1831.] REVIEW.-Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. VI. mistake that Oct. 14, instead of Oct. 24, was recorded as the date of the Queen's death, by the chronicler Hall, who has been followed by the whole tribe of historians, excepting Strype, who names the latter day from a MS. in the College of Arms. In a letter of Sir John Russell to Crumwell, written on the 24th, probably within a few hours, or less, of the fatal occurrence, it is said, "if she skape this night, the Fyshisiouns be in good hope that she is past all daunger.' In p. 583 we have a curious account of a visit to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket, very shortly before its spoliation. The stranger was "the Lady of Montreill," who was on her return from the Court of Scotland to France: "I showed her Saincte Thomas shryne, and all such other thinges worthy of sight; at the which she was not litle marveilled of the greate riches therof, saing to be innumerable, and that if she had not seen it, all the men in the wourlde could never a made her to belyve it. Thus, over looking and yewing more then an owre, as well the shryne, as Sainte Thomas hed, being at both sett cousshins to knyle, and the Pryour, openyng Sainct Thomas hed, saing to her 3 tymes, This is Saint Thomas Hed,' and offered her to kysse; but she nother knyled, nor would kysse it, but still viewing the riches therof." It would seem that this French lady was a Protestant. NICHOLS's Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. VI. (Continued from p. 328.) ALTHOUGH it can scarcely be expected that a legislator so far removed from the scene of action as Lord Camelford was in 1789, could be very deeply in the secret of ministerial or opposition measures at that eventful period, there is a shrewd sagacity in his Lordship's opinions which brings him very close to the contending parties. In his letter dated Jan. 23, he thanks his correspondent for the information he gives him, which, he adds, makes him as much present as he wishes to be. "The triumph of Thurlow over the Scotch patriot, learned in the laws of the Constitution (Loughborough), is one of those petites malices that I allow myself to indulge in with a good conscience. 1 understand nothing of the protest. Let them speak out, and pledge themselves boldly to the indefensible right of hereditary regency, if they please, and stand to it. But if that 443 point is given up, and they allow once for all that the right is conferred upon the Regent by the two Houses, I do not see their distinction, whether it is conferred by an address without limitations, or by an act under commission with limitations; in either case it is an act of legislation equally, if it constitutes an authority that is obligatory upon the subject, and so far in the teeth of legislature can do nothing without the assent their maxim, that the two branches of the of the third. To my plain understanding, if the Parliament took the Regency under their plain address, I should conceive, upon their reasoning, the difficulty insurmountable. I should say to the Regent, You assumed the government upon what authority? you had no legal right in you, or you might have asserted it without the intervention of Parliament: and if you had not that right, nothing but the legislature could give it you, and the two houses inviting you to do what you had no right to do, and what they were incompetent to authorize you to do, only renders them accomplices with you in an illegal usurpation.' Most of our readers must recollect that the faction by which the intended Regent was at that time influenced, lost all the popularity they had acquired by the impeachment of Mr. Hastings, or rather threw it entirely into Mr. Pitt's hands, who a few very years after stood in need of it all. "I rejoice,” public seem to take in the contest. says Lord C. "in the lively part the John is after all an honester gentleman than I took him for, and has righter feelings about him than I gave him credit for." The Life of the Rev. Baptist Noel Turner, Rector of Denton, co. Lincoln, and Wing, co. Rutland, is much enlarged from the account given in the Gentleman's Magazine soon after his death, and enriched with the anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, first communicated by himself to the New Monthly Magazine. This relates to the learned lexicographer's visit to Cambridge, of which there is no account in Boswell's Life, probably because antecedent to his acquaintance with the Doctor. It is not unlikely, however, that some of them will obtain a place in the forthcoming edition of Boswell, by the Right Hon. J. W. Croker. But although we allow that Mr. Turner had generally, in conversation and correspondence, the true spirit of humorous anecdote, he appears very deficient in Boswell's close imitation of Johnson's language. What we find here is rarely 444 REVIEW.-Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. VI. [Ma y, Johnsonian; it is even now and then vulgar. On one occasion, when in Trinity College library, Mr. Turner informs us that Dr. Johnson took up a folio, which proved to be the Polyhistor of Morhoff, and on opening the volume, exclaimed, "Here is the book upon which all my fame was originally founded; when I had read this book, I could teach my tutors." Now, in the first place, we would remark that no part of Dr. Johnson's fame could be founded on the Polyhistor, a work of bibliography, a study in which Dr. Johnson was very deficient, and in the second place, there is no edition of Morhoff in folio. The best, it is well known, is in 2 vols. 4to, 1747. There are, however, many remarks in Mr. Turner's letters, particularly those addressed to the late Mr. Nichols, which show much critical taste, and contribute to enrich this volume. We particularly allude to his "Prolegomena to Alexander's Feast," and his "Answer to the criticism of Dr. Knox." Nor will the extracts from his manuscript volume, entitled " Nugæ Canora," be read without interest. The Editors inform us that the Biographical Memoirs in this volume have in many cases been compiled from a variety of sources, and are therefore generally (and, we think, very justly) entitled to the term original. "The autobiography," they add, "of Mr. William Chafin, a clerical country squire, who in his old age turned author, after a life spent in pursuits of a very opposite character, will be found to possess many of the charms usually characteristic of that description of writing." That of Mr. Chafin is, in truth, not only one of the most amusing lives, but one of the most amusing narratives of life, which we ever remember to have met with. It must, however, be read entire, for we are at a loss how to convey a proper idea of the author's singularities by either abridgment or extract. Mr. Chafin's youth appears to have been much neglected. From some strange circumstances here detailed, when he reached his fifteenth year, he was a poor, raw, ignorant youth, without having acquired any classical knowledge whatever. Another year, notwithstanding these defects, was spent in following sports of the field, but no school-book was looked into the whole time. He tells us he was then sent to Emanuel College, Cambridge, at the recommendation of Sir John Cotton of Madingley, near Cambridge, an intimate friend of his father, and a near relation by the mother's side. Sir John, and Mr. Chafin's mother, he says, were "grandchildren of Alderman Parsons, the greatest brewer of porter in London in those days; who when he was Lord Mayor, at his great city feast had twenty sons and daughters grown up, sitting at table with him, of which he was no doubt a little proud; but such is the mutability of human affairs, that not one male heir of the family of the name of Parsons is now in existence." Mr. Chafin met with encouragement at Cambridge from various men of eminence, and prosecuted his studies with great success. After being admitted into holy orders, he was presented to the vicarage of St. Mary Magdalen in Taunton, Somersetshire, which he held by dispensation with the rectory of Lidlinch, in the county of Dorset, the gift of his own father, more than forty years. Mr. Chafin retained so much of his early education, or rather no-education, as to become a sportsman of great celebrity, and this part of his character introduces us to an anecdote too curious to be omitted. "Some few years before I retired to Trumpington, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales occupied Mr. Sturt's superb mansion and large domains at Critchill, about three miles from Chettle. I was introduced to his Royal Highness's notice by Mr. Churchill of Hanbury, a confidant of his Royal Highness, and I believe chief manager of his Household at Critchill; and I was recommended by him as a proper person to execute a commission for his Royal Highness, no way political, but merely relative to fox-hunting. His Royal Highness wished to extend his hunting country, but was unwilling to do so without the consent of some gentlemen, who were confederates in keeping another pack of fox-hounds, and hunted in the country which his Royal Highness wished to add to the Critchill Hunt. I was honoured and entrusted by his Royal Highness with a commission to negotiate this important business, in which I used my best endeavours, but I had persons to deal with of tempers not very compliant; and, although they were all intimate acquaintances, I could not prevail upon them to grant my suit in full. During this negotiation, which lasted some time, I had several private conferences with his Royal Highness; and when he was absent from Critchill for a 1831.] REVIEW.-Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. VI. short time, he condescended to write several vited to attend his Royal Highness in his "About this time, a very remarkable circumstance took place. One morning his Royal Highness called upon me alone, without any attendant, not even one servant, and desired me to take his information for a rob bery, and to grant him a search warrant. He insisted on my administering the oath to him, which I reluctantly did; and he informed me, that the head groom of his stables had his trunk broken open in the night, and a watch and many valuable articles stolen and carried away; and that it was suspected that they were concealed in such and such places, and that he chose to come himself, lest an alarm may be given and the goods removed. His Royal Highness sat by my side, while I filled up a search warrant, which his Royal Highness hastened home with, and saw the execution of it himself; the goods were found in the suspected places, a nest of thieves were detected, and all brought to condign punishment. Should his Royal Highness become Sovereign, as by the grace of God he may soon be, what a strange story it will be to tell, that a King of Great Britain did apply to a poor country ROYAL ACADEMY. FINE April 30. The anniversary dinner, preparatory to the opening of the sixty-third Exhibition of the Royal Academy, took place this day. The Ministers of State, foreign Ministers and Consuls, and a great assemblage of the nobility, were present. The Lord Chancellor, in returning thanks on the part of the invited guests when their health was proposed, made the following just and eloquent observations : This is, indeed, not more a display of the triumph of the fine arts than of the deep interest which the most distinguished classes of the community take in their progress; and well they may ! Of those pursuits what has not been said, what panegyrics not pronounced, hundreds, almost thousands, of years ago, by the most elo 445 justice to grant him a search warrant for stolen goods! But this would be a real fact." The biographers of George IV. (and such have been as industrious as old newspapers can make them) will regret that this anecdote has been so long kept from them, but it may not yet be too late, and will certainly be considered of as great importance and originality as any with which they have illustrated the character of our late amiable monarch. my This sketch of Mr. Chafin's life was written in 1816. "At that time," he says, in a letter to Mr. Nichols, “ life, although a domestic one (for I have never been more than 160 miles from my birth-place, in the course of a very long life) has been attended with peculiarities somewhat uncommon, and the situation I at this time stand in is so very particular, that it is impossible for any other person to be in the same, for I believe that I am the oldest member of the University of Cambridge, the oldest Clergyman in the diocese of Bristol, and the oldest magistrate in the county of Dorset; of the two latter I am certain, but out of so many thousands there possibly may be a senior Member of the University, but on the strictest inquiry I can hear of no one." For a minute history of his only publication, the "Anecdotes of Cranborne Chase," we must refer to the work before us. He died at Chettle, in the mansion of his ancestors, at the age of 86, Aug. 14, 1818. He was the last male heir of his family. (To be continued.) ARTS. quent of tongues! That they are the ornament of prosperous fortune and the solace of adverse, give a zest to our daily toil, and watch with us through the sleepless night, enliven the solitude of the country, and tranquillize the bustle and turmoil of the town -all this is true, but it is not the whole truth. All this they do, and much more. The fine arts are great improvers of mankind; they are living sources of refinement -the offspring, indeed, of civilization; but, like her of Greece whose piety they have so often commemorated, nourishing the parent from whom their existence was derived,— softening and humanizing the characters of men-assuaging the fierceness of the wilder passions; substituting calm and harmless enjoyment for more perilous excitementmaintaining the innocent intercourse of na 446 Fine Arts.-The Royal Academy. tions, and affording one more pledge of peace, their great patroness and protectress as she is, of all that is most precious and most excellent among men. It becomes us all, then, most diligently to foster them. It is the duty of the government, it is the interest of the country. No station is so exalted, no fortune so splendid, as not to derive lustre from bestowing such patronage; no lot so obscure as not to participate in the benefits they diffuse. And I have, therefore, a singular satisfaction in being at liberty to announce to you upon this occasion, that a society of much influence, over which I have the honour to preside, and of which the object is the improvement of all conditions of the people, has been occupied in maturing a plan, which has been successfully completed, for extending the enjoyment of the fine arts to the humblest classes of his Majesty's subjects." May 2. The exhibition was opened this day to the public. It affords many gratifying specimens of the steady progress of the arts in this country. Though there are few of those splendid productions of lofty genius in the present collection, which, like those of West, or the great masters of antiquity, are calculated to throw all surrounding objects into shade, still it exhibits talent of a varied and highly pleasing character. There is now an ample field for young and aspiring genius to distinguish itself, and less probability of its efforts being overlooked, in the absence of those mighty masters of the pallet and the easel, whose productions were wont to lead captive the minds of the astonished spectators, and to command almost exclusive attention. The competitors in the field are more numerous than formerly, and their productions certainly of a more general and diversified character: so that, on the whole, although the Fine Arts of the present day are not distinguished by the towering supereminency of a single individual, as in different eras of their history, we may safely conclude that they now present more numerous specimens of prolific genius and respectable talent than at any preceding period-the leading members of the Academy having produced a larger number of pictures than in most former years; and many of those pictures exhibiting talent far above mediocrity. Thus Westall, Calcott, and Phillips, have each produced eight paintings; Turner seven; Drummond and Pickersgill six each; Etty, Daniell, Jones, Beechy, and Landseer, five each; Shee four; Howard and Collins three each; and many others of minor note in proportion. Sir W. Beechy and Phillips have confined themselves to the more lucrative departments of the arts (though to the public not the most interesting)-portrait-painting. But we do not consider that Beechy has been so happy in the portraits of the King and Queen, as the public might have wished. [May, There is a stiffness and mannerism which are not altogether pleasing. Dignity and ease are in some degree wanting. We shall proceed to notice a few of those works which most prominently attracted our attention, during a cursory view. GREAT ROOM. No. 1. Margaret at Church, tormented by the Evil One. R. Westall.-The subject of this singular composition is from a passage in Goethe's Faust, as translated by Lord F. Leveson Gower. The fantastic imagery of the poet is worthily sustained. The ghastly and livid aspect of the evil genius is finely contrasted with the lovely form of the swooning fair one, and the colouring is introduced with powerful effect. As we behold the ministers of the altar and the surrounding devotees at their orisons, we perceive the evil one, as it were, uttering the very language which Goëthe has adopted,-"The glorified are turning their foreheads from thee; the holy shun to join their hands in thine;-despair! despair!' Faust preparing to dance with the young witch at the festival of the wizards and witches in the Hartz Mountain (No. 33), by the same artist, is evidently intended as a companion picture to the preceding. The fore-ground of the composition is replete with beauty. The enchanting female figure is powerfully contrasted with the horrid aspect of Mephistophiles, and the terrible concomitants of witchery, that appear ready to destroy the victim of her allure ments. "Remark her well, Sileth her name, first wife of him who fell- 32. Lord Byron reposing in the house of a Turkish Fisherman, after having swum across the Hellespont. W. Allan.-The event which the artist has embodied in this composition took place on the 3d of May, 1810, when the noble poet, in imitation of Leander, swam across the Hellespont, from the European shore to the Asiatic, about two miles wide. "After landing (says Mr. Lake, in his Life of Byron,) he was so much exhausted, that he gladly accepted the offer of a Turkish fisherman, and reposed in his house for some time. He was very ill; and the Turk had no idea of the rank or consequence of his inmate, but paid him most marked attention. His wife was his nurse; and at the end of five days he left this asylum completely recovered." The figure of Lord Byron, who is reposing on a couch, presents an excellent likeness; and the subordinate details of the picture are in perfect keeping with the subject. 38. A first-rate going down Channel. W. Daniell, R.A.-What a splendid and imposing sight! How magnificently she 1831.] Fine Arts.-The Royal Academy. ploughs the azure deep. The lofty prow and swelling sails, the bristling guns, the decks and fore tops full of activity and life, at once rivet the attention with wonder and delight: "She walks the waters like a thing of life, And seems to dare the elements to strife. In the distance, the artist has effectively introduced the Land's End, and Longships Lighthouse. 55. The Progress of Civilization. H. P. Briggs. This picture was very appropriately painted for the Mechanics' Institute at Hull. The Romans are represented as instructing the ancient Britons in the mechanical arts. A British warrior, having relaxed his usual ferocity of character, is examining with intense interest some graphic outlines of classic architecture depicted on a scroll, which the Romans are in the act of explaining. Two druidical priests are looking on with a scowling air of suspicion, as if apprehensive of some dangerous mysteries being concealed under the emblems of instruction. The rude and massy trilithons indicative of British masonry are represented in the background. The picture, on the whole, is an interesting and pleasing composition. 56. Mary Queen of Scots meeting the Earl of Bothwell between Stirling and Edinburgh. Cooper, R.A.-This composition represents an important occurrence in Scottish history-the abduction of Mary by the Earl of Bothwell to the castle of Dunbar. Mary is seated on a white steed, which Bothwell is holding by the bridle, while he is making his obeisance, with the evident intention, at the head of a numerous force, of taking possession of the Queen's person in defiance of her attendants. The artist has displayed the most talent in the representation of the horses, which may perhaps be considered as Cooper's favourite study. The animals are finely drawn, and their appearance bold and spirited. The person of Mary is not so prepossessing as it is usually represented; it wants feminine loveliness; and the head-dress is entirely out of character with the occasion. It has all the gaiety and lightness of the drawing-room, and little suited for a journey over the Scottish hills and dales in the shower-descending month of April. Nos. 57 and 77 are two admirable sea pieces by Daniell, representing the splendid naval exploits of Adm. Collingwood with the enemy-first on board the Royal Sovereign, and secondly on board the Excellent, in the battle off Cape St. Vincent. 62. The Portrait of a Lady, by Wilkie, is very striking, particularly as regards the fanciful head-dress with which her ladyship is decorated. Portrait painting, however, is unsuited to the genius of Wilkie. We have been so long delighted with the splendid efforts of his genius, that we are apt to look with indifference upon any production of his 447 which does not soar above mediocrity. It is much to be regretted that this and a portrait of Lord Melville are the only pictures of Wilkie's in the exhibition. No. 64. Sir Calepine rescuing Serena. W. Hilton, R.A.-A truly poetical composition. The grouping is excellently conceived; and the figures are all in admirable drawing, a qualification for which this clever artist is pre-eminently distinguished. There is at the same time a glowing richness of colouring, without the appearance of gaudiness. In this respect, we think the artist has materially improved. The subject of the painting is taken from that great storehouse of medieval chivalry and enchantment, Spenser's Fairie Queene, canto VIII. "Sir Calepine, by chaunce more than by choyce, The self same evening fortune hither drove, As he to seck Serena through the woods did rove, * * * * * * With that he thrusts into the thickest throng." In the foreground, on the bare rock, appears the lovely form of Serena, naked and bound, and the high priest, with the uplifted knife, ready to sacrifice her as an offering to the gods. The extreme surprise and terror of the priests and attendants at the sudden appearance of the noble and infuriated warrior, armed in chain-mail, and his sword ready to drink their blood, together with the romantic and sequestered scenery, -all tend to produce a soul-thrilling and deeply-interesting picture. 79. This splendid production, by Etty, is intended to form a companion picture to Judith and Holofernes, which was painted by the same artist for last year's exhibition. It represents the maid of Judith waiting outside the tent of Holofernes till her mistress has consummated the deed that delivered her country from its invaders. The head and countenance of the woman, and the fine herculean forms of the sleeping guards, are every way worthy the genius of Etty. The chiaro-oscuro of the painting is in perfect keeping with the subject, and the deep sombre shading adds to the solemnity of the composition. The picture is painted for the Scottish Academy of Fine Arts in Edinburgh. 86. Interior of a Highlander's House, by Landseer, is a production well calculated to maintain the artist's superiority in depicting animals of the chase. Here he has also given us examples of his power in painting objects of still life. His pencil is always true to nature. 113. The Dinner at Mr. Page's House, supposed to take place in the first act of the Merry Wives of Windsor. C. R. Leslie, R.A.-Here (says a contemporary critic), the most conspicuous personages in Shakspeare's drama are introduced as if living before us. The fat knight, Master Slender, |