a killer of lions; that he was called Bonou Poort, and that he was the father of all the Infidels; that he was so much feared that at the sound of his name every man's liver would drop, and his heart-strings crack, for that he used to take off more heads in a week, than other chiefs in a year. That he was a very "Shaitan "in battle, and that he once came to fight against the true believers, but that the strength of his arm was taken away, and his brain shrivelled up beneath the sword of Islam the moment that the standard of the Prophet was raised, and that the hyenas came and picked the bones of all the dogs' sons that came with him. That as to the Shah Ingliz, (King of England,) he holds only an imaginary power, and that a common agah has more at his command; for that he dare not bastinado an unsuccessful vizier like Lord Melbourne, or cut off Sir Robert Peel's ears. are houses in England full of madmen, who quarrel nothing be done, until they have wrangled about it. have red hair and blue eyes; that they make good broad-cloth, watches, arms, gunpowder, telescopes, and pen-knives; that they live on an island all the year round, and have no Kishlak or warm region to migrate to in winter; that, being on an island, there is often a scarcity of corn, so they build ships, and go to other countries to buy food. That they are fond of pork and wine, and, being always surrounded by water, eat much fish. That they grow neither rice nor tobacco; that they are without horses, and never feel the heat of the sun; that in order to be fed and clothed they regularly send ambassadors to pay the respect which is due as to a superior, and to worship at the throne of the King of Kings. They believe we are always grasping for money, and, as they never see us pray, consider that we have no God. Moreover, that there and fight, and let That all the people DIARY OF A LOVER OF LITERATURE. (Continued from vol. XVIII. p. 471.) 1823. Jan. 7. Met Mr. Basil Montagu at the Golden Lion. Instantly at home and acquainted,-expressed the gratification he felt in paying his debt of gratitude to me for my admirable pamphlet* on the new system of morals, a work of which he had never since lost sight, and which lay at the bottom of one of his favourite projects-a reform of our criminal code. His manners and address most conciliating and agreeable, his turn of mind acute and metaphysical. Acquainted intimately with Mackintosh and Parr; the former often mentioning me; the latter struck with illness at his house. The Lord Chancellor possessing a most feeling mind-not oppressed by the weight of business-having time to deliberate-still perfectly sound-untouched by age. The accumulations of the science of law such, he thought, as must ultimately drive enlarged and liberal minds from its study. Had abandoned the use of all spirituous liquors for 18 years; Mackintosh had done the same. Often taken by his father (Lord Sandwich, I conceive) to the House of Lords, when a boy, and there caught his taste for the law. May 3. Admiral Page brought the Rev. Mr. Halliday to view my paintings evidently surprised by the extent and choice of the collection, *This Pamphlet was much praised in Dr. Parr's Spital Sermon. See Notes, p. 74, 86, &c.-ED. though they had visited the finest in France and Italy. Halliday enchanted with the Magdalen, the expression of which he thought transcended all that he had ever seen. May 11. Began Gilpin's Forest Scenery. Debased by miserable pedantry and a sort of clerical affectation. Priestley, who knew him well, says he always used to dine in his cassock; but he had an admirable taste for picturesque scenery of every description. Under the sameness of Italian skies, the beauties of a setting sun, he says, are hardly known : from what I witnessed in the South of France, I suspect he is entirely wrong. However, I have never seen in this country such a breadth and glow of effulgence, and vivid brilliancy of varied tincture, in the Western hemisphere, as at Vienne and Narbonne. Gilpin observes truly, that the first transcript of our feelings on witnessing any striking spectacle is mere rhapsody. The describer imagines he can convey those feelings by warm expressions, whereas nothing but the scene itself can excite them, and he must endeavour to effect this- it is but a loose idea which verbal description at best can convey-by the employment of plain, appropriate, and intelligible terms. Utility, he complains, is always counteracting beauty. Gilpin's preparations and digressions are ridiculously disproportionate to the main subject, but they are the most entertaining part of the book. June 7. Looked into Mathias's Gray. His translations appear very stiff and constrained, and breathe little of the spirit of original poetry; but his little dissertations and notes, written, apparently, for his own private use, as records of his researches, evince extraordinary accuracy and extent of information, and a perseverance of research which has been rivalled only by Gibbon. Read Mathias's P. S. to Gray's Works. Ambitiously and bombastically written, but conveying some interesting notices of Gray's sentiments on various subjects, through N. Nicholls. I suspect and trust that Mathias has transferred some of his narrow intolerance to Gray, for they are most unworthy of his genius. June 10. Began the third volume of Sharon Turner's History of England. He is a most worthy being; but his mind, never strong, nor originally well cultivated, seems to have been debilitated and impaired by disease, and there is so much of maudlin sentiment in his composition, that I cannot proceed.*-In Lingard, to whom I turned, I am sorry to observe the historian, the more he advances, become more and more the partisan.-Saw, this morning, an exquisite small bronze, by Fiamingo, of Henry the Fourth on horseback, once the Empress Josephine's.-Mr. Mitford dined here: gave pine-apple, burgundy, moselle, claret. He told me that young West (the painter's son) informed him that Sir Joshua Reynolds never kept a register of the various processes which he pursued in colouring, so that when an experiment succeeded in point of durability, he could not repeat it. The elder West, he said, had some good specimens of the old masters, and was a consummate judge. M. mentioned that Sir Philip Francis always contended, that Raphael's picture did not represent the Transfiguration, but the Ascension. An absurd paradox !—Clarke, in the last volume of his Travels, mentions that the linen of a family at Christiana, in Norway, is sent yearly to London to be washed! Incredible! The public opinion has been more favourable and, we think, much more just to Mr. Sharon Turner's historical labours than Mr. Green was; and we are sure that, had he carefully read Mr. Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, and examined his researches in the antiquities of English history, he would, as other persons have done, have acknowledged their value.-ED. Sept. 13. Purchased, of Mrs. Frost, a slight sketch in oil of Gainsborough's; very characteristic of his manner; and also poor Frost's copy of one of the two Wilsons, formerly Governor Singleton's, then Mr. Edge's; by far the finest of the two, and which, for grandeur and simplicity of design, raises him on a level with Claude or Poussin; placed it on the staircase; decisively proving, I think, by juxtaposition, that the portraitlandscape of Lord Leicester and his friends is by Wilson: the same hand in the trees and sky very manifest.* Sept. 16. Read Philips's Recollections of Curran. In Addison it was natural, and credible; but one is amazed to hear that Burke (yet I have learnt it from other quarters,) was accustomed to wear out the patience of his printer by reiterated corrections; what fell from him on all occasions appearing to be perfectly spontaneous. Sept. 17. Curran's talents appear brilliant and sociable in the highest possible degree; but accompanied with a certain national rankness and coarseness which, amid smiles, and tears, and raptures, make me shudder to the backbone,-the quintessence of an Irishman. It is remarkable that he considered H. Tooke, -a man with a taste so entirely different,as possessing greater conversational powers than any character he ever met with. With all Curran's fascination, I rejoice to quit him.† Sept. 26. Mr. Johnson, the picture dealer, called and viewed my pictures. The portrait over my door, certainly by Antonio More, and worth 1001. The three over the bureau, by Martin de Vos. The Woman near the window, by Vander Helst. The Rembrandt in the breakfast room, unquestionable and fine. The Wilson do. The Hobbima, exquisite and unrivalled. The Piper in the dining room, certainly by Jordaens. The Eliz. teaching St. John, by N. Poussin. The Adoration of the Shepherds by Boroccio. The Magdalen, by Murillo. The Ruysdael, a delicious specimen. The Claude, unquestionable. The Bacchus and his Cortege, the finest specimen he had ever seen of Philippo Lauri. The two Italian Landscapes by Vernet. The female in the dressing-room, from Watteaua somewhat larger, and most beautiful picture. Moses striking the Rock, by Christ. Swarz. Oct. 1. Looked into the Fonthill Catalogue.-On the painting of St. Jerome, by P. Veronese, it is observed, that the drawing and colouring of the figures were evidently taken from life; a practice of the old masters which effectually prevented their beauties of form and colour from degenerating into affectation and manner, and their sublimity into bombast. A judicious remark ! Oct. 30. Alison's Theory of Taste is certainly in favour of Lord Byron against Bowles's position" that all images drawn from what is beautiful and sublime in the works of Nature, are more beautiful and sublime than any images drawn from Art, and therefore in themselves more poetical; since the association between the works of art and mental emotion is more immediate than any which can exist between the works of nature and human affections, but it is a question, after all, not easily defined and settled. Mr. Charlesworth mentioned to me that Robert Hall, the Baptist minister, having a nervous horror of the stone, requested to be * Sir Joshua Reynolds observes, "that nothing marks a national character so decisively as its taste in painting." A painter's observation. EDIT. + This Life of Curran, by Mr. C. Philips, has received the highest praise from Lord Brougham. EDIT. admitted to see an operation at St. Thomas's Hospital :-having witnessed the spectacle, he exclaimed," Having now seen the worst, my mind is at ease," and the charm was dissolved effectually. Nov. 7. The Edinburgh Reviewer of Jacob's Travels in Spain, laughs at his high praises of Alonzo Cano, an unknown painter; but Bryant speaks of him, in the most exalted terms, as one of the most distinguished artists of his country, and regarded as the Michael Angelo of Spain, and I have seen one or two of his productions of a very estimable character; so dangerous it is to talk without knowledge. In No. 38, they justly and profoundly remark, (under Clarendon on Religious Policy,) that we are too apt to impute to the vices of institutions-the Papal, for instance-what are, in truth, the vices of the age, and would have existed under any institutions that had been formed at the time. Dec. 2. P. Nursey said that Wilkie told Sir W. Beechey that they were all on the wrong scent for splendour of effect,-that the lights should be brought down and the shadows deepened-this at the British Gallery; an enthusiastic admirer of Rembrandt, spoke in the highest possible terms of the spirit and facility of Wilkie's drawings with a pen-quite miraculous !*-Col. D. mentioned his being present at St. Osyth when Lord Rochfort bowed out Beaumarchais, the French Ambassador, who had come down on a visit, with inimitable address.-Gibbon (see Hayley's Memoirs,) said to Mrs. Hayley, "An author is himself the best critic on his own works, if he will allow himself time."-Mason hated Dr. Johnson, and called him, not much to his credit, a bear on stilts !—Adjusted my accounts, find that I have given away nearer a fourth than fifth of my annual expenditure. 1824. Jan. 24. Eustace computes the costof building St. Peter's at Rome at twelve millions. It would demand three times as much to erect such a structure in any other capital. The interior and exterior cupola (vulg. dome) of solid masonry, diverge below and unite again at the top. The basso relievos and statues, prodigally scattered over the exterior of the Casino of the Villa Borghese, he observes, if disposed with taste and judgment, would adorn the three largest palaces in Europe. Feb. 3. Payne Knight, in his review of Northcote's Sir Joshua Reynolds, commends the Christ in the Garden (brought over by the Duke of Wellington) as the most splendid and luminous of all pictures. All that the art has ever produced of real excellence, he thinks, has been displayed in the smaller pictures of Coreggio. The Resurrection of Lazarus was, he thinks, before the glue at the back, on transferring it from panel to canvas, had duskified its colouring, altogether superior to any that the art has hitherto produced.† Feb. 18. Had a long chat with Mr. Mr. Nassau's aristocratical courtesy keeping all, even his own brother, at a distance ;-the highest deference constantly paid him by men of the first distinction. His household warmly attached to him, but timidly respectful. His library cost him 9,000l.; entertained a secret wish that it should be annexed to the * This encomium is justified by the prices which the drawings of Mr. Wilkie recently brought at the public sale at Christie's; see our Magazine for June last, p. 637.-EDIT. † In Rees's Cyclopædia (art. Painting) "Titian's St. Peter Martyr is considered, upon the whole, as perhaps the most perfect picture that was ever produced."-EDIT. Mr. Nassau's library was sold, in 1824, by Evans, and produced 8,500l. See some account of it in Nichols's Illustrations of Literaturę, vol. vi. p. 338.-EDIT. Bodleian; never met Lord Rochford at his table more than twice, always ceremoniously treated. Lord R. when stretched in sickness upon his bed in town, amidst the tattered and faded remains of ancient grandeur, said to "Here you see me! yet, when young and dancing with princesses, I had a most aspiring and ambitious mind." He was highly gratified by the Duke of Hamilton's acknowledgment of him abroad. March 5. Dined at Christ Church to meet Sir T. L-d. He spoke with much warmth of his picture of a lady in Cirencester, by Lucas de Heere, noticed by Walpole, writing a letter of remonstrance to Henry VIII.; a portrait within, in small, of her husband, who was sacrificed to Henry's cupidity.-Sate by Judge Md when he tried the woman -a former inistress-for a deliberate murder by pistol, which she had previously practised with much assiduity at Mortimer's (the gunsmith's) where she purchased them. Minclining at the trial strongly to the prisoner. While the jury were deliberating, he leaned over and said to Garrow, her counsel, "Is there nothing of insanity in her case?" Garrow affected to have missed the point in his brief, conferred with the Attorney General, and, upon some slight supplemental evidence to that effect, she was brought in guilty, but insane.* March 13. Looked over Johnson's Preface to Shakspere. Notwithstanding all Johnson's sagacity and vigour of discrimination, one wants that presiding spirit of philosophy, that perpetual reference to enlarged views of other subjects, which the disquisitions in the Edinburgh Review have habituated us to look for, and without which criticism only perplexes and entangles, however just its particular strictures may be. I never was satisfied with his affirming of Shakspere, that his characters represent, not the individual, but the species, since nothing can be more truly individual, vital beings, than his characters are,-nothing more remote from abstract personifications. What he means to allege, I presume, is, that they are individualised through the attribution, not of ephemeral modes, but permanent characteristics. March 15. Looked into Lady Morgan's Life of Salvator Rosa:-her fancies and affectations are quite nauseating. The fiery spirit of Salvator was indignant at being regarded as a landscape painter; but landscape was unquestionably his fort. He sometimes lived in magnificent parade, at others in cynical disdain and seclusion. His passion for the display of his histrionic talents as a fripon, is a remarkable feature in his character. Some of his landscapes are stated to have had all the warmth and softness of Claude; his predilection for the works of Albano is very extraordinary. The cold, stately and sedate manners and gait of Nich. Poussin were finely contrasted with the fiery and impetuous gallantries of Salvator, in their walks on the Pincian Hill at Rome. He was peintre, poète satyrique, et comedien bouffon." It is dreadful, at the close, to see the fierce and fiery blade of his mind so completely wearing out in the scabbard the decline, decay, and extinction of such brilliant powers is hideous; and his last ghastly smile, when Baldovini, by way of consolation, assured him that the devil in hell had no power over those baptized by the name "Salvator," is terrific. Lady Morgan mentions that the scholar who nearest approached his excellence in aerial perspective, at once, : A similar story of a judge is told with great effect in one of Mrs. Inchbald's novels.-EDIT. This is a very just remark. Salvator never excelled as a historical painter. We lately saw the Belisarius at Rainham, without admiration. EDIT. |