a delicate kind of painting, distinguished from all others by the smallness of the figures, its being performed with dots or points instead of lines; by the faintness of the colouring; its requiring to be viewed very near; and by its being usually done on vellum.

This is the nicest and most tedious of all kinds of painting, being performed wholly with the point of the pencil: for when the colours are laid on flat without dotting, though the figures be small, and the ground either vellum or paper, it is not called painting in miniature, but washing. There are some painters who never use any white colour in painting in miniature, but make the ground of the vellum serve to raise their figures; in which case the lights appear bright in proportion to the depth and strength of the colours of the figures. Others, before they go to work, give the vellum a light wash with white lead well prepared and purified. These colours that have the least body, are the best and most commodious for painting in miniature; as carmine, ultramarine, fine lakes, and greens made of herbs and flowers: but besides these, the following colours are also made use of, viz. vermilion, black lead, brown red, mastic pale, yellow masticote, indigo, ivory black, lamp black, Spanish brown, umber, gall stone, brown ochre, French pink, orpiment, gamboge, Naples yellow, bladder-green, verditer, sea-green, German ashes, flake white, and white lead. All terrene colours, and other grofs substances, are too coarse for fine work, how wellsoever they may be ground: but the finest particles may be separated by tempering the colour in a cup of fair water; and having stirred it well with your finger, and the whole being thoroughly mixed, let it subside for a while, and then pour it by inclination into a shell that has been well scoured in hot water, and let it stand to dry. Yellow ochre, brown red, umber, and ultramarine, purify by fire; but if they are burnt in too fierce a fire, they change, and the brown red turns yellow, the yellow ochre and umber turn reddish, and so of the rest: if the fire is not too fierce, it renders them softer and kinder than before, so that the finest and purest ultramarine, burnt in a red hot shovel, becomes much more brilliant than it was before it was burnt. Greens, blacks, greys, and yellows, on being mixed with a little of the gall of the ox, carp, or eel, especially of the last, acquire a lustre and vivacity not natural to them. You must take the galls of eels, and hang them on a nail to dry; and when you use any steep it in brandy, and mingle some of it with the colour already tempered with gum water wherein is a little sugar-candy. When you begin to paint, the colours must be placed on a small ivory pallet of the size of your hand, in the middle of which should be placed the white, well spread out, and nearer it the lighter, and further off those darker colours you are going to use.

Your vellum must be glued to a copper-plate, or a piece of thin board, exactly of the same size with the intended piece; in doing which, the fair side of the vellum should be moistened with a fine wet linen, and a piece of white paper being put upon the back of it, it is to be applied to the plate or board, and stretching it upon it equally in all directions, the vellum, which ought to be every way a finger's-breadth larger than what you glue it to, in order to be doubled over and glued behind. When your piece is sketched out upon the vellum with a pencil, you must, with a little thin carmine, run over all the strokes that they may not be defaced in working; and this done, clean your vellum with crumbs of bread. In laying on the colours, begin with sketching or drawing with large, bold, but clear strokes; like those who paint in oil; your lights must at first be something brighter, and your shades not quite so dark as is required in finishing; because in stripping upon them you strengthen the colour, which, if too deep at first, would in finishing become too dark. Endeavour also to drown your colours into each other, that no line of separation may be seen between them: to this purpose, soften your strokes with the colours on each side of them, so that they may be blended and confounded with each other. There are several ways of stripping, and every painter has his manner: some do it with round points, others make them long; others again hath fine strokes, crossing each other in all directions, till the whole appears as if stripped or wrought with points: this last method is the best, boldest, and soonest perfected: the artist should here accustom himself to be rich, mellow, and soft in his work; the points must seem in a manner lost in the ground they are wrought upon, and appear but just enough to show that the piece is stripped. When the work seems finished, heightening it a little has a fine effect; that is, strengthening the lights with touches of a paler colour than at first, which must be softened away into the reft.

For laces, point, and the like, lay on first a mixture of blue, black, and white, as for linens; and then heighten the pattern, flowers or flourishes, with white only; then shade and finish with the first colour. When they are upon flesh, or any thing else which you would have seen through them, finish what is under them, as if you intended to lay nothing upon it, and then lay on the lace or point with pure white, and finish with the other mixture. In painting a fur, lay on a ground as for drapery, according to the colours of it, and then shade by the same rule; and having done, instead of stripping, draw fine strokes this way and that, according as the down of the fur you imitate lies: heighten the lights of a brown fur with ochre and white, and those of a light fur with white and a little blue.

There are several sorts of grounds for pictures and portraits: some are quite brown, with Spanish brown, umber, &c. with a little black and white; others are more yellow, being mixed with a good deal of ochre; others are upon the grey, with indigo; and others are blue or crimson.

To make a ground all of glory, first lay a bright mixture of a little ochre and white, adding more and more of the first, as you draw more and more towards the extremities of the intended picture; and when the ochre happens not to be dark enough (for you must go on darkening and darkening,) add gall-stone, then carmine, and at last Spanish brown. This ground you must lay in such a manner, that the different degrees of darkness may, as much as possible, insensibly increase and strengthen: the whole must then be stripped with the same colours.

For a day-sky, mingle some ultramarine with a good deal of white, and lay it on as smooth and uniform as possible with a large pencil and broad strokes, laying it on paler and paler as you descend towards the horizon, which must be made of vermilion, mine-de-plumb and white, of the strength that finishes the sky, or rather a little weaker, artfully blending the blue and red, mingling at last gall-stone and a good deal of white; and all this must be so laid on that no separation must be seen between the colours. When there are to be clouds in the sky, you need lay on no blue where they are to be; but sketch them out, if they are reddish, with vermilion, gall-stone, and white, together with a little indigo; and if they are to be darker, a great deal must be used of this last, making the lights of the one and the other with masticot, vermilion, and white, according to the degree of strength you would give them, swelling out the whole with stripping; and if the sky be not sufficiently uniform, you must stripe that likewise.