Masonic Light.

At home , abroad , on land or sea , You ' re sure to find Craft Masonry , 'Tis wondrous strange , but 'tis a fact , The Brethren form one grand compact . And whilst we thus give God the praise

, He will our minds for ever raise , And fill our hearts with earnestness ; This by His Spirit Ave confess . T . BURDETT YEOMAN , W . M ., 1460 . August , 1878 .

Art-Jottings In Art-Studios.

ART-JOTTINGS IN ART-STUDIOS .

HY 11110 . REV . W . TEBUS . MURAL DECORATION — " DISTEMPER . " 'THE last mode of applying colour-ornamentation to wall-surfaces , that is , the last

- * - Avhich Ave are able to fairl y describe as coming under the head of " art , " is that knoAvn as " distemper" ( French , detrempe ) , or painting in tempera , sometimes called , too , '_ ' size-painting , " by Avhich last designation the mode of painting-, or at least the " vehicle" employed , is pointed out . Distemper , then , in opposition to "fresco , " with Avhich it is sometimes confounded , is painted upon a dry surface somewhat more like the spurious land of "fresco" known

, as "Fresco Sccco . " It is not , hoivever , exactly like the last-mentioned process , because in that the crystallized surface of the dried lime-plaster has first to be removed , whilst in " distemper" the colour is applied directly to the dried ancl finished surface of the Avail . As Ave noticed before , the name is in reality descriptive of the vehicle , which is a kind

or " size or glue . Of the materials employed in this branch of painting we will speak presently ; meanwhile , let us just notice that , although it is considered a species of Avork of a very inferior character , fit only or mostly for such " processes " as might he more aptly put under the heading of " Decorative Manufactures , " yet Ave find that it is an indisputable fact that some of the Old Blasters frequently executed pictures , either in ivhole or hi

part , in " distemper , " When they did this they usually oiled the Avork subsequently , and thus gave to it the character of a painting in oil . Thus Paul Veronese is said to haA'e sometimes begun his pictures in "distemper" and then finished them in " oil "; for his skies he certainly frequently employed the process in question . The chief modern use to which "distemper "is put is that of " scene-painting " at the theatres . The work may be " broad " and ei'en coarse , but the effect is too AVCII

known to need description here ; ancl anything more true to Nature than some of the tree-scenes of Mr . Fenton , or more exquisitely beautiful than some of his sea-pieces , it is hard to imagine . Some of the so-called " transformation scenes" in the pantomimes are almost too gorgeous for descri ption . Whilst mentioning , as a scene-painter , Mr . Fenton , Ave ought not to neglect such names as those of Messrs . Telbin , Beverley , etc . ; all of whom , though Avorking in this ruder style , are still as truly artists as any of then " brethren of the brush who paint the dainty cabinet-picture of finished miniature ;