The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable FamilyThackeray, William Makepeace
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The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Domestic fiction; Families -- England -- Fiction
Nigh to Gandish’s was, and perhaps is, another establishment for
teaching the art of design—Barker’s, which had the additional dignity
of a life academy and costume; frequented by a class of students more
advanced than those of Gandish’s. Between these and the Barkerites
there was a constant rivalry and emulation, in and out of doors.
Gandish sent more pupils to the Royal Academy; Gandish had brought up
three medallists; and the last R.A. student sent to Rome was a
Gandishite. Barker, on the contrary, scorned and loathed Trafalgar
Square, and laughed at its art. Barker exhibited in Pall Mall and
Suffolk Street: he laughed at old Gandish and his pictures, made
mincemeat of his “Angli and Angeli,” and tore “King Alfred” and his
muffins to pieces. The young men of the respective schools used to meet
at Lundy’s coffee-house and billiard-room, and smoke there, and do
battle. Before Clive and his friend J. J. came to Gandish’s, the
Barkerites were having the best of that constant match which the two
academies were playing. Fred Bayham, who knew every coffee-house in
town, and whose initials were scored on a thousand tavern doors, was
for a while a constant visitor at Lundy’s, played pool with the young
men, and did not disdain to dip his beard into their porter-pots, when
invited to partake of their drink; treated them handsomely when he was
in cash himself; and was an honorary member of Barker’s academy. Nay,
when the guardsman was not forthcoming, who was standing for one of
Barker’s heroic pictures, Bayham bared his immense arms and brawny
shoulders, and stood as Prince Edward, with Philippa sucking the
poisoned wound. He would take his friends up to the picture in the
Exhibition, and proudly point to it. “Look at that biceps, sir, and now
look at this—that’s Barker’s masterpiece, sir, and that’s the muscle of
F. B., sir.” In no company was F. B. greater than in the society of the
artists, in whose smoky haunts and airy parlours he might often be
found. It was from F. B. that Clive heard of Mr. Chivers’ struggles and
honest industry. A great deal of shrewd advice could F. B. give on
occasion, and many a kind action and gentle office of charity was this
jolly outlaw known to do and cause to be done. His advice to Clive was
most edifying at this time of our young gentleman’s life, and he owns
that he was kept from much mischief by this queer counsellor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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