A Book for a Rainy Day; or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833Smith, John Thomas
History
A Book for a Rainy Day; or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833
Smith, John Thomas
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
[188] Luke Sullivan engraved several of Hogarth’s works, and among
them his “Paul before Felix” (now in Lincoln’s Inn), to which he
sat as model for the angel. He was a handsome, dissipated Irishman,
and lodged at the “White Bear” in Piccadilly. His etching of the
“March to Finchley” is superb. Ireland says that Hogarth had
difficulty in keeping him at work on this plate. Sullivan was
destroyed by his habits, and died prematurely.
[189] Francis Grose (1731-91), the famous antiquary, humorist, and
spendthrift, who is immortalised by Burns--
“A chield’s amang you takin’ notes,
And, faith, he’ll prent it.”
[190] Valuable as this book certainly was for a number of years, it
is now superseded by the elaborate work produced by Dr. Meyrick [_A
Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour_, by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick,
1824], an inestimable and complete treasure to the historian, the
artist, and the stage.--S.
[191] Thomas Hearne (1744-1817) belonged to that group of artists
whose tinted topographical drawings initiated water-colour. He
died in Macclesfield Street, Soho, April 13, 1817, and was buried
in Bushey churchyard by Dr. Monro, Turner’s “good doctor” of the
Adelphi, who used to set Turner and Girtin to make drawings for him
in the Adelphi at the price of “half a crown apiece and a supper.”
[192] See note on Mr. Baker, p. 115.
[193] Henry Edridge, A.R.A. (1769-1821), was born in Paddington,
established himself as a portrait painter in Dufour’s Place,
Golden Square, in 1789, and died in Margaret Street, Cavendish
Square. He was the friend and pupil of Thomas Hearne, and, like
him, was buried in Bushey churchyard by the benevolent Dr. Monro.
The British Museum Print Room has pencil portraits by Edridge, and
three of his sketch-books.--William Alexander (1761-1816) preceded
Smith as Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum.
He was a skilful water-colourist, and the Print Room has his
original sketches for the illustrations in the officially published
_Ancient Terra-cottas_ and _Ancient Marbles_, dealing with the
Museum collections.--Edmunds was an upholsterer in Compton Street,
Soho.
[194] The elephant was Chunee, the “Jumbo” of the Georgian era.
Smith writes of his arrival under 1785, but it was not until 1809
that he and Mr. Baker could have seen Chunee coming from the
docks. This famous elephant stood eleven feet in height, and was
the attraction at Mr. Cross’s menagerie until March 1826, when his
death was ordered. Chunee’s carcass was valued at £1000. Lord Byron
must have seen Chunee when he “saw the tigers sup” in 1813, and
Thomas Hood’s lament on his death is well known. Exeter Change,
which stood at the Strand end of Burleigh Street, did not long
survive its elephant: in April 1829 it was sold out of existence by
George Robins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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