enjoyed without shocking their sense of purity and justice by the sight of every object that surrounded them? The love of art has in all times been honoured as the taste of a refined and cultivated mind. To that taste Lord Clarendon joined in a remarkable degree admiration and respect for distinguished men, and a peculiar tenderness for those to whom he gave his friendship. To the cultivation and enjoyment of those feelings he consecrated his gallery of portraits; and whatever judgment even-handed justice or party bias may pass on Lord Clarendon's policy and character, a single note, written in a style at once vague and hostile, cannot be allowed to cast the stain of corruption on the exercise of these feelings. It is but from time to time that tastes so worthy of imitation are combined with wealth and opportunity for their indulgence. Portraits of companions and friends gathered round the walls of those rooms where perhaps, when living, they have sat in friendly intercourse and serious debate, fill the mind with associations that read a lesson to the heart. A gallery thus formed, that includes many of the most distinguished men of the period, acquires in time a value in the country independent of the pleasure it may have afforded the individual who collected it; and it is to be hoped that in after ages the collection of a late distinguished minister, who is said to have delighted not only in collecting pictures as works of art, but also in surrounding himself with the portraits of the friends and colleagues with whom he had associated and laboured, may meet with the respect due to his taste, without incurring the reproach two hundred years hence of their being the price of advancement in his sovereign's favour. The Historical Inquiries' treats on many other points of Lord Clarendon's conduct and character; but as it was only the "circumstantial evidence" that these portraits were deemed to afford in support of Lord Dartmouth's charge that gave the discussion a place in this preface, it will be needless to enter further on a subject so large and so intricate as the misrepresentations of Lord Clarendon's political enemies and the panegyrics of his political admirers.' On the demolition of Clarendon House the pictures were removed to the family residence in the country, Cornbury House, Oxfordshire. On the death of the 1 It is to be regretted that the writer of the Historical Inquiries' did not make himself personally acquainted with the collection of pictures which remain from the Clarendon Gallery, or had not applied to the family for such information as would have spared many errors into which he has involuntarily fallen, both with respect to the artists and to the collection itself, and which doubtless none would have regretted more than the accomplished author of a work which could have no other object than the laudable desire to clear away mistaken impressions and establish historical truth. The account contained in this Introduction, derived from family documents, will show the manner in which the collection descended to its present owners, and correct many inaccuracies which are unimportant to any other fact than that to which the author of 'Historical Inquiries' expressed his wish to point, viz. "that the collection remains as it was :”not only has it received certain additions of a later date than the period of the Chancellor quitting England, but also a legacy of twenty-one pictures, including some of the royal family, a bequest which was made to Lord Hyde by Mrs. Mary Shaw, daughter of the Chancellor's faithful private secretary, who accompanied him in his banishment. 2 Sold by Lord Cornbury to the Duke of Marlborough, 1751. Chancellor, Henry Lord Cornbury succeeded to the title and property of his father, but his habits of extravagance involved him in pecuniary difficulties.' Executions were put into the house, and by the following lists it would seem that all the pictures there mentioned lad been sacrificed to the creditors : "A Schedule of the Goods and Chattels bargained and sold by the Bill of Sale hereunto annexed. (Extract.) 13 4 2 In the great parlour, twelve Judges' pictures, and Sir In the drawing-room, four pictures. In my Lord's bedchamber, two pictures. 1 In my 5 Lord Cornbury's chamber, one landscape over the chimney. In the King's chamber, five pictures. 8 In the room next the King's chamber, eight pictures; five 1 are at length. In the room next the bowling-green, one picture over the chimney. 13 In the dining-room, thirteen pictures, whereof nine are at 9 1 length. In the room next the room looking into the chapel, nine pictures, whereof three are at length. In the room looking into the chapel, one picture. 1 In the garrets, one large landscape. 58, whereof seventeen are at length. At the suit of John Taylor, gentleman, for 12007. debt. "The Earl of Clarendon is a man naturally sincere, except in the "payment of his debts, in which he had a particular art, upon his breaking "of his promise, which he does very often, to have a plausible excuse and a new promise ever ready at hand, in which he has run longer than one "could think possible. He is a friendly and good-natured man.”—Burnet's History of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 446. In the receipt is acknowledged, by Thomas Engham, of the Inner Temple, London, Esq., nine pictures, &c., being in the room next the dining-room. 1350 books, being in folio. 5000 books, being quartos and twelves. 20 pictures, being in library of the said house, called Cornbury House. All which said pictures, books, and goods, were the goods and chattels of the said Henry Earl of Clarendon, and seized and taken in execution by the said sheriff, by virtue of a writ fieri facias to the said sheriff, &c. At the suit of William Fallman, Esq., for 8007. debt, A.D. 1694, 26th July, 6 William and Mary.” It is more than probable, from the large collection of portraits that remained after this date at Cornbury, that many must have been bought in again by some of the family; but such executions may easily account. It appears in the catalogue made in 1750 that the portraits of Sir G. Palmer and the twelve Judges were still at Cornbury, which makes it the more probable that some were bought in; but that others were parted with, either in consequence of those executions or of some subsequent sale, is clearly shown by the following extract from a catalogue of pictures in the possession of the Right Hon. Sir George Clerk :— Original Pictures at Penicuick, from a Catalogue made by Sir John Clerk, great-great-grandfather of the present Sir George Clerk, 1724. "A large picture representing a man with a copper, a goat, ass, dogs, pheasants, &c., by Jordaens, and belonged to the Earl of Clarendon, the historian, and was valued at 501., and cost me 157. 66 Mary Magdalene, by Rubens: it belonged to the Earl of Clarendon ; "cost me 10 guineas, but reckoned worth 201. "A young girl, by Rembrandt, being a picture which belonged to the "Earl of Clarendon. "A full-length picture of a lady, by Vandyke, the hands exceeding "fine it belonged to the Earl of Clarendon. This lady is in a pink "robe: she is said to be a lady of the Coningsby family-a beauty." for the fact that pictures mentioned by Evelyn were no longer in the collection when, in the year 1750, a catalogue was made previous to the sale of the whole estate and mansion to the Duke of Marlborough. By an arrangement between the two brothers, Henry Earl of Clarendon and Lawrence Earl of Rochester, Cornbury became the property of the latter during the lifetime of his eldest brother. Lord Rochester speaks, in his will dated July 27th, 1697, of the purchase he had lately made from his " dear brother, the Earl of Clarendon, “of the manor of Witney, as likewise of the house and park of Cornbury, &c. &c., which," he adds, "his "circumstances indispensably obliged him to part with, "and mine very hardly permitted me to comply "with." 1 It appears that, from the false pride of the one and the considerate delicacy of the other, this purchase remained a secret till Henry Lord Clarendon's death in 1709. But in a paper written in Lord Rochester's own hand, intended, as he says, to accompany his will, he details to his family the motives that induced him to become the purchaser of Cornbury House and park, together with other property in Oxfordshire.2 * He had lent his brother 5000l. upon his bond in the year 1685. For eleven years he had in vain attempted to get any real security for either the principal or interest due upon this loan, and he was uneasy at the prospect of so considerable a sum being lost to his children, together, as he says, with the wish "to do all the service he could to preserve the repu"tation of his brother, that was extremely sunk by the great debts he d VOL. I. |