photography one step nearer to its discovery: and 
 Herschel’s further researches in the phenomena of light did 
 much to throw a light on the after-phenomena of light 
 pictures. 
 
 But, perhaps, the first person who produced a picture by 
 the agency of light was Wedgewood, whose ware and 
 whereabouts are so well known. Although he published in 
 the Journals of the Royal Institution ‘ An Account of a 
 Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and of Making 
 Profiles by the Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver;’ 
 yet he was as unable to throw any light upon the Photo- 
 graphic plate as he was upon his celebrated China plate. 
 His “ profiles” appear to have been of that character which 
 we have since been accustomed to see, “ in this style one 
 shilling,” cut by the clever scissor professors of art — pro- 
 fessors who may be esteemed mere infants in art, cutting 
 incisors. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Davy came to the assistance of Mr Wedge- 
 wood, but was obliged (in vulgar language) to “ take his 
 davy ” that he was unable to make anything of the matter, 
 
moms: 'Mwsxne /^moAt/ccs ///s pc r ro m. zujll . 
 
 4.0HOQ*. fVBL/Sft£0 ey r- Sfc Z£A/V ■ 
 
LEGENDARY LIGHT. 
 
 19- 
 
 and retired without producing better plates than those of 
 W edgewood. Sir Humphrey’s plates were like the hearts 
 of flirts — the images imprinted on them were but faint, and 
 could not be fixed. 
 
 At length, in 1827, M. Niepce, of Chalons — a wealthy 
 amateur chemist, and a gentleman of as much artistic taste 
 as our own Chalon — communicated to the Royal Society of 
 London an account of his experiments in producing on 
 metal plates, with gradations of tints from black to white, 
 the images received by the camera obscura. This was re- 
 ducing the invention to black and white, and M. Niepce 
 gave to it the name of Heliography — “ Sun-painting.” The 
 philosophers of England and France were now put on their 
 mettle, and endeavoured to put on the metal pictures painted 
 by the sun. An intimate friend of M. Niepce, by name 
 Daguerre, joined in all his experiments, and advanced the 
 discovery many steps. Daguerre’s pictures were fixed on 
 paper impregnated with nitrate of silver ; those of M. Niepce 
 were upon glass, silver-plated copper, and polished tin. The 
 partnership between “ Messrs Niepce and Daguerre, Helio- 
 graphers,” was dissolved by the death of the former in 1833 ; 
 and Daguerre prosecuted his researches alone. In June, 
 1839, the secret of his discovery was nobly purchased by 
 the French nation, “ for the glory of endowing the world of 
 science and art with one of the most surprising discoveries 
 which conferred honour on her native land;” and a pension 
 for life of six thousand francs (240/.) was granted to Da- 
 guerre- This frank and generous conduct of the French 
 
20 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 Government was but ill repaid by the recipient of its bounty, 
 who delayed the execution of the official document until a 
 patent had been secured for an agent in England : thus being 
 guilty of a deception which in itself was patent to all. 
 
 Simultaneous with the French discovery, an English 
 gentleman, Mr W. H. Fox Talbot, of Lacock Abbey, 
 Wilts, perfected and made public certain experiments which 
 had been gradually growing into shape for six years past, 
 by which he was enabled to produce sun pictures on iodized 
 paper, by means of nitrate of silver and gallic acid. Whether 
 his discovery produced any acid feelings in the Gallic breast 
 of his French rival, we have no means of ascertaining. Mr 
 Talbot proved that he considered his invention a “ beau- 
 tiful” one, by calling it the “ Calotype;”* though his com- 
 plimentary friends gave it the complementary name of the 
 “ Talbotype.” Mr Talbot patented his process — a process 
 which put an effectual drag on the weal of the science; and 
 it was not until August, 1852, that Mr Talbot was per- 
 suaded to act as nobly as his name, and to give up to the 
 public “the right of using any of his patents for any pur- 
 pose not involving the production of portraits from the 
 life.”f So that Mr Talbot gives up his patent to the public, 
 
 * Ka\dj, “ beautiful.” 
 
 f The important action of “ Talbot v. Laroche,” for an infringe- 
 ment of the “ Talbotype” patent, was decided on Dec. 20th, 1854, 
 before Lord Chief Justice Jervis, and a special jury, in favour of 
 the defendant, hut with the expression, that the plaintiff was the 
 first inventor. The Lord Chief Justice, in summing up the case, 
 
LEGENDARY LIGHT. 
 
 21 
 
 but will not suffer the public to give their countenance to 
 the patent ! 
 
 Daguerreotype patents were also secured by Messrs 
 Claudet and Beard, who wielded “ the pencil of Nature ” 
 in their respective London establishments, and took off the 
 heads of some thousands of her Majesty’s lieges in the most 
 expeditious and satisfactory manner; and not only took the 
 heads off, but served them up on clean plates, after the exe- 
 cution. In producing their portraits, Messrs Claudet and 
 Beard spare no pains to produce correct likenesses and 
 artistic excellence. May all* imitate them in this striving 
 after perfection ! We should then be soon rid of that 
 
 commonness of treatment which is so frequently met with, 
 and which gives such a beggarly aspect to many Photo- 
 graphic portraits. 
 
 Sir John Herschel appears to have been the first who gave 
 the popular name of “ Photography ” to the science of light- 
 painting. He made his first communication on this subject 
 to the Royal Society, in March, 1839, three months before 
 Daguerre’s process was reported. Mr Talbot’s ‘ Account of 
 the Art of Photogenic Drawing ’ had been communicated to 
 
 said, 'that “ the wonderful discovery of the latent image was due en- 
 tirely to Mr Talbot. It was the foundation of all that followed, but 
 it was not the subject of a patent, as, from its nature, it could not 
 be so.” 
 
 * It is but due to Mr Mayall to say, that his “ crayon portraits’* 
 have all the beauties of first-class pictures, and that his establish- 
 ment is evidently directed by an artistic mind. 
 
22 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 the Society in January, 1839 — so that our Talbot was all 
 but first in the race for the Photographic plate. 
 
 Simultaneous with Sir John Ilerschel’s communication, 
 the Rev. J. B. Reade addressed to the London Institution 
 an account of a method he had adopted for obtaining light- 
 pictures by a process in which infusion of galls was em- 
 ployed. This led to the infusion of no small amount of gall, 
 in a correspondence which took place on the subject be- 
 tween Mr Reade and Mr Talbot, the latter having, in an 
 affidavit, denied Mr Reade’s title to the invention he claimed. 
 The moral of all this being, that Mr Talbot had leant upon 
 a reed until it pierced him. 
 
 The use of the proto-sulphate of iron as a developing 
 agent was first published at the meeting of the British Asso- 
 ciation at York, in 1844, by Professor Robert Hunt, who, 
 at a previous meeting of the Association, at Plymouth, in 
 1841, had, as freely, made public a method of preparing a 
 peculiarly sensitive iodized paper. Since then, numerous 
 other gentlemen have, after long labour and costly experi- 
 ments, made further improvements in the science, and have 
 given the results of their labours to the public, without 
 seeking any other reward than that meed of gratitude which 
 the scientific world and all the lovers of Photography will so 
 liberally bestow. Conspicuous among these Right Honour- 
 able Gentlemen, the name of Dr Diamond, F.S.A., will ever 
 be regarded as shedding a new lustre on the science. 
 
 The magical Collodion process (a solution of gun-cotton 
 in sulphuric ether spread over a glass plate) was made 
 
Moot w"jumujif^A (mm . 
 
 fMotr- *WA£A/V,X<. mtMAfUcOr: 
 
LEGENDARY LIGHT. 
 
 23 
 
 known in 1851, by Mr Scott Archer, who thus shot himself 
 into the temple of Fame by the use of gun-cotton. Since 
 then, the wonders of the Stereoscope have proved to us, 
 that — at any rate in the case of a Photographic portrait — 
 “ two heads are better than one.” 
 
24 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY JN A 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A HIGH-ART LIGHT. 
 
 We were a long while before we could discover what 
 was really meant by the expression “ High Art.” It had 
 an ambiguity which bothered us, and brought us to the 
 verge of distraction. We called in the aid of Dr Johnson," 
 and asked his advice; but the great Lexicographer’s pre- 
 scription only made us worse than ever, for it was stuffed 
 so full of meanings that it made a very disagreeable mix- 
 ture, and we could not tell what to make of it. We were 
 as much in the dark as ever, as to what was really meant 
 by the term “ High Art.” 
 
 At one time we thought that it meant works of art pur- 
 chased at a high or exorbitant price, — pictures bought, by 
 those who had a fancy for them, at a purely fancy price. 
 And we considered that when (in May 1852) the most 
 celebrated ol Marshal Soult’s fifteen Murillo’s, became the 
 property of the French government for the trifling s um 
 of 24,612 1 ., it might be taken as a very fair specimen of 
 High Art. 
 
HIGH-ART LIGHT. 
 
 25 
 
 At another time we imagined it to be the kind of art that 
 decorates the ceilings of rooms and halls, and the interiors 
 of domes and cupolas ; and that, in such cases, it would 
 consist of “ fore-shortened Allegory,” and in such anachro- 
 nisms as “ Minerva presenting Sir Isaac Newton to George 
 “ IH, while Lord Bacon registers the reward that is about 
 “to be bestowed by the King on the discoverer of the 
 “ Theory of Gravitation.”* And we paid our penny, and 
 peered into the smoky dome of St Paul’s, and in its ap- 
 palling frescoes we thought we dimly traced High — very 
 High Art. 
 
 But a change came o’er the spirit of our dream. We 
 were bold enough to express our admiration of some works 
 of living artists before a gentleman who professed to be a 
 great connoisseur, or (as we heard a Mrs Malaprop once 
 express it) “ a great common sewer” in Art. “ Hur ! ha !” 
 said our friend, as he balanced himself on his hind legs, and 
 made a lorgnette of his two fists : “ they have some little 
 “ merit. But the secret of colour is lost, my dear sir ; it 
 “ went out with the glorious Venetians. Our moderns don’t 
 “ knowhow to paint, sir; they are crude, sir; they are tame; 
 “ they don’t give you any masses, sir ; they don’t study 
 “ chiaro scuro ; they want tone, sir, — tone. In short, my 
 “ dear sir, the pictures of the moderns are not High Art.” 
 Having thus learnt, on the authority of our common-sewer 
 
 * As Truth is stranger than Fiction, it may, perhaps, be neces- 
 sary to state, that this subject is really to be seen in the Library of 
 Trinity College, Cambridge. It was designed by Cipriani (who re- 
 ceived 400 1 . for his trouble !) and fills the painted window at the 
 lower end of the room. 
 
26 
 
 PHOTOGBAPHY IN A 
 
 friend what was not High Art, we were straightway led to 
 believe, that what we sought for was to be found in the 
 smudgy obscurities of diseased— we beg pardon ! deceased — 
 masters. These were the kind of pictures we always saw 
 at great Show-houses in the country : the black-silk House- 
 keepers who took us round the rooms, appeared to assign 
 them names with an indiscriminate boldness, fearful and 
 wonderful to contemplate. They may possibly have been 
 of opinion, that one name was quite as suitable as another ; 
 — and, doubtless, it was ; but we observed that the names 
 they had the greatest relish for were Raffle, Annibal 
 Scratchy, Slavarty Rosy, Georgy Ony, and Sassy Frahty, 
 whom we thenceforth considered as the. peculiar masters, 
 and High-priests of High Art. 
 
 Having once got these diseased (or deceased) masters 
 into our heads, we were then, by a natural train of thought, 
 led to imagine that High Art was but another term for dis- 
 eased Art — Art that was not in its freshest and soundest 
 condition; — -just as we talk of game being “ high” when it 
 is brought to table in a condition which makes one afraid 
 that it will walk off the table before we have time to eat it. 
 So that we concluded, that any Art that was not very re- 
 cent, must be High Art. 
 
 Then came a change in our opinions, and we had to 
 knuckle-down to the Elgin marbles : and we looked at the 
 bas-reliefs of gentlemen riding their horse-like, unbridled 
 and unsaddled, ponies, and we were told, that true art was 
 always thus unbridled, and that those bas-reliefs had come 
 to the relief of Art, and that they were, in fact, High Art. 
 
 Then came poor Haydon, with his acres of canvas, which 
 
moroG!J{Artffc woasscs ..Jr? i, 
 
HIGH-ART LIGHT. 
 
 27 
 
 always mystified us as much as the apple-dumpling did 
 King George the Third, — we wondered, how on earth the 
 picture was got into the room, and we thought, that any 
 gentleman who gave the painter a friendly commission, 
 would be in as awkward a predicament as the Yicar of 
 Wakefield was with his family picture, — or, as an amateur 
 coach-building friend of ours, when (with two years’ la- 
 bour), he built for himself a carriage in his own dining- 
 room, and then had to pull it to pieces to get it out of 
 doors. We were told, however, that Haydon’s pictures 
 were High Art ; so that we considered the term applied to 
 huge pictures, in which sprawled nude athletes, whose mus- 
 cular and anatomical development was only to be equalled 
 by gentlemen of the Farnese Hercules build. Where did 
 Haydon get his models from? We don’t grow such muscles 
 now-a-days. But, perhaps, we are a degenerate race. 
 
 Then came the Duke of York’s column (the parent of 
 many calumniating jokes), and the Nelson pillar ; and, in 
 our innocent simplicity, we imagined that the term High 
 Art could be strictly applied only to such figures as had 
 lightning conductors growing from the tops of their heads. 
 
 But, soon, came the Westminster Hall cartoons ; and we 
 were told that they were High Art. And we thought, that 
 if the term did not apply to the elevation at which the car- 
 toons were hung, it must mean such subjects as “ The 
 finding of the body of Harold,” (they have murdered him 
 often enough — why don’t they find him, and not waste so 
 much precious time in the search ?) “ Canute and his 
 
 Courtiers,” (whom the sea of oil poured on them ought to 
 
28 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 have swept away long ago ;) “ Non Angli sed Angeli 
 (we wonder they are not ashamed of perpetuating such a 
 very old Joe “ Queen Philippa and the Burgomasters of 
 Calais (a got up “ stage effect” in which we never be- 
 lieved ;) “ Queen Eleanor sucking the poison from her hus- 
 band’s wound (she has sucked enough, by this time, to 
 poison all the Queens in history ;) “ Prince Henry striking 
 Judge Gascoigne on the Bench (perhaps, the only strik- 
 ing subject of the series — though we might feel inclined to 
 inquire what part of the Judge’s person is meant by the 
 word “ Bench ;”) “ Charles the Second in the Oak (or 
 rather, u Charles the Second — a hoax for, if he was hid 
 in a tree, we could not see him ;) and all the old stock histo- 
 rical subjects, whose degradation at the hands of Artists is 
 now a matter of history. When we think of these things, 
 we are constrained to express our surprise that people, who 
 have such good palettes, can yet be so utterly wanting in 
 taste. 
 
 Altogether, we had become so confused on the subject of 
 High Art, that we began to think it a lunacy to strive after 
 the discovery of such a myth ; as well, we thought, might 
 we strive to discover the haunt of Echo, or the North-west 
 passage. But we find that, after all, we have been mistaken ; 
 some one has found out the North-west passage for us, and 
 we have found out High Art for ourselves ; it has only de- 
 veloped itself in these later, and degenerate days. We 
 made the discovery in the following manner ; and we feel 
 that the account which we are about to give, will, though 
 brief, in time take its place with those other narratives of 
 
HIGH- ART LIGHT. 
 
 29 
 
 Expeditionary discoveries, which the energetic genius of 
 the present age has called into existence. 
 
 Walking down Fleet street one day, in an unusually se- 
 rene state of mind — (we had been to receive our dividends), 
 — we were attracted by a large showy gilt frame hung out 
 against the portals of a door, and in this frame were the mi- 
 niature resemblances of several worthy people of both sexes. 
 In the midst of these unprepossessing individuals was a 
 legend, to the effect, that Mr Jones would, in his Daguer- 
 reotype Rooms, take us off in similar style, for the small 
 sum of seven-six, — gilt frame us, for ten-six, — do us, second 
 size, three-quarter length, for fifteen, — and finish us off in a 
 morocco case— “ elegant” — for the trifling charge of one 
 guinea. The announcement met with our deepest sympathy, 
 and we perused the legend with breathless attention. The 
 plates on which the likenesses were executed, were polished 
 like so many little mirrors. We saw in them the reflection 
 of our (shall we say, handsome) features ; they wore a 
 most amiable, and pleasing expression, and it occurred to us 
 that it' would be the very time to give the sun the benefit 
 of our countenance. 
 
 A placard informed us, that the Daguerreotype and Pho- 
 tographic Rooms were upstairs So we passed down 
 
 a dark passage, and tumbled on to a still darker staircase, 
 to the great damage of our shins, and the needless outlay of 
 inelegant expressions. With a little difficulty, we got up a 
 flight of steep stairs, kicking against each stair as we went, 
 to keep ourselves in the right track ; and, at length we 
 found ourselves on a small landing, of a size calculated to 
 
 c 
 
30 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 hold one uncomfortably. We looked about us, and, by the 
 light that dimly straggled through a half-glass door, we saw 
 before our nose, — indeed, against it, — another as though 
 
 pointing out to us an upward path. We silently took it ; 
 the way was steep and sterile — for the carpeting had ceased 
 at the first plateau , — and we began to feel fatigued. We 
 arrived at another landing, as shrunken in its dimensions as 
 the previous one ; and there, on the wall, gleamed the 
 mystic Gloomy thoughts took possession of our mind; 
 but the faint sound of “ Cheer, boys, cheer !” played on an 
 organ in the street below, encouraged us to proceed. We 
 staggered up another steep and sterile flight, and, by a toil- 
 some route, gained another plateau. Still, the mystic was 
 there, and still it urged us upwards — upwards ! 
 
 We went on. The air from the organ in the street below, 
 became fainter, and fainter ; the air from the attics and the 
 rooms above grew denser and denser. We staggered, and 
 would have fallen ; but we recovered ourselves by a strong 
 effort, and pushed on. We reached another small landing, 
 but the was there before us. We sat down on the bare 
 and dirty boards, and were glad to do it. We thought of 
 our happy home, and our innocent childhood ; we recalled 
 the days when we sported in artless mirth, and were boxed 
 for dirtying our clean pinafores. We reflected, that the scene 
 was now changed ; and we were almost unmanned: but we 
 repeated the inspiriting words of Longfellow’s “ Excelsior,” 
 and then, somewhat cheered, continued the ascent. Again 
 the light beamed upon us from a staircase window, but it 
 served only to reveal the hazardous nature of our expedi- 
 
HIGH-ART LIGHT. 
 
 31 
 
 tion. Shall we forego the enterprise, and descend ? No ! 
 the courage of an English heart forbids it, so long as there 
 is a chance of success. We go on. Another landing, and 
 another Is it a demon hand that is going before us, 
 and luring us on to destruction ? ? Horrible fancies fill our 
 brain. A door is beside us, the handle towards our hand : 
 Come, let us clutch it ! and it opens. What do we see ? a 
 bald-headed woman in a semi-dressed state, who rushes be- 
 hind some bed-curtains, and screams “ It’s upstairs ! It’s 
 upstairs! What is upstairs ? let us go and see. We apol- 
 ogise to the bald-headed female, and go upstairs. All is 
 dark, and silent : then we hear a bang against the door we 
 have just left, and the sound of a key turning in a lock : — 
 the bald-headed female has come out of the bed-curtains, 
 and has guarded herself from further espionage. Another 
 landing is gained ; and still the demon g|gr is urging us up- 
 wards. We faintly sing the National Anthem (with our 
 hat off), and, after the third verse, feel sufficiently invi- 
 gorated to pursue our upward path. A few more moments 
 of toil, and our exertions are crowned with success ; we sink 
 down exhausted at the door of the Daguerreotype room. 
 No need now for the demon ilT to point out what we have 
 discovered. Ha ! ha ! We have discovered that Photo- 
 graphy is, indeed, High Art. 
 
32 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN ARTISTIC LIGHT. 
 
 “ By the aid of Photography,” says Mr Hogg, “any one 
 may now become an artist.” A dictum which — at the risk 
 of making Mr Hogg bristle up at my temerity- — I deny, 
 even in this artist-dubbing age, when people, from modists 
 and mountebanks to ballet-dancers and barbers, dignify their 
 trades, and call themselves “ artistes 
 
 But before a man can be an “artist,” in the commonly 
 received meaning of the word, not only is there required of 
 him a very different kind of manipulation to that demanded 
 in Photography, but also brains to guide his handiwork. 
 There is a vast difference between a Claudet and a Claude; 
 just as there is a vast difference between a steam engine and 
 a ‘ ‘ Hamlet.” Each one is a triumph of inventive genius ; 
 but, how different are their natures ! 
 
 The pictures of Claudet are the results of scientific inven- 
 tion : those of Claude, of inspired observation. There 
 was poetry in a Claude : there is no poetry in a Claudet. 
 The former can throw beauty and grace over the rugged 
 
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ARTISTIC LIGHT. 
 
 33 
 
 and harsh ; but the latter is the Gradgrind of Art, and repre- 
 sents nothing but stern facts. The Claudets can show but 
 little judgment or discretion in the selection or rejection of 
 component parts for their pictures : the Claudes chiefly de- 
 pend upon this, and are able to omit at pleasure anything 
 that interferes with the harmony of the composition. There 
 may be a thousand Claudets, but only one Claude. 
 
 Photography is not (strictly) “ Art ; ” neither is a Pho- 
 tographer an artist. Photography is but the handmaid of 
 art. We hear and read a good deal of “ Photography in its 
 relation to Art but, if we inquire into that relationship, 
 and search the registers of art for information on the sub- 
 ject, we shall find that the connexion is little nearer than 
 that of a Scotch cousin. “ It must always be borne in 
 mind,” says Sir William Newton, “ that, essentially speak- 
 ing, the Camera is by no means calculated to teach the prin- 
 ciples of art ; but, to those who are already well-informed in 
 this respect, and have had practical experience, it may be 
 made the means of considerable advancement.” 
 
 The greatest use that an artist derives from the Camera 
 is, that it enables him to secure truthfulness of detail, when 
 he might otherwise be unable to give it. He can paint, on 
 the spot, the broad effects — giving all the play of light and 
 shade, the local colour, and the atmospheric tints, and then 
 — having secured what the Camera could not give him — he 
 can make his Calotype, and afterwards, by its aid, complete 
 his picture at his leisure. This method would be especially 
 useful to the artist, in views wherein he would have to paint 
 intricate masses of architecture ; and it would enable him to 
 
34 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 compete in accuracy of detail, with the painstaking fidelity 
 of a Canaletti, or an Edwin Cooke. 
 
 And yet, after all, Photography can but help the artist up 
 to a certain point. It cannot supply him with “ the gift 
 divine and so, when the pre-Raphaelites were accused of 
 painting from Photographs, they replied, “ Let our accusers 
 do the same, and produce pictures of equal merit and truth 
 and the accusers tried in vain. 
 
 The Camera will only help that painter who has deeply 
 studied the principles of his art, and has worked faithfully 
 and laboriously in the minute representation of Nature. We 
 may rest satisfied that there is no “Royal road” to any- 
 thing; and that genius only becomes great by careful study 
 and perseverance. Power of hand, and freedom of execution 
 in Art, can only be acquired by the diligent perusal — not of 
 the works of the Camera, but of the works of Creation ; 
 and a scientific invention, like Photography, can never be 
 made to usurp the place of true Art in the eyes of the true 
 artist. 
 
PORTRAIT-PAINTING LIGHT. 
 
 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A PORTRAIT-PAINTING LIGHT. 
 
 The application of Photography to portraiture was for a 
 long time considered impracticable. No sitter could main- 
 tain immobility of feature for the space of twenty-five, or 
 even five minutes ; and immobility was quite necessary in a 
 process where, if you wink your eye, you destroy it alto- 
 gether, and where, if you sneeze, you blow your head off! 
 
 In the earliest days of Photography “ it was required,” 
 says the Jury Report of the Great Exhibition, “that for a 
 Daguerreotype portrait a person should sit without moving 
 for twenty -five minutes in the glaring sunlight.” We have 
 not the pleasure of an intimacy with any one who ever per- 
 formed this daring feat of salamanderism ; but if the case 
 was such as is represented, we are surprised that this twenty- 
 five minutes’ sitting was not made profitable to the Daguer- 
 reotypist by placing eggs beneath the sitter, and converting 
 him into an Eccaleobion, or patent hatching machine. 
 
 It seems that the slow process was attributable to the 
 plate being merely prepared with iodine, and the lens having 
 
36 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 a long focus. When object-glasses with a shorter focus were 
 constructed, and when Mr Woolcott (of New York) had 
 concentrated the light by substituting a concave mirror for 
 the refracting glasses, and when Mr Goddard had added 
 chlorine and bromine to the iodine, and when M. Fizeau 
 had discovered his fixing coating, and when Mr Claudet 
 made public to the scientific world in England and France 
 the invention of the accelerating process, — then the time re- 
 quired for the production of a portrait was diminished from 
 minutes to seconds; nay, even (by Mr Scott Archer’s 
 Collodion process) to a single second, and less than that! 
 even to the flash of an electric spark. 
 
 Thus the difficulties that beset Photography in its 
 attempts to become a portrait-painter were, step by step, 
 overcome, and the Camera was now enabled to make faces, 
 and otherwise to follow out the bent of its inclinations. 
 
 I well recollect the time when I went in all the pride of 
 my ungraduateship to have a Photograph of my features 
 struck off for the delectation of that Anna Elisabeth, of 
 whom I was then so greatly enamoured, and who, by the 
 way, in less than three months returned the portrait, and 
 ruthlessly jilted me for a fellow who had not even whiskers ! 
 I well remember how I went elaborately got up for the 
 occasion, how I tastefully arranged my hair before the 
 Daguerreotypist’s mirror, how I went into his little green- 
 house of an operating room, how I took my seat on a plat- 
 form before the Camera with the sort of consciousness that 
 Anna Elisabeth was going to be favoured with something 
 like a pottrait. 
 

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PORTRAIT-PAINTING LIGHT. 
 
 37 
 
 I can call to mind how the Daguerreotyper fixed my 
 head in a brazen vice, and having reduced me thereby to 
 the verge of discomfort, maliciously told me to keep my eyes 
 steadily fixed on a paper pinned against the wall, and to 
 think of something pleasant. I can well remember how the 
 Daguerreotyper thereupon left me, and how I, feeling ex- 
 ceedingly uncomfortable, and being lamentably ignorant 
 that the operation had commenced, released my head from 
 the vice, and promenaded the room for some ten minutes, 
 admiring the various designs in chimney pots which are 
 usually to be studied with advantage from a Daguerreotype 
 studio. Then, hearing the sound of returning steps, I 
 mounted my platform, and resumed my seat and vice. 
 
 I can call to mind my dismay when the Daguerreotyper 
 took the plate out of the camera, and his dismay, when, on 
 the development of the picture, he found that it merely 
 contained a representation of the chair-back and vice. But 
 we concealed our real feelings under these speeches : — “ We 
 had not been quite successful this time, sir! I must trouble 
 you to sit again.” — “ Oh ! certainly.” 
 
 I sat; and Ann a Elisabeth had the portrait. Six months 
 afterwards it was in the possession of Sarah Jane. The 
 moral whereof may be supplied by the reader. 
 
 Years passed before I again honoured the Camera by 
 sitting to it. The improvements already referred to had in 
 the meantime taken place, and, the tedium of sitting ten, or 
 even three minutes, was removed. Another blessing also 
 had come to pass : the vice was not absolutely necessary. 
 It is said that there are some pleasures which can scarcely 
 
38 
 
 PHOTOGEAPHY IN A 
 
 be distinguished from pain, and one of these must certainly 
 have been the pleasure of sitting for your Daguerreotype, 
 blinking at a piece of paper for ten minutes under a glass 
 case, with your head compressed in a vice, and your limbs 
 as stiff as biscuits. But now, the paper Calotype, or the 
 Collodion process, was completed — so far as the sitter was 
 concerned — in the tw inklin g of an eye, even in the opening 
 and shutting of the slide of the Camera. 
 
 The operator was a Swede, light-haired, red mustachioed, 
 and with a fez. I sat at my ease on a couch, backed by a 
 screen of black velvet. The good-natured operator, in the 
 best English he could master, explained to me the nature of 
 the process (even taking me into his dark den of magic), 
 and remarked with great truth, — “ When beebles do come 
 for vaat you call bortraits, dey most not dink dey are in de 
 leetle rum by demself, bot dey most dink dat all de world 
 look at dem! dat dey are having deir bortraits bainted be- 
 fore a crowd, oh ! so vast ! dat dey are on the stage of de 
 theatre, wid den dousand beebles all a looking at dem, and 
 not shot up here in de leetle rum, by demself. Now, sare ! 
 gompose your feature for de bortrait : and when I say 
 ‘ Now ! ’ de operation will gommence.” 
 
 I did as I was directed, and looked as composed and 
 grave as if I were facing an Exeter-hall audience in the 
 merry month of May. But when the Swede lowered his 
 fez and red moustache, and crouched down behind the 
 Camera, and suddenly lifting up and shutting down the slide, 
 exclaimed, “den dousand beebles look at you!” it was alto- 
 gether too much for my risible faculties. The ridiculousness 
 
PORTRAIT-PAINTING LIGHT. 
 
 39 
 
 of the situation came over me, and I hurst into such a sudden 
 and hearty fit of laughter, that my (calotyped) head was 
 quite blown off, and the Swede had all his trouble over 
 again. I fear that I must consider myself a had subject for 
 the Photographer. 
 
 One would think that a Daguerreotype must be a likeness, 
 and yet this is by no means the case. There are many 
 Photographs that, from being ill focussed, or from other bad 
 management, can scarcely be recognised as the portraits of 
 those who sat for them. We look at them, and we feel 
 inclined to echo the critic to whom the portrait-painter was 
 exhibiting his chef-d'oeuvre, and say, “Yes, it’s certainly 
 like! all but — the face!” Mr Robinson’s coat and waist- 
 coat are capital ! and we know Miss Brown’s dress too well 
 to make us doubt her likeness for an instant. 
 
 The success of a photographic portrait depends also upon 
 the skilful treatment of its shadows, for which purpose a 
 diffused, moderate fight is better than the full glare of the 
 sun; and some Photographers accordingly doctor the sun, 
 and tone* down his high fights by the little mesmeric cere- 
 mony of waving large black velvet screens over the head of 
 the sitter. Moderately gloomy weather, therefore, by 
 throwing Photography under a cloud, brings out a portrait 
 in the most favourable fight. In this, as in fife, we see that 
 uninterrupted sunshine is not so beneficial for us as that 
 which has been softened with the hue of sorrow. The con- 
 tinued sunshine of prosperity may not be borne with advan- 
 tage ; it often produces features as harsh as those contrasts 
 which are created in the photographic portrait by the too 
 liberal gift of the sun’s golden rays. 
 
40 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 But it is of no use your going to have your portrait taken 
 by our friend Camera unless you can sit still. Our mutual 
 acquaintance, Miss Fidgetts, has been particularly unfortu- 
 nate in this respect; and a Photograph, that shall represent 
 her with no more than the ordinary number of features, has 
 yet to be taken. A very bad subject for the Daguerreotype 
 would also be that palsy-stricken old lady, of whom it is re- 
 corded in the popular song of “ We’re all nervous,” 
 that, when she endeavoured to gratify her organs 
 of smell with a pinch of snuff, she always, from very 
 nervousness, applied the pinch to one of her organs of 
 vision. 
 
 In fact, you must be a particularly steady character if you 
 want to form the acquaintance of our friend Camera. If you 
 are at all unsettled in your habits, he will have nothing to 
 do with you. You must be a model of stiff propriety and 
 rigid deportment, like Mr Turveydrop. If you are addicted 
 (as I hope you are not) to the worship of Bacchus, and 
 should, on a certain evening, make an undue number of 
 libations to your deity, I should advise you not to call on 
 our friend Camera the next morning, but to tarry until the 
 tremulous motion of your head and hands shall have sub- 
 sided into sober steadiness. You may depend upon it, that 
 when Mr Richard Swiveller was in that state which he de- 
 signated as “ having the sun very strong in his eyes” — by 
 which expression (adds his biographer) he was understood 
 to convey to his hearers in the most delicate manner pos- 
 sible, the information that he had been extremely drunk — 
 you may depend upon it that he would not have taken 
 that opportunity of having (in another sense) the sun very 
 
PORTRAIT-PAINTING LIGHT. 
 
 41 
 
 strong in his eyes by placing himself imder the skylight, and 
 before the glass, of our friend Camera. 
 
 No ! you must be a model of steadiness, if you wish to 
 appear well before our friend. If you are at all like Mr 
 Funkey — who was seized with one of his nervous fits of 
 tremulous agitation just at the critical moment when the 
 slide was pulled up and the cap pulled off — you will appear 
 on the plate or paper as having three noses, double that 
 number of eyes, and a prodigious mouth that stretches from 
 ear to ear; in short, presenting an appearance that fully 
 realises our conceptions of “ three single gentlemen rolled 
 into one.” 
 
 Another point to which you must attend is that of Dress. 
 Our friend Camera is very particular about the habits of 
 those who call to sit with him ; and, unless you go to him 
 suitably clad, he will not represent you in as pleasing a 
 manner as you may desire. Through Mr Mayall, he has 
 given to his lady and gentlemen friends the following 
 
 “ SUGGESTIONS FOB DBESS. 
 
 “ Ladies are informed that dark silks and satins are best for 
 dresses ; shot silk, checked, striped, or figured materials are good, 
 provided they he not too light. The colours to be avoided are 
 white, light blue, and pink. The only dark material unsuited is 
 black velvet. 
 
 “ Lor Gentlemen, black, figured, check, plaid, or other fancy 
 vests and neckerchiefs are preferable to white. 
 
 “ For Childben, plaid, striped, red, or figured dresses.” 
 
 Thus does King Camera prescribe his Court costume. 
 
42 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 You will perceive, by the above, that the chief tabooed 
 colour is white ; so that, although we may regard 
 
 “ A maiden in the day 
 “ When first she wears her orange flower,” 
 
 as being dressed in as becoming and interesting an attire as 
 it may be possible for a young lady to assume, yet, you see, 
 our friend Camera is of a different opinion, and would even 
 prefer seeing the young lady clad in a suit of solemn hue. 
 And our friend, who, as you perceive, is rather peculiar in 
 his notions, would make no more of this jessamy bride than 
 he would of the parson who married her ; indeed — as he 
 never approved of the surplice question — he would set the 
 poor parson altogether on one side, and refuse to look at him, 
 unless he came in his black gown- — which, as we all know, 
 is the customary clerical court dress. The Photographs of 
 people in white dresses would appear to be the portraits of 
 as many ghosts, and would lead us to echo Dr Johnson’s 
 question, “ Where do the ghosts procure their clothes ?” 
 A lady may go mad in white satin, and her confidante follow 
 her example ’ in white muslin, on the stage ; but, if they 
 were to present themselves in that plight before our friend 
 Camera, he would have nothing to do with them. 
 
 You should be especially careful, therefore, when you call 
 upon him; for, as he sees you, so will he represent you. 
 
LOYE LIGHT. 
 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A LOYE LIGHT. 
 
 Among the many pleasures to be derived from Photo- 
 graphy, not the least is the pleasure that springs from Love. 
 One of the loveliest of arts bases half its charms on Love. 
 One of the most engaging of sciences appeals most strongly 
 to those who are “ engaged.” 
 
 I can imagine professional Photographists looking upon 
 engaged couples with more speculation in their eyes than 
 Macbeth saw in Banquo’s ghost, and regarding affianced 
 people as their best customers. I can fancy the soliloquies 
 of these professional individuals when ladies and gentlemen 
 come to sit to them for their portraits — “ brooch or locket 
 size.” Those few words would tell tales of plighted vows, 
 and twilight talk, and murmured nonsense, dearer far than 
 all rational conversation. They would hint at the destina- 
 tion of the portraits — more particularly of the gentleman’s ; 
 and the prospect of its some day being supplanted by the 
 original. Who would not be a Photograph “ brooch or 
 
44 
 
 photography in a 
 
 locket size,” to lie pillowed by so fair a bosom — clasped to 
 so warm and loving a heart ! 
 
 Ask Jenny Jones what present — next to a plain gold ring 
 — she should prefer receiving from Edward Morgan, with 
 whom she has been “ keeping company,” and she will tell 
 you that, of all things, she should dearly love to have his 
 “ daggerotype.” Ask the Hon. Captain Blank, who went 
 out with the Guards to the Crimea, what part of his bag- 
 gage he set most store by, and he would tell you, — supposing 
 that he ever breathed such a secret — that a small red mo- 
 rocco case, containing a Collodion portrait of the girl he left 
 behind him, was valued by him above gold and precious 
 stones. And yet, neither of these portraits would appear 
 particularly bewitching to an uninterested spectator. Betsy 
 Smith would see nothing in the first ; and Lieutenant Bray 
 (of the 199th Incompetents) would only look on the other, 
 and drawl out “ Aw — aw, gad ! ” 
 
 It must happen, that, in Photography, Love shall be more 
 potent than Vanity, for the Camera speaks the truth, and 
 Vanity cannot always bear to hear it spoken. What, besides 
 Love, is it that gives the charm to that Photographic por- 
 trait, in which you and I can see no grace or beauty, and 
 which we view with mingled feelings of disgust and deri- 
 sion ? What is it that lends to that unearthly, sallow-com- 
 plexioned, sour-visaged countenance that you and I see 
 staring us in the face from the shiny Daguerreotype plate, 
 or the Calotype paper, — what is it that lends to those 
 dismal, dreary features an interest, which, in the eyes of 
 some who look thereon, will call up hot scalding tears, and 
 
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 TP£ EL/6./BLC Z>Al/6//T£tfS . 
 
IN A LOVE-LIGHT. 
 
 45 
 
 make their hearts beat with a quicker throb ? What, be- 
 sides Love ? 
 
 You and I may be tempted to smile at those smudgy, 
 bleared, and spotted Calotypes; but others see in them the 
 shadows of dear ones, passed away but not forgotten, and 
 the light of love is shed around them, and invests them with 
 a grace and beauty not their own. 
 
 By the aid of Photography, the mother again gazes on 
 her sailor-boy lost at sea. Again she sees his frank and 
 noble face ; she can almost hear his hearty, cheering 
 voice. He is lost to her; and that Daguerreotype is all that 
 she has to keep before her his never-to-be-forgotten features. 
 
 The widower holds before him the likeness of her who 
 was his wife. It is a Calotype, and was but the work'of an 
 amateur ; and yet, how he values it ! Upon the wall hangs 
 another portrait of her ; it was painted by a skilful artist, 
 but it has the artist’s conventional face, his conventional 
 attitude, his conventional background. How it sinks in 
 interest before that little Calotype ! In it the husband sees 
 the living likeness of his wife. There are her features, trans- 
 ferred to the paper in a happy moment of magic ; there are 
 those tender eyes that turned to him in life and death ; there 
 are those lips that never spake an unloving word; there is 
 that brow that was never clouded by doubt or distrust. She 
 lives before him again ; she is snatched once more from the 
 tomb, and he is permitted to gaze upon her for a time. 
 Amid the blinding tears of recollected love, he presses the 
 portrait to his lips, and speaks to it with child-like affec- 
 tion. And yet it is but a Calotype ! 
 
 D 
 
46 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 A young girl in the full spring-tide of her beauty, but 
 wan and pale with untimely sorrow, hangs sadly over a 
 miniature — the Photograph of an officer. She was betrothed 
 to him, and, was looking happily forward to the day when 
 they should be united, when he was suddenly called upon to 
 fight the battles of his country. He has fallen like a hero, 
 and she will never look upon him again on this side the 
 grave. Yet there, in that shadowy likeness, he stands be- 
 fore her. Once more can she drink — in the light of those 
 eyes that are now glazed in death : once more can she gaze 
 upon that manly form, that now, hacked and torn by Rus- 
 sian shot and sword, sleeps cold and stiff in death, in a 
 trench before Sebastopol. God help her! for she needs his 
 help. Her earthly idol is shattered in the dust, and the pic- 
 ture of its greatness is all that is before her. 
 
 Shadows of the dear departed, lost to us for ever ! the 
 Camera gives you back to life, and bids you live in some- 
 thing more than memory. 
 
AMATEUR LIGHT. 
 
 47 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN AMATEUR LIGHT. 
 
 Photography is, of all others, the science for amateurs. 
 It is equally adapted for ladies and gentlemen, which cannot 
 he said of the generality of sciences. 
 
 Take Geology, for instance. You don’t find ladies — at 
 least, not many young ones — going about with hammers, and 
 tapping, like so many auctioneers, on tables of red-rock 
 sandstone ; or poking into tertiary stratas, or silurian forma- 
 tions ; or chipping off bits of mountain limestone and mill- 
 stone grit ; or turning out of the lias and oolite Ichthyosauri 
 and Plesiosauri, and Megalosauri, and Hyloeosauri, and all 
 sorts of sauris ; and bringing home stones enough to set up a 
 pavior in business. It is only gentlemen who do these 
 things ; it is only the harder sex who are thus stony-hearted ; 
 and the softer sex show no love for Geology, notwithstand- 
 ing that Hood says, in reference to the science, “ Hammer 
 vincit omnia.” 
 
 Then, again, with regard to Entomology, which, at first 
 sight, might be regarded as a feminine- ology. I remember, 
 
 once in Hampshire, going out with three unmarried ento- 
 
 d 2 
 
48 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 mological ladies, to sugar trees for butterflies. We started 
 at the dead of night ; we were armed with dark lanthorns and 
 butterfly-nets; we penetrated into the very midst of the 
 New Forest; and there we were, for hours — yes, for hours — 
 sugaring trees ! Need I say, that the maiden ladies were old 
 maidens, and that their conduct was above suspicion? But 
 could young maidens have done these things ? I don’t 
 think they could. 
 
 Then, there are some sciences, the mastery of which 
 brings but little eclat either to the lady or gentleman 
 amateur. For instance — if a gentleman takes up Chemistry, 
 does it add to his attractions in the sight of womankind? — 
 does it 'make him more popular with the young ladies of 
 his acquaintance? Not a bit of it. If he comes to Mary 
 Anne, and says, “ My dearest love, congratulate me ! I 
 have discovered that the bismuth of oxygen will explode on 
 contact with the hyper-sulphate of bromide ! ” does the 
 dearest love do more than say “Indeed!” and open its 
 dearest loves of eyes, and wonder what on earth it’s Alfred 
 is talking about ? Don’t young ladies, generally, look upon 
 amateur chemists as gentlemen who are perpetually per- 
 fumed with horrible essences; and blow themselves up over 
 refractory mortars; and have a general aspect of scientific 
 seediness spread over their clothes, linen, and person ; and 
 go about with clouded nails; and love to talk of Faraday;* 
 
 * Unless my memory is treacherous, Macbeth said to Banquo 
 “ So foul a Faraday I have not seen.” If so, it would perhaps 
 prove that there was, even in that day, a distinguished Chemist of 
 that name, who was celebrated for his chemical uncleanness. 
 
AMATEUR LIGHT. 
 
 49 
 
 and delight not in waltzing; and project experiments in- 
 stead of pic-nics ; and entertain their friends with laughing- 
 gas; and think that knocking you down by an electric 
 shock is one of the finest jokes in the world? 
 
 And if a young lady should take up Chemistry as a scien- 
 tific pursuit, it is all over with her ! She must either end 
 her days as a vestal virgin, or else, finish herself up with a 
 Philosopher. 
 
 No. The only way in which your young lady amateur 
 can take up Chemistry, is, when it has been married to Mr 
 Photography. When made part and parcel of that delight- 
 ful art, what a different aspect does the stern science assume ! 
 Its abracadabra of mystical terms then becomes a pleasing 
 jargon : its experiments are created solely for the produc- 
 tion of positives and negatives. Instead of being scouted as 
 the science of seediness, it is chattered about by blooming 
 maidens, and made one of the topics of conversation dealt 
 out by those offensive productions of society, “ agreeable 
 rattles.” It is allowed to penetrate even the ball-room, and 
 to be “ ventilated ” in the pauses of the valse. 
 
 You see, it is not the complete science of Chemistry that 
 you are required to be up in, but only that fragment of it 
 that pertains to your favourite pursuit. You do not, as the 
 vulgar say, “go the whole hog,” but you content yourself 
 with consulting “ Hogg’s ‘ Manual.’ ” You labour under 
 no apprehension of being nick-named “ the chemical young 
 lady,” for, if you were cross-examined in the science, you 
 would probably be unable to say why, when you wash your 
 paper with a cunningly-prepared solution of nitrate of silver, 
 
50 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 gallic acid, and distilled water, it should render that paper 
 sensitive. You know that it does so ; and you rest satisfied. 
 You can produce proper effects — by the aid of your manual; 
 and you can talk about the chemical processes as though 
 you fully understood them; and, pray, what need is there 
 for more? 
 
 And yet, it would be occasionally advantageous to young 
 ladies if they had as much real knowledge of the chemistry 
 of Photography as their talk would lead you to believe. 
 They might then, perchance, avoid the mishap of the beau- 
 tiful and talented Miss Dash, who had taken up Calotyping, 
 and had produced some very pretty specimens of her skill, 
 but who was so careless of her nitrate of silver that she was 
 not satisfied with staining her fair fingers and almond-shaped 
 nails, but — a rudely inquisitive fly having probably settled 
 upon her damask cheeks and celestial nose — she must even 
 proceed to rub her face with her stained fingers. The 
 natural consequences ensued. Black stains and spots, like 
 to those which occasionally traverse the face of the sun, ap- 
 peared on the sacred precincts of her countenance, and not 
 all the Kalydor of Rowland could remove them. She 
 looked like a half-washed Othello at some private thea- 
 tricals. 
 
 It was the height of the Season, too, and the very day, of 
 all others, when she wanted all her good looks to attend 
 upon her at Lady Mayfair’s soiree dansante. What was to 
 bo done? cyanogen soap was not invented: so, of course, 
 she could not use it. 
 
 “ I must take you to Squills, my dear,” said her mamma; 
 

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 SE FIT TO BE SEEN AT LADY MAYFAIR'S TO NIGHT. " 
 
 mskooh. published by t. mc-lean. 
 
AMATEUR LIGHT. 
 
 51 
 
 “ he is a clever chemist, and may devise some means to 
 drive away your black looks.” 
 
 So the young lady put on her thickest veil, and leaning 
 well back in the carriage, was driven to the chemist’s shop, 
 where Mr Squills speedily administered consolation to the 
 fair sufferer in the shape of cyanide of potassium. And, 
 when the church-bells of London had proclaimed (by no 
 means unanimously) that it wanted but one hour to mid- 
 night, Miss Dash, in all her accustomed beauty, might have 
 been seen a fair unit among the fashionable throng who 
 were elbowing and squeezing their way up Lady Mayfair’s 
 staircase. 
 
 It is since the date of this young lady’s mis (s)-ad venture 
 that cyanogen soap has been invented. If Mrs Johnson’s 
 Soothing Syrup is “ a real blessing] to mothers — a state- 
 ment which we altogether discredit — much more might cya- 
 nogen soap be described as a real blessing to amateur Photo- 
 graphers. For it is chiefly by amateurs that it is needed. 
 Your professor, who gets his living by the science, can 
 juggle with his chemicals and never put a stain upon his 
 fingers; or, indeed, if he does, he don’t seem to care about 
 the stain, but lets it remain there. 
 
 But, your dandy gentleman, who is not thoroughly au 
 fait at his work, and your enthusiastic young lady amateur, 
 who, in her enthusiasm, has dabbled and splashed her nitrate 
 of silver over her lily white hands, has to get those hands 
 into presentible condition for the seven o’clock dinner; and, 
 to her, a cake of cyanogen soap comes as acceptably as sun- 
 shine would have come the other day to a party of be- 
 
52 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 draggled revellers whom we saw setting out for a pic-nic 
 in a pleasure- van — the sky of a leaden- colour — the rain 
 pouring in torrents — and a brass band (with the wet in their 
 throats) playing the provokingly-suggestive, yet maddening 
 strain of “ Cheer, boys, cheer.” 
 
 Occasionally, indeed, the young lady amateur will, by a 
 freak of fancy, allow the stains to remain on her hands, and 
 will call your attention to them, as you sit beside her at the 
 dinner-table, or lounge with her in the little inner drawing- 
 room, and will point to them proudly — -just as an old Penin- 
 sular man would point out to you his wounds and scars. I 
 have always remarked, however, that in cases of this kind 
 the young ladies have hands that might have been stolen 
 from the Medician Venus, and that the black stains — like 
 crows on a field of snow — only serve to set off the dazzling 
 whiteness of the rest of the skin; serving them the same 
 purpose as the patches did by their great grandmothers. 
 
 If any Hume-orous person had the curiosity, the skill, 
 and the patience, to draw up statistics of amateur Photo- 
 graphy, it would, most likely, be found, that for every lady 
 who stained her fingers at least ten gentlemen would be dis- 
 covered. The ladies are naturally neater than the rougher 
 sex ; and I will venture to say that, if neat-handed Phyllis 
 had been a Calotyper, she would never have nitrate-of- 
 silvered herself, but, her experiments ended, would have 
 brought out her hands as stainless as her character. 
 
 It is not long since that I had the privilege to behold a 
 gentleman amateur prepare his iodized paper. He came out 
 of his darkened room and mixed in a tea-cup a considerable 
 
AMATEUR LIGHT. 
 
 53 
 
 dose of “ the mixture as before we must not say in what 
 the mixture consisted, for all your swell amateurs are myste- 
 rious on this point, and affect great secresy in the concoction 
 of their exciting fluid. But whatever it may have been, 
 nitrate of silver had entered largely into its composition ; and 
 there it was in the tea-cup. 
 
 Several of the amateur’s children (he had his quiver full 
 of them) were in the room ; strictly were they cautioned not 
 to touch the tea-cup ; and, in order further to guard it, the 
 amateur placed his hat over it. He then retired to his dark 
 room ; while his children, regarding the hat as a Bogey, 
 sought relief in out-door play. 
 
 At this critical point, the footman entered to say that the 
 farm-bailiff wanted to see the master directly ; upon which 
 urgent summons, the amateur, forgetting his caution to 
 others, hastily snatched up his hat, and placed it upon his 
 head. The contents of the tea-cup were overturned into the 
 lining; and, as the amateur was not at first aware of the 
 disaster, the developing fluid gradually ran down upon his 
 head. It was bald I 
 
 The result was a skin skull-cap — “ dark as Hudibras ” (as 
 we once heard a Mr. Malaprop say) — and the amateur well 
 nigh scalped himself before he could prevail upon his poor 
 bald head to resume its normal aspect. 
 
54 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN ARISTOCRATIC LIGHT. 
 
 Lady Blanche Hyems (Lord Wynterley’s daughter), 
 assures me, that she considers Photography to be par excel- 
 lence the scientific amusement of the higher classes. And, 
 I fully believe what her ladyship says. 
 
 For the present at any rate, Photography has the patro- 
 nage of aristocratic — may we not add, Royal ? — amateurs. 
 It has not yet become too common ; nor, indeed, is it likely 
 to become so. The profanum vulgus keep aloof from it ; it 
 is too expensive a pastime for the commonalty. And, what- 
 ever the progress of invention may do towards cheapening 
 the apparatus required by the Photographer, yet, I am 
 inclined to believe that, at present, it is only people 
 with long purses, who can afford to take up Calotyping as 
 an amusement. And, more than this, it is only people 
 with plenty of spare time on their hands who can afford 
 to turn their attention to it. And I therefore think 
 that Lady Blanche was right, when she pronounced Photo- 
 graphy to be a scientific pastime peculiar to the higher 
 
A PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURE . 
 
 ELDERLY FEMALE [#A& /S /Y<?r 6/SS/7 TO r//£S£ A A'C>r/0/VS, j ' O SIR. 1 
 “ PLEASE SIR! DON T, FOR GOODINESS SAKE, /7/P^f, S/R ! " 
 
 ^ O/V00/Y ■ 77 A>C ^1/V, /f/ir/VAAATSr. 
 
ARISTOCEATICAL LIGHT. 
 
 55 
 
 classes ; since it seems to specially address itself to those 
 who have the time and money to spend upon it. 
 
 It is all very well for my Lord, or the Squire, who are 
 occasionally ennuied for the lack of amusement, to seek, in 
 Calotyping, relief from their magisterial, landlordial, and 
 other duties. It is all very well for people who think the 
 purchase of “ a mahogany folding camera, of best construc- 
 tion ; with double combination Achromatic lens, mounted 
 in brass front, with rackwork adjustment, sliding front, suit- 
 able for views lOin. by 8in., and portraits 8^in. by 6-gin.” — 
 it is all very well for persons who think the purchase of 
 such a piece of furniture as this, a mere fleabite ; and can 
 give their twenty-one guineas for it, with no more trouble 
 to themselves, than the trouble it costs them to fill up the 
 cheque. 
 
 It is all very well for those people to take up Calotyping, 
 who can buy any number of gallons of nitrate of silver, 
 without having to pinch for it afterwards, or to squeeze it 
 out of the butcher’s bill. It is all very well for such as can 
 afford it, to devote themselves to so attractive and amusing 
 science as Photography. But the case is widely different, 
 when applied to such people as Tom Styles the ingenious 
 mechanic, or Mr Gibus the chemical-minded hatter, or poor 
 old Pounce the attorney’s clerk — all of whom, most probably, 
 have to support wives and numerous pledges of affection, 
 and cannot afford to gratify the bent of their inclinations 
 either by the first expenditure in apparatus, or in the con- 
 tinual expense incurred by experimentalising. If the first out- 
 lay was all that was required, Photography would not then 
 
56 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 fall so heavily upon a light purse ; but, the science demands 
 of its votaries an expensive — and, often, a tedious — appren- 
 ticeship, before it dubs them Masters of the Art. 
 
 Again ; it is all very well that Photography should be 
 undertaken by those amateurs who have time to follow up 
 their experiments, — who can pack up their camera (snugly 
 prepared for travelling in its leather sling case), and can 
 drive off with it to the desired spot ; who can send it on by 
 their servants, and ride to the place to meet it, and find all 
 prepared for them. This is all very well, and very fine, and 
 very encouraging. 
 
 But to those, who have to pack up their cameras and 
 their tripod stands, — and carry them, as best they may, — 
 and walk with them on their shoulders under a blazing 
 July sun, the aspect of photographic affairs becomes de- 
 cidedly altered. And, when the difficulties of securing the 
 negatives are safely accomplished, when they reach home 
 (very likely), the house is so full, that they cannot get a 
 room (much more, a dark room) to themselves. Even their 
 “ Studys ” may not be preserved inviolate; and the children 
 get in, and disarrange the papers, and open the drawers 
 that ought to be kept shut, and spoil their frocks with the 
 chemicals, and play the very Bear with the apparatus in 
 general. And then the Housemaid comes, and makes con- 
 fusion worse confounded, by attempting to “ put things 
 tidy.*’ And, when the photographers want dishes and cold 
 water all in a hurry, they can't get them : and so, their po- 
 sitives don’t turn out well, and they get disheartened. 
 
 But, your true aristocratic amateur, who can afford both 
 
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ARISTOCRATICAL LIGHT. 
 
 57 
 
 time and money, delights in having a Photographic room 
 fitted up for his own delectation, wherein he can pursue his 
 Calotyping without let or hindrance. To the windows, he 
 will have an ingenious system of shutters, so as to enable 
 him to exclude daylight, or admit it, at a moment’s notice : 
 and he will also have a screen of trebled yellow calico, to 
 make that “ dim, religious light,” which Photographers oc- 
 casionally love. He will have lamps almost as wonderful as 
 Aladdin’s ; glass spirit lamps, brass spirit lamps, camphine 
 lamps, argand lamps, lanterns with yellow glass shades, gas 
 jets with metal chimney and gauze, — and, if it were needed, 
 he could doubtless come out, like Vauxhall on a gala night, 
 with “ ten thousand additional lamps.” 
 
 He will have ornamental jars, which will turn out to be 
 filters and holders of distilled water — much purer and 
 sweeter than that of the “ silvery Thames.” He will have 
 bowls and pans of white china, and dishes of porcelain, cool 
 in look and refreshing to the eye. His chemical solutions 
 will be arranged on shelves, ready to be handled at the 
 word of command. His fixing solutions, and his developing 
 solutions for negatives and positives, will all be in lipped bot- 
 tles. He will have zinc trays, and washing pans, and all 
 the latest fashions in baths, — glass baths, porcelain baths, 
 gutta percha baths. 
 
 Close at hand he will have quires of bibulous paper, and 
 all the luxuries of his art ; — soft camel’s-hair brushes, — 
 glass filtering funnels, ribbed inside, — glass syringes to take 
 up definite quantities of solutions, — glass dippers, — German 
 beaker glasses, and plenty of brass pins. To the shelves 
 
58 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN AN 
 
 around, will be pinned sheets of paper for drying ; and 
 there will be dark drawers to receive them when they are 
 iodized, and made sensitive. As the aristocratic amateur 
 will be fond of experiments, he will try the rival merits of 
 the various Photographic papers, and will keep sheets of 
 each : — Turner’s, Whatman’s, Bland and Long’s, Canson 
 frdres, Towgood’s, Sandford’s, Nash’s, Papier Joseph, — on 
 all of which he will operate in their turn, according to the 
 requirements of the particular process he may have taken in 
 hand. He will also treat himself to the French reversing 
 frames with their hinged backs, to allow him to see the pro- 
 gress of the picture ; and he will procure any new invention 
 that he sees advertised in the ‘ Times,’ or ‘ Notes and Que- 
 ries,’ or the ‘Photographic Journal,’ or any other paper that 
 is a “ medium ” for Photographers. Within his reach, and 
 hung upon their separate hooks, will be an abundant supply 
 of clean linen rags, and pieces of wash leather ; and there 
 will be a towel-horse laden with a snowy burden of cloths. 
 
 On one side of the room, there will be an oaken chest, 
 marked with the owner’s name, and painted with the terrific 
 legend “ Glass — with care — this side uppermost .” This is 
 our aristocratic amateur’s travelling box. If you will open 
 the lid, you will see that its space is economised in a way 
 that would make the proprietors of emigrant vessels pale 
 with envy. You will perceive, that everything lies in as 
 snug a compass as possible ; that the iodides, and nitrates, 
 and hypo-sulphites, and glacial acetic and gallic acids, and 
 all the other solutions, are not allowed to interfere with 
 each other; but, you will observe, that there are little nests 
 
ARISTOCRATICAL LIGHT. 
 
 59 
 
 for the individual bottles, which, like the little birds, may 
 “ in their little nests agree,” without fighting and breaking 
 each other’s heads ; and, that everything — even to the scales 
 and weights — is laid in order, and can be produced when- 
 ever their Caliph master shall clap his hands for their ap- 
 pearance. You will also find, that the oblong mahogany 
 box called the Camera, will, at a touch and a pull, fall to 
 pieces, like a pantomime scene, and will fold up flat : and, 
 that its three lanky legs will unscrew, and consent to ac- 
 commodate themselves — like omnibus passengers, — to the 
 limited dimensions of the box in which they are compelled 
 to travel. 
 
 Being thus provided, whenever our aristocratic amateur 
 goes by rail or road to visit his other aristocratic friends, his 
 Calotype chest forms, as a matter-of-course, a part of his 
 luggage. He reaches Whatdyecallit Castle a full hour be- 
 fore dinner ; the Calotype chest is opened, — 'the camera 
 mounted, — the three spidery legs produced to their full 
 length ; and, by the time that the first bell has rung, our 
 amateur has secured a very good Garden-front, and North- 
 wing. 
 
 This gives him favour in the eyes of them that sit at 
 meat. 
 
60 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A NEGATIVE LIGHT. 
 
 There are some things that Photography can do, and some 
 things that it cannot. 
 
 Photography cannot make clouds — except with the aid of 
 indian-ink or iodide of potassium ; and, even then, the clouds 
 are an imposition, though a Buckle, or a Sir William 
 Newton may execute them. It ^cannot give atmospheric 
 effects ; it cannot (as yet, at least) give the colours of nature ; 
 it cannot give the proper force of blues, bright reds, and 
 yellows ; it cannot properly get over the matter of greens — 
 it cannot say with Mrs Bagnet, in ‘ Bleak House,’ “ them 
 greens is off my mind ! ” but, above all, Photography cannot 
 fudge. 
 
 This is the greatest glory of the science : this is the cause 
 of its rivalry with artists. When Mr Ruskin (in his ‘ Lec- 
 tures ’) wishes to speak in the highest terms of his friends 
 the Pre-Raphaelites, he says, their crowning glory is that 
 their enemies have accused them of painting from Photo- 
 graphs. Photographs don’t fudge ; the Pre-Raphaelites 
 
HOWTO PROCURE A PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVE. 
 
 TAKE VULAG£ . AND, /N !Ts VICINITY. SELECT A HELD THROUGH 
 
 WHICH THCAL ■* smite WAY. foe t/s YOUR V/EW. AND HAKE AIL READY 
 pqR Tfig HEGA r/v: nh/le the process /S CO//YG OH, TARE YOUR SEAT 
 
 UPON THE NEAT Sr/L£ [THE MORE DISTANT THE SETTER J AND LOSE Y0UR-. 
 ,9£LT /N THE LEADERS Of 'THE T/HES* YOU WU THUS BE ClYLNS AN 0AP0RTU ■ 
 N/rr TC CHILDREN or A SPECULATIVE TURN Of MIND. TO SOLUS THEM DOUBTS 
 AS TV WHAT YOUR CAMERA REALLY CONTAINS . at THE EXP/RAT/ON OT 20 MINUTES 
 SHUT UP YOUR TIMES . AND RETURN TO YOUR CAMERA . WHEN YOU TAKE OUT YOUR 
 SLIDE. WU WILL HND THAT YOU HAVE SECURED A MOST EXCELLENT NEGATIVE. 
 
 LONDON T MCLEAN EE. NAYNARKET. 
 
NEGATIVE LIGHT. 
 
 61 
 
 don’t fudge ; all other artists (except Turner!) do fudge 1 — 
 that is the substance of Mr Ruskin’s argument. And, cer- 
 tainly, there is much truth in the statement. 
 
 The fact is, the public like fudge ; and artists (who are 
 hut men, after all) have pandered to the public taste, and 
 have doctored Dame Nature after the most approved man- 
 nerisms- It is sad to think what indignities that respect- 
 able old lady has had to hear at their hands. Now, she has 
 the lines of her face all drawn out of place ; now, she has all 
 her limbs put out. At one time, a mass of rocks are dragged 
 in front of her to make a foreground ; at another time, parts 
 of her are conveyed bodily into other parts, or else, are 
 taken away altogether. On one occasion she is so dressed 
 up that even her most intimate friends fail to recognise her; 
 on another occasion she is stripped of all her graceful cover- 
 ings, and made to appear before the public in a most im- 
 proper condition. But Photography treats Nature with 
 that minute care and attention which is her due. 
 
 It is recorded of old Astley (of the Amphitheatre) that 
 he once violently harangued his scene-painter for represent- 
 ing (in a scene of a military trophy) a drum with only one 
 head. “ But, Sir,” remonstrated the scene-painter, “ ac- 
 cording to the rules of perspective, you could only see one 
 head to the drum.” “ What have I to do with perspective,” 
 said the unlettered proprietor : “ I pays you for painting 
 and not for perspective. Every drum in my establishment 
 has got two heads, and with two heads it shall be painted!” 
 
 Old Astley was wrong, and his scene-painter was quite 
 right in ingeniously covering the one end of the drum with 
 
 E 
 
62 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 the drapery of a trumpet, so that when he was asked 
 “Where’s the other end of the drum?” he could reply, 
 “ Behind that drapery.” But, had not old Astley the true 
 Photographic, Pre-Raphaelite, No-fudge principle strong 
 within him? To Ms eyes the drum had two ends; it must, 
 therefore, be so represented on the canvas whether it looked 
 right or wrong, well or ill; to depict it otherwise was (to 
 him) fudge. 
 
 But, paradoxical as it may seem to say so — though the 
 Camera cannot fudge, it cannot always appear to be truth- 
 ful. Take that portrait of Miss Brownjones, and you will 
 find her hands to be of Brobdignagian dimensions. How 
 was this? She had neglected to place them on a line with 
 her chin, and, consequently, they were brought too near to 
 the Camera. 
 
 Look also at this landscape. That tree, to the right, is out 
 of all proportion ; and the lines in that house, to the left, 
 converge in a way not seen in the originals. These parts 
 were “out of focus,” and the Camera could not manage 
 them. The French seem to get over this difficulty better 
 than we do, if we may judge from, the splendid specimens 
 of the Calotyped exteriors of their finest edifices 
 
 The distortion of the Photographic picture arises from the 
 lens of the Camera being of a convex shape, in order that 
 the object might be diminished to the size of the plate, and 
 that the rays of light might be duly concentrated. As a 
 natural consequence of this convex shape of the lens, those 
 parts of the sitter that come nearest to the apex of the lens 
 will be enlarged : so that even Daniel Lambert (if he could 
 
NEGATIVE LIGHT. 
 
 63 
 
 have sat for his Daguerreotype,) would have come forth on 
 the plate with a double allowance of fat beneath his waistcoat. 
 
 The “Negative” in Photography may be considered as 
 that state of the science in which, if you assert a thing to be 
 white it affirms it to be black, and if you say it is black it 
 immediately points out to you that it is white. The “ Nega- 
 tive,” in fact, represents all the lights to be darks, and vice 
 versa. Thus when our friend Brown gazes at his reflexion 
 in the Photographer’s mirror, he perceives very clearly that 
 his hair and his coat are of a darker tint than his face, and 
 that his shirt-front and collar are far whiter and lighter than 
 either. And yet, when Brown comes to behold his face in 
 the negative — he sees himself — though not as in the glass — 
 darkly; and he perceives himself to be a grey-headed nigger, 
 with light shadows to his face, wearing a white dress-coat, 
 with a black shirt and collar; and Brown forthwith imagines 
 that he has been magically transformed to the Black Prince, 
 or, at any rate, into Uncle Tom. 
 
 Nor is Brown in any way soothed when the Photographer 
 observes to him — with a self-satisfied smirk which Brown by 
 no means admires — “ You are coming out famously, Sir ! 
 You are developing most beautifully ! ” Brown doesn’t 
 know what the man means by “ developing,” but, having 
 heard something about the theory of Development in con- 
 nection with Dr Newman’s name, he loftily replies, “ I'm 
 no Puseyite, Sir ! ” hissing out that terrible epithet with all 
 the fervour of an Exeter-hall theologian. And the poor little 
 Photographer opens his eyes in wonder at the absence of 
 lucidity in Brown’s reply, and the black look that accom- 
 panies his negative. 
 
 e 2 
 
64 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A POSITIVE LIGHT. 
 
 There are some things that Photography can do. Imprimis, 
 Photography can tell the truth ; although, as I have said, 
 it cannot always appear to be truthful. But, then, we 
 know that truth itself does not always look like the 
 truth. 
 
 When- Mrs Mooney wished to decorate the Frontispiece 
 to her “ Travels in Cloudland,” with a representation of her 
 own frontispiece, did she patronise Photography? Not a 
 bit of it. She knew very well that it would not flatter her ; 
 that it would not tone down her aquiline nose, or enlarge 
 her elephantine eye, or omit the wart on her cheek. So 
 she went to Mr Hayter — (like Dr Johnson, she could 
 thenceforth say, “ Sir, I like a good Hayter !”) — and he 
 took off her head in his usual fascinating manner. It is 
 true that she paid for the pretty sketch some twenty-nine 
 guineas more than she would have given for the Photograph; 
 but, is not beauty dirt cheap at the price ? What woman 
 is so far superior to personal vanity as to prefer sending out 
 
POSITIVE LIGHT. 
 
 65 
 
 her face to the public with all its warts and defects, 
 when she is able to go before the world with a pleasing 
 countenance ? 
 
 Do you think that, when I go to call on old Lady Gorgon, 
 in Medusa square, and beg of her ladyship that she will be 
 so obliging as to show me her portrait, — do you think that 
 she exhibits to me her Daguerreotype by Beard? (“ By 
 Beard,” did I say ? rather, ought I not to say 11 with 
 Beard?” for it represents the poor old lady with as many 
 hairs on her chin, as a billy-goat.) Do you imagine for an 
 instant, that she would show me this shiny portrait, which 
 (and no blame to Mr Beard) makes all her plainness plainer, 
 and brings out her defects in the strongest possible light ; 
 or that she would take me into her dining-room, and point 
 to a certain piece of canvas on which Mr Frank Grant has 
 depicted in his most fascinating style, a most fascinating 
 female figure, in whose gracefully aristocratic beauty there 
 dimly lurks a resemblance to the gaunt Lady Gorgon. 
 
 Can you, my dear lady readers, can you lay your hands 
 upon your stays — I mean upon your hearts — and say, that 
 you would prefer to be represented by Beard and Claudet 
 to Hayter and Grant ? Could you say this, and not blush 
 with the conviction that you were telling an abominable 
 fib? Photography feels quite “positive” that you could 
 not. 
 
 Nitrate of silver is the chief agent in the Positive pro- 
 cess. Silver, indeed, is a chief agent in most processes 
 where anything positive is desired. It can mitigate the 
 miseries of the Custom-house, — secure the politeness of 
 
66 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 railway officials and box-keepers, — gain for us the inspection 
 of the mysterious treasures of show-houses, and show- 
 places, both sacred and profane, — and, in short, is the 
 Open Sesame which every band of Forty Thieves has made 
 its watch- word. 
 
 The Positive process is like the process of unfortunate 
 generals, and unsuccessful tradesmen, for it is nothing else 
 but a succession of reverses. But, singular to say, the 
 Photographer regards these reverses as so many successes, 
 and looks for a reverse as anxiously and eagerly as a poor 
 author looks for a cheque. In Photography, as well as in 
 life, you may be pretty sure that when you meet with a 
 reverse, you will be still further screwed down, and will 
 have your sensitive side brought in contact with everything 
 that looks black and gloomy. And, yet, if you will allow 
 the light to shine through the dark, you will find, that, in 
 your Positive reverse, there has taken place a decided 
 action which has changed to brightness all your shades of 
 gloom. 
 
 iEsop tells us, in a fable, of a certain man who bought 
 an Uncle Tom servant, and endeavoured to scrub him 
 white, under the impression that the blackness of his skin 
 arose from the neglect of his former master; and -d£sop 
 further tells us that , these insane sanitary measures were 
 altogether unsuccessful. But, to put a positive black into 
 a bath, is a very different thing to putting into a bath a 
 black Positive, — equally as much as a horse-chesnut is 
 altogether dissimilar to a chesnut horse. And, when you 
 put your black Positive into your bath, and let him be 
 
EXCITING FOR THE SENSITIVE. 
 
 outka&id protectionist /osas savs a'ot sss# "sstsiosss "/ w r/tc^ 
 
 *mr/o/v mr# mss as r#oroo/iAP#y,)_'noi ; you there: juo : cru » 
 
 TEACH you wot IT 15 TO BRING, YfR THEODOERLI T£ 'ERE, AND come " 
 A MEASURIN’ fOR RAILROADS ON MY lano I " 
 
 - 04rs>(>sv r.*7c^£A/t. *• TAr**f/*x,< 
 
POSITIVE LIGHT. 
 
 67 
 
 there — it may be a quarter of an hour — it may be five or 
 six hours, — and scrub him well with hypo-sulphite, and then 
 wash him “ repeatually ” (as Mrs Gamp would say), — and 
 then leave him to soak in clean water for some couple of 
 hours, — and then carefully put him in a warm place to dry 
 (we will say nothing about the ironing, as that might 
 mangle him), — why, then, you will find that your black 
 Positive, unlike your positive black, has really lost colour 
 and has had his countenance reduced to the desired tint. 
 
 If the fabulous sanitarian, mentioned by rEsop, had lived 
 in these later times, he would have undoubtedly been a 
 Photographer; for then his passion for cleanliness might 
 have been carried out to its fullest extent, and rewarded 
 with a more immediate success then attended him in the 
 ablutions of his black servant. Perhaps, in no science, is 
 cleanliness so necessary as in the delightful science of 
 Photography, where, if you fail in one step, you fall short 
 of the goal, and where you must be a perfect Pharisee in 
 your washings if you wish to attain excellence. I will 
 leave it to others to say if there is any significance in the 
 fact, that the same Victorian era that gave birth to Pho- 
 tography, also produced Baths and Wash-houses. 
 
 There is one very positive thing about Photography, and 
 that is, the power that the Camera positively possesses, of 
 receiving any amount of images. Here, the Camera can 
 even go beyond the great naval hero, who, just before his 
 crowning fight, cried “ Westminster Abbey, or Victory!” 
 for it can gain a victory over Westminster Abbey. For, 
 before any images can be received by the Abbey, you 
 
68 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 must — -as was seen in the case of Campbell’s statue — pay 
 down a larger sum of money than, perhaps, the original 
 image cost. But, the Camera receives an image at a much 
 cheaper rate than the Chapter 
 
 Which ends this Chapter. 
 
DETECTIVE LIGHT. 
 
 69 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A DETECTIVE LIGHT. 
 
 It will be remembered by the friends of Mr Pickwick, 
 that, when that immortal gentleman was conveyed to the 
 Fleet, in the delicate matter of “ Bardell v. Pickwick,” his 
 first intimation of his being a prisoner, was, by his having 
 to undergo the ceremony of “ sitting for his Portrait 
 which ceremony consisted in the Turnkeys making a careful 
 inspection of Mr Pickwick’s person and features. This was 
 a method of taking mental Daguerreotypes which proved 
 highly disagreeable to Mr Pickwick ; and has doubtless 
 given pain to many others. But, as the world grows older, 
 it grows wiser in refining methods ; and so, this system of 
 portrait-painting, has, since Mr Pickwick’s time, been 
 greatly improved. 
 
 Late in the year 1852, the ‘ Revue Geneve ’ stated, that 
 the Department of Justice and Police were authorised by 
 the Federal Council to incur the charge of photographing 
 the portraits of those persons who broke the laws by men- 
 dicancy in those cantons where they had no settlement. 
 
70 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 The verbal descriptions which had been heretofore relied 
 on, were found to be insufficient for the identification of the 
 offenders ; the features of the beggars, beggared description. 
 
 The reformation, which had thus begun in Geneva, soon 
 spread to France and England, and was warmly adopted by 
 the authorities of Scotland Yard, who, in the most friendly 
 spirit, received and recognised Photography as an able De- 
 tective. By its aid, the Force started a new paper called 
 the ‘ Illustrated Hue and Cry,’ the chief features to 
 which were given through the countenance of that class of 
 gentlemen who find the society of the members of the 
 Police Force so extremely captivating. I have not yet met 
 with a number of this paper, but I should imagine it to he 
 almost as amusing and instructive as Madame Tussaud’s 
 “ Chamber of Horrors.” I can imagine its illustrations to 
 depict the same scowling features, the same hang-dog look, 
 the same ruffianly brutality of countenance, the same sensual, 
 hardened, callousness of demeanour, the same illiterate, 
 animal, demoralized, rapscalion set of rascals, as those with 
 which the eyes and feelings of the British public are de- 
 lighted in that charming Chamber of Horrors ; and I would 
 venture to suggest to the Wax- work proprietors, that if a 
 few illustrations, on the principle of those in the ‘ Illus- 
 trated Hue and Cry,’ were to be added to their catalogue, it 
 would double the value of that most interesting and enter- 
 taining work. 
 
 In this used-up age, when the heads of the people have 
 been placed before us, in all kinds of plates, and with every 
 variety of dressing, the formation of a Blackguard’s Portrait 
 Gallery would probably be an event that would even make 
 
DETECTIVE LIGHT. 
 
 71 
 
 Sir Charles Coldstream’s pulse beat to a new sensation. 
 There seems a propriety in assigning a special place in the 
 galleries of England to the portraits of England’s black- 
 guards. The old English worthies ought not to be mixed 
 up with the unworthies. We ought not to gaze on the 
 famous and infamous from the same point of observation ; 
 we ought not to look on the bad Mr Goode, who ended his 
 days on the scaffold, with the same feelings with which we 
 should regard the portrait of any other good man : we ought 
 not to hang the great Burke side by side with Burke the 
 pitch-plaister murderer. To everything there should be a 
 place ; and the Blackguards should take a place by them- 
 selves, and that, the lowest. 
 
 In such an Exhibition, the Burglars would probably 
 form the most attractive part ; for it would be but natural 
 for the thieves to “ take ” the most. The portraits of gen- 
 tlemen who had committed arson, should be treated in a 
 blaze of colour, in the style of the fiery Venetians. Pick- 
 pockets should receive the handling of a Constable ; while the 
 murderers would, of course, be hung on the line, and would 
 receive every attention at the hands of the Hanging Com- 
 mittee. Altogether, I do not see why a Blackguard’s Por- 
 trait Gallery should not succeed. It would have one ad- 
 vantage over other galleries, in not calling people by wrong 
 names. It would not write “ the portrait of a gentleman” 
 under the representation of a man who may smile and smile, 
 and yet, be a villain still ; while it would probably decimate 
 half the picture galleries in England, if it could claim for its 
 own all who came under the designation of the vulgar and 
 expressive epithet 44 Blackguard. 
 
72 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN A 
 
 I wonder if the blackguard’s ‘ Illustrated Hue and Cry ’ 
 is still going on. I should suppose that it is, and meeting 
 with the success (i. e. the captures) that it deserves; for, 
 even while I write this, I read in the newspapers that the 
 Governor of Bristol Gaol, as soon as a prisoner enters, takes 
 his portrait by the means of Photography, often without 
 the prisoner’s knowledge ; and that, by the Collodion pro ■ 
 cess, he multiplies his portrait ad libitum , and sends out 
 copies to all the gaols in the country, in order to ascertain if 
 the prisoner is known in any of them. This is certainly a 
 novel way of “ taking off” a prisoner. 
 
 Yet I will venture to suggest to the governors of gaols 
 that their ingenious device is open to certain objections. I 
 make bold to question the supposed infallibility of the Pho- 
 tographic portraits taken by the police authorities; and I am 
 even “ free to confess ” (as honourable gentlemen say in the 
 House) that certain unpleasant mistakes might probably 
 arise from the system. Let us take a case: that of Mr 
 Priggins, for instance. 
 
 Mr Priggins is a constant (though involuntary) visitor at 
 Scotland-yard, where the authorities have been polite 
 enough to Calotype him, free of expense. But is the por- 
 trait a satisfactory one? — by no means. For besides the 
 distortion of features that would arise from the slightest error 
 in focussing (your policeman being a cleverer manipulator 
 of rascals than chemicals), Mr Priggins could assume any 
 unusual expression that his cunning might suggest : so that, 
 what with hocussing and focussing, the result (in a detec- 
 tive sense) would be extremely doubtful. But this would 
 not be all. 
 
A DETECTIVE LIGHT. 
 
 73 
 
 In process of time Mr Priggins would be again wanted ; 
 and indefatigable policeman Z would direct bis well-known 
 intelligence to a renewal of bis acquaintance witb tbe late 
 sitter’s Photographic features. At length, after taking 
 mental Daguerreotypes of nearly every one whose name is 
 not to be found either in the ‘ Post-office Directory,’ or in 
 the ‘ Court Guide,’ indefatigable policeman Z suddenly 
 meets with a “ party,” the expression of whose features — 
 like that of the young lady who changed the wreath of 
 roses for one of orange blossoms — is “ more thoughtful than 
 before,” and is marked by the peculiar scowl, or leer, or 
 grin, assumed by Mr Priggins when he made his first ap- 
 pearance as a Photographic hero of the ‘ Illustrated Hue and 
 Cry.’ Indefatigable policeman Z casts a searching look 
 (even as with a bull’s-eye) upon the “ party he draws 
 from his pocket the fatal illustrated paper (which, doubtless, 
 is regarded by many as the undoubted ‘ Illustrated Noose ’), 
 a quick reference to the Photographic positive makes him as 
 positive regarding the identity of the gentleman before him 
 with the gentleman who is “ wanted;” and — after the 
 manner of the stage “ heavy -father,” whose raddled cheeks 
 are undisturbed by tears, as he exclaims “No! yes! — No! 
 — yes, it is my long-lost son ! ” — so, . indefatigable police- 
 man Z flies with open arms (and ready handcuffs) to his 
 unsuspecting victim, whose only crime is, that his innocent 
 features bear some sort of likeness to the “ counterfeit re- 
 semblance of ” the gentleman in difficulties, who, under a 
 prophetic sense of coming danger, had contrived to impose 
 both on the camera and the constable. 
 
74 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN ALL 
 
 So that, after all, you must not be too sure but that your 
 Photographic Positives may sometimes turn out to be Nega- 
 tives : neither must you imagine that a Royal-road to thief- 
 taking has been discovered through the medium of Photo- 
 graphy. The Camera, like the stage, “ holds the mirror up 
 to Nature but the actor occasionally makes that mirror a 
 distorting one. 
 
MANNER OF LIGHTS. 
 
 75 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN ALL MANNER OF LIGHTS. 
 
 In whatever light we may regard Photography, — whether 
 we look at it in Mr Stewart’s Pantographic Process, or in 
 Dr Wood’s Catalissotype Process, or in Mons. Niepce’s 
 Heliographic Process, or in Mons. Tardieu’s Tardiochromic 
 Process, or in Mons. Daguerre’s Daguerreotype Process, or 
 in Mr Fox Talbot’s Photogenic Process, or in Mr Talbot’s 
 friends’ Talbotype Process, or (again) in Mr Talbot’s Calo- 
 type Process, or in Mr Scott Archer’s Collodion Process, 
 or in Mr Crooke’s Wax-paper Process, or in Mr Maxwell 
 Lyte’s Instantaneous Process, or in Mr Weld Taylor’s 
 Iodizing Process, or in Sir David Brewster’s Stereoscopic 
 Process, or in Mons. Claudet’s Accelerating Process, or in 
 Mr Anybody’s Paper Process, or in Sir Wm. Herschel’s 
 Photographic Process, — in whatever light, and under what- 
 ever alias, we may regard Photography, we cannot but fail 
 to see in it much to interest and amuse. Of its benefit to 
 the human race we can even now form something more 
 than conjectures, by glancing at the variety of its perform- 
 
76 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN ALL 
 
 ances, and the various uses to which the art has already 
 been applied: for the human face divine has by no means 
 monopolised the attentions of our friend Camera. 
 
 It has now become a matter for history, that her Majesty 
 was enabled by photographic agency to trace the progress 
 of her people’s Palace at Sydenham through every phase of 
 its crystal beauty. Her personal visits, although numerous, 
 would have failed to put the Sovereign in possession of the 
 progressive details of the building; but Mr Philip Dela- 
 motte, by a wave of his Enchanter’s Wand, could summon 
 up before his Queen the shades of changing and passing 
 forms, and could bid the spirit of the scene to rise before 
 her. Afar from the spot, and in the retirement of her own 
 castled home, the Royal Lady could sit and mark that 
 Crystal Palace springing silently into perfected beauty : like 
 a second Solomon’s temple, 
 
 “No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung ; 
 
 Like some tall palace the mystic fabric sprung.” 
 
 How wonderful the art that could achieve such magic as 
 this ! 
 
 In a like manner to Mr Delamotte did Mr Fenton take 
 Photographic views of the progress of Mons. Vignolle’s 
 bridge across the Dnieper at Kieff. Every pile was there, 
 and even every little wave that beat against it. What fairy 
 wonder was ever like to this ! 
 
 From these cases, it will be obvious, that Photography 
 can be made most serviceable to Engineers and Architects, 
 in illustrating — either for themselves or their employers — 
 
MANNER OF LIGHTS. 
 
 77 
 
 the progress of the works on which they may he engaged. 
 Accurate ideas may thus he obtained of newly-built man- 
 sions, churches, or public edifices. Indeed, Estate agents 
 are already awake to the advantages of the art ; and, in 
 place of the gaudily-coloured idealities which they were in 
 the habit of exhibiting as the correct representations of the 
 villas and mansions of which they had the disposal, many of 
 them now set before you the less attractive, but more 
 faithful Calotypes. May such truth-telling prosper as it 
 deserves ! 
 
 Artists and Sculptors, too, can make abundant use of 
 Photography. If Mr Mc’Guilp merely desires a chiaro- 
 scuro study,' — instead of keeping his model for hours and 
 paying him accordingly, he can put him before the Camera, 
 and get all his muscular developments in a twinkling. If 
 Mr Chalk is desirous to take a copy of his picture, or Mr 
 Chisel of his statue, before those productions of art leave 
 their respective studios for the galleries of their respected 
 purchasers, what do Messrs Chalk and Chisel do, but call 
 in the aid of our friend Camera. 
 
 The proprietors of our great Illustrated Newspaper 
 would tell you that our friend was one of their most valuable 
 contributors ; and that he gives them portraits of persons,* 
 
 * The Illustrated London News for January 6th, 1855, contains a 
 portrait of the late Dr Routh, engraved from a photograph, for 
 which the venerable President of Magdalen sat on his hundredth 
 birthday. The photograph of a centenarian, who might have shaken 
 hands with the Pretender, may be taken as a good illustration of 
 the immense strides which Science has made during the past 
 hundred years. 
 
 F 
 
78 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN ALL 
 
 places, and things. Perhaps the day is not far distant, 
 when their paper will receive the greater part of its illus- 
 trations through Photographs which have placed the object 
 immediately upon the wood, and have been at once engraved, 
 without the intermediate aid (and expense) of the draughts- 
 man, and, of course, with greater claims to accuracy of 
 delineation. In the Art Journal for August, 1853, 
 appeared a small wood engraving, being a reduced copy 
 (some twenty -four times less) of Mr Nasmyth’s map of the 
 moon, photographed upon the wood in a manner suitable 
 for the graver, by the Rev. St Vincent Beechy, and engraved 
 by Mr Robt. Langton, of Manchester. This is hut the first 
 fruits of a harvest, the magnitude and importance of which 
 I may conjecture, but will not pretend to determine. 
 
 I need only refer to the Photographs of celebrated line 
 engravings, that the reader may not altogether forget those 
 most lovely specimens of this most lovely art.* It may be 
 that we shall five to see it no uncommon thing for books to 
 be illustrated with genuine Photographs — not that the 
 engraver need despair, for his art can never perish. 
 
 * I may here mention, as valuable instances of the application of 
 Photography to the Fine Arts, Mr Contencin’s copies of portraits 
 in chalks, and Mr Thurston Thompson’s copies of the Raphael 
 drawings belonging to Her Majesty, 
 
 t I do not here refer to publications consisting solely of Photo- 
 graphic pictures — such as Mr Delamotte’s “ Progress of the Crystal 
 Palace at Sydenham Mr Shaw’s “ Photographic Studies Mr 
 Owen’s “ Photographic Pictures Messrs Fenton and Delamotte’s 
 “ Photographic Album Mr Sedgfield’s “ Photographic Delinea- 
 
A PHOTOGRAPHER ASTONISHING THE NATIVES 
 
 ' COAf£ A/O/VQ , 0£rsr JA//£, OO ! AA/O too// 
 
 Ar TJ/£ A(A// W/rtf T#£ />££/>- 500 JV / " 
 
 LaNCap. T. j*« upp, lAHAVPi Af<tT. 
 
MANNER OF LIGHTS. 
 
 79 
 
 There is one use of Photography which may be carried 
 out, and probably will be, to a far greater sphere of useful- 
 ness than it has yet reached ; and that is, its application to 
 MSS. and catalogues of books. That interminable 
 Catalogue of the British Museum, which seems to be “ not 
 for an age, but for all time,” and appears as if it would not 
 receive its completion until the Greek Kalends, — might be 
 made of unusual value if it contained small Photographs of 
 the title-pages of its principal works, more particularly the 
 older ones. They manage these things better in France, 
 where they have got the start of us, by illustrating, in the 
 manner just mentioned, the Catalogue of the National 
 Library of Paris. As to old and valuable MSS. which 
 are at present lost to the general world, and accessible only 
 to a few, how many of them might be made public, “ in 
 faultless fac-simile, without trouble and expense,” merely 
 by an application of our friend Camera ! Mr W. J. 
 Thoms, F.S.A., states, that he thus saw two pages of a 
 fine old folio edition of Aldrovandus, with a woodcut on one 
 of them, exquisitely and distinctly copied, though the copy 
 
 tions Mons. Bisson’s “ Photographic Copies of Rembrandt,” &c., 
 — or even to those Photographic Manuals and Primers which are 
 illustrated with a specimen of the art, — but rather to works on 
 routine subjects, which shall be illustrated, out of the routine man- 
 ner, with photographs. A work of this character (“ Illustrations 
 of Scripture, by an Animal Painter”) has already appeared, and 
 its example will probably be extensively followed. Dr Diamond 
 has also published some photographic “ Portraits of the Insane 
 a work of great value to the medical world. 
 
80 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN ALL 
 
 was only about an inch and a quarter by two inches.* 
 And, Mr Thoms further states, that an accomplished Pho- 
 tographic amateur, having had occasion to make an official 
 return of which he wished to retain a copy, saved himself 
 the trouble of re-writing it, by taking a Photographic copy.f 
 Might not Public Offices, — and especially Will and Record 
 Offices, take a hint from this? 
 
 The Camera has been introduced to the Microscope, t and 
 they have been so mutually pleased with their acquaintance, 
 that they have agreed to assist each other in the production 
 of pictures. They will be the Lee and Cooper, among the 
 R.A.’s of the Scientific Academy. 
 
 Perhaps, indeed, their Scientific Academy will soon out- 
 rival Messrs Lee and Cooper’s Royal Academy. Already, 
 and quite as a matter of course, has our friend Camera 
 begun to throw open his Picture Galleries. Besides the 
 “ Photographic Institution ” in New Bond street, there is 
 the “ Photographic Society,” which gave its first annual 
 Exhibition in Suffolk street, Pall mall, January, 1854. 
 
 # I greatly value a beautiful copy (collodion), made by Mr 
 Thoms, of two of the designs in the present volume (the Frontis- 
 piece, and “ a Photographer astonishing the natives”) when they 
 originally appeared as woodcuts, in the pages of ‘ Punch.’ The 
 clearness of these miniature miniatures is such, that all the writing 
 and printing upon them is distinctly visible and readable, 
 t ‘ Notes and Queries.’ YI. 347. 
 
 t 1 may here particularise Mr Kingsley’s “ Illustrations of the 
 Breathing System of Insects,” exhibited in the “Photographic 
 Society,” 1855. 
 
MANNER OF LIGHTS. 
 
 81 
 
 In our Observatories at Greenwich, and elsewhere, the 
 night-work has been annulled by a little Photographic 
 watchman, who takes all the duty and responsibility upon 
 himself, and is never caught napping. Winds and storms 
 now register their own doings, and write their own truthful 
 memoirs ; while Mr Brooke’s Cylinder of Photographic 
 Paper makes revolutions of a far more useful kind than you 
 would meet with in Spain. 
 
 Far away, out in mysterious Egypt, on certain ruins there 
 are certain inscriptions which are at too great an elevation to 
 be deciphered, and remain an agonising mystery to all 
 curious travellers ; when, forthwith, steps in our friend 
 Camera, puts up his eye-glass, and reads you the riddle, as 
 easily as the Sphinx would read the second column of the 
 Times . 
 
 But what is there that our friend Camera will not do? 
 If I go upon the Continent there he is before me, sketching 
 glorious old Gothic churches and crumbling ruins. If I 
 wander into the green lanes and leafy dells of my own sweet 
 country, there is our friend upon his tripod, making ready 
 to carry off the village church, and even the sexton him- 
 self. If I betake myself to the fenny flats of the eastern 
 Counties, and imagine myself to be remote from civilization, 
 lo ! and behold, there is our friend with his apparatus on his 
 back, going the round of the scattered farmsteads, and per- 
 suading fond mothers not to neglect the present favourable 
 opportunity of securing likenesses of their children. 
 
 Camera even goes out to the Crimea, into the very thick 
 of the fight; and, of his doings there we occasionally catch 
 
82 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN ALL 
 
 a glimpse through the columns of the ‘ Illustrated News.’ 
 I read in the papers, too, that the Photographers in the 
 camp of our brave Allies have already sent to France 
 numerous pictures of the campaign.* And, the other day, I 
 read of an enthusiastic amateur of Bourg, named Daviel, 
 who (after the fashion of Vandervelde) was very coolly pho- 
 tographing a hot engagement between the Turks and Rus- 
 sians near Kars, and was cruelly interrupted, in his pursuit 
 of scientific pleasure under difficulties, by the Russians 
 coming upon him in their full retreat, and carrying him 
 away captive, together with his apparatus. 
 
 Out to the Baltic, too, goes our friend Camera; and, so 
 rapid is he with his pencil, that he will sketch you the Three 
 Crown Battery at Copenhagen, being on board her Majesty’s 
 ship, which is sailing merrily along at eleven knots an hour. 
 Then he goes to see his friend Mr Kibble, of Glasgow, and, 
 in a twinkling, he puts down for him, in black and white, 
 the exterior of the Glasgow Theatre, and the crowd of 
 people thronging its doors. With the same rapidity, too, did 
 he sketch the ceremonial attendant upon the opening of the 
 Sydenham Palace,! giving you, in a moment, faithful like- 
 nesses of all the Royal and distinguished visitors, with hun- 
 
 * Mr Nicklin, the Photographer, sent out to the seat of war .by 
 the English Government, was lost, together with his assistants, in 
 the wreck of the Rip Van Winkle , which foundered in the hurricane 
 off Balaclava, November 15th, 1854. 
 
 t Exhibited on the evening of the same day, by Mr Williams, at 
 Lord Posse’s soirSe. 
 
MANNER OF LIGHTS. 
 
 83 
 
 dreds of other figures, all correctly delineated on a piece of 
 glass measuring three inches by five. 
 
 But it little matters to him of what size his pictures must 
 be. He will take you the size of life ; or he will make for you 
 a miniature copy — inch size — of the ‘ Times’ newspaper — 
 though you must make use of a powerful glass if you wish 
 to peruse its leaders. Indeed, if he takes a miniature of you 
 or me, — and he (or we) should afterwards wish it on an en- 
 larged scale, he can even, with the help of his friend Mons. 
 Heilman, successfully get over this difficulty. 
 
 In short, what cannot our friend Camera do ? Although 
 young, he is such an extraordinary fellow, that I shall not 
 feel surprised at anything that I may hear of him. Shall 
 you ? 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY REYNELL AND WEIGHT, 
 LITTLE PDLTENEY STREET.