sation, as also concerning the remarks which they made in this country: for, next to the forming a right notion of such strangers, I should be desirous of learning what ideas they have conceived

of us.

prices the greatest that had been known in this country: for one half length he was paid 1107. He was a real ornament to the reign of Chas. II. and greatly lessened the employment of sir Peter Lely, who retired to Kew, while Verelst engrossed the fashion. Walpole has recorded entertaining instances of the vanity of Kneller, and Jervase, mentioned Tat. Nos. 4, and 7; but Verelst was outright mad with vanity, and more than once confined as insane. In his confinement, under a proper regimen, towards the end of his life, he recovered his senses, but not his genius. His son Cornelius was of his father's profession, as was also his very accomplished daughter, who was an excellent colourist; painted in oil; drew small histories, and portraits both large and small; she understood music, and spoke with fluency Latin, German, Italian, and other languages. John Verelst had likewise a brother of the name of Herman, who painted history, fruit, and flowers; he lived abroad at Vienna till the Turks beseiged it in 1683, but died in London about the beginning of this century, and was buried in St. Andrew's, Holborn.

John Simmonds, whom Wampole calls Simon, mentioned in the second advertisement, was the best mezzotinto scraper of his time; but he was soon excelled by Smith, White, and other improvers of his art. He copied the pictures of sir G. Kneller, and other masters with success, and died in 1755.

Bernard Lens sprang from a family of artists, and was an admirable painter in miniature; he painted portraits in that way; but his excellence was copying the works of great masters, particularly Rubens and Vandyke, whose colouring he imitated exactly. He had three sons who followed their father's profession, who retired from business, made two sales of his pictures, and died at Knightsbridge in 1741.

James Le Blon above-mentioned invented his method of printing paintings, about the same time that Edward Kirkall invented his method of printed drawings; but though both of their inventions had much success and applause, yet they had no imitators. Their methods are probably too laborious, and too tedious; and in opulent countries, where there is great facility of getting money, it is seldom got by merit, the artists being in too much haste to deserve it. Le Blon, the inventor of the method of mezzotinto here spoken of, which adds at least the resemblance of a colour to such prints, succeeded in his art sufficiently to convince the world that the want of colouring, a great deficiency in prints, was attainable and well worthy of acquisition. His discovery was however neglected, as the revi

The upholsterer finding my friend very inquisitive about these his lodgers, brought him some time since a little bundle of papers, which he assured him were written by King Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow, and, as he supposes, left behind by some mistake. These papers are now translated, and contain abundance of very odd observations, which I find this little fraternity of kings made during their stay in the Isle of Great Britain. I shall present my reader with a short specimen of them in this paper, and may perhaps communicate more to him hereafter. In the article of London are the following words, which, without doubt, are meant of the Church of St. Paul.

'On the most rising part of the town there stands a huge house, big enough to contain the whole nation of which I am king. Our good brother E Tow O Koam, king of the rivers, is of opinion it was made by the hands of that great god to whom it is consecrated. The kings of Granajah, and of the six nations, believe that it was created with the earth, and produced on the same day with the sun and moon. But, for my own part, by the best information that I could get of this matter, I am apt to think, that this prodigious pile was fashioned into the shape it now bears by several tools and instruments, of which they have a wonderful variety in this country. It was probably at first an huge misshapen rock that grew upon the top of the hill, which the natives of the country (after having cut it into a kind of regular figure) bored and hollowed with incredible pains and indus

val of encaustic painting has lately been, though the advantages of both these arts are so obvious and so desirable. He communicated his invention to the public in a book in 4to English and French, intitled Coloritto; or, The Harmony of Colouring in Painting reduced to mechanical Prac tice, under easy Precepts and infallible Rules. This ingenious man was an unfortunate projector, and, on the failure of one of his projects in this country, left it under some disgrace, and died, it is said, in an hospital at Paris. See Spect. No. 136, note; Tat, 171, and note.-C,

VOL. IV.-7

try, till they had wrought in it all those beautiful vaults and caverns into which it is divided at this day. As soon as this rock was thus curiously scooped to their liking, a prodigious number of hands must have been employed in chipping the outside of it, which is now as smooth as the surface of a pebble; and is in several places hewn out into pillars, that stand like the trunks of so many trees bound about the top with garlands of leaves. It is probable that when this great work was begun, which must have been many hundred years ago, there was some religion among this people, for they give it the name of a temple, and have a tradition that it was designed for men to pay their devotion in. And, indeed, there are several reasons which make us think, that the natives of this country had formerly among them some sort of worship; for they set apart every seventh day as sacred but upon my going into one of these holy houses on that day, I could not observe any circumstance of devotion in their behaviour there was, indeed, a man in black who was mounted above the rest, and seemed to utter something with a great deal of vehemence; but as for those underneath him, instead of paying their worship to the deity of the place, they were most of them bowing and curtseying to one another, and a considerable number of them fast asleep.

'The queen of the country appointed two men to attend us, that had enough of our language to make themselves understood in some few particulars. But we soon perceived these two were great enemies to one another, and did not always agree in the same story. We could make a shift to gather out of one of them, that this island was very much infested with a monstrous kind of animals, in the shape of men, called Whigs; and he often told us, that he hoped we should meet with none of them in our way, for that, if we did, they would be apt to knock us down for being kings.

'Our other interpreter used to talk very much of a kind of animal called a Tory, that was as great a monster as the Whig, and would treat us as ill for being foreigners. These two creatures, it seems, are born with a secret antipathy to one another, and engage when they meet us naturally as the elephant and the rhinoceros. But as we saw none of either of these species, we are apt to think that our guides deceived us with misrepresentations and fictions, and amused us with an account of such monsters as are not really in their country.

1

'These particulars we made a shift to pick out from the discourse of our interpreters; which we put together as well as we could, being able to understand but here and there a word of what they said, and afterwards making up the meaning of it among ourselves. The men of the country are very cunning and ingenious in handicraft works; but withal so very idle, that we often saw young, lusty, raw-boned fellows, carried up and down the streets in little covered rooms by a couple of porters, who are hired for that service. Their dress is likewise very barbarous, for they almost strangle themselves about the neck, and bind their bodies with many ligatures, that we are apt to think are the occasion of several distempers among them, which our country is entirely free from. Instead of those beautiful feathers, with which we adorn our heads, they often buy up a monstrous bush of hair, which covers their heads, and falls down in a large fleece below the middle of their backs, with which they walk up and down the streets, and are as proud of it as if it was of their own growth.

'We were invited to one of their public diversions, where we hoped to have seen the great men of their country running down.

1 of these two animals the Indian kings could have no idea, and therefore seem here to be illustrating obscurum per obscurius and explaining the monsters spoken of here by animals that were not really in their country. -C.

a stag, or pitching a bar, that we might have discovered who were the persons of the greatest abilities among them; but instead of that, they conveyed us into an huge room lighted up with abundance of candles, where this lazy people sat still above three hours to see several feats of ingenuity performed by others, who it seems were paid for it.

'As for the women of the country, not being able to talk with them, we could only make our remarks upon them at a distance. They let the hair of their heads grow to a great length; but as the men make a great show with heads of hair that are none of their own, the women, who they say have very fine heads of hair, tie it up in a knot, and cover it from being seen. The women look like angels, and would be more beautiful than the sun, were it not for little black spots that are apt to break out in their faces, and sometimes rise in very odd figures. I have observed that those little blemishes wear off very soon; but when they disappear in one part of the face, they are apt to break out in another, insomuch that I have seen a spot upon the forehead in the afternoon, which was upon the chin in the morning.'

The author then proceeds to shew the absurdity of breeches and petticoats, with many other curious observations, which I shall reserve for another occasion. I cannot, however, conclude this paper without taking notice, that amidst these wild remarks, there now and then appears something very reasonable. I cannot likewise forbear observing, that we are all guilty in some measure of the same narrow way of thinking, which we meet with in this abstract of the Indian Journal; when we fancy the customs, dresses, and manners of other countries are ridiculous and extravagant, if they do not resemble those of

our own.

C.

** At the desire of several ladies of quality, and for the entertainment