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A
DESCRIPTION
O F
HO UGH TON-HALL.*
T he common approach to the houfe is by the fouth-end door, over
which is engraved this infcription,
ROBERTUS WALPOLE
Has ^des
Anno S. MDCCXXII.
Inchoavit,
Anno MDCCXXXV.
Perfecit.
On the Right-Hand you enter a finall Breakfaft-Room.
Over the chimney is a very good pidlure of hounds, by Wootton.
* Sir Robert Walpole ufed to fay that he had taken the idea of the towers from Ofterly-park,
near Brentford,
A concert
23B
A DESCRIPTION of the
A concert of birds, by Mario di Fiori j a very uncommon pidlure, for he
feldom painted any thing but flowers ; it belonged to Gibbons the carver,
and is four feet feven inches high, by feven feet nine and a quarter wide.
The prodigal fon returning to his father ; a very dark pidlure by Porde-
none, the architecture and landfcape very good. It is five feet five inches
high, by eight feet eleven and half wide. This picture belonged to George
Villiers, the great duke of Buckingham,
A horfe’s head, a fine fketch, by Vandyck.
A greyhound’s head, by old Wyck, who was Wootton’s mafter.
Sir Edward Walpole, grarrdfather of fir Robert Walpole. He was created
knight of the Bath at the coronation of king Charles the fecond, and made
a great figure in parliament. Once on a very warm difpute in the houfe, he
propofed an expedient, to which both parties immediately concurred : Wal-
ler the poet moved that he might be fent to the Tower, for not having com-
pofed the heats fooner, when he had it in his power. He' married Sufan,
daughter of fir Robert Crane, on whofe death he wrote thefe verfes in his
bible, which is now in the church here :
She lives, reigns, triumphs in a ftate of blifs :
My life no life, a daily dying is.
If faints for pilgrims here concern’d can be.
I’m confident fhe now remembers me.
My love for her not leflTened by her death,
I’m fure will lafl: unto my latefl; breath.
Thus turned into Latin by doClor * Bland, dean of Durham :
** Vivit adhuc, regnat, ccelefli in fede triumphat :
At vita, heu ! mors eft quotidiana mihi.
Tangere fi qua poteft miferorum cura beatos.
Sat fcio non curas negligit ilia meas.
■* He alfo drew up the Latin infeription engraved on the foundation-ftone.
Occidit
ty--
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL. 239
Occidit ilia mihi, fed amor non occidit unaj
Nec nifi cum pereat vita, peribit amor."
He is buried at Houghton church, with this plain epitaph : “ Here lies
fir Edward Walpole : C$tera fi quasras, narrabit fama fuperftes.”
Robert Walpole, fon of fir Edward, and father of fir Robert Walpole :
he was member for Caftle-Rifeing, from the firft of William and Mary till
his death in 1700, His wife was Mary, only daughter of fir Jeffery Burwell,
by whom he had nineteen children.
Horatio lord Townflrend, father of Charles lord vifeount Townfhend,
Mr. Harold, gardener to fir Robert Walpole, a head, by Ellis.
The Supping Parlour.
The battle of Conftantine and Maxentius, a copy, by Julio Romano, of
the famous pidture in the Vatican, which he executed after a defign of Ra-
phael. It is four feet eight inches and half high, by nine feet feven and a
quarter wide *. The ftory is thus told by Zofimus, hifl. lib. 2. “ Tantis
cum ambo copiis inftrudli effent, Maxentius pontem fupra Tiburim flumen
faciebat, non connexum prorfus a ripa, qua urbem fpedtat, ad alteram ufque
ripam ; fed duas in partes ita divifuUi, ut In medio fluminc ea, qucB partem
utramque pontis explebant, inter fe quodam niodo concurrentem fibulis fer-
reis, quo revellebantur, quoties pontem quis jundum nollet, fimul impera-
bat fabris, quamprimum viderent exercitum Conftantini jundurte pontis in-
fiftere, fibulas revellerent ac pontem folverent, ut quotquot huic infifterent,
in fluvium dilaberentur. Ac Maxentius quidem haec ftruebat. Conftan-
tinus autem cum exercitu Romam ufque progreffus, ante urbem caftra me-
tabatur in campo, qui & late patet & equitatui eft opportunus. Maxentius
intra muros inclufus, Diis vidimas offerebat, & extifpices de belli eventu
confulebat, ipfis quoque Sibyllinis oraculis perveftigatis. Quumq; reperif”
* There v/as one of thefe (probably this very lecond. Ste hh (atalogut publijhed by Bathoe,
pidlure) in the colledion of king James the p, 22, No, 248.
fet
240 A DESCRIPTION OF THE
fet oraculum, quo fignificaretur in fatis effe, ut qui ad perniciem P. R. fpedt-
antia defignaret, miferabili morte periret ; de femetipfo id accipiebat, quad
qui Romam adortos eamque capere cogitantes, propulfaret. Eventus autem
comprobavit id, quod verum erat. Nam cum Maxentius copias ex urbe
produxilTet, jamque pontem, quem ipfe junxerat, tranfiiffet j infinita quse-
dam raailtitudo noduarum devolans, muros complebat^ Quo confpedo, fuis
Conftantinus, ut aciem ftruerent imperabat. Quum exercitus utrimque cor-
nibus adverfis ftarent, equitatum Conftantinus immilit. Is equitatum hofti-
lem adortus, fudit. Peditibus quoque figno fublato, rite compofiteque in
hoftem illi tendebant. Acri conferto praelio, Romani quidem ipfi 6c Itali
focii fegniores ad obeunda pericula fe praebebant, quod acerba tyrannide fe
liberari optarent. Reliquorum vero militum innumerabilis quasdam multitu-
do cecidit, turn ab equitibus proculcata, turn a peditibus interempta., Enim-
vero quum diu refiftebat Equitatus, aliqua Maxentio fpes efle reliqua videba-
tur: fed equitibus jam fuccumbentibus, fuga cum reliquis abrepta, per pon-
tem fluminis ad urbem contendebat. Tignis autem minime fuftinentibus
earn vim oneris, adeoqj ruptis, cum ctetera multitudine Maxentius etiam
fluminis impetu abripiebatur,!’
Over the chimney, Horace Walpole, brother of fir Robert Walpole. He
was ambalfador in France and Holland, cofferer of the houlhold, and laftly
one of the tellers of the exchequer j and created a baron a little before his
death. Three quarters length, by Richardfoni
Sir Robert Walpole, when fecretary at war to queen Anne. Three quar-
ters, by Jervafe.
Catherine lady Walpole, his firft wife; ditto.
Sir Charles Turner,, one of the lords of the treafury. He married to his
flrft wife, Mary, eldeft fifter of fir Robert Walpole. Three quarters, by
Richardfon.
Charles lord vifeount Townfliend, fecretary of ftate to king George the
firft and fecond. Three quarters, by fir Godfrey Kneller.
Dorothy, his fecond wife, and fecond fifter of fir Robert Walpole. Three
quarters, by jervafe.
Anne
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
241
Anne Walpole,' aunt of lir Robert Walpole (ahead.) She was wife of
Mr. Spelman, of Narborough in Norfolk.
Dorothy Walpole, ditto (died unmarried.)
Mary Walpole, ditto, married to John Wilfon, efq; of Leicefterfhire.
Elizabeth Walpole, ditto, feqond wife of James Hoft, efq; of Sandring-^
ham in Norfolk.,
The Hunting-Hall.
Sufannah and the two elders, by Rubens ; five feet eleven inches and half
high, by feven feet eight inches and a quarter wide.
A hunting-piece. * Sir Robert Walpole is in green ; colonel Charles-
Churchill in the middle; and Mr. Thomas Turner on one fide. By Woot-
ton, fix feet ten inches high, by eight feet five wide. There are prints of
this pi(3;ure.
The CofFee-Room.
Over the chimney, a landfcape with figures dancing, by Swanivelt, two>
feet three inches high, by three feet three wide.
Jupiter and Europa, after Guido, by Pietro da Pietris ; four feet ten inches,
high, by fix feet two wide.
Galatea, by Zimeni four feet ten inches high, by fix feet two wide.
Horatio Walpole, uncle of fir Robert Walpole. Pie married lady Anne
Ofborn, daughter of Thomas the firfi; duke of Leeds, and widow of Robert
Coke, efq; of Holkham in Norfolk, grandfather of the prefent earl of Lei-
cefter. Three quarters.,
* He is upon a white horfe called the Chevalier, which was taken in Scotland in the year 1715,
and was the only, horfe the pretender mounted there.
li
VoL. II.
Galfridus
A DESCRIPTION of the
242
Galfridus Walpole, younger brother of fir Robert, and one of the general
poft-mafters. He was captain of the Lion in queen Anne’s wars, and was
attacked by five French fhips on the coall; of Italy againft three Englifii, two
of which deferted him, but his own he brought off, after fighting bravely
and having his arm fhot off.
Returning through the arcade, you afcend the great ftaircafe, which is
painted in chiara ofcuro, by Kent. In the middle four Doric pillars rife and
fupport a fine caft in bronze of the * gladiator, by John of Boulogne, which
was a prefent to fir Robert from Thomas earl of Pembroke.
The Common Parlour.
This room is thirty feet long by twenty-one broad. Over the chimney is
fbme fine pear-tree carving, by Gibbons, and in the middle of it hangs a
portrait of him by fir Godfrey Kneller. It is a mafter-piece, and equal to
any of Vandyck’s. Three quarters.
King William, an exceedingly fine fketch by fir Godfrey, for the large
equeftrian pidlure which he afterwards executed very ill at Hampton-court,
and with feveral alterations. Four feet three inches high, by three feet
fix wide •{'.
King George the firft, a companion to the former, but finiflied. The
figure is by fir Godfrey, which he took from the king at Guilford horfe-race.
The horfe is new painted by Wootton. I fuppofe this is the very pidure
which gave rife to Mr. Addifon’s beautiful poem to Kneller.
A find of horfes by Wovermans j two feet one inch and three quarters
high, by two feet nine wide.
* I fhould imagine that this is the ftatue men-
tioned in the catalogue of king Charles the firft,
and which was fold for 300 1 . It was poffibly
caft by Hubert le Sueur, who lived in faint Bar-
tholomew’s Clofe, a fcholar of John of Boulogne,
not by him himfelf ; it flood in the garden at faint
James’s palace.
■t Mrs. Barry and another aSrefs fat for the
two emblematic figures on the fore-ground, in the
great pidure.
Venus
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
243 !
Venus bathing, and Cupids with a carr, in a landfcape, by Andrea Sac-
chi j one foot ten inches and half high, by two feet fix inches wide. It was
lord Halifax’s.
A holy family, by Raphael da Reggio, a fcholar of Zucchero ; two feet
two inches and three quarters high, by one foot and a quarter wide.
A fine pidfure of architedlure in perfpedlive,. by Steenwyck ; one foot nine
inches high, by two feet eight wide.,
A cook’s {hop by Teniers. It is in his very beft manner. There are feve-
ral figures ; in particular his own, in a hawking habit, with fpaniels j and
in the middle an old blind filherman, finely painted. Five feet fix inches
and three quarters high, by fevenfeet feven and three quarters wide.
Another cook’s fhop, by Martin d'e Vos, who was Snyder’s mailer, and in
this pidlure has excelled any thing done by his fcholar. It is as large as na-
ture. There is a greyhound fnarling at a cat, in a moft maflerly manner.
Five feet eight inches high, by feven feet ten and half wide.
A Bacchanalian, by Rubens. It is not a very pleafant pidture, but the
flefh of the Silenus and the female fatyrs are highly coloured. There is a
fmall defign for this pidlure reverfed, in the great duke’s tribune at Florence.
Two feet eleven inches and three quarters high, by three feet fix wide.
The nativity, by Carlo CIgnani. The thought of this pidture is borrowed
(as it has often been by other painters) from the famous Notte of Coreggio
at Modena, where all the light of the pidture flows from the child. Three
feet feven inches and half high, by two feet ten and half wide.
Sir Thomas Chaloner, an admirable portrait; three quarters, byVandyck,
Sir Thomas was governor to Henry prince of Wales*, [vide Strafford papers,
* He had been fo to the celebrated duke of fchool at faint Begh’s, and 40 loads of coal yearly
Northumberland, the baftardized fon of the earl to it out of his mines there, referving a right of
®f Leicefter : vide Wood’s Athena, vol. 2, />. 126. placing two fcholars, by the name of Chaloner’s
This hr Thomas gave a piece of ground to arch- fcholars t Miogr, 3 nt, pnge 2439.
bifliop Grindal’s executors for that prelate’s free
I i 2 vol.
24+ A DESCRIPTION of the
W. I, 490] and in 1610 was appointed his lord chamberlain. [Fidi
Sandford’s genealogical tables, page 529.] He died in 161 5, and was buried
at Chifwick.*
Sir Thomas Grefliam, the founder of Grefham-college, by Antonio More,
Two feet fix inches and a quarter high, by two feet and half wide.
* He wrote a treatifc on the virtue of nitre,
printed at I.ondon 1584, fome oihcr philofophic
works, and a paftoral. He difcovered the aflom-
mines at Gifburg in Yorkfliire (where he had an
eftate) towards the latter end of queen Elizabeth’s
reign ; but they being adjudged to be mines royal,
little benefit accrued to the family, though the
long parliament afterwards reftored them to his
fons, who were from thefe caufes engaged on the
parliament fide ; and Thomas and James, two of
them, fat as judges on king Charles the firft.
James, who wrote a treatife on the ifle ofMan,t
and made feveral collerSions of ' antiquities, poi-
foned himfelf with a potion prepared by his mif-
trefs, 1660, on an order for taking him into cuf-
tody. Thomas, who was one of the Yorklhire
members, had been a witnefs againft archbifliop
I.aud, and one of the council of ftate, and died
in exile at Middleburg in Zeland, 1661. He
wrote An anfwer to the Scotch papers concerning
the difpofal of the perfon of the king; A juttifica-
tion of that anfwer ; A true and exaift relation of
finding the tomb of Mofes near mount Nebo;
and A fpeech containing a plea for monarchy in
1659. Thomas, his grandfather, v/as a cele-
brated wit, poet, and warrior, having ferved in
the expedition againft Algier under Charles the
fifth, where being ftiipwrecked, and having fwam
f It was dedicated to T. lord Fairfax, the pari,
general, whom he celebrates for his ta/le and patron-
age of antiquities. V. Thorefby’s Leeds, p. 525,
J The duke at the fame time feat his wife a jewel.
Englifh worthies, p. 535.
§ He wrote this book in Spain, when he war ns
better houfed, as he himfelf fays in his preface, than
till his arms failed him, he caught hold on a cable
with his teeth and faved himfelf. He was knight-
ed by the J duke of Somerfet, for his valour, after
the battle of Muffelborough ; and by queen Eli-
zabeth fent embaffador to the emperor Ferdinand
and to king Philip the fecond, where he refided
four years, and died foon after his return in 1565,
and was buried with a fumptuous funeral in faint
Paul’s. He wrote A little didlionary for children;
A poem in ten books in Latin verfe §; De repub-
lica Anglorum inftauranda, printed 1579, with
an appendix, De illuftrium qiiorundam cncomiis,
cum epigrammatibus & epitaphiis nonnullis ; His
voyage to Algier, 1541 |]; and tranflated from the
Latin, The office of fervants, written by Gilbert
Cognatus ; and Erafinus’s praife of folly, 1549,
and re-printed 1577. Vide lVood'‘% Athence Oxon.
His epitaph in Latin and Englifh was written by
dodior Walter Haddon, mafter of requefts to
queen Elizabeth. Vide Hackett’ s coll'eSi. of epitaiohs,
vai z, p. 184. His portrait was engraved by
Hollar. In the year 1616 an earthen pot full of
brafs money of the emperors Caraufius and Allec-
tus was found under the root of a tree in Steeple-
Clavdon parifh near tlte pond, in the woods of fir
Thomas Chaloner. Vide Kennet's parochial antiq.
page It.
hieme in firm, ejiate in horreo. He took for his
motto. Frugality is the left hand of fortune and dili-
gence the right. Eng. Worthies, p. 535. Putten-
ham names mailer Chaloner with ftr Ph. Sidney, as
excellent far eclogue and -paf oral poefy.
11 Villegaignon, an extraordinary adventurer,
wrote an acconnt of the fame expedition, in Latin.
Vide gen. ditft. vol. 10, p. 1.
Erafmus,
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
245
Erafinus, by Holbein, a half length, fmaller than the life.
A friar’s head, by Rubens.
Francis Halls, a head, by himfelf.
The fchool of Athens, a copy (by Le Brun) of Raphael’s fine pidure in
the Vatican. Three feet two inches high, by four feet two and three quar-
ters wide.
Jofeph Carreras, a SpaniQi poet, writing j he was chaplain to Catharine
of Braganza, queen of Charles II. Half length, by fir Godfrey Kneller.
There is a mezzotinto from this pidure.
Rembrandt’s wife, half length, by Rembrandt.
Rubens’s wife, a head, by Rubens.
A man’s head, by Salvator Rofa.
Mr. Locke, a head by fir Godfrey Kneller.
Inigo Jones, a head, by Vandyck.
Over the door, Anne, daughter of fir Henry Lee j three quarters, by fir
Peter Lely. She was married to Mr. Wharton, afterwards created a mar-
quis; and was herfelf a celebrated poetefs. Waller has addrefled a copy of
verfes to her on the death of lord Rochefter, whofe great friend and relation
ftie was. See her article in the general didionary, vol. 10, where are two
letters of hers in a very amiable ftyle, and fome of dodor Burnet’s in a very
wretched one.
Over another door, Mrs. Jenny Deering, miftrefs to the marquis of
Wharton. Thefe two came out of the Wharton colledion.
Over the two other doors, two pieces of ruins, by Viviano.
The
t
246 A DESCRIPTION of the
The Library.
This room is twenty-one feet and half, by twenty-two and half. Over
the chimney is a whole length, by fir Godfrey Kneller, of king George I.
in his coronation- robes, the only piilure for which he ever fat in England.
The Little Bed-Chamber.
This room is all wainfcotted with mahogany j and the bed, which is of
painted taffaty, Hands in an alcove of the fame wood. Over the chimney is
a half length, by Dahl, of Catharine Shorter, firft wife of fir Robert Wal-
pole, and eldeft daughter of John Shorter, efqj of Bybrook in Kent, by
Elizabeth, daughter of fir Erafmus Philips, of Pidton-caftle in Pembroke-
fhirc. This is an exceedingly good portrait.
On the other fide, a portrait of Maria Skerret, fecond wife of fir Robert
Walpole; three quarters, byVanloo..
The Little Dreffing-Room.
A landfcape by Wootton, in the ftile of Claude Lorrain, over the chimney.
The Blue Damalk Bed-Chamber
Is of the fame dimenfions with the library, and is hung with tapeftry.
Over the chimney, fir Robert Walpole, afterwards earl of Orford,, prime
tniniHer to king George I. and to king George II.
Quern neque Tydides, nec LarilTasus Achilles,
Non * Anni domuere Decem.
He built this houfe, and made all the plantations and waters here. A whole
length, in the garter-robes, by Vanloo.
^ After his refignation, a lecret committee was appointed to incjuire into the lall ten jears of his
adminiftration.
The
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
247
The Drawing-Room
Is thirty feet by twenty-one, and hung with yellow caffoy. The deling
is exadly taken, except with the alteration of the paternal coat for the ftar
and garter, from one that was in the dining-room of the old houfc, built by
fir Edward Walpole, grandfather of fir Robert.
Over the chimney is a genteel bufi; of a Madonna in marble, by Camillo
Rufconi.
Above, is carving by Gibbons, gilt, and within it a fine pidure by Van-
dvck, of two daughters of lord Wharton, out of whofe colledlion thefe came,
with all the other Vandycks in this room, and fome others at lord Walpole’s
at the Exchequer. Five feet four inches high, by four feet three wide.
The judgment of Paris, by Luca Jordano. There is an odd diffufion of
light all 6ver this pidlure : the Pallas is a remarkably fine figure. Eight feet
high, by ten feet eight and a quarter wide.
A fieeping Bacchus, with nymphs, boys and animals j its companion.
King Charles I. a whole length, in armour, by Vandyck. By a miftake
both the gauntlets are drawn for the right hand. *
Henrietta Maria of France, his queen, by ditto.
Archbifiiop Laud, the original portrait of him ; three quarters, by Van-
dyck. The univerfity of Oxford once offered the Wharton family four hun-
dred pounds for this pidlure.
Philip lord Wharton, three quarters by Vandyck. This lord in his youth
was handfome and a beau j in the civil war he fided with the parliament,
* When this picture was in the Wharton col- lets; lady Wharton faid, Mr. Tonfon, why
ledlion, old Jacob Tonfon, who had remarkably might not one man have two right hands, as well
ugly legs, was finding fault with the two gaunt- as another two left legs ?
and
248 A DESCRIPTION of the
and had a regiment of horfe, but his courage was called in queftioii. He left
the houfe when the laft violences were determined againft the king, but was
one of Oliver’s peers and privy-council, and narrowly efcaped being excepted
in the general adt of indemnity, though he expended fome thoufand pounds
to make a figure in the cavalcade at the king s reftoration, in particular hav-
ing diamond buttons to the mourning which he was then wearing for his fe-
cond wife. He was committed to the Tower with the duke of Buckingham
and lord Shaftlbury, on their afferting the diffolution of the long parliament;
but his chief merits were a patriot fraud, by which he procured the paffing the
habaes corpus adt, being one of the tellers in the houfe of lords, when he
outwitted his partner and gave in a falfe majority ; and by moving for an
abrogation of the old oaths of allegiance, and fubftituting the piefent plain
oath in their ftead. He was one of the firfi; that appeared for the revolution;
and died in 1694. He laid out a large fum at Woburn in Buckinghamfhire,
and made the fine colledtion of Vandyck’s and Lely’s, which were removed
to Winchendon by his fon the marquis of Wharton, and fold to fir Robert
Walpole by the late duke his grandfon. Fide memoirs of the life of T. of
Wharton.
Sir Chriftopher Wandesford, head of the Caftlecomer family ; lord deputy
of Ireland in 1640; in which year he died. Three quarters, fitting, by
Vandyck.
* Lady Wharton, three quarters, by ditto. 1
Jane, daughter of lord Wenman; ditto. The hands. In which Vandyck
excelled, are remarkably fine in this pidlure.
Robert lord Walpole, eldeft fon of fir Robert Walpole, by Catherine his
firft wife; a bead in Crayons, by Rofalba. He fucceeded his father in the
earldom, and died in 1751J being knight of the uath, auditor of the Ex-
chequer, and mafter of the fox-hounds to the king.
Edward Walpole f , fecond fon of fir Robert Walpole, ditto.
Horace Walpole, third fon of fir Robert Walpole, ditto.
« Philadelphia, daughter of Robert Carey earl + He was created knight of the 'Bath in Au-
of Monmouth, wife of fir Thomas Wharton. guft 1753.
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
249
Mary lady vifcountefs Malpas, fecond daughter of fir Robert Walpole by
his firfi: wife, and married to George lord Malpas, mailer of the horfe to
Frederic prince of Wales, and knight of the Bath j afterwards earl of Choi-
mondeley, and chancellor of the duchy of Lancafter, and lord privy-feal.
She died of a confuinption at Aix in Provence, setatis fuse 29. A profile
Iketch, by Jervas.
N. B. There is no portrait here of Catharine Walpole, eldefl daughter of fii
Robert Walpole, who died at Bath of a confumptlon, setatis fuse 19.
Lady Maria Walpole, only child of fir Robert Walpole earl of Orford by
Maria his fecond wife, married to Charles Churchill, efqj in crayons, by Pond.
The Salon
Is forty feet long, forty high, and thirty wide ; the hanging Is crimfon
flowered velvet ; the deling painted by Kent, who defigned all the orna-
ments throughout the houfe. The chimney-piece is of black and gold mar-
ble,. of which too are the tables..
In the broken pediment of the chimney Hands a fmall antique bull of a
Venus } and over the garden-door is a larger antique bufl.
On the great table is an exceeding fine bronze of a man and woman, by John
of Boulogne. When he had made the fine marble groupe of the rape of the
Sabines in the loggia of the piazza del gran duca at Florence, he was found
fault with for not having exprefled enough of the foftnefs of the woman’s
flefli, on which he modelled this, which differs in its attitudes from the other,
and has but two figures ; but thefe two are mafler-pieces for drawing, for
the ftrength of the man, and the tender delicacy of the woman. This bronze
was a prefent to lord Orford from Horace Mann, efq; the king’s refident at
Florence.
On the other tables are two vafes of oriental alabafler.
Over
VoL. II.
Kk
DESCRIPTION OF the
Over the chimney, Chrift baptized by faint John, a moft capital picture
of Albano. His large pieces are feldora good, but this is equal both for
colouring and drawing to any of his mailer Caracci, or his fellow-fcholar
Guido. It is eight feet eight inches high, by fix feet four and a half wide.
There is one of the fame defign in the church of fan Giorgio at Bologna,
with an oval top, and God the father in the clouds, with different angels ;
two are kneeling, and fupporting Chrill’s garments. This pidture belonged
to Mr. Laws, firll miniller to the regent of France.
The Honing of faint Stephen ; a capital pifture of Le Soeur. It contains
nineteen figures, and is remarkable for expreffing a moll mallerly variety of
grief. The faint, by a confiderable anachronifm, but a very common one
among the Roman catholics, is dreft in the rich habit of a modern priell at
high mafs. Nine feet eight inches and a half high, by eleven feet three and
three quarters wide.
The holy family 5 a molt celebrated pidlure of Vandyck. The chief part
of it is a dance of boy-angels, which are painted in the highell manner. The
virgin leems to have been a portrait, and is not handfome ; and the piece is too
much crouded with fruits and flowers and birds. In the air are two partridges
finely painted. This pidlure was twice fold for fourteen hundred pounds :
fince that, it belonged to the houfe of Orange. The princels of Frielland,
mother of the prefent prince of Orange, fold it during his minority, when
fir Robert bought it. It is feven feet and half an inch high, by nine feet
one and three quarters wide. It belonged originally to king Charles the firll,
and is mentioned in the catalogue of his pictures, p. 171. There is a fine
print of it.
Mary Magdalen walhing Chrill’s feet; a capital picture of Rubens, finifh-
ed in the highell manner, and finely preferved. There are fourteen figures
large as life. The Magdalen is particularly well coloured. Six feet and
three quarters of an inch high, by eight feet two wide. It was monfieur de
Morville’s, and had belonged to monfieur Bourvalais, a financier, who bought
it from the colledtion of monfieur Connery, a fermier general*. It is
engraved.
* See defeript. de Paris, Vel. i, p. 226, edit, of 1706.
The
/
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
25 *
The holy family, in a round, hy Cantarini,. The child is learning to readV
Three feet fix inches every way.
The holy family, by Titian. It belonged to monfieur de Morville, fecre-
tary of date in France. Four feet feven inches and a half high, by three feet
four and a half wide.
Simeon and the child ; a very fine pidture by Guido; The defign Is taken
from a ftatue of a Silenus with a young Bacchus, in the villa Borghefe at
Rome. This was in monfieur de Morville’s colledlion. Three feet two
inches and a half high, by two feet feven and a half wide. There is another
of thefe, but much lefs finifhed, in the palace of the marquis Gerini at
Florence.
The virgin with the child afleep in her arms, by Augufilne Caracci. Three
feet fix inches high, by two feet nine and three quarters wide.
An old woman giving cherries to a boy, by Titian. It is his own fon and
nurfe : four feet ten inches high, by three feet fix and. three quarters wide.
The holy family, by Andrea del Sarto.. This and the lafi: were from the
colledllon of the marquis Mari at Genoa. Three feet one inch and a quarter
high, by two feet feven and a quarter wide.. Lord Egremont has another of
thefe, and lord Exeter another.
The afiumption of the virgin j a beautiful figure fupported by boy-angels,
in a very bright manner, by Murilllo. Six feet four inches and three quar-
ters high, by four feet nine and a half wide. *
The adoration of the ihepherds. Its companion ; all the light comes from
the child.
* The duke of Bedford has a large pidlure like
this, except that it wants the virgin, by the fame
hand, brought out of Spain by Mr. Bagnols,
from wliofe colledlion the prince of Wales bought
fome fine pictures. Sir Sampfon Gideon has ano-
ther, in which the virgin is much older than this
at Houghton,, but finely painted ; the boys are
fewer, and far inferior ; and one corner is too
deftitute of objedls. There is a half-moon re-
verfed under the feet of the virgin.
Kk 3
The
.1
2^2 A DESCRIPTION of the.
The Cyclops at their forge, by Luca Jordano. There is a copy of this at
faint James’s, by Walton. This belonged to Gibbons. Six feet four inches
high, by four feet eleven wide.
' Dffidalus and Icarus, by Le Brun. In a different manner from what he
generally painted. Six feet four inches high, by four feet three wide. For
the ftory, fee it twice told in Ovid’s metamorphofis, lib, 8 ; and lib. 2, de
arte Amandi.
The Carlo Marat Room
Is thirty feet by twenty-one. The hangings are green velvet, the table
of lapis lazuli j at each end are two fconces of maffive filver.
Over the chimney is * Clement the ninth, of the Rofpigliofi family ; three
quarters fitting, a moft admirable portrait, by Carlo Maratti. It was bought
by Jervas the painter out of the Arnaldi palace at Florence, where are the
remains of the great Pallavicini colledtion, from whence fir Robert bought
feveral of his pidtures. Nothing can be finer than this, the boldnefs of the
penciling is as remarkable as his delicacy in his general pidtures, and it was
fo much admired that he did feveral of them j one is at lord Burlington’s at
Chifwick.
The judgment of Paris, drawn by Carlo Maratti when he was eighty-three
years old, yet has none of the rawnefs of his latter pieces ; the drawing of
the Juno is very faulty, it being impoflible to give fo great a turn to the per-
fon as he has given to this figure ; it came out of the Pallavicini colledtion.
The earl of Strafford has a very good copy of it, by Giofeppe Chiari. Five
feet nine inches and three quarters high, by feven feet feven and a quarter
wide. It was engraved by Giacomo Freii.
* He was a poet. See an account of him in the
Sidney papers puhlijhed by Collins^ vol. 2, 714 5
andFirmanVs feminar. Roman, p. 189. He was
nuntio at Madrid, when the fix royalifts, who
had murdered Afcham, the parliament’s refident,
were taken out of fancluary, and infilled on their
being re-delivered, which he prevailed on the bi-
gotted king to order. Five of them, catholics,
were fuffered to elcape ; the fixth, a proteftant,
was fo watched, that he was retaken on his flight
and put to death. Vide Peck’s dejtd, curios. Mi. 12,
/• 2 -
Galatea
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
25J
Galatea fitting with Acis, Tritons and Cupids j its companion. Five feet
eight inches and three quarters high, by feven feet feven and a half wide.
The holy family, an unfinifiied picture, large as life, by Carlo Maratti
in his laft manner. Three feet two inches and three quarters high, by two
feet eight and a quarter wide.
The virgin teaching Jefus to read, by Carlo Maratti. Two feet three
Inches and a quarter high, by one foot ten and a quarter wide. Giofeppe
Chiari has executed this thought in the Barberini palace at Rome, but with
alterations. In this the virgin is in red. Giofeppe’s is in white, and inftead of
faint John, faint Elizabeth, and the angels, he has drawn a cardinal reading.
Saint Csecilia with four angels playing on mufical inflruments, companion
to the former.
Or drefi: in fmiles of fweet Cascllla, flilne
With fimp’ring angels, palms and harps divine. Pope.
Thefc two laft are moft perfed and beautiful pidures in his beft and moft
finiftied manner, and were in the Pallavicini colledion. It has been engraved
by Strange, but he has not preferved the extreme beauty of the faces.
The alTumption of the virgin, by Carlo Maratti. She has a deep blue veil
all over her. Two feet three inches and three quarters high, by one foot
ten and a quarter wide.
The virgin and Jofeph with a young Jefus, a fine pidure, by Carlo
Maratti, in the manner of his mafter Andrea Sacchi, Two feet five inches
and a quarter high, by two feet wide.
The marriage of faint Catharine, by Carlo Maratti, two feet feven inches
high, by one foot ten and a half wide.
Two faints worftilping the virgin in the clouds, by Carlo Maratti, Two
feet three inches and a half high, by one foot nine and a half wide.
St. John the evangelift, its companion.
A naked
254
A DESCRIPTION of the
A naked Venus and Cupid, by Carlo Maratti, In a very particular ftile,
, Three feet one inch and a half high, by four feet four and a half wide.
The holy family, by Nicholo Beretoni, Carlo’s beft icholar r this pi£lure
is equal to any of his mafter’s. The grace and fweetnefs of the virgin, and
the beauty and drawing of the young Jefus, are incomparable. Three feet
one inch and a half high, by four feet four and a half wide..
The affumptlon of the virgin by ditto. Two feet two inches and a half
high, by one foot eight and a half wide.
The pool of Bethefda, by Giofeppe Chlari, another of Carlo’s fcholars.
Three feet three inches high, by four feet five wide..
Chriil’s fermon on the mount, dittos
Apollo and Daphne, ditto.
Bacchus and Ariadne, ditto, the beft of the four j the Bacchus feems to be
taken from the Apollo Belvedere, as the ideas of the Ariadne, and the Venus,
evidently are from the figures of Liberality and Modefty in the famous pic-
ture of Guido, in the colledtion of marquis del Monte at Bologna. There
are four pidlures about the fize of thefe in the Spada palace at Rome, by the
fame hand i two, juft the fame with thefe two laft, the other two are like-
wife ftories out of the metamorphofis.
Apollo, in crayons, by Rofalba. Two feet two inches high, by one foot
eight wide.
Diana, its companion.
A profile head of a man, a capital drawing, in a great ftile, by Raphael,
A profile head of faint Catharine, by Guido.
The birth of the virgin, by Luca Jordano. Two feet one Inch high, by
one foot and a quarter of an inch wide.
The
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
25s
The prefentation of the virgin in the temple, its companion. Thefe tv o
are finiflied defigns for two large pidures, which he painted for the fine
church of the Madonna della Salute at Venice.
The flight into Egypt, by Murillio, in the manner of Vandyck. Three
feet two inches and a quarter high, by one foot eleven and a quarter wide.
The crucifixion, its companion.
Hercules and Omphale, by Romanelli : three feet one inch and a half
high, by four feet three inches wide.
The Velvet Bed-Chamber
Is twenty-one feet and a half, by twenty-two feet and a half ; the bed is
of green velvet, richly embroidered and laced with gold, the ornaments de-
figned by Kent ; the hangings are tapeftry, reprefenting the loves of Venus
and Adonis, after Albano.
Alexander adorning the tomb of Achilles, by Le Mer. The fubjedl is
taken from the fourth chapter of the fecond book of Quintus Curtius. Achil-
lem, cujus origine (Alexander) gloriebatur, imprimis mirari folitus, etiam
circum cippum ejus cum amicis nudus decucurrit, undloque coronam impo-
fuit. The head of Alexander is taken from his medals, the figures are in
the true antique tafte, and the buildings fine. Eight feet two inches and
three quarters high, by five feet two and a half wide.
Over one of the doors, a fea-port, by old Griffier. Three feet two inches
and a half high, by four feet one inch wide.
A landfcape over the other door, by ditto.
The Drefling-Room
Is hung with very fine gold tapeftry after pidures of Vandyck. There arc
whole-length portraits of James the firft, queen Anne his wife, daughter of
Frederick
256 -A DESCRIPTION of the
Frederick the fecond king of Denmark, Charles the firft, and his queen,
and Chriftian the fourth king of Denmark, brother of queen Annej they
have fine borders of boys with feftoons, and oval pidtures of the children of
the royal family. At the upper end of this room is a glafs cafe filled with a
large quantity of filver philegree, which belonged to Catharine lady Walpole.
Over the chimney, the confulting the Sibylline oracles, a fine pidlure, by
LeMer; companion to that in the bed-chamber j the architedlure.of this is
rather the better. The painter has miftaken, and reprefented a large num-
ber of books j whereas the hiftories fay, that when the Sibyl offered them at
lirfi; to Tarquinius Superbus, there were but nine, and on his twice refufing
them, fire burnt fix, and then made him pay the firft demanded price for the
remaining three, w’hich were kept in a ftone vault with the greateft care ;
and only confulted on extraordinary occafions, by two of the nobility who
had the charge of them. This number in the time of the common-wealth
was encreafed to ten, and in Sylla’s time, the laft time they were confulted,
to fifteen ; the year before his didlatorftiip the capitol was burnt, and they
wdth it. There were fome difperfed Sibylline oracles afterwards collected,
but never much credited, which remained to the reign of Honorius, when
Stilicho burnt them *. There is an anachronifm in this phfture, which may
be pardoned in a painter : he has thrown in among the buildings the fepti-
zonium Sever! ; now Sylla’s didtatorfhip began in the year 672 U. C. and
Severus did not begin his reign till 945 U. C. or 193 A. D.
Over the door, dogs and ftill life, by Jervas.
Over the other door, its companion.
* In the reign of Tiberius, an aiSt pafTed in
ifiie fenate at the motion of one of the tribunes,
to add a book to the Sibylline oracles, at the re-
queft ofCaninius Gallus, one of the Quindecim
Viri. The emperor reprimanded the fathers, and
told them, that Auguftus, quia multa vana fub
nomine celebri vulgabantur, fanxifle, quern intra
diem ad praetorem Urbanum deferrentur, nequc
habere privatim liceret. 'He added, a majoribus
quoque decretum erat, poll: exuftum fociali bello
capitolium, quaefitis Samo, Ilio, Erythris, per
African! etiam ac Siciliam, et Jtalicas CbJonias,
carminibus Sibyllas (Una, feu plures fuere) da-
toque facerdotibus negotio^ quantum humana ope
potuiflent, vera difcernere.. TofiV. ann. 6, 12. It
is probable that Tiberius’s ftridtnefs on this fub-
jedl proceeded from his apprehenfions of the peo-
l^e being excited by prophecies- to rebel agamft
him ; he having but a little time before put feve-
ral perfons to death for publilhing a prediflion
that he had, left R'onie in fuch a conjumSion of
the planets as for ever to exclude his return.
Ann, 4, ,58.
The
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
257
The Embroidered Bed-Chamber.
The bed is of the fined: Indian needle-work. His royal highnefs Francis
duke of Lorrain, afterwards grand duke of Tufcany, and fince emperor, lay
in this bed, which flood then where the velvet one is now, when he came
to vifit fir Robert Walpole at Houghton. The hangings are tapeftry.
Over the chimney, the holy family, large as life, by Nicolo Pouffin. It
is one of the mod capital pictures in this colledlion, the airs of the heads,
and the draperies are in the fine tade of Raphael, and the antique j Eliza-
beth’s head is taken from a datue of an old woman in the villa Borghefe at
Rome ; the colouring is much higher than his ufual manner ; the virgin’s
head and the young Jefus are particularly delicate. Five feet feven inches
high, by four feet three and three quarters wide. There is a print of it.
Over die doors, two pieces of cattle, by Rofa di Tivoli.
The Cabinet
Is twenty-one feet and a half, by twenty-two and a half, hung with green
velvet. Over the chimney is a celebrated picture of Rubens’s wife, by Van-
dyck; it was fitted for a pannel in her own clofet in Rubens’s houfe. She is
in black, fattin with a hat on, a whole length j the hands and the drapery are
remarkably good.,
Rubens’s family, by Jordans of Antwerp j- Rubens is playing on a lute,
his fird wife is fitting with one of their children on her lap, and two others
before her. There are feveral other figures, and genii in the air. Five feet
nine inches high, by four feet five inches and a half widei. this picture be-
longed to the duke of Portland.
A winter-piece, by Giacomo Baflan. Three feet eight inches and a half
high, by five feet eleven and three quarters wide.
A fummer-piece, by Leonardo BalTan. Three feet eight inches and a half
VoL. II. LI high,
i
258 A DESCRIPTION op the
high, by five feet eleven and three quarters wide. Thefe two were in the
colleftion of monfieur de la Vrilliere.
Boors at cards, by Teniers: one foot four inches high, by one foot ten wide.
Chrift appearing to Mary in the garden, an exceedingly fine pidture, by
Pietro da Cortona. One foot nine inches and a half high, by one foot eight
inches wide.
The judgment of Paris, by Andrea Schiavone.
Note, That all the pictures in this room, except the portraits, that have not
the fizes fet down, are very fmall.
Midas judging between Pan and Apollo, by ditto.
Chrift laid in the fepulchre, one of the finefl: pictures that Parmegiano ever
painted, and for which there is a tradition that he was knighted by the duke
of Parma ; there are eleven figures ; the expreflion, the drawing and colour-
ing, the perfpedlive, and chiaro fcuro, are as fine as poffible. The figure of
Jofeph of Arimathea is Parmegiano’s own portrait ; there are two drawings
in the grand duke’s colledtion for this pidlure, but with variations from what
he executed : in one of thefe, Jofeph has his hands extended like Paul
preaching at Athens, in the cartoon of Raphael : there have been three dif-
ferent prints made of this pidlure and the drawings for it.
The adoration of the magi, by Velvet Brueghel; there are a multitude of
little figures, all finilhed with the greateft Dutch exadtnefs ; the ideas too are
a little Dutch, for the Ethiopian king is dreft in a furplice with boots and
fpurs, and brings for a prefent a gold model of a modern Ihip.
The virgin and child, a very pleafing pidfure, by Baroccio, but the draw-
ing is full of faults.
Naked Venus fleeping, a moft perfedt figure, by Annibal Caracci; the
contours and the colouring exceffively fine.
Head
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL,
259
* Head of Dobfon’s father, by Dobfon.
Saint John, a head, by Carlo Dolci. There Is another of thefe at Burleigh,
Head of Innocent the tenth, by Velafco j he was fent by the king of Spain
to draw this pope’s pidure j when the pope fent his chamberlain to pay him
he would not receive the money, faying the king his mailer always paid him
with his own hand : the pope humoured him. This pope was of the Pam-
philii family, was reckoned the uglieft man of his time, and was raifed to
the papacy by the intrigues of his liller-in-law donna Olimpia, a moll beau-
tiful woman and his millrefs J-. There is a half-length at Chifwick of the
fame pope by Andrea Sacchi.
A boy’s head with a lute, by Cavalier Luti.
Friars giving meat to the poor, by John Miel. One foot fcven inches and
a half high, by two feet two inches wide.
Its companion.
A dying officer at confeffion, by Bourgognone ; very bright colouring and
fine exprcffion. One foot fix inches and a half high, by two feet one inch
and three quarters wide.
I
* In four different MSS. of Vertue, I find that were going away, the legate ftiut the door, and
this pidure belonged to Richardfon, and is cer- defired Du Mouftier to examine whether he had
tainly the portrait of Vanderdort, keeper of king loft any book: he immediately miffed the ftolen
tiharles’s pidlures, and who, on having miflaid one. The cardinal bid him fearch all his train,
a fine fmall pidlure, and not being able to find it but Pamphilio refufing to be examined, they came
when afked for it by the king, hanged himfelf. to blows, and Du Mouftier getting the better by
Fide Sandcrfon’s graphict. the prelate’s being encumbered in his long habit,
beat him fevcrely and found the book in his poc-
t Amelot de la Houffaie relates the following kct. Mem. h'rfl. vol. i,p. 362. In Howel’s letters
remarkable ftory as the foundation of this pope’s ate the following particulars relating to this pope;
hatred to the French, and of his perfecution of “ Ajnong other pafquils this was one, papa magis
the family of his predeccffor Urban the eighth, amat Olympiam quam Olympum.” Zr/r. 48,
While cardinal Barberini, Urban’s nephew, was 4th. And afterwards, “ Tis true he is one of the
legate in France, he went to fee the curious li- hardeft favourdeft popes that fat in the chair a
brary and collcaion of the fieur Du Mouftier. great while, fo that feme call him L’Uomo di tre
Monfignor Pamphilio, who attended him, flipped pelle, the man with three hairs, for he hath no-
a fmall and fcarce book into his pocket. As they ■ more beard on his chin.’^
L 1 2
Its
26 o
A DESCRIPTION OF the
Its companion.
Boors at cards, by Teniers. '
Boors drinking. Its companion, by Oftade.
Chrift laid In the fepulchre, by Giacomo BalTan ; a very particular pidure,
the lights are laid on fo thick, that it feems quite baflb relievo. It is a fine
defign for a great altar-piece which he has painted at Padua. This pidure
was a prefent to lord Orford, from James earl of Waldegrave, knight of the
garter, and emoaffador at Paris.
Holy family, with faint John on a lamb, by Williberts, a fcholar of Ru-
bens, who has made a large pidure, from whence this is taken, now in the
palace Pitti, at Florence : this is finely finiflied, and the colouring neater
than Rubens.
Holy family, by Rottenhamer.
The virgin and child, by Alexander Veronefe j painted on black marble.
Three foldlers ; a fine little pidure, by Salvator Rofa, in his brighteft
manner.
The virgin with the child in her arms, by Murlllio, on black marble. A
prefent, from fir Benjamin Keene, embaflador at Madrid.
The virgin with the child in her arms afleep, by Sebaftian Concha.
Edward the fixth, an original fmall whole length, by Holbein ; it was in
the royal colledion, and upon the difperfion of king Charles’s pidures in the
rebellion, fold into Portugal, where it was bought by lord Tyrawley, em-
baffador to the court of Lilbon, and by him fent as a prefent to lord Orford ;
within the frame is written in golden letters, Edvardus Dei gratia fextus rex
Anglia, & Francia, & Hibernia.
Laban
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
261
Laban fearching for his images, by Sebaflian Bourdon, When Jacob
■withdrew privately from Laban, Rachael ftole her father’s idols, which he
purfued them to demand. Gen. xxxi, 33. Three feet one inch and three
quarters high, by four feet four inches and a half wide.
The banquetting-houfe cieling ; it is the original defign of Rubens for the
middle compartment of that cieling, and reprefents the affumption of king
James the firft into Heaven j it belonged to fir Godfrey Kneller, who ftudied
it much, as is plain from his iketch for king William’s pidture in the par-
lour, Two feet eleven inches high, by one foot nine inches and a half wide.
Six fketches of Rubens for triumphal arches, &c. on the entry of the
infant Ferdinand of Auftria into Antwerp ; they are printed with a defeription
of that feftival. They are about two Ret and a half fquare. They were
Mr. Norton’s, and coft him 180/. at fir Peter Lely’s fale.
Bathllieba bringing Ablfliag to David ; an exceeding high-finifhed pidlure
In varnhh, by Vanderwerffej a prefent to lord Orford from the duke of
Chandos. Two feet ten inches high, by two feet three wide.
Two flower-pieces, moft highly finlflied, by Van Huyfum; his brother
lived with lord Orford, and painted moft of the pidtures In the Attic flory
here. Two feet feven inches high, by two feet two wide.
Chrift and Mary in the garden, by Philippo Laura.
The holy family, by John Bellino j it belonged to Mr. Laws.
A landfcape with figures, by Bourgognone, in the manner of Salvator Rofa.
Its companion with foldiers.
Two fmall landfcapes, by Gafpar Pouflin.
Over the door into the bed-chamber, the holy family, by Matteo Ponzoni,
a moft uncommon hand, and a very fine pidture. Three feet feven inches
and
262 A DESCRIPTION of the
and a half high, by five feet twoand\a half wide. It belonged to count
Plattemberg, the emperor’s minifter at Rome, who had carried all his pic-
tures thither and died there. They were fent to Amfterdam to be fold,
where Mr. Trevor bought this for fir Robert Walpole. Lord Burlington has
a head by the fame mafter, who was a V enetian j there are no others in Eng-
land of the hand.
Over the parlour-door, the murder of the Innocents, by Sebaftian Bourdon.
-Four feet and half an inch high, by five feet eight wide.
Over the other door, the death of Jofeph, by Velafco. Three feet three
. inches high, by four feet ten wide.
Saint Chriftopher, a very fmall picture, by Ehheimer : a prefent from fir
Henry Bedingfield. Here is a very common error among the Roman catho-
lic painters; in the diftant landfidp is a hermit, with an oratory of the vir-
gin Mary, at the time that faint Chriftopher is carrying Jefus yet a child.
At Bologna there is an old picture of the falutation, where the angel finds the
virgin Mary praying before a crucifix, with the officium beatae virginis in her
hand. In Evelyn’s preface to his tranftation of the idea of the perfeftion of
painting, he mentions a pidture of Mofes in the bullrufhes, by Paul Veronefe,
in which Pharaoh’s daughter is attended by a guard of Swifs.
The Marble Parlour.
One entire fide of this room is marble, with alcoves for fide-boards, fup-
ported with columns of Plymouth marble. Over the chimney is a fine piece
of alto relievo in ftatuary-marble, after the antique by Ryibrack, and before
one of the tables a large granite ciftern.
Henry Danvers earl of Danby, a fine whole length In the garter-robes, by
Vandyck. This lord was fon of fir John Danvers, by Elizabeth daughter of
John Nevil lord Latimer, fon-in-law of queen Catharine Parr,^ and was firR
diftinguiftied by his behaviour in the war in the Low Countries, where he
ferved under prince Maurice, and afterwards in France under Henry IV.
where he was knighted for his valour. In the Irilh wars he was lieutenant-
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL. 263
general of the horfe, and ferjeant-major of the whole army, under Robert
earl of Ellex, and Charles lord Mountjoy. In the firfi of king James I, he
was made baron of Dauntefey, and atterwards lord prelident of Munfter and
governor of Guernfey. By king Charles 1 . he was created earl of Danby,
made a privy-counfellor and knight of the garter. He founded the phyfic-
garden at Oxford, and died aged 71, 1643, at Cornbury, and is buried at
Dauntefey in Wiltlhire, where he built an alms-houfe and free-fchool. His
elder brother fir Charles loft his life in the earl of Elfex’s infurreftion. Temp.
Eliz. This pidlure was given to lord Orford by fir Jofeph Danvers. Lord
Danby built the houfe at Cirencefter, now lord Bathurft’s.
Sir Thomas Wharton, brother of Philip lord Wharton, and knight of the
Bath; whole length, by Vandyck. (From the Wharton colledHon.)
Two fruit-pieces over the door, by Michael Angelo Campidoglio, from
Mr. Scawen’s collediion.
The afeenfion, by Paul Veronefe, over a door.
The apoftles, after the afeenfion, ditto.
The Hall
Is a cube of forty, with a ftone gallery round three fides. The cieling
and the frieze of boys are by Altari. The bas-reliefs over the chimney and
doors are from the antique.
The figures over the great door, and the boys over the lefler doors, are by
Ryfbrack. In the frieze are bas-reliefs of fir Robert Walpole and Catharine
his firft lady, and of lord Walpole their eldeft fon and Margaret Rolle his
wife. From the cieling hangs a * lantern for eighteen candles, of copper gilt.
* Ben Johnfon, in his Foreft, poem 2d. has
thefe lines on Penlliurft.
Thou art not, Penfliurft, built to envious {how,
Of touch or marble j nor can’ft boaft a row
Of poliihed pillars, or a roof of gold.
Thou haft no lantern, whereof tales are told.
I imagine there was fome old pamphlet or ballad
written on a lantern of fome great man at that
time, from whence was taken the Craftfman,
which made fo much noife about this lantern at
Houghton. This lantern has fmee been fold to
the earl of Chefterfield, and is replaced by a
French luftre.
Over
264.
A DESCRIPTION of the
; i
\
{
|>i. ■'
Over the chimney is a bail of fir Robert Walpole, earl of Orford, by
Ry {brack.
Before a nich, over agalnft the chimney, is the Laocoon, a fine call in
bronze, by Girardon, bought by lord Walpole at Paris.
On the tables, the Tiber and the Nile in bronze, from the antiques in the
Capitol at Rome.
Two vafes in bronze, from the antiques in the villas of Medici and Borg-
hefe at Rome.
The buft of a woman, a mofi; beautiful antique..
The bull of a Roman emprefs, antique. *
On Terms and Confoles round the Hall are the following Bulls
and Heads:
Marcus Aurelius, antique.,
Trajan, ditto.
Septimius.Severus, ditto.! Thefe two were given to general Churchill, by
(• cardinal Alexander Albani, and by him to
Commodus, ditto. J fir Robert Walpole.,
A young Hercules, ditto.
■* This and the lafi were brought from Mrs.
Vernon’s at Twickenham park, which belonged
to Robert earl of Efl'ex, the celebrated favourite
of queen Elizabeth, who having promifed fir
Francis Bacon to get him made follicitor-general,
juft before his own difgrace, and not being able
to perform it, gave fir Francis this villa to make
bim amends. SirFiancis entertained the queen
here, and prefented her with a fonnet of his own
compofing, to intercede for the earl’s pardon. He
foon after fold Twickenham park for eighteen
hundred pounds. From thence it came into the
earl of Cardigan’s family ; they fold it to king
William : he gave it to his favourite lord Albe-
marle, whofold.it to Mr. Vernon, after whofe
widow’s death lord Montrath bought it for fifteen
thoufand pounds. Bacon, in a letter to his bro-
ther Antony, calls it, “ that wholefome pleafant
lodge and finely defigned garden.” Bacan-papers,
vol. I, 486.
Baccio
a
/
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
4
Baccio Bandinelli, by himfelf,
Fauftina fenior, antique.
A young Commodus, antique.
Homer, modern.
Hefiod, ditto.
Jupiter, antique.
265
A philofopher, ditto.
Hadrian, ditto.
Pollux, ditto.
.Heads.
Going from the Salon, down the great Steps through the Garden,,
you enter a Porch adorned with Bufts of
(
>By Camillo Rufconi,.
Rome.
Minerva.
Antinous.
Apollo Belvedere,
A philofoplier’s head, antique,
Julia Pia Sever!, ditto.
Out of this you go into a Veftibule, round which in the Niches
are fix Vafes of Volterra Alabafter. This leads into
VoL. II.
Mm
The
266 A description of the
The Gallery,
Which is feventy-three feet long, by twenty-one feet high, the middle
I'ifes eight feet higher, with windows all round; the cieling is a defign of
Serlio’s in the inner library of faint Mark at Venice, and was brought from
thence by Mr. Horace Walpole, junior; the frieze is taken from the Sibyl’s
temple at Tivoli. There are two chimnies, and the whole room is hung
with Norwich damaik. It was intended originally for a green -houfe ; but
on fir Robert Walpole's refigning his employments February 9, 1742, it was
fitted up for his pidtures, which had hung in his houfe in Dowmng-ftreet.
That houfe belonged to the crown ; king George the firft gave it to baron
Bothmar, the Hanoverian minifter, for life. On his death king George the
fecond offered it to fir Robert Walpole, but he would only accept it for his
office of firft lord of the treafury, to which poft he got it annexed for ever.
Over the fartheft chimney is that capital pidlure, and the firft in this col-
leftion, the dodors of the church : they are confulting on the immaculate-
nefs of the virgin, who is above in the clouds. This has been a moft con-
troverted point in the Romifh church. Bonofus, bilhop of Naiffus in Dacia,
was one of the firft who held that the virgin Mary had other children after
Chrift, which was reckoned a great herefy. He was condemned for it by
pope Damafus, fufpended by the council of Capua, cenfured by the biftiops
of Macedon, who declared their abhorrence of this deteftable error as they
called it, and wrote againft by pope Syricius. His followers were ftyled
Bonofiacs, or Bonofians. This doftrine had been taught before by Helvidius
anno 383, and before him by Tertullian. Thofe who oppofed the perpetual
virginity of the virgin Mary, were ftyled Antidicomarianites_. Saint Jerom
and faint Ambrofe were two of the principal champions for the virginity, and
are probably the chief figures in this pifture. Vide Bowers hijlory of thejopes,
vol. I, 263. This pretended herefy is founded on the 25th verfe of the firft
chapter of faint Matthew, where it is faid, that Jofeph knew not his wife
till file had brought forth her firft-born ; and from James and John being
frequently called the brethren of Chrift. In anfwer to this laft evidence the
orthodox fay, that among the Jews all near relations are called brothers, and
that James and John were only firft coufins to Chrift. It is obfervable, that
Raphael has followed the opinion of the virgin Mary having had offier chil-
dren, in many of his pidlures, particularly in the laft fupper in this collec-
- f ^ ^ tton.
I
I .
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL. 267
tion, he having drawn faint James extremely like Jefus Chrift. There has
been another controverfy in the Romilli church, which is more properly
called the queftion of the immaculate conception : viz. Whether the virgin
was conceived in original fin, though fandtified in her mother’s womb, or
was preferved from that ftain of general infedtion by a fpecial privilege, on
the forefight of the merits of Chrift, whom ffie was to bear. Albertus
Magnus and his followers maintained the firft againft many learned dodtors,.
who defended her exemption from original fin ; and the debate grew fa
warm, that it was judged neceflary to put an end to it by a public difputa-
tion. It was in defence of the immaculate conception that the famous Duns
Scotus obtained the name of the Subtile Dodlor. Vide antiquities of the Eng-
lijh Francifcans, page 129. I cannot help obferving, that the celebrated
pidture at Windfor of this dodior muft be ideal, for he died in the year 1308,
when there was no fuch thing as a tolerable painter ; befides that portrait
reprefents him as an elderly man, whereas he was not thirty-four when he
died. In the year 1387 the Dominicans were expelled the univerlity of Pa-
ris, for oppofing the immaculate conception, and many of them were killed.
In 1438, the council of Bafil declared it immaculate j and lahly, in 1655,
Alexander VII. peremptorily determined it to be fo. Paul V. had been
preffed to make it an article of faith, but he had been fo mortified with the
event of his rupture with and interdidt of the Venetians that he would not
venture occafioning a new fchifm. He contented himfelf to forbid the con-
trary to be taught publicly. Vide Voltaire's wiiv. hif. vol. 4, 222.
About the year 1670, the Spanifli Jefuits prevailed on * Charles II. to re-
quefl from the court of Rome that a definition might be made of the imma-
culate conception, and the famous cardinal Nidhard, who had been prime
minifter to the queen regent, and was then in honourable banifhment as em-
balTador to Clement IX. was ordered to write for the queftion, which he did,
and pretended to prove that the immaculate conception was morally, phyfi-
cally, metaphyfically, and infallibly certain. The court of Rome gave a
bull that was rather favourable to the Dominicans.. Vide Baylc in artic. Nid-
hard-, and for a more particular accoimt, the article of Mill in the general dic-
tionary, vol. 7, page 559, and Geddes' s traSls, vol. 3, page 113, 189. Mont-
faucon relates, tliat when he vifited Italy, fignor Belcreddi of Pavia had a li-
* Bifliop Burnet fays that, when that prince, ed, that his fucceflbr fliould forfeit the crown if
Charles II. called the duke of Anjou to the Spa- he did not maintriiu the immaculate conception of
liifii fuccelSon, among other penalties he enjoin- tlie virgin. Vol.-i, 25 l.
M m 2
brary
258 A DESCRIPTION of the
brary full of books In behalf of the immaculate conception, moil of them
written by Francilcans. Diar. Ital. qu, p. 26. In the year 1678, Inno-
cent XI. fuppreffed the miffal, or office of the immaculate conception of the
virgin. In Spain, they write under all her pidlures, concebida fin peccado
originale. In Luffan’s hid. of Charles VI. it is faid, page 173, vol. 2, that
the Dominicans, in the year 1388, made a fund of 120000 crowns (a vafl
fum at that time) to carry on their caufe againft the immaculate con-
ception. *
In this pidture, which is by Guido in his brighteft manner, and perfedly
preferved, there are fix old men as large as life. The expreffion, drawing,
lieiign, and colouring, wonderfully fine. In the clouds is a beautiful virgin
all in white, and before her a fweet little angel flying. Eight feet eleven
inches high, by fix feet wide. After fir Robert had bought this pidlure,
and it was gone to Civita Vecchia to be fiiipped for England, Innocent XIII.
then pope, remanded it back, as being too fine to be' let go out of Rome;
but on hearing who had bought it, he gave permiffion for its being fent away
again. It was in the colledlion of the marquis Angeli, and was engraved
by Giacomo Freii.
Over the other chimney, the prodigal fon, by Salvator Rofa. This fine
pidture was brought out of Italy by fir Robert Geare")", and cairied back by
him when he went to live there. On his deatli it was fent back to England
to be fold. Eight feet three inches high, by fix feet five and a half wide.
Meleager and Atalanta, a cartoon, by Rubens, larger than life ; brought
out of Flanders by general Wade : it being defigned for tapeftry, all the
weapons are in the left hand of the figures. Ten feet feven inches high,
by twenty feet nine and a half wide. For the ftory fee Ovid's metamorphofis,
lib. 3. When general Wade built his houfe in Burlington-garden, lord Bur-
* There is a paflage in Rabelais, book ift.
chap. 7, which evidently alludes to this con-
troverfy, where he fays that Scotus’s opinion
was reckoned heretical, who affirmed that Gar-
gantua’s own mother gave him fuck, and could
draw out of her breads at one time 1402 pipes
-and nine pails of milk. The Jacobins, who
were always unpopular for denying the immacu-
late conception, got a triumph in the 13th cen-
tury, by a cordelier’s maintaining that during the
three days of Chrift’s interment, the hypoftatic
union was diffolved : this drew great odium on
the cordeliers. Vide Hume's dijfertation on religion,
foge 48.
+ This gentleman, I fuppofe, had a colledlion :
a piiSure of Michael Angelo delle battaglie at
Wilton is faid to have cofl; 300 piftoles. See Ken-
nedy's account of Wilson, p. 70.
ling ton
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL. 269
Hngton gave the defign for it. The only direftion the general gave was, that
there might be a particular place for this pidlure ; but when the great room
was finifhed, there were fo many ornaments and correfponding doors, tliat
there was no roo'm for the pidlure, and the general not knowing what to do
with it, fold it to fir Robert Walpole.
Four markets, by Snyders; one of fowl, and another of filli, another of
fruit, and the fourth of herbs. There are two more of them at Munich,
a horfe and a fldli market ; each fix feet nine inches and a half high, by ele-
ven feet one and a half wide. Mr. Pelham has four markets by Snyders like
thefe, which he bought at marfiial W ade’s fale, the figures by Long John.
Marcus Curtius leaping into the gulph, an exceeding fine pidture, by
Mola. There are multitudes of figures, fine attitudes, and great expreffions
of pafiion. To ornament the diftant prolpedl, he lias committed fome ana-
chronifms, by placing among the buildings an amphitheatre, which were of
far later invention, and the Pantheon with the portico of Agrippa; now
Pompey was the firft that made a lafting theatre, before him they were tem-
porary, and often deftroyed by public authority. Statilius Taurus built the
firft amphitheatre in the fourth conftilftiip of Augiiftus. This acftion of Cur-
tius happened in the year 391 U. C. and the portico was built by Agrippa
(who died 741 U. C.) in his third confulfliip, as appears by the infcription
ftill remaining : M. Agrippa. L. F. Cos. III. fecit. The ftory of this ex-
ploit is thus told by Livy. “ Eodem anno (fcil. U. C. 391.) feu motu terrre,
feu qua vi alia, forum medium ferine fpecu vafto collapfum in immenfam
altitudinem dicitur : neque earn voraginem conjedlu terrae, quam pro fe quif-
que gereret, expleri potuifle, prius quam deum monitu qureri coeptum, quo
plurimum P. R. pofiet. Id enim illi loco dicandum vates canebant, fi rem-
publicam Romanam perpetuam efiTe vellent. Cum Marcum Curtium juvenem
bello egregium, caftigaffe ferunt dubitantes, an ullum magisRomanum bonum,
quam anna virtufque eftet. Silentio fadto, templa deorum immortalium,
quffi foro imminent, capitoliumque intuentem, et manus nunc in coehim,
nunc in patentes terra hiatus, ad Deos Manes porrigentem fe devoviffe ; equo
deinde quam poterat maxime exornato infidentem, armatum fe in fpecum
immifilTe, donaque ac fruges fuper eum a multitudine virorum ac mulierum
congeftas : lacumque Curtium non ab antiquo illo T. Tatii milite Curtio
Metio, fed ab hoc appellatum.” Lib. 7, cap. 6. This pidure is fix feet four
inches
A D E S C R I P T I O N OF the
inches and a half high, by eleven feet four inches and a quarter wide. And,
with the next, belonged to Gibbons the carver.
Horatius Codes defending the bridge. Its Companion. Thus defcribed
by Livy, lib. 2, cap. 10. “ Quum holies adelTent, pro fe quifque in urbem
ex agris demigrant : urbem ipfam fepiunt prsefidiis ; alia muris, alia Tiberi
objedto videbantur tuta ; pons fublicius iter pjene hoftibus dedit ; ni unus vir
fuiffet, Horatius Codes (id munimentum illo die fortuna urbis Romans
habuit) qui politus forte in ftatione pontis, quum captum repentino impetii
janiculum, atqj inde citatos decurrere holies vidiiTet : trepidamque turbam
fuorum arma ordinefq; relinquere, reprehenfans fingulos, oblillens, obtef-
tanfqj deum & hominum fidem, tellabatur : nequicquam deferto prcefidio eos
fugere, Ji tranjitum pontem a tergo reliquiffent : jam plus hojlium m palatio Ca-
pitolioque, quam in Janicido fore. Itaque monere, praecipere, ut pontem ferro,
igni, quacunque vi pojfent, interrumpant : fe impetum hofihim, quantum corpore
uno pojfet obffi, excepturum. Vaditindein primum aditum pontis: infig-
nifq; inter confpedla cedentium pugnae terga, obverfis cominus ad incundutn
prajlium armis, ipfo miraculo audacite obllupefecit holies : duos tamen cum
eo pudor tenuit, Sp. Larcium ac T. Herminium, ambos claros genere fadtif-
que : cum his primam periculi procellam, & quod tumultuofiffimum pugnae
erat, parumper fullinuit, deinde eos quoque ipfos .exigua parte pontis relidta,,
revocantibus qui refcindebant, cedere in tutum coegit. Circumferens inde
truces minaciter oculos ad proceres Etrufcorum : nunc fingulos provocare t
nunc increpare omnes : fervitia regum fuperborum, face libertatis immemores,.
alienam oppugnatum venire. Cundlati aliquamdiu funt, dum alius alium, ut
praelium incipiant, circumfpedlant : pudor deinde commovit aciem, & cla-
niore fublato undiqj in unum hollem tela conjiciunt: quas quum in objedlo
Gundla fcuto hasfiffent, neque ille minus obllinatus ingenti pontem obtineret
gradu : jam impetu conabantur detrudere virum, quum fimul fragor rupti
pontis, fimul clamor Romanorum alacritate perfedli operis fublatus, pavore
fubito impetum fullinuit. Turn Codes, Tiberine pater, inquit, te fandle
precor, hac arsna S’ hunc militem propit io futnine accipias t: ita fic armatus in
Tiberim defiluit : multifque fuper incidentibus telis incolumis ad fuos tran-
avit, rem aufus plus famai habituram ad polleros, quam fidei. Grata erga
tantam virtutem civitas fuit : llatua in comitio pofita : agri quantum uno die
circumaravit, datum, privata quoque inter publicos honores lludia emine-
bant : nam in magna inopia pro domellicis copiis unufquifque ei aliquid,
fraudans fe ipfe vidlu fuo, contulit.”
A lionefs
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
271
A llonefs and two lions, by Rubens *. Nothing can be livelier, or in a
greater ftile than the attitude of the lionefs. Five feet fix inches high, by
eight feet wide.
Architefbure j It is a kind of a ftreet with various marble palaces in per-
fpedlive, like the Strada Nuova at Genoa ; the buildings and bas-reliefs are
extremely fine, the latter efpeclally are fo like the hand of Polydore, that I
fliould rather think that this pidlure is by this mafter, than by Julio Romano,
whofe it is called. There are fome figures, but very poor ones, and un-
doubtedly not by the fame hand as the reft of the pidure j there is an officer
kneeling by a woman, who flrows the virgin and child in the clouds fitting
under a rainbow.
Aboud the year 1525, Julio Romano made defigns for Aretine’s Putana
errante, which were engraved by Marc Antonio, for which the latter was
put in prifon, and Julio fled to Mantua. Two years after Rome was facked
by Charles V. who made public proceffions and prayers for the delivery of
the pope [Clement VII.] whom he kept in prifon ; it is fuppofed the figure
kneeling in this pidure is Charles V. who is prompted by Religion to alk
pardon of the virgin (above in the clouds) for having fo ill treated the pope :
the figure fitting on the fteps is certainly Aretine, and the man in prifon in
the corner Marc Antonio, yide Bay/e in artic. Aretine. This pidure was a
prefent to lord Orford, from general Charles Churchill. Five feet fix inches
three quarters high, by fix feet eleven wide.
An old woman fitting in a chair, a portrait three quarters, by Rubens,
bought at Mr. Scawen’s fale.
An old woman reading, an extremely fine portrait, by Boll, bought at the
duke of Portland’s fale, when he went governor to Jamaica,
* When Tomo Chachi, the Indian k'mg, and
Ids company were in England, about the year
1736, they were extremely turprifed at the lions
in the Tower, animals they had never feen ; it
was faid in the public papers that they were
frightened, which being told toTomo Chachi, he
replied, that He who had ventured himfelf into
fo ftrange and diftant a country at his great age,
could not eafily be afraid of any thing. After-
wards feeing this pifture at fir Robert Walpole’s
in Downing-ftreet, he faid he was ftill more fur-
prifed that any man could draw thofe hearts (b
well ; and begged a copy, which was painted for
him by Varelft,
Cupid
DESCRIPTION OF the
Cupid burning armour, by Elifabetta SIrani, Guido’s favourite fcholar.
Two feet one inch and a half high, by two feet feven and a half wide.
The holy family, a groupe of heads, by Camillo Procaccino. One foot
nine inches high, by two feet three and three quarters wide.
An ufurer and his wife, by Quintin Maths, the blackfmith of Antwerp :
this pidture is finhlied with the greateft labour and exadlnefs imaginable, and
was painted for a family in France ; it differs very little from one at Windfor,
which he did for Charles the firft. Two feet eight inches and a half high,
by one foot ten and three quarters wide. There is a copy of this pidlure at
Hinchinbrook, and another at Boughton.
Job’s friends bringing him prefents ;• a fine pidture by Guido, which he
has executed in large, and in his brightefl; manner, in the church of the^
Mendicants at Bologna j this is dark, but there is mofl; mafterly fkill in the
naked, and in the difpofition of the figures.. Three feet one inch high, by
two feet four and a half wide..
Europa, a fine landfcape,. by Paul Brill, the figures by Dominichinl. Two
feet five inches high, by three feet five and three quarters wide,
Africa j its companion. Thefe two came out of the numerous colledtioia
of the countefs de la Verrue at Paris.
Dives and Lazarus, by Paul Veronefe. There are few of him better than
this ; the building is particularly good. Two feet feven and a half high, by
three feet five wide : it belonged to monfieur, de Morville, fecretary of fi:ate
in France;
The expofition of Cyrus, by Caftiglione; a very capital pidture of this
mafter, the fubjedl is taken from Juftin. Lib. i, cap. 4. “ Paftori regii
pecoris puerum exponendum tradit. Ejus uxor audita regii infantis expofi-
tione, fummis precibus rogat fibi aiferri oftendique puerum. Cujus precibus
fatigatus paftor, reverfus in filvam, invenit juxta infantem canein foeminami
parvulo ubera prsftantem, & a feris ahtibufque defendentem.” Two feet
four inches and a half high, by three feet fix and a quarter wide.
Its
Its companion : the fubjed, which feems at firft to be the ftory of Or-
pheus, but certainly is not, from the principal figure being thrown into the
diftant landfcape, was guelTed by lord Orford to be taken from this ftanza of
the 19th ode, lib. 2, of Horace :
Bacchum in remotis carmina rupibus
Vidi docentem ; (credite pofteri)
Nymphafque difcentes, & aures
Capripedum Satyrorum acutas»
The adoration of the fiiepherds, by old Palma, from the colledlon of
monfieur de la Vrilliere, fecretary of jftate in France, Two feet fix inches
high, by three feet ten wide..
The holy family, by ditto. Two feet feven inches and a half high, by
four feet five wide : from monfieur Flinck's colledion.
A fine moon-light landfcape with a cart overturning, by Rubens. Two
feet ten inches high, by four feet one wide. It was lord Cadogan’s, and has
been engraved.
A nymph and firepherd, by Carlo Cignani. Three feet four inches high,
by four feet one and a half wide. Mr. Charles Stanhope had another of the
fame defign, but much darker.
Two women, an emblematical piiflure, by Paris Bourdon. Three feet fix
inches high, by four feet two wide : from Mr. Flinck’s colledion,
Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, by Pietro Cortona. The great duke has a
fmall iketch of this, but reverfed, and with the Sarah and other figures at a
diftance, the Flagar is much fairer than in this. Six feet ten inches high,
by fix feet one wide.
Abraham’s facrifice, by Rembrandt. Abraham’s head, and the naked
body of Ifaac, are very fine ; the painter has avoided much of the horror of
the ftory, by making Abraham cover the boy’s face, to hide the horror from
VoL. II. N n himfelf.
274- ^ A D ES C R IPX lO N OP THE
himfelf. Six feet three inches high, by four feet three and three quarters wide.
The old man and his fons with the bundle of flicks, by Salvator Rofa, in
his fine tafte. Six feet high, by four feet two and a half wide.
The adoration of the fhepherds, odtagon, a moil perfedl and capital pic-
ture of Guido, not inferior to the dodtors : the beauty of the virgin, the de-
licacy of her and the child, (which is the fame as in the Simeon’s arms in
the falon) the awe of the fiiephcrds, and the chiaro ofcuro of the whole pic-
ture, which is in the fineft prefervation, are all incomparable ; you fee the
fliepherds ready to cry out one to another, Deus! Deus ille, Menalca! There
is one of this fame defign in the church of the Chartreufe at Naples, large as
life, oblong, with many more figures, but unfinilhcd : This belonged to
monfieur de la Vrilliere. Three feet three inches and a half every way.
There is a fine print of it.
The continence of Scipio, by Nicolo Pouffin ; painted with all the purity
and propriety of an ancient bas-relief. The ftory is told by Livy, lib. 26,
cap. 50. “ Captiva deinde a militibus adducitur ad eum adulta virgo, adeo
eximia forma, ut quacunque incedebat, converteret omnium oculus. Scipio
percunclatus patriam, parentefque, inter cetera accepit, defponfatam ^ earn
principi Celtiberorum adolefcenti, cut Allucio nomen erat. Extemplo igitur
parentibus, fponfoque ab domo accitis, quum interim audiret deperire eum
fponfaj amore ; ubi primum venit, accuratiore eum fermone quam parentes
alloquitur. Juvenis, inquit, juvenem appello : quo minus fit inter nos hujus
fermonis verecundia. Ego, quumfponfa tua capta a militibus nofris ad me de-
dubta efet, audiremque earn tibi cordi e/e, & forma faceret fidem ■, qmaipfe,/
frui liceret ludo atatis (prafertim rebto & legitimo amore) & non Refpubhca
animum noftriim occupa/et, veniam rnihi dari fponfam impenfius amantt vellem :
tuo, cujus pofum, amori faveo. Fuit fponfa tua apud me eddem, qua apiid
foceros tuos parentefque fuos verecundid : fervata tibi eft, ut inviolatum & dig-
num me teque dari tibi donum poftet. Hanc mercedem unam pro eo munere pa-
cifcor, amicus populo Romano fts: & ft me virum bonum credis e/e, qualespa-
trem patruumque tneum jam ante hee gentes norant, fcias rnultos noftri ftmues m
dvitate Romana e/e : nec uiium in terris populum hodie did po/e, quern minus
tibi hojkm tuifque e/e velis, aut amicuin malis. Quum adolefcens fimul pu-
dore, gaudioque perfufus, dextram Scipionis tenens, Deos omnes invocaret ad
gratiam
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL. 275
gratiam illi pro fe referendum : quoniam fbi nequaqiiam fatis facultatis pro fua
animo, atque illius erga fe merito,. ejfet, Parentes inde, cognatique virginis
appellati, Qui quoniam gratis fibi redderetur virgo j ad quam rediraendam
lads magnum attulilFent auri pondus : orare Scipionem, ut id ub fe donum ac~
ciperet, ccsperunt : baud minorem ejus rei apud fe gratiam futuram ejfe at-
lirmantes, qtiam redditce inviolata foret virginis. Scipio, quando tanto opere
peterent, accepturum fe pollicitus, poni ante pedes juffit : vocatoque ad fe
Allucio : Super dotem,. inquit, quam accepturus d focero es^ hac tibi d me do~
talia dona accedent^ aurumq; tollere, ac fibi habere juffit. His lastus donis
honoribufque dimiffiis domum, implcvit populares laudibus & meritis Sci-
pionis : Veniffe Diis fmillimum juvenem, vincentem omnia quum armis-, turn
benignitate ac beneficiis"
When thus the virtuous conful had decreed,.
A captive virgin to his tent they lead :
In her each motion Ihin’d attradlive grace.
And beauty’s faireft features form’d her face.
A Celtiberian prince her dellin’d fpoufe,.
But, more than int’reft, love had bound their vows,.
Allucius was his name. When Scipio heard
How fond the youth, how for his bride he fear’dj:
He fummons to his tribune all her friends :
Allucius in that number chief attends.
To him the conful moll addrefs’d his word,,
To him, her anxious lover and her lord.
“ A youth myfelf, to thee a youth I call.
Led; didant awe thy freer fpeech appall.
When to my tent this beauteous maid was brought,.
When of your mutual paffion I was taught.
And foon her charms confirm’d the dory true,
(For Scipio’s felf cou’d idolize like you)
Durd I indulge the charadler of age.
And in a youthful, lawful love engage ;
Did not the commonwealth enjoy me whole.
And all majedic Rome pofiefs my foul :
Oh ! I cou’d love like thee j like thee cou’d pine i
Like thee cou’d — but, Allucius, die is thine !
Nn z
Inviolate
A DESCRIPTION of the
Inviolate have I preferved the maid;
Not purer in her native courts (he flay’d :
Pure, as becomes a Roman chief to give;
Pure, as becomes thy paffion to receive.
The foie return for this fair boon I alk ;
To live a friend to Rome be all thy tafk :
And if in me fome virtue you have known.
As other Scipio’s in this realm have fhown ;
Think many fuch fpring from her glorious womb.
And learn to love the virtuous fons of Rome.”
This pidlurc belonged to monfieur de Morville, and is three feet eight
inches and three quarters high, by five feet two wide.
Mofes flriking the rock, by Nicolo Pouffin. There is a great fault in it,
Mofes is by no means the principal figure, nor is he flriking the rock an-
grily, and with a great air, but feems rather fcraping out the water. The
thirft in all the figures, the piety in the young man lifting his father to the
flream, and the devotion in others, are extremely fine. It was painted for
Stella, and bought of a French nobleman, in the beginning of the lafl war
between France and the emperor Charles VI. who declared he fold it to pay
for his campaign equipage. Three feet eleven inches and a half high, by
fix feet three -and a half wide. It has been engraved.
The placing Chrifl in the fepulchre, over the door, by Ludovico Caracci.
Six feet three inches high, by five feet one wide.
Mofes in the bullruflies, by Le Sceur ; a prefent to lord Orford from the
duke of Montagu. Seven feet one inch high, by four feet eight and a half
wide. There is a print of it.
The adoration of the Magi, by Carlo Maratti. He has painted another
of them in the church of the Venetian St. Mark at Rome. Six feet eleven
inches high, by four feet four wide.
Cows and fheep, by Teniers, in his beft manner ; one foot eleven inches
high, by two feet nine wide. A Undfeape
PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL.
277
A landfcape with a cafcade and flieep ; a very fine pidlure, by Gafpar
Pouflln. It was bought at the late earl of Halifax’s fale. One foot eleven
inches high, by two feet nine wide. Pond publifhcd a print of it.
The lad fupper, by Raphael. It was in the Arundel colledtion, and is men-
tioned in the catalogue of thofe pictures ; from thence it came into the pof-
feffion of the earl of Yarmouth, and from him to fir John Holland, of whom
lord Orford bought it. It is in fine preiervation. One foot eight inches
high, by two feet eight and a half wide. There are various prints from it.
Solomon’s idolatry, by Stella. It is painted on black and gold marble,
which is left untouched in many places for the ground. There are many
figures finely finiflicd, and feveral beautiful airs of women’s heads. One foot
ten inches high, by two feet five and a quarter wide.
A fea-portj a fine pidlure of Claude Lorrain. There is a bright fun play-
ing on the water, and the whole fliine of the pidture is in his very bed man-
ner. It belonged to monfieur Morville. Three feet one inch and a quarter
high, by four feet two and a half wide.
A calm fea, ditto. A mod pleafing and agreeable pidlure. There are
two figures on the fore-ground. Apollo and the Sibyl ; die is taking up a
handful of fand, for every grain of which die was to live a year. Apollo
granted her this, boon as the price of her perfon, which afterwards die re-
fufed him. The promontory is defigned for Cuma;, the refidence of the
Sibyl. Among the buildings are the ruins of the cadellum aqu$ Martiee,
with the trophies of Marius, which are now placed in the capitol ; the re-
mains of the building itfelf dand near the Colifeum. Three feet two inches
and three quarters high, by four feet one wide.
Two landfcapes by Gafpar Poudin, in his dark manner, that at the upper
end of the gallery is fine. Thefe two and the latter Claude were in the
colledlion of the marquis of Mari. Mr. Edwin, of whom thefe were pur-
chafed, had two more j the prince of Wales bought the fine one of Jonah
in the dorm, the only fea-piece, I believe, of that hand. Three feet three
inches and a quarter high, by four feet five and a quarter wide each.
The
278 A DESCRIPTION, &c.
%
The Joconda, a * wife, reckoned the handfomeft woman of her
time; fhe was miftrefs to Francis L king of France; by Lionardo da Vinci.
She would often fit half naked, with mufic, for feveral hours together, to be
drawn by him.. Mr. Richardfon had another of them. This was monfieur
de Morville’s. Two feet nine inches high, by two feet and a quarter wide,
Apollo, by Cantarini, a cotemporary of Guido, whofe manner he imitated.
Two feet feven inches high, by two feet and a quarter wide.
The holy family, with angels, by Valerio Caftelli, who ftudied Vandyck,.
Two feet five inches high, by one foot eleven and a half wide.
The eagle and Ganymede, by Michael Angelo Buonarotti ; a fubjedt he
has often repeated, but with alterations. The king has. one larger, and the
queen of Hungary another, printed in Teniers’s gallery : there is another
in the Altieri palace at Rome; Two feet eleven inches high, by one foot
eleven wide. There is a print of it.
iEtherias Aquila puerum portante per auras,
Illasfum timidis unguibus hsefit onus. Mart. lib. i, ep. 7.
The virgin and child, a moll: beautiful, bright, and capital pidure, by;
Dominichino. Bought out of the Zambeccari palace at Bologna, by Horace
Walpole, junior. Two feet four inches high, by one foot eleven and a
half wide.
The falutation, a fine finifhed pidure, by Albano. The angels are much
the fame with thofe in the great pidure by this matter in the falon. Two .
feet high, by one foot fix inches and a half wide.
■* Mezeray calls.her La Ferronlere, and fays, who never recovered it. The fame Lory is told
her hufband being enraged at the king’s taking of lord Southelk and king James II. when duke
her, caught on purpofe a very violent diftemper, of York.
W'hich he communicated through her to the king,'
A SERMON
A
SERMON
O N
P A I N T I N G.
PREACHED BEFORE
The Earl of O R FO R D, at Houghton, 1742.
PSALM CXV. Verse 5.
^hey have Mouths f but they fpeak not: Eyes have they, but they fee not:
neither is there any Breath in their Nojirils.
T HESE words, with which the royal prophet lalhes the infenfibility of
the gods of Paganifm, are fo defcriptive of modern idolatry, - that tho’
fo frequently applied, they ftill retain all the force of their firft feverity, I
do not defign to run into the parallel of ancient and modern fuperhition, but
fhall only obferve with concern, that the fame arguments which at laft ex-
ploded and defeated the heathenifm of the Gentiles, have not yet been able
to conquer the more obftinate idolatry of Chriftians. The blind, the mif-
led Pagans, bowed and adored the firlt ray of truth that broke in upon them:
but we have eyes, and will not fee !
I muR
I
\
I
4
t .
280 A SERMON ON PAINTING.
I muft remark to you, that the words in the text, though fpoken of
images, which were more particularly the gods of the ancients, are equally
referable to the pictures of the Romilh church, and to them I fhall chiefly
confine this difcourfe.
Indeed, fo grofs is the error of adoring the works of the creature, that
the folly feems almoft greater tlaan the fin j feems rather to demand pity»
than provoke indignation ! They would worfhip ! they bow to a fliadow !
They would adore the incomprehenfible God ! but they revere the faint pro-
duce of their own idea ! Inftead of him who is the eye of the univerfal world j
who fpeaks through all nature, who breathes life into every Being; inftead
of him, they adore lliadows, that have eyes, but fee not; mouths, but
fpeak not ; neither is there any breath in their noftrils. Thefe are thy gods,
O Rome !
It has been obferved, that the evil principle has with the moft refined po-
licy always chofen to fpread his law under the covert of the true one; and has
never more fuccefsfully propogated fin, than when introduced under the veil
of piety. In the prefent cafe, has he not deluded men into idolatry by pall-
ing it on the world for religion ? He preached up adoration of the godhead,
but taught them to worlliip the copy for the originaL Nay, what might
have tended to heighten their devotion, he perverted to the means of their
deftrucftion. Painting in itfelf is innocent ; no art, no fcience can be crimi-
nal ; it is the mifapplication that muft conftitute the fin. Can it be wrong,-
to imitate or work after the works of the divinity, as far as man can copy
the touches of the great artificer ? It is when with impious eyes we look on
the human performance as divine ; when we call our own trifling imitations
of the deity, inimitable gods : it is then we fin : this is vanity ! this is idol-
atry ! Would we with other eyes regard thefe efforts of art, how conducive
to religion ! What fubjeds for devout meditation ! How great that Being,
that could give to his produdions the power even to work after his almighty
hand, to draw after his heavenly defigns ! Could we fo inform our labours,
our creations, then were idolatry more excufable ; then might the veffel fay
to the potter. How haji thou made me thus P
And
A SERMON ON PAINTING.
281
And here I can but reflect on that Infinite goodnefs, whofe thought for
our amufement and employment is fcarce lefs admirable than his care for our
Being and prefervation. Not to mention the various arts which he has plant-
ed in the heart of man, to be elaborated by ftudy, and ftruck out by appli-
cation j I will only mention- this one of Painting. Himfelf from the duft
could call forth this glorious fcene of worlds ; this expanfc of azure heavens
and golden funs ; thefe beautiful landfcapcs of hill and dale, of forefl: and
of mountain, of river and of ocean ! From nothing, he could build this
goodly frame of man, and animate his univcrfal pidlure with images of him-
To ns, not endowed with omnipotence, nor mailers of creation, he
has taught with formlefs mafles of colours and diverfifications of light and
fliade, to call forth little worlds- from the blank canvafs, and to people our
mimic landfcapes with almoil living inhabitants j figures, who though they
fee not, yet have eyes ; and have mouths that fcarce want fpeech. Indeed,,
fo great is the perfedlion to which he hath permitted us to arrive, that one is
lefs amazed at the poor vulgay, who adore what feems to furpafs the genius
of human nature ; and almmt excufe the credulity of the populace, who fee
miracles made obvious to the\r fenfes by the hand of a Raphael or a Guido.
Can we wonder at a poor illiterate creature’s giving faith to any legend in
the life of the Romifh virgin, who fees even the dodors of the * church dif-
puting with fuch energy on the marvellous circumllances afcribed to her by
the catholicks ? He mufl; be endowed with a courage, a ftrength of reafoning
above the common ftandard, who can rejed fables when the fword enforces,
and the pencil almofi; authenticates the belief of them. Not only birds have
pecked at painted fruit, nor horfes neighed at the coloured female ; Apelles
himfelf, the prince of the art, was deceived by one of its performances.
No wonder then the ignorant fhould adore, when even the mafler himfelf
could be cheated by a refemblance..
When I thus foften the crime of the deceived, I would be underftood to
double the charge on the real criminal; on thofe miniflers of idolatry, who
calling themfelves fervants of the living God, transfer his fervice to inanimate
images. Inltead of pointing out his attributes in thofe objeds, that might
* See the piAure by Guido, in the gallery.
O o
Vox.. II.
make
282 A SERMON on PAINTING.
make religion more familiar to the common conceptions j they enflinne the
frail works of mortality, and burn incenfe to canvafs and oil !
Where is the good pried ? where the true charitable Levite, to point out the
creator in the works of the creature ? To aid the doubting, to ftrengthen the
weak, to imprint the eternal idea on the frail underftanding ? Let him lead the
poor unpradifed foul through the paths of religion, and by familiar images
mould his diidile imagination to a knowledge of his maker. Then were
painting united with devotion, and ranfomed from idolatry ; and the blended
labours of the preacher and the painter might tend to the glory of God : then
were each pidure a fermon, each pencil the pen of a heavenly -writer.
Let him fay, Thus humble, thus refigned, looked the * fon of God,
when he deigned to receive baptifm from the hand of man j while miniftring
angels with holy awe beheld the wond’rous office.
Thus chaftly beauteous, in fuch meek majefty, ffione the f mother of
God ! Thus highly favoured among women was the handmaid of the Lord !
Here behold the heavenly love of the holy family ! the tender care, the in-
nocent fmiles, the devout contemplation ! Behold infpired | ffiepherds bow-
ing before the heavenly babe, and the holy mother herfelf adoring the fruit
of her womb ! Whilft good § Simeon in raptures of devotion pronounces the
bleffings of that miraculous birth !
Then let him turn his eyes to fadder \\ feenes ! to afflidion ! to death !
Let him behold what his God endured for his fake ! behold the pale, the
wounded body of his faviour; wafted with falling j livid from the croft.
See the fuffering parent fwooning j and all the paffions expreffed which ffie
mull have felt at that melancholy inftant ! Each touch of the pencil is a lef-
fon of contrition, each figure an apoftle to call you to repentance.
* Sec the picture by Albano in the ftilon.
f Several piaures of Madonnas, particularly
■in the Carlo Marat room, and holy families.
i The oftagon pidure of the adoration, by
Guido, in the gallery.
§ Simeon and the child, by Guido, in the
falon.
II See the pidlure of Chrift laid in the fepul-
chre, by Parmegiano, in the cabinet.
This
A SERMON ON PAINTING. 283
This leads me to confider the advantages of Painting over a fifter art, which-
has rather been allotted the preference, I mean Poetry. The power of words,,
the harmony of numbers, the expreffion of thoughts, have raifed poetry to
a higher ftation than the mute pidlure can feem to afpire to. But yet the
poem is almoft confined to the nation where it was written : however ftrong
its images, or bold its invention, they lofe their force when they pafs their
own confines ; or not underftood, they are of no value j or if tranfiated, grow
flat and untafted. But Painting is a language every eye can read : the pic-
tured paflions fpeak the tongue of every country.
The continence of * Scipio fliines with ail its luftre, when told by the
hand of a Pouflin ; while all the imagination of the poet, or eloquence of
the hiftorian, can call no beauty on the virtuous a£t, in the eye of an illiterate
reader.
When fuch benefits flow from this glorious art, how impious is it to cor-
rupt its ufes, and to employ the nobleft fcience to the mercenary purpofes of
prieftly ambition ! To lend all the brightnefs with which the mafter’s hand
could adorn virtue, to deck the perfecuting, the barbarous, the wicked head
of a fainted inquifitor, a gloomy vifionary, or an imaginary hermit! Yet
fuch are deified, fuch are fhrouded in clouds of glory, and expofed for ador-
ation, with all the force of ftudy and colours I How often has a confecrated
glutton, or, noted concubine, been dreft in all the attributes of divinity, as
the lewdnefs or impiety of the painter or pontiff has influenced the pidlure I —
The pontiffs ! thofe gods on earth ! thofe vicegerents of heaven I whofe
riches, whofe vices, nay, whofe infirmities and near approach to the grave
have perhaps raifed them to the -|- feat of infallibility} foon proved how frail,
how mortal, when the only immortality they can hope, is from the maflerly
pencil of fome ineftimable painter 1
This is indeed not one of the leafl: merits of this, I may fay, heavenly art —
its power to preferve the form of a departed friend, or dear relation dead I
To fhow how feverely juft looked the good legiflator 1 how awfully ferene
* See the pidfure o» this fubjed in the gallery. f See the pidlure of pope Qement IX. in the
Carlo Marat room.
O o 2
the
4 A SERMON on PAINTING.
the humane, the true patriot ! It fhows us with what fire, what love of
manicind, * William flew to fave religion and liberty! It expreflTes how
honefl:, how benign the line of Hanover ! It helps our gratitude to confe-
crate their memory ; and fliould aid our devotion to praife the almighty
goodnefs, who by thofe his inftruments has preferved his people Ifrael !
When we can draw fuch advantages from the productions of this art, and
can collect fuch fubjeCts for meditation from the furniture of palaces, need
we fly to deferts for contemplation, or to forefts to avoid fin ? Here are
ftronger leCtures of piety, more admonitions to repentance. Nor is he vir-
tuous who fhuns the •f' danger, but who conquers in the contefl:. He is the
true philofopher, who can turn from three the brighteft forms that Paganifm
or painting could afcribe to ideal goddefles ; and can prefer the penitent, the
contrite foul of the J Magdalene, whofe big-fwoln eye and diflieveled hair
fpcak the anguifli of her confcience ; her coflly offering, and humble em-
braces of her faviour’s feet, the fervency of her love and devotion. Who can
fee this without repentance ? Who view the haughty worldly Pharifee, with-
out abhorrence and indignation ?
Sights like thefe mufl; move, where the preacher fails ; for each picture is
but fcripture realized ; and each piece a comment on the hiftory ; they are
explications of parables, that feeing ye may fee and underjland. The painter
but executes pictures which the faviour himfelf defigned. He drew in all
the colours of divine oratory, the rich, the pampered nobleman, fwelling in
purple and fine linen, and fumptuoufly banqueting his riotous companions :
he drew poor anguifhed § Lazarus, fighing without the proud portal for the
very crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, while the dogs came and
licked his fores 1 Who can hear this defcription without fentiments of com-
paflion, or emotions of anger ? Who can fee it reprefented, without blaming
the one, or fhedding a charitable tear for the other ? Who can, — is as
the idol that has a mouth but /peaks not, and eyes that cannot fee.
* See the portraits of king William III. and
king George I. by fir Godfrey Kneller, in the
parlour.
+ See the judgment of Paris, by Carlo Marat
and by Luca Jordano, in the yellow drawing-
room.
J See the piflure of Chrill at the boufe of Si-
mon the Pharifee, by Rubens, in the falon.
§ See the pidlure of Dives and Lazarus, by
Paul Veronefe, in the gallery.
Again,
A SERMON ON PAINTING.
285
Again, behold the divine mafter fketching out new groupes of figures,
which every day compofe pidtures of fin, of folly and repentance ! Hear him
paint the luxurious * prodigal, given up to riot and debauchery ; hear him
draw the confequential ills, the miferies, the want, that tread hard upon his
profufion and excefs. See that prodigal, half naked, half in rags, uncouth
and foul, kneeling among fwine, and curfing the vices that drew on him
fuch extremity of difirefs. With him let us arife and fay, I will go to my
father, a?id fay unto him, father, I have fnned againfl heaven and thee, and
am no more worthy to be called thy fon I That father will hear, will not turn
from the cry of the penitent : he is not like thofe idols, that have ears and
hear not. Will the Romifh faints do thus ? Can their hallowed Madonnas
thus incline to their fupplications ? Can thofe gaudy miffionaries, whofe
confecrated portaits elbow the altars of the living God, can they call; their
unfeeing eyes on their proftrate votaries Can their fpeechlefs mouths fay, 1
•will, be thou clean"? Alas 1 thofe faints which thofe worfliiped pidtures
reprefent, may themfelves want the very pardon, which their deluded ador-
ers fo idolatroufly demand of them. Thus be it as we affirm, that they
worfhip them and their images ; or, as they pretend, that they only pray to
them to pray to God j how lamentable is their option ! Either to adore
idols inftead of the divinity ; or to beg their interceffion, who themfelves
want all the interceffion of the Son of God.
One really knows not how to account for the prevalence of this fin. Men
fly from God into all the various crimes which human nature is capable of
committing ; and when apprehenfions of futurity, or decay of appetite over-
take them, inflead of throwing themfelves into the arms of eternal mercy or
infinite goodnefs, they barter for pardon with impotent images, or perifhed
mortals, who died with the repute of a few lefs fins than the reft of man-
kind ! But could thefe fuppofititious deities attend to their prayers why
Ihould canvafs or ftone, why men who when living were fubjedt to all the
obduracy, ill-nature, and paffions of humanity, . why be fuppofed more ca-
pable of pity, more fenfible of our forrows, than the fountain of tendernefs
and compaffion, who facrificed his beft-beloved for the fake of mankind ?
Or why prefer the purchafe of pardon from interefted mercenary faints, to
* See the pidure on this flory, by Salvator Rofa, in the gallery.
the
286 A SERMON on PAINTING.
the free forgivenefs of him who delighteth not in burnt-offerings ? Who
hath no pleafure in the death of a fmner, but rather that he fhould turn from
his wickednefs and live ?
Yet ftill this prodigality of devotion Is the favourite, the fafhionable reli-
gion ! This builds thofe hofpitals for droning monks ; this raifes thole fump-
tuous temples, and decks their gorgeous altars, * Mifers, who count far-
things with fuch labour and exadtnefs, with fuch careful minutenefs, who
would deny a mite to the fatherlefs and widow, here fquander their precious
treafures and darling exadtions. View but the tabernacle of a faint in vogue i
How offerings pour in ! What riches are fhowered upon their altars ! Not
happy 'I' Job, when relieved from his misfortunes, and replaced on the feat of
felicity, faw fuch treafures, fuch oblations heaped on him by the bounty and
munificence of his returning friends.
How great is one’s furprize, on coming to enquire into the merits that are
the foundation of this univerfal efteem ! Perhaps a churlifli reclufenefs j a
bold oppofition of lawful magiftrates ; a dogmatical defence of church-pre-
rogatives j a felf-tormenting fpirit^ or worfe, a fpirit that has tormented
others, under colour of eradicating herefies, or propagating the faith, is the
only certificate they can fhow for their titles to beatitude. No love of fo-
clety j no public fpirit ; no heroic adtions } are in the catalogue of their vir-
tues. A morofe Carthufian, or bloody Dominican, are invefted with robes
of glory, by authority of councils and confiftories j while a J Curtius or a
Codes are left to the chance of fame, which a private pencil can bellow oa
them.
But it is not neceffary to dive into profane hiftory for examples of unre-
garded merit : the feriptures themfelves contain inflances of the greatefl pa-
triots,, who lie negledled, while new-fafhioned bigots or noify incendiaries
are the reigning objedts of public veneration. § See the great Mofes himfelf!
the law-giver, the defender, the preferver of Ifrael ! Peevifh orators are
» See the pldture of the ufurers, by Quint. t S>ee the two piflures on their ftories, hy
Matfis, in the gallery. Mola, in the gallery.
t See 'the picture on. this fubject, by Guido, § The allufion to lord Orford’s life is carried
in the nailery, through this whole charafler.
more
A SERMON ON PAINTING. 287
more run after, and artful Jefults more popular. Examine but the life of
that flighted patriot : how boldly in his youth he undertook the caufe of li-
berty ! Unknown, without intereft, he flood againfl the face of Pharaoh !
He faved his countrymeh from the hand of tyranny, and from the dominion
of an idolatrous king : how patiently did he bear for a feries of years the
clamours and cabals of a fadfious people, wandering after flrange lufls, and
exalperated by ambitious ringleaders ! How oft did he intercede for their
pardon, when injured himfelf ! How tenderly deny them fpecious favours,
which he knew mufl turn to their own deflrudlion ! See him lead them thro
"oppofition, through plots, through enemies, to the enjoyment of peace, and
to the poflefllon of a land flowing with milk and honey 1 Or with more fur-
prize fee him in the * barren defert, where fands and wilds overfpread the
dreary fccne, where no hopes of moiflure, no profpeft of undifcovered fprings
could flatter their parching thirfl j fee how with a miraculous hand
He flruck the rock, and flrait the waters flow’d, -f*
Whoever denies his praife to fuch evidence of merit, or with jealous look
can fcowl on fuch benefits, is like the fenfelefs idol, that has a mouth that
/peaks not, and eyes that cannot flee.
Now to God the father, &c.
*■ Alludes to the waters made at Houghton, by Pouffin, in the gallery,
and to the piSure of Mofes ftriking the rock, A line of Cowley.
FINIS.
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