Slike strani
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

THE

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

A N'D

LONDON REVIEW;

For AUGUST 1796.

PAUL SANDBY, ESQ. R. A.
(WITH A PORTRAIT.)

MR. WALPOLE, in his Life of
GEORGE LAMBERT, confiders it
as extraordinary that a country fo pro-
fufely beautified with the amenities of
nature, thould have produced fo few
good Painters of Landscape; but as
our Poets warm their imaginations
with funny hills, or figh after grottoes
and cooling breezes, our Painters draw
rocks and precipices and cafteliated
mountains, becaufe Virgil gafped for
breath at Naples, and Salvator wandered
amidit Alps and Appenines. Our ever-
verdant lawns, rich vales, fields of hay-
cocks, and hop-grounds, are neglected
as homely and familiar fubjects. That
we have had Landfcape Painters on
whom this cenfure falls, and falls very
heavily, must be acknowledged; but to
the Gentleman who is the fubject of
our prefent memoir, it does not apply.
He has contributed much to refcue the
English School from this imputation;
and in many of his exquifite delineations,
uniting fidelity with tafte, the beautiful
fcenery for which this Ifland is fo emi-
nently distinguished, is difplayed as in
a mirror. For force, clearness, and
transparency, it may very truly be faid
that his Paintings in water colours have
not yet been equalled; the Views of
Caftles, Ruins, Bridges, &c. which are
frequently introduced, will remain mo-
numents to the honour of the Arts, the
Artifts, and the Country, when the
originals from which they are defigned
are mouldered into duft.

PAUL SANDBY is defcended from a branch of the family of Saunby, of Babworth in Nottinghamshire, and was born

at Nottingham in the year 1732. In the year 1746 he came to London, and, having an early predilection for the Arts, got introduced into the Drawing. room at the Tower, which was his first academy.

In the beginning of the year 1748, his Royal Highnefs William Duke of Cumberland, thinking it proper to have a furvey taken of the Highlands of Scotland, Mr. Sandby was appointed Draughtfman, under the infpection of General David Watfon, with whom he travelled through the North and Weltern parts of that most romantic country, and made many fketches from the very fingular and terrific fcenery with which it abounds. During his ftay at Edinburgh he made a number of fmall etchings from thefe Defigns; which on his return to London he fold to Meffrs. Ryland and Bryer, who published them in a folio volume.

Drawing of plans abounding in ftraight lines being neither congenial to his tafte nor worthy of his talents, he in the year 1752 quitted the fervice of the Survey, and refided with his bro. ther, Mr Thomas Sandby, at Windfor, and during his continuance there took more than feventy views of Windfor and Eron. The accuracy, tafte, and fpirit with which they were in an eminent degree marked, fo forcibly ftruck Sir Jofeph Bankes, that he purchased them all, and at a very liberal price, Mr. Sandby had foon afterwards the honour of being one of this Gentleman's party in a tour through North and South Wales, and made a great number

L 2

of

of Sketches from remarkable Scenes, Caftles, Seats, &c. Under the patronage of the late Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, he afterwards took many more Views from Scenes in the fame country, which with thofe before mentioned he transferred to copper-plates, and made feveral fets of prints in imitation of drawings, in bifter or Indian ink. The first hint of the process by which this effect is given to an engraving, the writer has been told Mr. Sandby received from the Hon. Charles Greville, whofe tafte and judgement in every branch of polite art is too well known to need this tribute. Profiting by this hint, Mr. Sandby has fo far improved upon it as to bring the captivating art of Aquatinta to a degree of perfection never before known in this country.

a

About the year 1753 Mr. Sandby, and feveral other Members of an Academy who met at what had previously been Roubilliac's workshop, in St. Martin's-lane, wishing to extend their plan, and establish a Society on broader bafis, held feveral meetings for the purpofe of making new regulations, &c. Concerning these regulations it may naturally be fuppofed there were variety of opinions, but Hogarth, who was one of the Members, and who de fervedly held a very high rank in the Arts, difapproved of the whole fcheme, and wished the Society to remain as it then was. He thought that enlarging the number of Students would induce a crowd of young men to quit more profitable purfuits, neglect what might be more fuitable to their talents, and introduce to the practice of the Arts more Profeffors than the Arts would fupport.

[ocr errors]

This naturally involved him in many difputes with his brother Artists, and as thefe difputes were not always conducted with philofopbic calmness, the Satirist fometimes faid things that his opponents deemed rather too fevere for the occafion. On the publication of his Analysis of Beauty" they recrimi, nated, with intereft. Among the prints which were then published to ridicule his fyftem, Line of Beauty, &c. are fix or eight, that from the manner in which they are conceived, and the uncommon Spirit with which they are etched, carry more than probable marks of the burin of Mr. Sandby, who was then a very young man, and has, I have been told, fince declared, that if he had known Mr. Hogarth's merit then, as well as he does now, he would on no account have drawn a line which might tend to his difpraife.

On the inflitution of the Royal Academy, Mr. Sandby was elected a Royal Academician.

By the recommendation of the Duke of Grafton, the Marquis of Granby in the year 1768 appointed him Chief Drawing Mafter of the Royal Academy at Woolwich, which office he still holds with great honour to himself and advantage to the inftitution; and it muft afford him a high gratification to fee fo many able and diftinguished Draughtf men among the Officers of Artillery, and corps of Engineers, who have been formed under his inftructions. have been told, that by the favour of the prefent Mafter General of the Ord nance (Marquis Cornwallis), Mr. Sandby's fon is to fucceed him in his office.

To the EDITOR of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.
SIR,

AS a degree of emulation in every de-
partment and rank in life must be
admitted to be worthy of encourage-
ment, I am confident that what I now
offer to the notice of the public is
worthy of attention, and therefore I
beg leave to lay it before your Readers.
We know full well, that among the
higher claffes of life, when deeds, fearce

We

ly worthy to be known, have been pert formed, monuments of brafs have been erected to record them, and their acts fretched out to the utmoft panegyric of praife: then why may not thofe who abfolutely merit the like honour (though their arms are not emblazoned by no bility, or fcarcely their progenitors known) have their heroic actions held

*Of the reafons on which this great Artift built his objections, we may probably know more from the publication of a Supplement to his Analyfis, a Hiftory of the Arts in his own Time, &c. compiled from his original Manufcripts in the poffeffion of Mr. John Ireland, and announced to be published in the course of this year as a Supplement to the two Volumes of "Hogarth Illuftrated,”

up

[ocr errors]

up as fimuli to their peers, as worthy I lately had the honour to be one) will of imitation to their equals ? for " dulce do juftice to his memory.

et decorum eft pro patria mori."

I here

here allude to the SUBALTERN part of

the Army and Navy; and though we

I am, Sir,

Your Old Correfpondent,

G. D.

muft acknowledge they require it not Ty, near Chefer, July 17, 1796,

to enforce them to act like men worthy the honourable truft repofed in them, yet we must allow that their names deTerve better than to be buried in oblivion, when their actions would have planted wreaths of laurels round the brows of the Generals and Admirals they have ferved under.

To the Memory
of

Lieutenant PATRICK CRAIGIE,

of

His Majefty's Marine Forces,

who

So nably fell in the Action fought
(Between his Majefty's Ship ARTOIS
and

The French National Frigate La
REVOLUTIONAIRE)

This

Uhant, on

the 21st of October

1794 Aged 36,

Monument is erected by his Brother Officers, in teftimony of their efteem for his courage

and virtues.

"Unaw'd by death, the noble CRAIGIE

I fhall now come immediately to the point I aim at in this communication. When acts of heroic bravery, of a confpicuous nature, are performed by any of the above clafs, and the hero unfor. Off tunately falls in the battle, the Officers of the regiment or corps he belongs to fhould fubfcribe for a decent and plain monument, to be erected to perpetuate bis gallantry. This should be fixed up in the cathedral, or one of the principal churches, in the country the faid regi ment may then be ftationed in; and if in the Navy or Marines, at the church of the fea-port the fhip or Officer be longs to. This would be forming an hiftorical biography of heroic actions of illuftrious individuals (for I call thofe illuftrious, be their rank what it may, who deferve well of their country), worthy the pages of marble to record. 1 fhall not now trouble you with any farther obfervations on the fubject, but just give you an inftance of one whose epitaph will fpeak for itself, and I hope his brother Officers (of which number

[blocks in formation]

JOBSERVE in your Magazine for May, p. 310, a fhort account of Baron Nieuhoff, commonly called, and calling himfelf, King of Corfica. As I was perfonally acquainted with him at Hamburgh in 1743, I am willing to add a few particulars to your account, as well as to correct what feems to me to be a mistake in your affertion, that he was really a King with more ftrength of title than moft other Sovereigns, viz. by election. He travelled with a French gentleman, whofe name or title I do not now recollect; but I well remember this, King Theodore had a valet de

She

Kent, June 14, 1796. chambre with him, who was a woman in man's clothes, a circumstance which was found out by my fervant. was her mafter's bed-fellow at night, and waited upon him by day in a livery. He was fo incautious, or made fo little à fecret of who he was, that he very narrowly escaped being arrested by his creditors at Hamburgh, and indeed I believe would have been fo, had I not told my own valet to communicate the state of the cafe to his, and advise him to leave the town, which he did directly. Finding him very communicative, I ventured to ask him, who it was that furnished

him

him with the cannon, ammunition, men,
and money, which he brought over with
him to Corfica, in the terms of "It is
fo long ago now, that I fuppofe it is
no fecret that can be of any im-
portance to any of the parties concerned,
who it was that played off that farce."
"Well, Sir," fays he, "for the reafons
you alledge, and for your civility to
me. I will tell you; it was the Grand
Duke of Tufcany, for whom I was only
locum tenens, and was to refign to him,
if at the peace it could have been fo
managed that the Emperor and King of
France could have been brought to con-
fent to it; and the Republic of Genoa
we did not much value, but thought
we could buy her confent for a trifle.
I am, Sir,

Your humble fervant,
SENEX.

P. S. I happened to fall into company about two years before with a gentleman who knew him in Spain, when he was Captain of the Walloon Guards, and married a Maid of Honour of the Queen of Spain, who faid that they gave to many bail and time entertainments upon the occafion, that he foon fpent all the money the Queen gave her for her fortune, and he was forced to run away, and leave his bride to the care of her relations, and, as my relater believed, he never faw her afterwards.

Our prefent Moft Gracious Sovereign feems to have the title to the kingdom of Corfica by as fair and free election as ever was; but, as Locke fays, "here ditary fucceffion is only a continuation of election."

SOME ACCOUNT OF ROBERT BURNS, THE SCOTCH POET.

Nthe 21ft July died at Dumfries,in his 38th year, after a lingering illness, ROBERT BURNS, who has excited fo much intereft by the peculiarity of the circumstances under which he came forward to public notice, and the genius difcovered in his poetical compofitions. Burns was literally a ploughman, but neither in that ftate of fervile dependence or degrading ignorance which the fitua tion might betpeak in this country. He had the common education of a Scotch peafant, perhaps fomething more, and that fpirit of independence, which, though banished in that country from the fcenes of aristocratic influence, is fometimes to be found in a high degree in the humbleft claffes of fociety. He had genius ttarting beyond the obftacles of poverty, and which would have diftinguished itself in any fituation. His early days were occupied in procuring bread by the labour of his own hands, in the honourable task of cultivating the earth, but his nights were devoted to books and the mufe, except when they were wafted in thale haunts of village feftivity, and in the indulgences of the focial bowl, to which the poet was but too immoderately attached in every period of his life. He wrote, not with a view to encounter the public eye, or in the hope to procure fame by his productions; but to give vent to the feelings of his own genius-to indulge the impulfe of an ardent and poetical mind. Burns, from that reftiefs

activity, which is the peculiar charac teriftic of his countrymen, propofed to emigrate to Jamaica, in order to feek his fortune by the exertion of thofe talents of which he felt himself poffef fed. It was upon this occafion that one of his friends fuggefted to him the idea of publishing his poems, in order to raife a few pounds to defray the expences of his paffage. The idea was eagerly embraced. A coarfe edition of his po ems was first published at Dumfries. They were foon noticed by the gentlemen in the neighbourhood. Proofs of fuch uncommon genius in a fituation fo humble, made the acquaintance of the author eagerly fought after. His poems found their way to Edinburgh; fome extracts, and an account of the author, were inferted in the periodical paper The Lounger, which was at that time in the courfe of publication. The voyage of the author was delayed, in the hope that a fuitable provifion would be made for him by the generosity of the public. A fubfcription was fet on foot for a new edition of his works, and was forwarded by the exertions of fome of the firtt characters in Scotland, The fubfcription lift contains a greater number of refpectable names than almoft have ever appeared to any fimilar production; but as the book was fet at a low price, we have reafon to know that the return to the author was not very confiderable. Burns was brought to Edinburgh for a few months, every

where

« PrejšnjaNaprej »