Yale Center for British Art
Gift of
JULES DAVID PROWN

.JAMES HOLMES and JOHN VARLEY

JAMES HOLMES.

J''ivi/i a cravon draioing h\ Jurioard flo/incs.

JAMES HOLMES

AND

JOHN VARLEY

BY

ALFRED T. STORY
III
AUTHOR OF THE 'LIFE OF JOHN LINNELL'

LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON
Piiblisfjcrs in ffirtiiitarg to ?§er jJKaJEsta tfjj ©iitEit
1894

A II rights reserved

TO
MR. GEORGE AUGUSTUS HOLMES
THIS BOOK
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

CONTENTS
JAMES HOLMES
CHAPTER I
Introduction . . 3
CHAPTER n
Early Career . . . 6

CHAPTER ni
Beau Brummell CHAPTER IV
Henry Richter .

PAGE

15

24

CHAPTER V
Richard and William Westall . 35
CHAPTER VI
Portraits of Byron . . . .48

Vlll

James Holmes

CHAPTER VII
PACE
Opinion of Byron . . . .61

CHAPTER VIII
The Leigh Family . . .71
CHAPTER IX
Holmes a Courtier . 85
CHAPTER X
Aristocratic Friends and Others . . 97
CHAPTER XI
Some of the Artist's Circle . 107
CHAPTER XII
Sir Henry Meux and Company i-,.
CHAPTER XIII
A Famous Smuggler CHAPTER XIV
An Unlucky and a Lucky Artist
CHAPTER XV
Boydell, Owen, and Others CHAPTER XVI
Baron de Bode

134

145

155

171

Contents ix

CHAPTER XVII
PAGE
Aristocratic Friends and Patrons . .180

CHAPTER XVIII
The End .....

JOHN VARLEY

CHAPTER I
First Beginnings . . . . , -199
CHAPTER II
The Growing Man . . . .213
CHAPTER III
Cornelius Varley . . . 221
CHAPTER IV
William Mulready and Sons . . .229
CHAPTER V
Varley as Astrologist . . . 242
CHAPTER VI
Blake AND Linnell ... . 259

X fohn Varley

CHAPTER VII
PAGE
Character of Varley . . . ¦ .269
CHAPTER VIII
Closing Scenes . . . . .281
CHAPTER IX
Conclusion ...... 294

JAMES HOLMES
ARTIST AND COURTIER (of George IV)

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In the following pages I have endeavoured to
reproduce, in as faithful a manner as possible, the
life and surroundings of a man who cut a consider
able figure in his time, not on account merely of his
art, but by reason of the society into which he was
thrown, and the many famous and otherwise dis
tinguished men and women whom he met. As
regards himself, perhaps the most noteworthy
circumstance was the genial bonhomie which caused
his society to be courted on every hand, and made
him everywhere a welcome and honoured guest.
H& appears to have been one of those frank and
buoyant natures that throw off care and radiate the
sunshine of a kindly heart wherever they go.
Although born in a humble sphere of life, and
compelled to climb an arduous and uphill path to
competence and such fame as he acquired, yet,
while still a young man, he was a favoured guest at

Life of fames Holmes

Court, the intimate friend of the greatest poet of his
time, and the chosen companion of many others who
played important parts in the social and political life
of their day.
It is the m,ilieu in which his life was cast that
makes the reminiscences of James Holmes chiefly
valuable to-day. By saying this, I do not wish
in any sense to depreciate the subject of my
biography, nor by any means to belittle his work.
But the story of a man the incidents of whose life
relate chiefly to the beginning, finish, and sale (if
he have such luck) of his pictures, does not
present much of interest to the biographer or the
public, beyond the brief record of his struggle and
his achievement. It is different, however, when his
studio is, as it were, an ante-chamber to the saloons
of the great, and we behold pass through it — and as
they move across the stage get a glimpse of — the
figures of men and women whose every action is of
interest to us to-day. And even in the case of those
who may not in the highest sense be regarded as
historical personages, we cannot be altogether indif
ferent, for they too had their respective places and
parts, and lent colour and life to the passing show.
It is these considerations that have induced me
to put together this life and these reminiscences.
They enable us in a way to realise the life of our

Introduction

fathers' and grandfathers' days, and show us in what
our times are different from theirs, and in what
respects we have improved, and in what perhaps
retrograded. Sometimes it will seem hard to bring
ourselves to believe that little more than half a
century divides us from scenes which are herein
described, while in other instances hardly so many
as fifty years have elapsed since the occurrence of
events that would have seemed more in place
amongst the records of the Dark Ages.
I ought, perhaps, to say that in the compilation
of the following pages I have beeri greatly indebted
to the artist's two surviving sons, Edward^ and
George A. Holmes, but particularly to the latter,
who, when letters and other documents did not
serve, had recourse to a very long and retentive
memory, which recalled persons and scenes with a
vividness and point that seemed to suggest some
thing of yesterday's occurrence rather than of years
and years ago.
1 Since writing the above Mr. Edward Holmes has passed away. He was
one of the most modest and retiring of men, and gifted beyond common as a
portrait and landscape painter. His delight was in landscape ; and some of
his works won the admiration of those best able to judge of the quality of such
art. But he was one of those who "never had a chance," as he complained
shortly before his death. The chance did not come to him, and he was not
able to take it sword in hand. But it does not matter now : those who knew
him best will ever remember him as the kindly soul who loved the quiet
chimney corner and a wet day.

CHAPTER II

EARLY CAREER

James Holmes was born in the year 1777. His
father was a dealer in diamonds and precious stones,
and lived in Clerkenwell, which is still a district
noted for its manufacturers and dealers in that line
of business ; and one of the child's earliest recollec
tions was of playing with the bright jewels, which
he handled and pushed about upon the table, regard
ing them as so many very bright and pretty stones,
and which, perhaps, first laid the foundation of that
love of and taste for colour which afterwards
distinguished him.
His recollections of his father, however, were
only slight, as he died when the boy was still very
young, not more than seven or eight years of age
at the most.
His next strongest and earliest remembrance
was of being at school, where he was constantly
making drawings of what he saw about him in-

Early Career

stead of learning the lessons that were set him.
He was often taken to task for neglecting his
proper studies ; but finally the good-natured and
— as we must account him — wise schoolmaster,
perceiving that a gift for drawing was his ruling
passion, gave him a book of ASsop's Fables, and
set him to making careful drawings after the wood
cuts. Many of these he copied with great spirit,
and they were admiringly preserved by the school
master, who once at least encouraged the young
artist with some trifling present. This may be said
to have been his first commission.
His mother, noting this talent for drawing, and
following the advice of friends who were anxiously
consulted on the subject, decided to make an
engraver of him. Accordingly he was apprenticed
to Meadows, the well-known engraver, and with
him he remained until he was twenty-one.
Meanwhile many influences were being brought
to bear to develop the boy's genius and mould his
character. First and foremost amongst these must
be reckoned the example, and to some extent the
training, of an educated Frenchman.
Shortly after the father's death occurred the
outbreak of the French Revolution, followed by the
gruesome years of the Reign of Terror, which
compelled so many to flee to this country for safety.

8 Life of fames Holmes
Among these was a certain Abbe de la Touz6, who —
probably through the recommendation of some one
connected with the church Mrs. Holmes attended,
she being a Catholic — became an inmate of her
house, and so remained during a considerable portion
of young Holmes's boyhood.
From the venerable Abbe he learned French, a
language which he always spoke and read with great
ease and fluency. One imagines also that he may
have imbibed from him some of the gaiety of heart
and suavity and courtliness of manners for which in
after years he was distinguished, and which served
him to such good purpose all through life. In later
days he always spoke of the Abb6 as being of a
most kindly and considerate disposition, never
speaking crossly to him or chiding him, even though
he had been rude or played some impish trick upon
him, but always addressing him gently, and, if in
reproof for any naughtiness, with a winning kindli
ness of disposition. The influence of such a nature
upon a mind like Holmes's can hardly be over
estimated ; it was a liberal education in itself.
The youth's progress as an engraver was so
rapid under Meadows' excellent tuition that the
entire management of the plates was ere long placed
in his hands ; and it is worthy of note that Richard
Westall's "Storm in Harvest" and Sir Thomas

Larly Career

Lawrence's portrait of the Duke of Leeds were
almost wholly engraved by him. In 1800, that is,
when about twenty-three years of age, he engraved
in stipple the portrait of Thomas Clio Rickman, after
Hazlitt, which proved to be a work of great merit.
Heaphy, the figure painter, and one of the
early members of the Old Water Colour Society,
was a fellow- apprentice under Meadows, and he
and Holmes in consequence became fast friends.
Woolnoth, the painter, was also a fellow-apprentice.
Another man with whom the young engraver
became intimately acquainted during these years
was William Westall, who, together with his
brother Richard above mentioned, became his life
long friend.
Encouraged probably by these men. Holmes had
during his apprenticeship devoted much time to
drawing in water colours, with the result that, by the
time he was twenty-one, he had become so proficient
that he decided henceforth to relinquish engraving
for the pursuit of the more entrancing art. The
decision was no doubt quickened by the encourage
ment he received and the stimulus he obtained at
the Academy Schools, in which he studied for some
time under Hinton, who, on seeing his drawing,
passed him at once into the life class. Meadows
was so annoyed at his abandoning engraving that

ID Life of fam.es Holmes
he vowed he would never let another apprentice of
his join the Academy Schools, as, said he, it always
finished by making painters of them.
Holmes had from his youth exhibited a marked
talent for miisic, and had, concurrently with his
studies in art, given sufficient attention to the flute
to become an expert performer on that instrument.
So much ability, indeed, did he show in this line
that Mr. Novello, later the founder of the well-
known publishing firm of that name, and the father
of Clara Novello,^ whose acquaintance he had made,
advised him to give up art and devote himself to
music as a profession, promising him that he would
make more out of it. This, however, he refused to
do, much to Novello's chagrin. Novello had,
indeed, gone so far as to recommend him to the
principal of a large school as teacher of the flute, so
highly did he esteem his playing. But the young
artist was destined for better things than flute
teaching ; although music remained throughout a
long life his chief recreation, and was the means,
somewhat later, of securing him influential friends.
John Linnell once asked him why he devoted so
much time to music. " Oh," said Holmes, "only
because I like it." "An artist," was Linnell's reply,
1 Clara Novello was accounted in her day one of the best exponents of the
music of Handel on the concert stage.

Early Career 1 1

" should never do anything but paint." The dictum,
however, was one which Linnell disregarded in after
years, giving himself much to the writing of poetry
and other literary pursuits.
Whilst speaking of Holmes's devotion to music,
reference may as well be made to a man with whom
he was brought a great deal in contact, and from
whom he learned much in regard to the flute. This
was Mr. Rudall, a person of considerable means and
an admirable flautist, afterwards the leading partner
in the firm of Rudall and Rose (now Rudall, Rose,
and Carte). This gentleman was fond of making
experiments with the flute, gradually enlarging the
holes of the instrument in order to improve its tone.
The flute as we now know it owes much to his taste
and ingenuity.
One reason for the artist's rejecting Novello's
suggestion was that the sale of several small water-
colour studies had led to an introduction to two
maiden ladies named Jeffrey, of Worcester, by
whom he was invited to go to that city and give
lessons in art. He accepted the invitation and
remained at Worcester for several months, making
the acquaintance there of the Lechmeres, the well-
known bankers of Worcester, which resulted in an
almost lifelong friendship and many portrait com
missions.

12 Life of fames Holmes
On his return to London he soon became one
of the most popular instructors in water-colour
painting ; but he was now gaining so much atten
tion through his portraits in miniature that he
resolved to give up teaching. With this end in
view he increased his fee from one to two guineas
an hour. But even with this charge he received so
many requests to continue his instructions that he
used to say he felt ashamed to take the money.
Meanwhile he had become one of the " Associ
ated Artists," a society composed of a number of
men who clubbed together to rent a room in Bond
Street in which to exhibit their works. He ex
hibited with that body first in 1 808 ; he became a
member in 1809, and continued to exhibit as one
until the dissolution of the society in 181 2, In all
he had twenty-two works hung in the society's
gallery, six of which were portraits.
Among his works in the last exhibition of the
Associated Artists was the picture which first
brought his name into prominence, namely, " The
Doubtful Shilling." It shows the interior of a
butcher's shop, the dramatis personce being a
woman with a child in her arms and a boy
clinging to her skirts with a piece of bread in his
hand, which the dog is watching. The butcher
is testing the coin which constitutes the motive of

Early Career 13

the story. The picture was at that time remarkable
for its realism. All the accessories, the joints of
meat, the weights, the scales, and so forth, were
carefully studied in detail, and separate drawings
made of them before the subject as a whole was
commenced. But for all that it was lacking in what
we now understand as realism. Not only are all
the figures disproportionately tall, but the artist
has still found it impossible to free himself from
the desire to get something of a classic fold in his
draperies — in short, to escape from the classic con
vention of the period, of which we see so much
in the pseudo-classicists of the time, like Cristall,
Heaphy, and to some extent Glover and others.
But, these faults notwithstanding, the picture
made its mark. Its fine drawing, its harmonious
colouring, and perhaps more than all, the slight
element of pathos suggested by the poor woman,
whose dinner maybe, and that of her children,
depends upon his decision, anxiously awaiting the
result of the tradesman's investigation, caused it to
be greatly admired. The Duchess of York, on be
holding it, is said to have shed a tear ; and, what was
then more to the purpose, commissioned its purchase.
The intermediary in the affair was the famous Beau
Brummell, between whom and Holmes the acquaint
ance thus formed soon ripened into an intimacy

14 Life of fames Holmes
which continued until the "Beau" was finally
obliged to quit England.
" The Doubtful Shilling" is a good specimen of
Holmes's work. There was nothing ideal about it,
but it had a strong flavour of homely humour, it was
sincere, and it was natural. Reproduced afterwards
in aquatint and finished by hand, it sold in consider
able numbers, and was for a time extremely popular.

CHAPTER III

beau brummell

It strikes one at first sight as being very odd that
a man of Holmes's disposition, an artist — and one
of almost feverish industry — could have found any
point of contact or of sympathy with an individual of
Brummell's known character and antecedents. But
the surprise vanishes when we fully appreciate the
sort of person Holmes was. He seems to have been
a man as nearly without prejudices as it is possible
for a human being to be. He had too a keen insight
into character, and probably found out for himself,
as a witty Frenchman afterwards put it, that the
more men differ in appearance, the more nearly
they are alike at heart. In short, he was gifted
with very broad sympathies and could appreciate a
man for the good that was in him, and not condemn
him altogether because of mere foibles and weak
nesses. Then it must be borne in mind that Beau
Brummell was a man of genius in his way. He

1 6 Life of fames Holmes
could not have become the arbiter of fashion that
he was for long years unless he had been possessed
of an exquisite taste in dress, and also in manners,
as regards externals. That he was all this, the
devout flattery of imitation which was accorded
him on all sides sufficiently proves. But in
addition to this "he was a man of wit, was gifted
with a fine sense of humour, and over and above
all, he had a nice taste for art, and could draw and
paint with more than common ability. Captain
Jesse, his biographer, states that he not only "drew
well," but that he "was not ignorant of music, and
his voice was agreeable in singing as well as in
speaking ; he also wrote vers de socidtd — one of the
accomplishments in vogue in his day — with facility."
Jesse adds that "his dancing was perfect." Holmes
spoke of him as also possessing a fine vein for
caricature. In short, the artist found in Brummell a man of
exceptional abilities, who, had the fates been pro
pitious, might almost have become anything, but
who was spoiled by the shallowness and fripperies
of his time. Everybody in what is called the
higher walks of life was devoted to the worst
banalities of fashion and frivolity ; they seemed
to regard nothing as serious ; and here was a man
as it were tossed to the surface of society, who in

Beau Brummell 1 7

his person pointed the moral of their lives, and
who fluttered through society like a gay, painted
butterfly, the object of admiration and envy, content
to amuse and be amused, until the hard, stern, in
evitable seriousness of life struck him to the core,
and he was left, as all such as he in the end are,
alone and in person to face the inexorable facts.
Holmes saw all this — saw his weakness and his
folly, and yet found something to like and to pity in
the man. He certainly had an abundant pity for
him in the misery of his later days. But when they
first met the shadow over his path was but a hand
in breadth, and Brummell's natural gaiety was
hardly the least overclouded.
I have already^ told the story of the artist's
calling on the Beau at three o'clock in the afternoon
and finding him at breakfast, of which he invited
his friend to partake with him. Thanking him.
Holmes replied that he had already dined. "Oh,
have you ? " exclaimed Brummell, " What an early
bird you must be ! Why, this is my break of day."
It is a curious fact that amongst the anecdotes
which Holmes used to relate of Brummell, was one
to the effect that the dandy was wont to justify his
late hour of rising by saying that he preferred not
to get up until the morning was well aired. Can it
1 Life of John Linnell, Bentley and Son.

1 8 Life of fames Holmes
be that this well-known witticism of Charles Lamb
was an unconscious plagiarism of the Beau .-* ^
The artist had many anecdotes showing his
friend's ready wit and droll humour. One was as
follows : A young gentleman once called upon him
with an introduction, and said that, as he was just
beginning life, he had ventured to call upon him,
thinking he would be able to give him wise and
valuable advice. He explained that he had inherited
a little money, that he had squandered some of
it, besides getting into debt, and that he would like
to know what was the best to do with the rest of it.
"My advice to you," said Brummell, "is, don't go
and muddle it away by paying your debts."
He did not always act up to his own precepts,
however. Towards the close of his career he was
indebted to Holmes in the sum of seventy guineas.
Being one day with Brummell, the artist mentioned
the circumstance, without the least thought of press
ing the matter, and without any idea of ever receiving
the amount. " I suppose you would consider that a
debt of honour.?" remarked the Beau. "Yes, I
think so," repHed Holmes. "Then I will give you
a cheque," said the other, adding, after a short
«
1 When told that the joke was in the Essays of Elia, both the Holmes
brothers were astonished, and said they had often heard their father give it as
a saying of Brummell's.

Beau Brummell 19

pause, "but I fear it is of no value. I have already
given several cheques, and there is not much left to
pay with. However, take a hackney carriage and
get to the bank as quickly as you can, and you may
be all right." Holmes took his advice, and some
what to his surprise the cheque was cashed.
Another humorous story of Brummell is perhaps
old, though I do not remember to have met with
it anywhere in print. He was walking out one
day when a poor boy asked him for a halfpenny to
buy something to eat. " A halfpenny ? " queried
Brummell, "A halfpenny? I have heard of the
coin, my lad, but I never saw one. But here is a
sixpence ; perhaps that will do as well."
Another characteristic witticism of his was this.
A coolness had arisen between him and a friend,
and an acquaintance of the two tried to discover the
cause of the breach and to heal it. " It is impos
sible," said Brummell. " How can I have a man for
my friend who calls for two servings of soup ? "
The story of his not eating vegetables is perhaps
pretty generally known. Holmes, however, gave
it somewhat differently from the ordinary version.
According to him, Brummell was asked by a lady at
table if he had never eaten vegetables. "Oh yes,
oh yes, my dear madam," he replied ; " I once ate
a whole pea."

20 Life of fames Holmes
Most people have heard of his superstition, and
how he attributed his final misfortune and ruin to
the accidental loss of a sixpence with a hole in it
which he had carried for years, and at last gave to a
hackney coachman in mistake. He advertised for
it, but though twenty needy persons came with
"lucky" sixpences for his inspection, none of them
proved to be his own. " If I could only recover it,
I know all my luck would return," he once said
when deploring its loss.
On one occasion, when on his way to Watier's —
a club noted for its gambling — he suddenly recol
lected that he had not his lucky coin with him, and
he drove back to Chesterfield Street, where he then
lived, to get it.
After his break with the Regent he used to be
much at Oaklands, the seat of the Duke of York,
where he was always given the warmest of welcomes
by the Duchess, who remained to the end his sincere
friend. Holmes was once at Oaklands when
Brummell was there — perhaps taken by him.
Someone asked the Beau what was the real cause of
the coldness between him and the Prince. " Oh, a
very small affair," replied Brummell with a smile.
" Lady  preferred me to him."
When walking one day in the country in the
neighbourhood of Oaklands with other guests, the

Beau Brummell 2 1

conversation turned on the fragrance of the hay and
what not, and he was asked if he did not admire the
sweet smells of the country. " Greatly," replied
Brummell, " all except that of the country folk.
That is the one drawback to the country." He
used to say the country people would be admirable
if they would only wash more. He himself was
noted for his exquisite cleanliness.
Apropos of his gift as a portrait-painter, a well-
known lounger about town, named Ball Hughes —
sometimes called "The Golden Ball" — once re
marked to Holmes, when Brummell was known to
be on his last legs, " I hear it is all up with
Brummell." The artist replied that he feared it
was. " I am told he paints very well," continued
the man of fashion. " He is very clever at it," said
Holmes, " He had best take to painting then,"
replied Hughes ; " it would be better than doing
nothing." "Anything would be better than idling
about town as some do," Holmes acquiesced, with a
sly dig at the fashionable idler.
As his difficulties increased and became more
and more known, Brummell was gradually dropped
and given the cold shoulder by his aristocratic
acquaintances. But the cut that hurt him most of
all was the one given to him at Cassiobury, the seat
of the Earl of Essex, near Watford. Here he had

2 2 Life of fames Holmes
always been well received and treated with excep
tional kindness. But the last time he went he
remained no more than an hour or two, and never
forgot the reception he had.
Holmes, who knew that he had gone out of
town, was surprised to meet him near his residence
(which was in Chapel Street, Mayfair), and
exclaimed, " What, back again so soon ? But I am
glad to see you."
Brummell replied sadly, " I have just returned
from Cassiobury."
Holmes observed that his stay must have been
unusually short ; but the Beau, hardly noticing the
remark, went on to say —
" You know that picture I painted and gave to
the countess ? "
Holmes said he did. It was a miniature of her
ladyship on ivory.
" I told you how they honoured it by having it
mounted on a small screen in the drawing-room, so
that it was seen by everybody immediately they
entered." "Yes," returned Holmes.
" Well, when I arrived there yesterday I found
that the screen had been turned with its face to the
fire. I felt that it was a slight — a hint that I was
not wanted any more — and I came away."

Beau Brummell 23

Such was the way in which the poor man, once
the arbiter of fashion, was cold-shouldered out of
society — the society for which he had prostituted
exceptional powers and talents even of a high order.
Amongst the numberless portraits of celebrities
that Holmes painted during his long career was one
of the Beau. It was executed for his only sister, a
Mrs, Blackyers. It would be interesting to learn
what has become of this portrait.
When Brummell's furniture and effects were
sold by Christie in 18 16 some pictures by Holmes
were sold with the rest, amongst the number being
one entitled " A Family Dinner Party," which
fetched eighty-five guineas, probably a commission
given by the Beau in his better days.

CHAPTER IV

henry richter

When in 1813 the constitution of the Old Water
Colour Society was' changed so as to admit painters
in oil. Holmes became a member, and continued his
membership until 182 1, when another radical change
took place and the Society went back to its old
principle of water colours alone. To the first
exhibition of the Society under the new r^gim,e
Holmes sent two pictures, "Hot Porridge" and
"The Married Man," and each year, so long as he
remained a member, he continued to exhibit a sub
ject picture or two, and generally after the first
year one or two portraits, sometimes more.
In the second year of his connection with the
Society he removed from No. 9 Delancey Place,
Camden Town, where he had lived for some years,
to No. I Upper Titchfield Street, Fitzroy Square,
the change in all probability being necessitated by
his marriage, which had taken place the year pre-

Henry Richter 25

vious. Next year another move was made, this
time to No. 9 in t|ie same street, and then, in 1817,
to No. 9 Cirencester Place, where he remained until
his removal to Wilton Street in 1828.
In 1 8 16 amongst his exhibits in the Society's
rooms were portraits of Lady Drummond and Major
Wood '(of the loth Hussars). In 181 7 his only
portrait was of Lord Byron. Two years later he
exhibited portraits of the Duchess of Argyle and the
Countess of March.
Holmes had, long before this, become a recog
nised portrait - painter, his miniatures on ivory
especially being greatly admired for the taste and
beauty of colouring they displayed.
As regards colouring, it may be claimed for
him that he showed a marked advance upon his
predecessors. To-day this matter of colour in
drawing is but as a tale that is told. But if we go
back to last century and to the early years of this,
and examine the drawings of the water-colourists,
Paul Sandby, Cozens, and others, we shall see how
pale and watery-looking they were ; and it is one of
Holmes's distinctions that he saw the possibility of
an advance on these, and distinctly achieved this
advance. So fine, indeed, was his eye for colour that
Benjamin West once, on seeing a drawing of his,

26 Life of fames Holmes
asked if he had any scheme or method of colour
of his own; "for," said he, "the colour of this
drawing is equal to Titian." This was great praise,
and not undeserved when the strength and rich
ness of his colouring are considered. Many of his
contemporaries, and among them John Linnell,
acknowledged their indebtedness to him in this
respect. The latter — Holmes's junior by fifteen years —
was for a long time his near neighbour in Ciren
cester Place. It was here that an intimacy was
begun between the two artists which lasted for some
years, until, indeed, they went to live wide apart.
On Linnell's going to reside in Cirencester Place
in 1818, he was already beginning to be known as a
portrait-painter ; but although they were competi
tors. Holmes, with that generosity for which he was
ever distinguished, instructed the younger artist
in the art for which he himself was more especially
noted, namely, miniature painting. Linnell refers to
this fact in an autobiography which he left behind
him, wherein he says that he obtained his first hints
in miniature painting on ivory from James Holmes.
He also relates that all he gave in return for the
instruction was two small water-colour drawings.
This, however, concerns a later period than that
at which we have arrived.

Henry Richter 27

During the earlier years of his artistic career, as
already stated. Holmes was brought much in contact
with the Westalls, and doubtless learned much from
them"; but an artist who exercised more influence
over him in regard to his art was Henry Richter ;
at least there was more in common between the aims
of these two than betwixt himself and any other of
his contemporaries. He, in all probability, became
acquainted with Richter during the time of his con
nection with the Associated Artists, in whose gallery
in Bond Street Richter was a prolific exhibitor.
Richter was one of the first "to go to nature" ; he
carefully took pattern of nature in everything ; and
if by so doing he did not become a famous painter,
it was not the fault of his great exemplar.
Holmes was indebted to Richter for many useful
hints — possibly, amongst others, for hints in regard
to colour ; for Richter, likewise, was noted for the
advances his drawings showed on his predecessors
in regard to colouring.
But the point on which Holmes was chiefly
indebted to Richter was the careful study he was
led by him to make of each part of his subject
separately. When painting his " Doubtful Shilling "
he, as we have seen, prepared careful drawings of
the butcher's shop, and of the joints of meat, and what
not, to be depicted in it, also of the draperies to be

2 8 Lifeof fa7nes Holmes
used. But in addition to this, he adopted another
method of study, whereby to obtain the right effect
of light, as well as the proper pose of the figures.
This was to construct little models in clay or wax,
to represent the figures he wished to introduce into
his picture, so as to be able to arrange them and get
their proper relative positions before he began to
paint. He also draped the figures when necessary.
He claimed that by this method the work of com
position was aided, and a more natural relative
position of the figures obtained.
This also was a suggestion of Richter's, who
employed the method himself.
The practice is one that cannot be too strongly
recommended on account of the grasp it gives a
painter over his subject, which no sketches, either in
colour or black and white, can possibly do. The
relative distance or tone of any figure can thus be
more accurately studied, and any change in com
position more rapidly determined upon than by the
making of fresh studies.
Holmes found the practice so useful and excellent
in the results obtained that he advocated the teach
ing of modelling in all schools of art.
The drapery of the models he found to be best
done with a very thin material, dipped in any colour
requisite, and afterwards wetted with starch, and

Henry Richter 29

while moist arranged in the necessary folds, which
will stiffen in drying and remain so.
Richter first suggested these methods to Holmes
when he was engaged on his " Boys going to
School," which was exhibited in the Water Colour
Society's room in Spring Gardens in 18 18. He at
once adopted them, and had put the model of one of
the boys in a fighting posture, when Richter, hap
pening to call, advised a more vigorous attitude,
and showed what he meant by extending the arm
of the boy in question. Holmes saw at once that
it was an improvement and painted his figure ac
cordingly. But Richter was not always equally happy in his
suggestions. His own pictures were often marred
by the violence of the attitudes in which he placed
his figures ; and Holmes seems to have followed his
example to his detriment in some of his works.
But, despite some of his mannerisms, Richter
was one of the most original of the painters of his
time, as well as one of the oddest. He showed his
originality, however, in other ways more than in
his pictures. He took common everyday subjects for his
pictures, and many of them enjoyed an enormous
popularity. This was especially true of his " School
in an Uproar," which, besides being reproduced to

30 Life of fames Holmes
an enormous extent by engravings, was at last
printed on pocket-handkerchiefs. When the picture
achieved this distinction Holmes complimented the
artist, and remarked, " Now your fame will be blown
all over the world."
Richter exhibited his first pictures at a very early
age, having two landscapes in the Academy in 1 788,
when he was only sixteen years old. Subsequently
he exhibited chiefly with the Associated Artists in
Bond Street, where his works were said to be
characterised by " a strange mixture of extravagance
and genius." The most popular of his works at
this period appears to have been "A Brute of a
Husband," which was declared by critics to be the
"champion of the exhibition." The wife is repre
sented showing the bruises the " brute " has inflicted,
and the magistrates are greatly interested in the
exhibition. In 181 2 Richter attempted a higher flight than
he had yet taken, and exhibited a picture in oil
entitled " Christ Giving Sight to the Blind," which
was purchased by the trustees of the British Insti
tution for 500 guineas.
In i8z6 he exhibited a replica of the "Christ
Giving Sight to the Blind." It was described as an
attempt to improve upon a former picture. One or
other of these was afterwards placed over the altar

Henry Richter 3 1

of Greenwich New Church, and has been twice
engraved. Among other works exhibited at Spring
Gardens were " Don Quixote and Mambrino's
Helmet" and " Falstaff acting the King." The
latter and several other of his chief works were
painted for Mr. W. Chamberlayne, M.P. One of
them, "The Tight Shoe," has been engraved.
Richter, however, was something more than an
artist. Painting was a pursuit that occupied only
part of his thoughts. There was another side to his
mind, due, in all probability, to his German descent,
his father having been an engraver who came over
from Saxony with the Marquis of Exeter, and was
introduced by him to George III. He was an
ardent and faithful disciple of Emanuel Kant, and
the study of abstruse and transcendental philosophy
was his chief passion and engaged his attention for
more than fifty years. Sometimes his abstract
speculations got themselves mixed up with the
practice of his art, as, for example, in a picture
exhibited in Bond Street in 18 10, with the suggest
ive title, "A Logician's Effigy,"
The article on " Metaphysics " in the Encyclo-
pcedia Londinensis was written by Richter, who also
published a small work on "Daylight" (1817). It
is further styled " A Recent Discovery in the Art
of Painting, with Hints on the Philosophy of the

32 Life of fames Holmes
Fine Arts, and on that of the Human Mind, as first
dissected by Emanuel Kant."
In this volume the author sets forth certain
theories, more especially contending that painters
have failed to observe the blueness of the light
which descends vertically from the sky. The
argument takes the form of a dialogue between the
writer and the set of ghosts of old masters whom he
meets one evening in the British Gallery.
One of Richter's pet theories, arising out of these
studies, was that painters hitherto had been on the
wrong tack, and that pictures ought to be painted in
full sunlight. He essayed to carry out his theory,
especially in the " Christ Giving Sight to the Blind,"
which was painted on the top of the house in which
he then lived in Newman Street in a blaze of
sunlight. Mr. Chamberlayne, for whom the first
picture was executed, joked him on the exposure of
his models to such fierce sunshine, and said he was
gradually roasting them alive.
With Rembrandt Richter had no patience at all.
He declared that his principle was entirely wrong,
and that his colours were taken from the farm-yard.
" They are nothing but dung, sir ! " he would exclaim.
He must have been a very amusing companion,
as well as a man of great originality, not to say
oddity, of thought and manners. One day when

Henry Richter 33

Holmes and he were walking out together, Richter
said, " Let us call and see the portraits of So-and-
so," naming an artist whose works had been com
mended to his attention. They proceeded to the
house and were ushered into the studio. The artist,
not knowing either Holmes or his friend, and
thinking perhaps there might be a sitter in one of
them, began to extol his own works, which were all
portraits of dissenting ministers in black coats or
gowns and Geneva bands, and all very wooden.
" Look at this portrait, sir ! Look at this
portrait !" said the artist. "You can not only see
its excellence, but feel it. Pray, pass your hand
over it — pass your hand over it, sir. You will find
it as smooth as glass — as smooth as glass, sir ! "
" Truly it is," replied Holmes, doing as he was
asked. " Yes, indeed ! " exclaimed the painter. " Those
are portraits if you like, sir. No such portraits
painted nowadays ! "
On regaining the street Holmes observed to
Richter with a smile, "Most interesting performances,
those. Glad I have seen — and felt them."
" It appears to me," rejoined Richter in his dry
sententious manner — " it appears to me as if some
ingenious, or rather I would say, some very inge
nious monkey had been at work."

34 Life of fames Holmes
For many years towards the end of his days
Holmes lost sight of Richter. Happening to be
walking out one day, however, when in London, he
met his old friend, and they had a long chat together
about old times and old friends. On parting
Holmes asked Richter where he was living, and
being told, said, " I shall do myself the pleasure of
calling upon you, Richter, one of these days."
" Well," replied the old man in his pompous manner,
" if you do I will receive you."
Holmes used to recount this anecdote with a
good deal of amusement. He would add : " It was
just like him ; he was always as precise as an old
maid, and as formal as a logician."
This was the last time they met. A few months
after his lifelong friend saw the announcement of
Richter's death in the papers.

CHAPTER V
RICHARD AND WILLIAM WESTALL
I DO not claim for Mr. Holmes that he was the only
artist who studied faithfully from nature at this time,
but he was undoubtedly one of the advanced guard
who had such a healthy influence upon art. The
well-known confession of Fuseli, that " he did never
look upon de nasty natur but it did put him out,"
touched a failing common to most of the artists of
his time ; and it is to those who were not afraid to
approach "de nasty natur,'' but went to it with
sincerity, and copied it with inflexible diligence,
that the art of to-day owes so much.
Holmes was one of the very few who sought
nature for everything ; and his patience and care in
this respect once caused Richard Westall, a man
who, like Fuseli, preferred to work from his inner
consciousness, and had learned by experience the
faultiness of the method, to exclaim —
" Ah, Holmes, you are quite right to go to nature

2,6 Life of fames Holmes
for everything ; by so doing you will gain your end
a great deal better and in half the time you other
wise would. I never went to nature for anything,
and I have found out my mistake."
This may account for Westall's failure in later
life, when his income, from being something like
three thousand a year, fell to next to nothing. The
fact is, a new generation had arisen, — a generation
of artists who studied nature more, and a generation
of art-lovers who were no longer satisfied with the
school of pseudo-classicists.
In the early part of his career, that is, before his
commissions were sufficient either in number or
importance to take up his whole time. Holmes did a
good deal of work for Richard Westall, who was at
that time a popular favourite, and executed many
large works, in which he got the younger artist to
assist him. In some cases Holmes, being an
especially fine draughtsman, worked in the entire
picture from the small original sketch.
Some of Westall's more popular drawings were
extensively multiplied by copper-plate in what is
known as aquatint, and then coloured by hand.
On these too Holmes worked, particularly on the
heads, being especially gifted in head-drawing.
Westall's studio was at this time in Charlotte
Street, Fitzroy Square, a region especially affected

Richard and William Westall 2)7
by artists in those days. An incident which hap
pened during this period of what might now be
called "ghost" work greatly impressed Holmes,
and he used often to narrate it in after years.
Westall had one evening given him a five-pound
note in payment for some work, and he had slipped
it into his pocket, and gone some distance on his
way home, when it suddenly occurred to him to see
if he had got it safe. He felt in his pockets, and to
his dismay discovered that he had lost it. Retracing
his steps, and carefully examining every foot he had
traversed, he had almost reached Westall's door
when he espied a bit of paper on the ground, and
picking it up, found it was his lost note.
The young artist was at this time living at
Camden Town, then quite a country region, and of
nights, in the cheerless season, not particularly safe
to go to alone, the region of Tottenham Court Road
and Hampstead Road in especial being infested
with foot-pads. On this account he and a brother-
artist, whose studio was near Fitzroy Square, but
whose residence was also at Camden Town, used to
accompany each other home for the sake of safety.
The brother-artist in question was George Dawe,
afterwards the Academician, but then a struggling
beginner like himself Like Holmes, Dawe had
been brought up to the engraver's art, and like him

38 Life of fames Holmes
had relinquished it when out of his apprenticeship,
taking to historical painting, and then to portraiture,
in which he was successful, in the monetary sense,
beyond most men of his time.
<¦ Dawe had the reputation of being a terrible
skinflint, and lived in a most mis^able way, hardly
allowing himself decent food. Once he is said to
have purchased a pig's paunch for twopence and
given it to his sister, with whom he lived, to cook
for his supper. On another occasion he was
annoyed beyond anything, and did not get over
his vexation for weeks, because his sister, being
unable to procure anything else, bought some
mutton chops for dinner. This, to him, was an
unheard - of extravagance. There may be some
exaggeration in these stories, but there can be no
doubt that he was of a very miserly disposition.
A more amusing anecdote of his stinginess is
the following : When he was painting his picture
of a "Negro overpowering a Buffalo," which
obtained a premium at the British Institution in
1 8 II, he promised the negro who served him as
model that he would remember him if he sold it.
The reason of this was that, being behindhand,
and fearing that he should be too late for the
exhibition, he worked the poor fellow night and
day. The picture sold well, besides gaining the

Richard and William Westall

prize, and the negro, meeting Dawe one day after
the event, reminded him of his promise. "Oh yes,
I remember," replied Dawe ; and putting his hand
into his pocket and drawing forth a coin, he said,
" Here, take this ; I'm glad you reminded me."
The model looked at it with a comically rueful
countenance, and observed, " I hope you won't
miss it, Massa Dawe." " Oh no, thank you ; you are
quite welcome," replied Dawe. It was a sixpence.
Dawe went to Russia in 1819, and remained
there, painting portraits for the Court, with the
exception of some two or three months, to within
a few weeks of his death, which occurred in London
in October 1829. During his stay in Russia he
amassed a fortune of something like a hundred
thousand pounds ; but at the time of his decease it
had been reduced to about a fourth of that amount,
partly by unwise speculation, and in part, it was
said, by a legacy to a Russian lady, of whom he
had become enamoured. The surprising thing to
those who knew him was that he should have had
it in him to fall in love with any one.
But Holmes's great friend at this time was
William Westall. As already stated, they had
become acquainted with each other during Holmes's
apprenticeship. Subsequently their Intercourse was
interrupted for several years, during which Westall

40 Life of fames Holmes
led a most adventurous career. He joined, as
draughtsman, the expedition — 111 fated so far as
the commander was concerned — under Captain
Flinders, for the exploration and survey of the
coast of Australia, sailing in the Investigator in
1801, and being absent nearly four years. The
adventures he went through in that time would
have made the fortunes of a novelist of to-day.
After nearly completing her labours the In
vestigator became unseaworthy, and It was found
necessary to return with her to Port Jackson.
Here the ship was pronounced incapable of repair,
and Captain Flinders was given the Porpoise, an
old Spanish prize attached to the colony, in which
to return to England for a new vessel. She put
to sea on August 10, 1803, in company with the
East India Company's ship Bridgewater, com
manded by Captain Palmer, and the Cato of
London. Standing to the north on the 1 7th, both
the Porpoise and the Cato struck on a reef, after
wards known as Wreck Reef The Porpoise stuck
fast, but the Cato rolled over and sank in deep
water, her men having barely time to scramble on
shore. Westall used to say that it was a miracle
that many did not lose their lives, as when the
catastrophe happened nearly all the men were
playing cards in the forecastle.

Richard and William Westall 41
The Bridgewater sailed away, abandoning them
to their fate.
Leaving the greater number of the men on the reef.
Captain Flinders sailed for Port Jackson for succour
in one of the boats, and happily arrived there in safety.
Westall was one of those who remained on the
reef, and he was wont to describe with much
humour the life they lived there until the com
mander's return. Once a boat's crew went to the
mainland to explore, and see if anything of the
nature of food was to be had. A little way inland
several men fell in with a family of kangaroos, and
none of them having ever seen or heard of such
creatures before, they were almost terrified out of
their wits, and tore back to the boat, exclaiming
that they had seen the devil.
Westall managed to save most of his effects
from the wreck, but in the disorder which ensued
he lost a small silver palette, which was a prize
awarded to him for drawing by the Society of
Arts, and bore his name. He valued the article
very much, and was greatly annoyed at the loss
of it, but all his efforts to find it were in vain.
When he got back to England he applied to the
Society in the hope that they might be induced
to let him have another made like it ; but this
they refused. However, some time afterwards.

42 Life of fames Holmes
going along Holborn and happening to look into
a pawnbroker's window, Westall saw something
so much like his lost palette that he went in and
asked to be allowed to look at it. He found, to
his joy, that it was the missing article, and of course
straightway purchased it. It had undoubtedly been
stolen by one of the sailors during the disorder con
sequent upon the wreck, and secreted amongst his
effects till he got back to London, when he pawned It.
But this was not the strangest thing connected
with this adventurous voyage. On Captain Flinders'
arrival at Port Jackson, the Rollo, bound to China,
was sent to the relief of the castaways. Two
schooners accompanied her, one to take back to
Port Jackson those who preferred that course, and
the other, the Cumberland, of 29 tons, to carry
Flinders to England for another vessel. On his
way home the latter put in at Port Louis,
Mauritius, and was taken prisoner by the French,
who were then at war with England, and kept
there for nearly seven years, not being released
until June 18 10. In the interim he had been
almost forgotten. Setting to work, however, on the
record of his expedition, he finished it by 18 14, but
was denied the satisfaction of seeing the consumma
tion of his work In its issue to the public, as he died
on the very day it was published.

Richard and William Westall

One more incident connected with this expedition
is worthy of record, as it rounds off the story with a
sort of dramatic or poetic consistency, beloved of
both reader and narrator. When the Bridgewater
sailed away, leaving the crews of the Porpoise and
the Cato to their fate, there was one man on board
who charged Captain Palmer with his inhumanity,
and prophesied that punishment for such misconduct
must surely follow. History does not preserve the
name of this man, but he was either the purser or
one of the mates of the vessel. Moreover, so wroth
was he at such conduct, or so convinced that the
ship was accursed, that he quitted her at Calcutta.
Sailing thence In due course for England, the
Bridgewater was never more heard of, neither she
nor any of her passengers or crew.
Westall sailed with the Rollo to China, and after
an adventurous career there, returned home by way
of India. He stayed some time in India, however,
and met there the Duke of Wellington, then General
Wellesley, who suggested his accompanying him in
the campaign (his last in India) for which he was
then making preparations. Westall used to regret
afterwards that he did not do so ; but after being
away so long, he was home-sick and eager to get
back. A fellow-shipmate of Westall's in the Investigator

44 Life of fames Holmes
was Professor Inman, astronomer to the expedi
tion, whose acquaintance led indirectly to one with
the Rev. Richard Sedgwick, whose daughter Ann
Westall subsequently married.
The Westalls were altogether a remarkable
family. Besides Richard and William, there were
several sisters, two of whom married brothers of the
same profession as their own brothers. These were
William Daniell, R.A., and Samuel Daniell, both
of whom, like William Westall, were great travellers.
William accompanied his uncle, Thomas Daniell,
R.A., to India, where they remained many years,
helping him with drawings and sketches for his
grand work on " Oriental Scenery." He saw a
great deal of the India of that time, and went through
many hairbreadth escapes. On one occasion, on
ascending a hill, he was met face to face by a hyaena.
Both he and the wild beast were greatly surprised,
and appeared equally at a loss for a moment or two
to know what to do. Daniell saw the creature's
glistening white teeth and terrible jaws, and naturally
thought he was to be the beast's predestined dinner.
Trembling with fear, for he was without weapon of
any kind, he yet had presence of mind enough to
debate for an instant whether to go down on his
knees and say his prayers or to run. As It would
seem, the hy^na was In a similar dilemma, and for-

Richard and William Westall 45
tunately decided to run — to the unspeakable relief of
the artist, who straightway took to his heels in the
opposite direction.
Richard Westall, it may not be generally known,
had the honour of being the teacher of the Queen,
while still a child, in drawing and painting, and
won the sincere admiration and esteem of both Her
Majesty and the Duchess of Kent by his amiability
of manners and the care and address with which he
directed Her Majesty's early efforts in art.
He was a very proud man, and would not as a
rule condescend to give instruction, but he consented
to teach the Princess Victoria on the express con
dition that he should receive no pay.
Unlike his brother William, Richard never
married ; unlike William, too, who left a consider
able fortune to be divided amongst his sons, he
appears never to have saved anything, and so in his
later days fell into difficulties. It is said that when
the Duchess of Kent and the Princess heard of this,
a message was conveyed to him in the most delicate
way inquiring if he needed any help. He replied
that he did not. But as his end drew near, he
became troubled about a blind sister, who was
dependent upon him, and whom he feared to leave
unprovided for.
He therefore wrote a letter to the Duchess of

46 Life of fames Holmes
Kent, telling her of his poverty and his consequent
inability to make any provision for his sister, and
asking for her and the Princess's consideration on
her behalf He gave directions that the letter
should be posted immediately after his death. This
was done, and the Duchess received it the morning
following his decease, and before the news of the
event had reached the palace.
Knowing the handwriting, the Duchess ex
claimed, " Oh, here is a letter from Mr. Westall,"
and immediately opened it to read its contents to
the Princess, who was always delighted to hear from
her old teacher.
Both were naturally very much surprised to learn
the contents of the letter. It need hardly be added
— so well is Her Majesty's sympathy and bounty In
such cases known — that the dying Academician's
request was nobly responded to. Miss Westall
being at once granted a pension of ;^ioo a year
from Her Majesty's private purse, which she con
tinued to receive until her death at an advanced age
at Brighton, where she lived. As Westall's death
occurred in December 1836, this act of generosity
on Her Majesty's part took place when she was in
her eighteenth year.
Another intimate artist friend of Holmes's was
Luke Clennell, who, unfortunately, afterwards

Richard and William Westall 47
became insane. He started life as a wood-engraver,
being an apprentice of Bewick's, but subsequently
gave up that branch of art for painting. In 18 14
he received from the Earl of Bridgewater a com
mission for a large picture to commemorate the
banquet given to the Allied Sovereigns at the
Guildhall. He experienced great difficulty in
getting the distinguished guests to sit for their
portraits, and in other ways suffered many worries
in the prosecution of his work. Finally, when he
seemed in a fair way to success, his mind gave way,
and he had to be placed under restraint. After a
short time In the Asylum, he regained his reason ;
tut no sooner did he return home and set to work
again upon his unfinished picture than his malady
reappeared, and his family found him throwing his
palette and brushes at the canvas. In order " to get
the proper expression," as he said. This was in
181 7, and though he lived till 1840, he was never
again able to resume his profession.

CHAPTER VI

PORTRAITS OF BYRON

Reference has already been made to the portrait
of Lord Byron exhibited by Holmes In 1817. But
this was not the first portrait he had painted of his
lordship. He had In 18 15 executed a miniature of
the poet — ^just then In the heyday of his popularity —
which subsequently became famous. Nor was this,
it is believed, the first portrait of him that he had
done. It is known that he painted several, but the
one in question was so remarkable for its likeness
that Byron preferred it to all others. In his own
phrase, It was "inveterate."^ Some years later he
^ The phrase occurs in a letter to Mr. Murray, dated Ravenna, March 1821.
It runs : " I wish to propose to Holmes, the miniature painter, to come out
to me this spring. I will pay his expenses, and any sum in reason. I wish
him to take my daughter's picture (who is in a convent), and the Countess G.'s,
and the head of a peasant girl, which latter would make a study for Raphael.
... It must be Holmes : I like him because he takes such inveterate like
nesses.'' In another letter dated Ravenna, i6th August 1 82 1, Byron writes:
' ' I regret that Holmes can't or won't come ; it is rather shabby, as I was
always very civil and punctual with him. But he is but one . . more. One
meets with none else among the English.''

Portraits of Byron 49
wrote the following letter to the artist apropos of
this portrait : —
Dear Sir — I will thank you very much to present to or
. obtain for the bearer a print from the miniature you drew of me
in 18 1 5. I prefer that likeness to any that has been done of me
by any artist whatever. My sister, Mrs. Leiigh, or the Hon.
Douglass Kinnaird, will pay you the price of the engraving.-^ —
Ever yours, Noel Byron.
To James Holmes, Esq.
Although this is the earliest known portrait of
the poet by Holmes, his sons are of opinion that he
executed one as early as 181 2 or 181 3, at which
time they were already well acquainted with each
other. But whether that be so or not, it is certain
that the acquaintance when once formed soon
ripened into intimacy, and the artist became a
trusted, if not exactly a confidential, friend of the
poet. He saw much of him, and there were few of
his friends that he did not meet at one time or
another. Byron's circumstances and, so to speak,
his inner life became so well known to him that,
despite his many failings and the wild revel of his
life in Italy, Holmes never ceased to regard him
with the highest respect and the most sincere
admiration. For his aberrations he pitied rather
than blamed him, and in his treatment by English
4

50 Life of fames Holmes
Society he always considered him more sinned
against than sinning. In his nature, side by side
with the noblest aspirations, and a will the most
splendid and purposeful, there was a weak nervous
strain of an hysterical diathesis, that at times gave
the appearance of a touch of insanity, or of " sweet
bells jangled."
Thus when he was sitting for his portraits, he
could seldom continue seated or be still for more
than a minute or two at a time. He would be
for ever moving about, now rising and going to the
window, now suddenly taking up a stick and
beginning to fence. When the artist remonstrated
and said he could not paint while he was moving
about like that, he would exclaim with a frown,
" O blood and guts, do get on ! " and resume his
seat for a brief space.
Holmes confessed that at times he was a little
afraid of him when In his most unsettled moods, and
thought him half mad. But these feelings were
only occasional and transient. For the poet pos
sessed so many noble traits and altogether such
generous Impulses, that nobody who knew him well
could help loving him. Holmes had abundant
opportunities of knowing the many kindnesses he
did, always performed in the most delicate manner
and without the slightest taint of show or ostentation,

Portraits of Byron 5 1
but rather the reverse. He himself more than
once had personal experience of such kindness.
On one occasion he happened to mention that a
certain person, whom Byron knew, had not paid for
a commissioned miniature portrait. The poet asked
what was the price of it, and when informed that it
was thirty guineas, he at once sat down and wrote a
cheque for that amount, saying the person was poor
and perhaps ill able to pay it, or words to that
effect. As to the temptations thrown In his way, few
knew better than Holmes how numerous and insidi
ous they were. He was not only well acquainted
with the infatuation of the notorious Lady Caroline
Lamb for his lordship, but he knew the lady
intimately herself He was an eye-witness of the
scene at Lady Bessborough's, when Lady Caroline
drew a dagger from her bosom and made a feint of
stabbing herself, and fell with much dramatic cir
cumstance at Byron's feet. It naturally caused the
wildest scandal. Nor was this the maddest of her
escapades. One morning when Holmes called on the poet
at his lodgings in the Albany, he found him in a
cross and despondent mood. Asking what was the
matter, Byron replied that her ladyship had been
again.

52 Life of fames Holmes
He knew of course that Lady Caroline was meant.
"What, again!" exclaimed Holmes.
" Yes, again," was the savage reply.
"How did she come this time ? "
" Dressed up as a page boy," returned the poet
ruefully. Holmes could not help smiling, which caused
Byron to exclaim, " It's all very well for you to
laugh, but it is no laughing matter to me," at the
same time breaking out into a hearty laugh himself
" How did you get rid of her ? " asked Holmes.
" I had to send for a hackney carriage and have
her driven home."
This lady, who was possessed of a singular beauty
and charm, and undoubtedly exercised considerable
powers of fascination over the poet, on another
occasion presented herself at the door of Byron's
brougham, as he was stepping into it to go home
either from the theatre or from some fashionable
gathering, in the character of a flower-girl. At first
he was deceived by the poverty of her clothing and
the hat which covered her pale golden hair, and was
about to give her money in exchange for her flowers,
but a mischievous twinkle in her large brown and
really spirituel eyes revealed his somewhat impish
adorer, and he at once put her in his carriage and
took her home.

Portraits of Byron 53
Whatever doubts he may occasionally have had
about Byron's sanity. Holmes had none as to Lady
Caroline being of unsound mind long before Lord
Melbourne finally got a separation from her.
One morning he had occasion to call on her
towards noon. The maid went upstairs to announce
him, and he heard her ladyship inquire sotto voce,
" Who is it ? "
The maid replied, "Mr. Holmes."
" Which Mr. Holmes ? "
There was another Mr. Holmes — a whipper-in
of his party, or something of the sort.
"Mr, Holmes, the artist."
" Oh, show him up," said Lady Caroline.
Holmes was ushered into her bedroom, where
he found her ladyship in bed, with her face covered
with leeches. She said she was not well, and the
doctor had ordered her the leeches.
" How terrible!" said the artist, disgusted at the
sight of her face covered with the crawling creatures,
"Suppose now I were to take a sketch of you just
as you are."
"Oh, you must not, Mr, Holmes I Oh, you
will never be so cruel I Whatever would people
say if they saw me such a fright ? And Byron — he
would be so disgusted that he would never look
at me again ! "

54 Life of fames Holmes
Lady Caroline used to have a queer school of
blue-stockings about her, who came to worship at
the feet of the clever little lady, whom they regarded
as the most wonderful bit of she-talent of the time.
Amongst the number the most respectably endowed
was the well-known Lady Morgan, of whom one of
the squibs of the time ran^ — ¦
How delightful 'tis to meet
Lady Morgan in the street,
And then to make game of her
In the Examiner,
In an article short and sweet.
Holmes once called on Lady Caroline when a
lot of these dames were drinking tea with her. He
did not stay many minutes, and as he was going
the witty lady said to him at the door, " They are
my tabbies. What do you think of them ? " " They
are better suited for tabbies than toasts," the artist
replied with a smile. " More witty than kind, Mr.
Holmes," was Lady Caroline's rejoinder.
The intimacy between Byron and Holmes was
such that when the poet left England for the last
time, he asked the painter If he would go and stay
with him In Italy. Holmes objected that he was
now a family man, and had to think of those depend
ent upon him.
" Of course — of course ! " said Byron. " But

Portraits of Byron 55
naturally I don't want you to go for nothing. What
would you want to accompany me ? "
The artist knew that it was impossible for him to
do as his lordship suggested, and so named a thousand
pounds a year.
" Oh, that's quite moderate," replied Byron with
a laugh. Subsequently he several times wrote from
Venice asking Holmes to join him. He wished
him specially to paint the portrait of the Countess
Guiccioli. Amongst the friends of Byron with whom
Holmes was specially acquainted was the Hon.
Scrope B. Davies, of whom he painted a miniature
portrait. He met him first at Byron's rooms,
where they were accustomed to have boxing bouts
together. He used also to meet Jackson, the pugi
list, there.
One day, while sitting for his portrait, Scrope
Davies, who was a small thin man, but extremely
handy with his fists, told Holmes of an adventure
he had had at one of the coal wharves on the
Thames, whither he had gone on some business
or other. Some of the coal-heavers and others
about the wharf, seeing the dapper little gentleman
got up in the most dandified manner, began to
make fun of him. Davies replied, and from the

56 Life of fames Holmes
bandying of words there soon came threats, and
before the smart gentleman well knew where he
was, he found himself confronted by a big broad-
shouldered fellow, squaring up to him in lusty
anticipation of soon putting him hors de combat.
"I knew," said Davies, "that a blow from his big
fist would do for me, and took my precautions
accordingly. He made a lunge at me, which I
warded, and then let him have one with all my
might in the wind. He Instantly fell all in a heap.
His friends crowded round him, thinking he was
dead, and I, while their attention was thus occupied,
took to my heels and ran for my life."
Holmes was at Lady Richmond's when the first
news of Byron's death came to hand, and he used to
cite an incident which then occurred as an instance
of the blind unreasoning hatred with which the poet
had come to be regarded by the very society which
had at one time almost prostrated itself at his feet.
The intelligence caused a profound sensation. For
a moment or two a deep silence fell upon the
company, but it was presently broken by the
imbecile voice of a youthful " My Lord," saying,
" There is one who has gone to hell."
"What did you say when you heard that?"
Holmes was once asked.
"What could one say or do, except to set the

Portraits of Byron 57
fellow down for a fool, which he was I " was his
answer. The artist always made a point of avoiding
entering upon controversial questions, which was,
perhaps, one reason of his popularity.
It may be as well to summarise here all that
I have been able to gather respecting Holmes's
portraits of Byron. As I have already stated, his
sons believe that he painted four distinct portraits,
one of them being as early as 181 3, if not earlier.
Their belief is based upon the circumstance that the
artist's acquaintance with his lordship had com
menced as early as that date, if not earlier, and they
naturally enough suppose that it arose out of a
portrait commission.
Of one of his portraits there is a proof engraving
in the British Museum. It is said to be "from an
original miniature in the possession of Lieut. -Colonel
Leicester Stanhope, which was taken at the age
of twenty -one."
To have been taken at the age of twenty-one,
Holmes must have painted it in 1809.
It is not improbable that Colonel Stanhope may
have made a mistake in attributing so early a date
to it. According to the artist's sons, Colonel
Stanhope — " Long Stanhope," as they remember him
being called — gave their father several commissions

58 Life of fames Holmes
for replicas of portraits of the poet. This was just
after his return from Greece, "when," says Mr.
George Holmes's note, " he came with his arm in a
sling." Another portrait is in the possession of Mr,
Falke, and was lent by him to the Burlington Fine
Arts Club in 1889. It is inscribed at the back,
"Taken by James Holmes, 12th April 1816."
Of these two portraits there are several
engravings. One, in stipple, by Meyer, forms the
frontispiece to the Life, Writings, Opinions, and
Times of the Right Hon. George Gordon Noel Byron,
Lord Byron," 3 vols. 8vo, published by Hey, 1825,
where it is described as " the last his lordship ever
sat for."
Another, engraved by H. Meyer, was published
by Henry Colborn In 1828 ; and a third, by H. T.
Ryall, was published on September i, 1835 (for
Mr. Holmes), by F- G. Moor. On the same plate
was a facsimile of the note to Holmes given above.
It was undoubtedly of this portrait that Byron wrote
to a friend from Genoa, May 19, 1823 : "A painter
of the name of Holmes made, I think, the best one
of me in 1815 or 18 16, and from this there have
been some good engravings taken."
In a list of portraits of Byron given by Mr.
Richard Edgcumbe in Notes and Queries, 6th Series,

Portraits of Byron 59
vi. 422, is mentioned a miniature by Holmes, 1815,
painted for Scrope B. Davies, Esq., belonging to
Mr. Alfred Morrison, and considered by the poet's
friends an excellent likeness ; also a replica belonging
to Mrs. Leigh.
Mr. Falke's miniature was purchased from the
painter's son and had been long in the possession of
Mrs. Leigh. None of the above-mentioned prints
appear to be of earlier date than Byron's letter.
Of one, if not more, of his miniatures of the
poet. Holmes, according to his sons, made a number
of replicas. Mr. George Holmes has one in his
possession, but he is not sure whether it was made
by his father, or commenced by him and finished by
his son Henry, or indeed wholly by the latter.
Another portrait of the poet after Holmes appears
in the Forget-me-not annual for 1832, in a print by
W. Finden, representing " Don Juan and Haidee."
His style was very popular for a time for this class
of work. Amongst others I have found the follow
ing. In The Keepsake for 1829 there is a print of
his "Country Girl," engraved by C. Heath. The
Amulet for the same year contains a print of his
"Water-Cress Girl," by H. C. Shenton. In the
same annual for 1830 appears "The Gleaner,"
engraved by Finden. The Literary Souvenir for
1 83 1 contains a print of "The Seaside Toilet"

6o Life of fames Holmes
(E. J. Portbury), and that for 1834 "The Fisher's
Wife'' (P. Lightfoot). The Forget-me-not ior 1832
contains, besides the " Don Juan and Haidee," a
print of " La Pensde," being a portrait of Mrs.
Hamilton. The same annual for 1833 has an
engraving by S. Devonport of " Count Egmont's
Jewels," after Holmes. The last print of the kind
that I have been able to find appears in Heath's
Book of Beauty for 1840, being a portrait of the
Hon. Mrs. George Anson, one of the celebrated
beauties of the time. The engraving is by W. H.
Mote.

CHAPTER VII

opinion of byron

It is not surprising, when we come to consider the
matter closely, that Holmes not only conceived a
great personal liking for Byron, as well as an
unbounded admiration for his poems, but that he
considered him one of the few really great men of
his time. He was brought into personal contact
with him soon after the publication of the Eng
lish Bards and Scotch Reviewers, which had com
pletely electrified society. The effect it produced
was like nothing that had happened within the
memory of man ; and nothing similar in the realm
of letters has taken place since. It is literally true
to say that the appearance of the work was like a
thunder-clap out of a clear sky. Society was at
once astonished and delighted ; it laughed and
applauded ; and from these it went to fating and
caressing the poet. What the people saw in this
bright and stinging satire was power — that which

62 Life of fames Holmes
always first strikes the popular mind. It was the
spectacle of a young and courageous combatant
turning upon his persecutors and utterly overwhelm
ing and routing them.
In the case of society, that is, of his own class,
there was an added joy. It had been thrown at
them again and again as a reproach that they were
intellectual drones, that they had never produced a
man of genius, that such competency was not in
them. The best that they could do In that line was
a superfine dandy : when it came to the production
of genius, the despised middle or lower classes only
were "in the running." Hence all the best and
richest fruits of civilisation had proceeded from the
lower strata of society.
What wonder therefore that the classes were
delighted — that they pointed with pride to this scion
of the aristocracy as to one who had taken away
this reproach — the reproach of intellectual barren
ness ! They felt that he was In a manner their
salvation, that it could never again be said that they
had not produced genius, and so forth.
Their pride and adulation, in consequence, knew
no bounds. The poet was for a time their pet.
They ran after him ; women fell madly in love with
him. Others besides the half-mad Lady Caroline
Lamb did this. Nor is it to be wondered at.

opinion of Byron 63
Human nature is the same in every age, and bright
intelligence, physical beauty, and the advantages of
rank and fortune always tell. And here was a man
with all these — with, in especial, a kind of Intelligence
that ever seems to the ordinarily gifted to have
something of divine in it, with, beyond and above
this, a personal appearance that put all manly beauty
of the time into the shade.
Thus he became the Idol of society, and was
beset at a youthful age with every possible tempta
tion. One need not be greatly surprised if he fell ;
the surprise is, that in a society so corrupt as that
of the Georges, a scandalized voice should have
been raised against him. But the fact is that the
society that had made such a pet of him on the
appearance of the first scintillating effort of his
genius, soon began to perceive that there were
qualities In him they had little dreamed of —
powers that would carry him far, that were not to
be tied down to the narrow limits of their artificial
lives and their selfish views, that would, indeed, lead
him to revolt against the vapid conventionality and
hollow hypocrisy by which he was surrounded.
Then those who had so greatly admired began to
dread him, and, as Is usual in such cases, what they
dreaded they commenced to rend and revile. When
the tide was once turned there was nothing too

64 Life of fames Holmes
vile to be said against him, hardly anything too
mean to be done.
Is it surprising with such a nature, in which,
as Mr. Holmes perceived, there was something
demonic, something so out of the common that
we regard it as almost supernatural, that the poet
should fly off at a tangent and say, "You give
me credit for being all that is vile — you treat
me as though I were — why should I not justify
you.-^ The fact is, Byron's greatest sin was in being
too frank, too open. He did not cultivate enough
the essentially British virtue of hypocrisy, of putting
the white sheet over the ghastly sepulchre, as others
of his profession — profiting probably from his ex
perience — have done so effectually, to the end that
the British public has taken them according to the
measure of, their own pages. And yet they too
had their Italian period.
Let it not be supposed that I wish to palliate
Byron's faults, or to besmear him with the white
wash brush. No : rather let him stand as he is —
one of the brightest and most effulgent spirits of
the century, denied his rightful place in our literary
history because of faults that were largely those
of his blood and race and of his surroundings. And
yet, what does it matter though the low-trailing

opinion of Byron 65

lights of a decadent literature and a. faineant criticism
belittle and misesteem ? Are not his record and
glory written upon the literatures of Europe?
Were not his poems, faulty though they be in their
art, as a trumpet-blast sounding through the night
of struggling freedoms ? Yes, they are faulty in
rhyme and rhythm, and go often enough but lamely
upon their feet. But what of that. Messieurs his
puny successors ? The strength of an uttered word
is in its power to move and to stir, not in its perfect
art, which, like ripe fruit bordering upon rottenness,
always touches upon the artificial. It was truly not
in him to write with the consummate art you do.
But did it ever occur to you to go back to his
day, put yourselves in his place in time, and then
try to measure the magnitude of his thought ?
That is now, and has long been, our inheritance —
heirs, as we are, to all the ages and to previous
men's achievements — so that we cannot with ease
justly appraise its power and influence. But go
to the Continent and ask those who know, those
who have watched the rise and development of
their peoples — ask them what were the influences
that helped most to break up the state of things
that existed at the beginning of the century, and to
produce the new renaissance of thought and of life,
and they will place you Byron — our Byron — upon a
s

66 Life of fames Holmes
pinnacle almost side by side with Napoleon, the
scourge of kings.
They will tell you that no Englishman since
Shakespeare has exerted such an influence — I will
not say upon European thought, but upon European
sentiment ; and where the movements of peoples
are concerned, sentiment is often more potent than
thought, that is, than thought in the abstract sense,
as distinguished from the thought that is based upon
sentiment. There is hardly a continental writer of the first
rank, belonging to the last generation, that has not
borne witness to his influence. Goethe, speaking
for Germany, says : "A character of such eminence
has .never existed before, and probably will never
come again. The beauty of Cain Is such as we
shall not see a second time in the world. . . . Byron
Issues from the sea waves ever fresh. I did right
to present him with that monument of love in
Helena. I could not make use of any man as the
representative of the modern poetic era except him,
who is undoubtedly to be regarded as the greatest
genius of our century." Again: "The Enghsh
may think of him as they please ; this is certain,
they can show no (living) poet who is to be
compared with him."
Goethe's verdict is the verdict of the entire

opinion of Byron 67

continental world of letters. Dr. Elze places the
author of Don fuan and Childe Harold among
the four greatest English poets, and traces to his
inspiration some of the strongest and sweetest
voices that followed him in France, in Spain, in
Italy, and in Germany and Russia. Tourgenief
bears testimony, in more than one of his novels, to
his awakening influence in the lands of the White
Tsar. Speaking for his own country, Castelar
exclaims, " What does not Spain owe to Byron ?
From his mouth come our hopes and fears. He
has baptized us with his blood. There is no one
with whose being some song of his is not woven.
His life is like a funeral torch over our graves."
Mazzini might be quoted to the same purpose In
regard to Italy.^ So spake Stendhal, Taine,
Salnte-Beuve, in France, or to a similar effect : so
others all over the Continent. But all who are
acquainted with the European literature of the
earlier two-thirds of the century are sufficiently
aware of the stamp Byron's writings have placed
indelibly upon it.
And this much more must be said : that, despite
his faults, despite his sins If you will, he retained to
1 "At Naples, in the Romagna, whenever he saw a spark of noble life
stirring, he was ready for any exertion, or danger, to blow it into flame. He
stigmatised baseness, hypocrisy, and injustice, whencesoever they sprang." —
Byron and Goethe.

68 Life of fames Holmes
the last his greatness of soul. It would have been
better if we could have looked back upon him as
more immaculate, as a noble example of a well-spent
life ; and yet, with all his errors, he might be taken
as an example by many of those who are readiest to
judge, who are for ever going about with uplifted
hands and a "fie! fie!" upon their lips — with all
their piety, whited sepulchres, who dare not be
true to their professed creed and "judge not." For
he was unselfish as men go ; to the last he worked
for his ideal ; to the last, too, he preserved his
reverence and devotion for all that is great and
noble and best worth striving and giving one's life
for ; and when the condition of Greece was a
European scandal, and the world looked on in
apathy and indifference, he took up her cause and
sacrificed his life for humanity and freedom. In
that deed, the closing one of a sad but far from
ignoble career, he did more for the independence
of Greece than all the statesmen and all the
sovereigns of Europe. And he did more, too, for
the ideal for which men should strive.
In all this I am but reiterating James Holmes's
oft-repeated defence of the poet whom he had
known so intimately and loved so well. He could
never understand the doubt that In his old age had
come over men's minds as to his former friend's true

opinion of Byron 69
greatness, and imagined that the newer generation
must be composed of men of punier faith and
weaker insight. However, the disparagement
which, led by Carlyle, with his "screeching meat-
jack" theory — fitter one for an ever-groaning dys
peptic — prevailed so long, bids fair to give place
at last to a more discriminating appreciation ;
though there are still bleating voices raised against
him who remains to-day, as he was regarded in his
lifetime by those who were able to judge, one
of the Titans of the century. Perhaps the close of
the century may see him accorded by his countrymen
that place in the realm of letters which alike his
genius and its influence imperatively demand.
I may add that almost to his latest days, when
ever Byron was spoken of, and his character and
genius were referred to. Holmes used to quote the
noble concluding stanzas of the poem written on
the completion of the poet's thirty-sixth year, in
vindication of his memory : —
Awake ! (not Greece — she is awake !)
Awake, my spirit ! Think through whom
Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake,
And then strike home !
Tread those reviving passions down,
Unworthy manhood ! — unto thee
Indifferent should the smile or frown
Of beauty be.

70 Life of fames Holmes
If thou regret'st thy youth, why live ?
The land of honourable death
Is here :— up to the field, and give
Away thy breath.
Seek out — less often sought than found —
A soldier's grave, for thee the best ;
Then look around, and choose thy ground,
And take thy rest.

CHAPTER VIII

THE LEIGH FAMILY

Through his acquaintance with Lord Byron, Holmes
came to know the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, his half-sister,
the innocent subject of Mrs. Beecher-Stowe's wild
accusations. A lifelong friendship between him and
the Leighs ensued, the two families visiting and
seeing a great deal of each other.
Mrs. Leigh, through having been a maid - of-
honour to Queen Charlotte, enjoyed the privilege
of living in apartments in St. James's Palace. They
were in the inner court. Here Holmes and his
family used to visit the courtly dame and meet her
sons and daughters. The younger members of the
two families may be said to have grown up together,
the sons especially being in constant companionship
from early youth to manhood. One of the Holmes
boys — indeed, the youngest, as it would appear, and
the younger of the two still living ^ — had the honour
^ As already stated, he is now the only one left, i

72 Life of fames Holmes
of being the godson of Mrs. Leigh, and being
named, after her and her brother, George Augustus.
Of the Leighs there were three sons and four
daughters. The eldest son, George, was in the
Guards ; the second, Frederick, was a lieutenant in
the navy, and did good service in the first Chinese
war, being one of the first to land in the boats and
make the attack upon the Taku Forts, He saw
active service, indeed, in all parts of the world, and
came out of the ordeal rather a rough specimen of
the British sea-dog. In the end he married well,
that is, he married a rich wife, though the union
does not appear to have been a very happy one.
He was a man of a most violent temper, and
must have been a very difficult person to get on
with. For a long time he was on bad terms with
his father, an old Peninsular veteran, so that they
hardly spoke when they met. On one occasion, as
the latter and a friend were walking up St. James's
Street, the friend said, pointing to a gentleman on
the other side of the way, " Do you see that young
man over there ? " " Yes," replied Colonel Leigh,
"and a fine handsome fellow he appears to be!"
"Why, it's your son Frederick," said the other.
" Oh, is it ? I didn't know him," drily returned the
father. Frederick Leigh was tall and strongly built, and

The Leigh Family 73
possessed in his face a striking resemblance to
his uncle. Lord Byron. Holmes painted a small
vignette portrait of him in water colours, which, it
was generally said, might have passed for a portrait
of the poet.
On Frederick Leigh's marriage a reconciliation
took place between him and his father, and he was
invited to dine at St. James's Palace. But he
came very near to creating a fresh rupture by his
brusqueness and fo'c's'le style of jesting. Every
thing went smoothly enough until dessert, when
the young man, probably more out of devilment
than anything else, broke out with —
" Look here, father, I don't at all mind visiting
you and eating your dinners, but for goodness' sake,
when I come again, give me something better than
this red ink to regale myself on." The old gentle
man seemed inclined to be a little hurt, but he soon
recovered his serenity, and probably resolved that
the next time his son dined with him he would give
him something more befitting his vitiated taste than
his best port.
Frederick Leigh was at one time of the set of
the Marquis of Waterford, Billy Duff, and company,
so notorious for their wild escapades about town,
one of their chief delights being to wrench off the
knockers and bell-handles from the doors of respect-

74 Life of fames Holmes
able householders, and otherwise conduct themselves
in the ways of the "bloods" of their time: habits
which at once died out with the inauguration of the
new police force by Sir Robert Peel — hence desig
nated " Peelers."
Billy Duff was one of the most notorious of these
aristocratic ruffians ; and Frederick Leigh appears
to have been proud of his acquaintance. One day
he took him to Holmes's house, saying, " I have
brought Billy Duff to see you ; I thought you would
like to know him," as though he were one of the
great ones of the time — which to him he doubtless
was. It is equally noteworthy, perhaps, as a character
istic of the time, that Billy finally married a lady of
wealth and title, who prided herself upon having
tamed "the lion." We should have given him
another name nowadays, and tamed him in a
different way.
Theodore Hook was another of this wild gang.
He was a great friend of Lord Kilmorey's, who,
being very intimate with Holmes, used to amuse
him and his sisters with his stories of the wag. On
one occasion his lordship's servant came up to him
before he was dressed and said —
" There's a gentleman at the door who says he
has come to breakfast with you, but he has such a

The Leigh Family 75
queer-looking man with him that I don't know
whether your lordship would care to see him."
Lord Kilmorey went down and found Theodore
Hook in the hall, and with him a bailiff, who of
course would not let him go out of his sight.
" If you want me to breakfast with you,"
said Hook, " you will have to pay this fellow
^17 : IDS. He has a writ on me for that
amount." " It was rather a large sum to pay for the honour
of having a man to breakfast with one," said Lord
Kilmorey, "but I paid it."
This additional story is told of Frederick Leigh.
Meeting Mr. Holmes's eldest son James (who died
comparatively young) one morning, he asked him,
" Where do you think I slept last night ? "
James could not guess, and queried "Where?"
" On a bench in St. James's Park," was the
reply. It was in the winter time and had snowed during
the night.
Henry Leigh, the youngest of the sons, held a
place in the Board of Control, an office that was
done away with on the abolition of the East India
Company. He married well, though his wife was
poor like himself Henry, who was the mildest
and most genial of the brothers, died at the age of

76 Life of fames Holmes
thirty -two, leaving a little daughter, Geraldine,
His widow subsequently married a rich Indian,
One of the daughters, Georgiana, married Mr.
Henry Trevanlon, of Carhaes, near Falmouth.
Emily, the youngest, was possessed of much talent,
and learned to draw and paint, under Mr. Holmes's
direction, with considerable ability. She was, as a
young lady, very spirited, and exceedingly proud of
her family and connections. She never married.
The other daughter, Medora, was less fortunate ;
she came near being the cause of a duel, and, it is
thought by some who were acquainted with the
facts, may have afforded to Lady Byron the
nebulous groundwork upon which to build the
scandalous charges which she made against Lord
Byron to Mrs. Beecher-Stowe, and of which that
ill-advised person made so much.
Colonel Leigh, who had been all through the
Peninsular War, was a tall, stately gentleman, who
had the peculiarity, much marked in those days, of
wearing a long coat that reached almost to his
ankles. He was generally of a taciturn disposition,
but when in congenial company, and warmed to the
work, he could tell some stirring and amusing
episodes of his campaigning days. One story that
he used to narrate concerned Colonel Dundas, who
in a certain engagement had his left arm taken clean

The Leigh Family yy
off by a cannon-ball. He was leaning over to sight
a gun, when he felt what appeared to be a slight
breeze pass close to his ear. Then he had a feeling
as of something trickling down on to his leg, and on
looking to see what was the matter, perceived that
his arm had been shot away right up to the shoulder.
The strange thing was that he had not felt the least
twinge of pain. He was in the hospital for a
time, but soon got well, and followed the campaign
to Its close.
Another striking anecdote told of this hero, who
was a big handsome man, standing over six feet in
height, is to the effect that, being in the City one
day, he suddenly, as he walked along, felt a twitch
at his coat. Glancing down, without stopping or
betraying the least emotion, he perceived that a man
had got his hand in his pocket. Quietly seizing the
fellow by the wrist, he gripped him so tightly
betwixt his fingers and thumb that he snapped the
bone, and then coolly cast the creature away from
him, taking no more notice, and walking on as
though nothing had happened, though he heard the
poor wretch's wail of agony as he fell by the way
maimed. A strange glimpse surely into the brutality
of the times !
A more pleasing story out of Colonel Leigh's
budget concerned a private who, being sent to

78 Life of fames Holmes
hospital for a wound that appeared likely to prove
fatal, was greatly concerned lest he should die, and
his grandmother, his only living relative, not know
what had become of him. The Colonel promised
that he would write to acquaint her with his con
dition. In the morning he paid the man a visit,
and informed him that he had despatched a letter to
his grandmother. Said the man, as it appeared,
very happily, " Ah, sir, it will never reach her.
She is dead. She came to my bedside In the night
and told me she died shortly after I left home.
But she bade me be comforted, for she said I
should get better, and return to England, and live
happily." He added, as he thanked the Colonel for
the trouble he had taken, " It's very pleasant, sir,
to know that she is not in want, and that I shall see
her again some day." The proof of the accuracy of
this vision afterwards came to hand In the form of a
letter from the schoolmaster of the village in which
the old woman had lived, saying that she was dead,
and giving the date of her decease, which coincided
with what the soldier had been told in his vision.
There was a touch of eccentricity about nearly
all the Leighs. So much was this the case, indeed,
that Holmes, who saw as much of them in their
private life as perhaps anybody, was led to the
conclusion that some of them were not quite right.

The Leigh Family 79
Mrs. Leigh, although not exactly reckless, was a bad
manager and perhaps a little Improvident, and was
in consequence for ever needy and in debt. As it
was known that a large amount would fall to her on
Lady Byron's death, one day when the subject of
the family finances was on the tapis, and Lady
Byron's name was mentioned. Holmes said laugh
ingly— " There is nothing for it, my dear Mrs. Leigh,
but to give her a tap on the head."
"Oh, Mr. Holmes, how can you say so?" sadly
replied Mrs. Leigh. " She is destined to outlive me."
Which in fact she did, leaving a legacy of
malignity and hate behind her.
Both of the two remaining sons of Mr. Holmes,
Edward and George Augustus, were frequent
visitors at St. James's Palace ; and they still recall
with pleasure and affectionate regard Mrs. Leigh
as she appeared at that time. " She was tall and
elegant of figure," Mr. George Holmes makes note,
" and possessed a face which, while not of the type
that would be called beautiful, nevertheless bore, as
it appeared framed in her silky white hair, the
stamp of a singular distinction and even of the
comeliness of old age."
One of the most vivid recollections of Mr.
George Holmes is of seeing Mrs. Leigh making

8o Life of fames Holmes
entries in her diary, which she used to have on the
table beside her, and which was written in French,
One wonders what became of that diary. Was it
destroyed, or is it still In existence ?^ It is naturally
a subject of regret to those who knew of its exist
ence that its contents, in part at least, were not
made public, as it might have confuted so much
that has been said to the detriment of the poet
and his beloved sister.
Frequently when Mrs. Leigh complained of the
condition of the family finances. Holmes would
advise her to write her recollections of Lord Byron.
" It would make an interesting book, and would go
like wildfire, and you would thus be relieved from
all your pecuniary difficulties," he would say in
his impetuous manner. But her answer was ever
a smile and a sad shake of the head. Once she
said with tearful eyes, " Ah, no ! All that I know
of my dear brother that is not known to everybody
is of too sacred a nature to be put in a book for
all the world to read."
Both Edward and George Holmes took to their
father's profession, the elder at first following in
his footsteps as a portrait-painter, but subsequently,
when photography began to take away the occu
pation of painters — of the painters of miniatures
1 Mr. George Holmes thinks it must be.

The Leigh Family 8i
especially — devoting himself to landscape art ; while
the younger found his most natural sphere in the
treatment of figure and animal subjects, of which
he is a constant exhibitor at the Academy.
George Holmes began life, however, as a clerk
in the firm of George Moffat and Co., tea merchants,
of Fenchurch Street, a position obtained for him by
the Leighs ; but finding after a time that the artistic
bent was too strong to be ignored, he relinquished
trade for the palette and brush. Moffat, who
married a daughter of Morrison (of the firm of
Morrison, Dillon, and Co.), subsequently became
member of Parliament for Dartmouth. When young
Holmes, calling at St. James's Palace, mentioned
to the one-time maid-of-honour the fact of Moffat's
election, she replied, " Oh, anybody can be member
of Parliament nowadays ; I expect my butcher to
be returned next."
One wonders what the aristocratic dame would
say were she living now.
Morrison, who accumulated a fortune of four
millions, ended his days miserably in the belief
that he had been reduced to poverty and was
obliged to have recourse to parish relief The
poor man's leading trait had become a monomania,
and so fixed was the idea of his penury that the
family were obliged to make an arrangement with
6

82 Life of fames Holmes
the parish authorities whereby he was to receive
a small sum weekly for his support, the amount of
course being paid to them for that purpose. The
millionaire went regularly every week, like a pauper,
to receive his dole, and was happy to think that he
was thereby saved from starvation.
In connection with what has been written about
Mrs. Leigh and Lord Byron, the following letter
will be of interest, as it gives the views of a
contemporary respecting the poet. The writer,
Catherine Hutton, was a woman of considerable
note in her day. She was the daughter of William
Hutton, author of the History of Birmingham, and
herself the writer of several novels, of a Tour of
Africa, and of much miscellaneous literature besides.
She corresponded with many famous contemporaries,
and left at her death, which occurred in 1846, at the
age of ninety-one, between two and three thousand
rare and valuable letters, a selection from which was
published by her cousin, Catherine Hutton Beale,
in 1 89 1. Catherine Hutton never married, but
devoted herself to the care of her father, and after
his death she continued to live at Bennett's Hill,
near Birmingham. 21th March 1836.
Sir — I shall be most happy to see you at your own con
venience, at any time before the nth of next month, when I

The Leigh Family 83
hope to set out for London, or in a month after this time, when
I expect I shall have returned home. But, if you have formed
an idea of me from Mrs. Leigh's partiality, and what you have
seen of my own letters, you will be disappointed. I owe much
of Mrs. Leigh's partiality to the kindness of her own disposition,
and much to my admiration of Lord Byron. As a poet, there
can be but one opinion of him, except another may be formed
by prejudice or envy ; but, as a man, I think no one was ever
so ill understood, so misrepresented, so persecuted, so unfor
tunate in every connexion but that with his sister. There was
much good in Lord Byron that never was elicited ; many of
his errors were forced upon him by circumstances, and others
were the consequences of the temperament which constituted
the poet. I envy you for having studied his countenance.
The engraving is beautiful, and I doubt not that the miniature
is more so. I rejoice that it is in your custody.
As regards myself, you have to lower your imagination as
much as possible before you meet an infirm old woman of four
score, who during the last year and a half has been a martyr
to ill-health. A little of my former spirit may, and I believe
does, remain in my letters,' but in conversation it has been
subdued by time and suffering. I live alone, I admit nobody,
though Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke,^ the North Cape traveller,
has been an exception, and I hope you will prove another. I
never dine. My nearest approach to dinner is a small tray,
with two small slices of meat (hot or cold, as it may happen), a
small pudding, or tart, or a little preserved fruit, and one glass
of wine. This I sit down to at two o'clock, and fifteen or
twenty minutes take it all away. I am out from eleven to
twelve o'clock every day that winds and storms permit. If you
^ Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke, of Oakley Hall, Northamptonshire, was
the author of several books of travel, one of them being Travels through
Sweden, Norway, and Finmark to the North Pole, in the Summer of 1820.

84 Life of fames Holmes
will have the goodness to let me know when I may expect you,
by a note put into the Birmingham post-office the evening
before, the latter part of my daily avocation shall be omitted. —
I am, sir, your very obliged Catherine Hutton.
To James Holmes, Esq.
I have no information as to whether Holmes
paid the visit here referred to, but in all proba
bility he did. He had many friends in that part
of the country, at Worcester, in Shropshire, etc.,
and spent much time there, especially in his latter
years. On one occasion, when about to make a
journey to Birmingham, the following humorous
incident occurred. Meeting one day Sir Henry
Peyton, a noted four-in-hand driver and sporting
man, in Grosvenor Place, he informed him in the
course of conversation that he was about to go to
Birmingham. "Oh, are you?" said Sir Henry.
"How are you going?" "By the new railway,"^
Holmes replied. "New railway! new railway!"
cried the sporting man. " 'Pon my life, I'd rather
walk." ^ The London and Birmingham Railway was opened in 1838.

CHAPTER IX

HOLMES A COURTIER

Of the three pictures Holmes exhibited in 1817,
one, " The Michaelmas Dinner," as it was then
called, he always regarded as amongst the best of his
productions. It appeared in the exhibition catalogue
with the following lines from Lord Chesterfield :
"He cannot hit the joint, but in his vain efforts to
cut through the bone, splashes the company," and
hence is said to have been suggested by that
quotation ; but his sons inform me that it was an
exhibition of clumsiness in carving a goose on the
part of Colonel Paisley, the engineer who raised
the Royal George, which foundered in Portsmouth
Harbour, that actually gave their father the idea of
his picture, and that suggested the title, " The Un
skilful Carver," which it afterwards bore. It is the
most elaborate and studied of his works, and may
be taken as a good example of his style, and also of
the kind of subjects he preferred to treat, which,

86 Life of fames Holmes
belonging to a popular, sometimes, it may even be
said, to a vulgar class, allied him to the Dutch
more than to the Italian School.
On being shown to the Prince Regent, he at
once ordered it to be bought, and it passed into the
Royal Collection. It was exhibited in a loan collec
tion in 1823, being lent for the purpose by the King.
The following letter has reference to the fact : —
Dear Sir — I have written by His Majesty's commands to
Brighton to have the picture forwarded to you, which you will
have the goodness to take the greatest care of, and have returned
to Mr. Saunders, Pavihon, Brighton, when the exhibition is
closed. — I am, dear sir, yours, Conyngham.
Windsor, I'jthjune 1823.
In 1819 Holmes exhibited two miniatures in the
Royal Academy, which were greatly admired, and
brought him very prominently into public notice.
The result was a considerable increase of his patron
age among the upper classes. He had previously
commenced to enjoy some Court patronage, and
was soon in the full tide of success.
One of his earliest friends in Court circles was
Princess Esterhazy, cousin of George IV, and wife
of Prince Esterhazy, a notable man in his time, but
chiefly famous in England for the number and
value of his diamonds, and for his jewellery gener
ally, one of Barham's most popular ballads celebrating

Holmes a Courtier 87
him in "Barney Maguire's Account of the Corona
tion" in the following couplet :
'Twould have made you crazy to see Esterhazy
All jools from his jasey to his di'mond boots.
Of Princess Esterhazy, the artist painted at one
time or another at least twelve or thirteen portraits.
When she wished specially to please a friend or
admirer, she could think of nothing better than the
gift of a miniature by Holmes as a souvenir. The
Princess not only appreciated his art very highly,
but admired him greatly as a man, and continued to
be on the most friendly terms with him so long as
she remained in England. On finally leaving this
country for Austria, she sent him a handsome jewel,
accompanied by the following note : — Tuesday Morning.
Princess Esterhazy's compliments to Mr. Holmes; she has
the pleasure to send him her little debt, and at the same time a
little souvenir which she begs him to accept, and hopes he will
wear in remembrance of her. Princess Esterhazy thinks it very
likely she may call on Mr. Holmes in the course of the day to
look at the miniature which is not quite finished.
One of the portraits of the Princess was en
graved, as will be seen from the following note of
the Duchess of Richmond, dated 1831 : —
The Duchess of Richmond presents her compliments to Mr.
Holmes, and in answer to his letter, begs to inform him she will send

88 Life of fames Holmes
for the miniature, painted by Mr. Holmes, which is now at Good
wood, and as soon as she receives it, will send it to Mr. Holmes.
The Duchess is very much obliged to Mr. Holmes for the
offer of the print of the Princess Esterhazy, which she will be
happy to accept.
It was through the influence of Princess Ester
hazy that the artist received his first invitation to
Court. The earliest intimation he had that he was
to be thus honoured was as follows. One morning
Lady Aylmer said to him, " Mr. Holmes, you will
shortly have a chance to try your fortunes at Court,
or I am much mistaken. I heard the Princess
Esterhazy yesterday evening speaking of you in the
most flattering terms to the Prince Regent, and His
Royal Highness appeared greatly interested."
A few days later he was sent for by the Prince,
the Immediate outcome being a commission to paint
a portrait of His Royal Highness.
In all. Holmes painted four portraits of George
IV, one of them being taken for the purpose of
reproduction by engraving. For this the King
kindly consented to sit, and it is still in the possession
of the artist's sons.
He also painted a portrait of His Royal Highness
the Duke of Clarence, in his uniform of Lord High
Admiral ; and miniature portraits of the Princess
Sophia, then residing at Kensington Palace. During
his visits to the palace for this purpose the artist

Holmes a Courtier 89
frequently had the pleasure of meeting Madame
d'Arblay, of whom he always spoke in the highest
terms of praise. Her conversation, he used to say,
was exceedingly interesting. Sometimes she read
while he painted, and these exercises he found
hardly less interesting than her talk.
The following letter refers to one of these minia
tures : —
Madame d'Arblay has just been honoured with the com
mands of Her Royal Highness the Princess Sophia to beg of Mr.
Holmes that he will be .so good as to trust Her Royal Highness
with the loan of her picture for this evening : she engages willingly
to assure him that it shall not go out of her hands, and that it
shall be returned to him to-morrow morning at an early hour.
Her R. H. begs it may be sent sealed up. The bearer
is to carry it to Kensington Palace immediately.
Madame d'Arblay is to have the pleasure of witnessing the
last sitting for this charming composition on Wednesday.
Monday, \st October 1 821.
One of his portraits of George IV Holmes was
working on at the time of the King's accession to
the throne, and His Majesty invited him to be
present at the coronation. A ticket was accordingly
sent him for the ceremony at the Abbey. It ad
mitted him, however, only to an inferior place, where
he would see but little of the ceremony. He accord
ingly told the Marquis of Conyngham that the King
had said he was to have one of the best places.

90 Life of fames Holmes
"You can't," replied the Marquis. "There are
only a few, and they are all taken up by the peers
and peeresses."
" All right, your lordship," rejoined the artist.
" I only tell you what the King said."
" It's all very well for His Majesty to order,"
grumbled Conyngham, "but it can't be done."
However, Holmes got his ticket for a front seat.
During his next sitting the King asked him if
he had received a ticket for the coronation.
" I have received one for the church," said
Holmes. " Oh, give him one for Westminster Hall as
well," said the King, turning to Conyngham.
Thus he was enabled to see the ceremony well
enough to take a pencil note of it. He afterwards
made a sketch of the coronation, apparently with the
intention of painting a picture of it, but it was never
proceeded with.
Holmes used to describe, with a good deal of
detail, the scene both in the Abbey and in West
minster Hall, with the commotion occasioned by the
attempt made by the Queen to enter and take part
in the ceremony.
But long before this Holmes's suavity of manners
and invariable good humour, joined to his talents as
an artist and as a musician, had rendered him a

Holmes a Courtier 91
great favourite at Court, and he became a fre
quent guest at His Majesty's evening parties.
Indeed, his company and conversation were so
much liked by the King, that the Marquis of
Conyngham once remarked that "Mr. Holmes had
become the King's hobby."
On these occasions he was frequently required
to display his proficiency as a performer on the flute.
One evening he was called upon to play a duet with
Lady Elizabeth Conyngham, and he acquitted him
so well that the King complimented him by saying,
" Played with great taste and feeling, Mr. Holmes ;
you are always welcome to the palace."
On another occasion His Majesty, who had a
good bass voice, proposed a glee, and asked Sir
Andrew Barnard and Holmes to take part with him
in " Life's a Bumper." When this was finished
the King proposed another and another, until quite
a number were sung. His Majesty taking part in
each. At this period Holmes seems to have spent a
good deal of time at Court, and naturally saw much
of the inner life of the palace, of which he had many
amusing anecdotes to tell.
On one occasion, when the Court was at Brighton,
the artist, through an act of forgetfulness or negli
gence, came very near forfeiting his royal patron's

92 Life of fames Holmes
friendship. Thinking that he would not be wanted,
he went to Worthing or somewhere in the neighbour
hood, and stayed away for some time. Meanwhile
he was wanted by the Regent, and was sought for
high and low. Returning eventually, and learning
from his landlady that he had been called for, he
repaired to the palace, where he found His Royal
Highness in a state of great wrath at his prolonged
absence. Holmes apologized, making some lame excuse
to the effect that his landlady had not told him that
he was wanted, or something of the kind. Mean
while the Regent walked moodily from room to
room, grunting and explosive, the artist humbly
following. Finally His Royal Highness, coming to
a sudden stand and confronting him, exclaimed
petulantly, "What a d — d fellow you are. Holmes!
But come with me, and I will tell you what I wish
you to do." So the matter blew over.
On another occasion, when they were alone
together, George asked the artist what he could do
for him. Not being up to the trick of begging,
Holmes replied that he was in want of nothing, he
was quite content — or words to that effect.
When he came to know the Court better, and
saw what a shameless system of intrigue was
carried on, and how everybody about His Majesty

Holmes a Courtier 93
was scheming for place or emolument, he reflected,
and used to say, that had he had his wits about
him, he might by a word have secured some post
or office that would have proved a sinecure for life ;
"perhaps even a colonelcy," he would add with a
laugh, knowing as he did what went on.
He used to think that it might have been because
he never sued for favours, either for himself or
others, that he enjoyed so much of the King's favour.
Stupid and dull as George was considered by some,
to the artist-courtier he always appeared to have
perspicacity enough to see what a set of fawning
and self-seeking sycophants he had about him, and, in
his heart of hearts, probably to despise most of them.
To what depths of meanness some of them could
descend is exemplified by a little incident in
connection with a cheque which the artist received
for portrait commissions and the picture of "The
Unskilful Carver," referred to above. The total
amount was ;^5oo, £'2.'SO being for portraits. Sir
Benjamin Blomfield, keeper of the Prince's Privy
Purse,^ observed that it was a " lot of money," and as
the remark was couched in such a way that it seemed
to convey a hint. Holmes offered him a loan of ^20.
An amusing incident which the artist witnessed,
^ Sir Benjamin Blomfield became Receiver General of the Duchy of
Cornwall and Keeper of the Privy Purse in 1817. He was subsequently
raised to the peerage.

94 Life of fames Holmes
and which he was fond of narrating, was the
following. Sir Edmund Nagle, another of the
royal household, was in the habit of falling asleep
in the midst of the royal assemblies, and sleeping
so soundly that nothing could wake him — " not even
my performance on the flute," Holmes would say.
One evening a wag, observing him in his usual
condition, took off his spectacles, smeared them with
wax from a candle, and then carefully replaced
them on his nose. When at length Sir Edmund
awoke, he could not at first make out what was the
matter, that he was unable to see. But when he
realised the nature of the jest that had been played
upon him, he broke into a towering passion, and
raged and swore about the place in the most furious
manner, utterly regardless of the presence he was in
and of the fact that ladles were there. Not content
with this, he offered ten guineas to any one who
would tell him who was the perpetrator of the joke.
The offer was received with roars of laughter, in
which the Prince Regent joined. This exasperated
Sir Edmund still more, and with further imprecations
on all present, he rushed out of the room, swearing
he would never return. Of course he did not carry
out his threat.
For a time Holmes was so prime a favourite
with George IV that he roused some jealousy

Holmes a Courtier 95
amongst the courtiers. One day some grumbling
took place because the King was engaged in close
conversation with him when they wanted to go out.
The Marquis of Conyngham once attempted a slight
trick with him, in order to lower him in the King's
esteem, but fortunately without effect. It was a
rule in Court etiquette that no one should enter the
presence of the King unattended. It was usual
therefore for the artist to be accompanied into the
room where His Majesty was by the Marquis.
One morning he presented himself at the time
appointed for a sitting, but found no Marquis to
escort him. He waited in the ante-chamber for a
minute or two, and then hearing the King's and
other voices within, and knowing that he was
expected, he boldly opened the door and entered.
The King was standing in the middle of the room,
with several gentlemen about him. Holmes
approached, bowed, and uncovering his canvas,
began to work.
Some little time afterwards the Marquis of
Conyngham entered, looking hot and flurried, and
in an undertone commenced to expostulate with
Holmes for not waiting in order to be properly
announced. "Oh, my dear Marquis," returned
Holmes, always polite and courtly, but quietly
laughing in his sleeve, " I could not think of

96 Life of fames Holmes
giving you the trouble to wait on me — I could not
think of it."
The Marquis withdrew, smiling and courteous,
but knowing that his plot had been foiled, and none
the better pleased on that account. It was his plan
to have made the artist keep the King waiting, and
so ruffle his temper, and perhaps receive a sharp
reprimand for unpunctuality.
As regards the ladies of George IV's Court,
Holmes had no great Idea of their beauty. He
used to say they were rather a common-looking lot,
and that the Princess Esterhazy easily bore off the
palm both for charm of feature and grace of form.
Added to this she had a fine carriage, and appeared
like a veritable queen among the rest. Such at
least was the artist's opinion.

CHAPTER X
ARISTOCRATIC FRIENDS AND OTHERS
The glitter of the Court did not spoil Holmes's love
for art, nor in any way detract from the mildly
democratic sentiments with which he had been
imbued early in life, and which in a more or less
philosophical form characterized the political views
of the more generous spirits of the time. His
experience of Court Hfe, indeed, rather tended to
deepen those sentiments. "It would be hard to
find a sphere in life," he once said, " in which men
and women appeared to a worse advantage to any
one capable of looking beneath the surface, and
estimating the motives that actuated them. There
were some bright exceptions ; but the majority of
those who habitually surrounded the King lived in
a constant whirl of petty intrigue and calculating
selfishness, unrelieved by any spark of generosity or
nobility of feeling. Lady Conyngham, the King's

98 Life of fames Holmes
mistress,^ aided by her husband and daughter, lost
no opportunity of despoiling him, and the others, for
the most part, looked on, outwardly polite and com
plaisant, though secretly eaten up with spite and
jealousy, and made what they could." Altogether,
according to his description. It was a despicable and
degrading scene.
One day, before Holmes knew the Court so well
as he afterwards came to do, he happened to remark
to Sir Benjamin Blomfield that the Marquis of
Conyngham was a very obliging and good-natured
man. " Oh, very obliging, and exceedingly good-
natured," returned the courtier with a cynical leer.
" His Majesty has every proof of it."
The artist's acquaintance with the Court con
tinued until the death of the King, and was never
renewed. William IV he utterly despised, and
could never be induced to appear at Court after
his accession. This feeling arose partly out of his
treatment of Mrs. Jordan, whom Holmes knew
slightly, and whose earnings at the theatre the
King, as Prince, used to wait at the stage door
1 Greville in his Memoirs (vol. i. p. 27) says: "Somebody asked Lady
Hertford ' if she had been aware of the king's admiration for Lady Conyngham. '
She replied that ' intimately as she had known the king, and openly as he had
talked to her upon every subject, he had never ventured to speak to her upon
that of his mistresses. ' "

Aristocratic Friends and Others 99
on pay-nights to receive, and then to spend upon
himself Nor did he think any the better of him when, on
becoming King, he caused the now-dethroned Lady
Conyngham to be despoiled of the booty, including
many precious royal heirlooms, which she had
wheedled out of her royal lover. Barely, indeed,
was the King dead before her house was forcibly
entered and the valuables therein stored, carried
away, the poor woman the while being exposed to
the gibes and insults of the populace.
One of the last things that took Holmes to
Court was the painting of an oil portrait of the King,
which His Majesty gave him the permission to take
for engraving. The portrait — a very good one — is
still in the possession of the artist's sons. The
print was finished and published in 1828, and is
referred to in the following letters by the Marquis
of Conyngham : —
Dear Sir — If you will send one of your prints carefully
packed up, directed to my care, I will with pleasure submit it to
His Majesty. Send the print to 105 Pall Mall and it will be
forwarded. — Truly yours, Conyngham.
22nd November 1828. private.
Dear Sir — I return you the engraving of His Majesty, which
I hope you will receive safe. As you flatter me with desiring my
opinion of the engraving, I confess I think the face rather too

I GO Life of fames Holmes
grave-looking and the upper lip not quite flat enough, as in your
original drawing. The engraving is very good indeed. — ^Yours,
dear sir, very truly, Conyngham.
yh December 1828.
It was about this time that the artist was intro
duced to Donna Maria II, Queen of Portugal, then
on a visit to England, and received a large commis
sion from her for portraits of herself The order
was for eight or nine, but Holmes, after finishing
the third or fourth, refused to do any more because
Her Majesty was so atrociously ugly. He found it
much more agreeable painting portraits of English
beauties, of whom, in his time, he must have done
hundreds. He used to say that there was hardly a
family in the ranks of our aristocracy for whom he
had not executed commissions for portraits (chiefly
miniatures) at one time or another. It was also a
rather proud boast of his that few artists could have
painted more royalties than he had.
Amongst other members of reigning families
upon whom his brush was engaged about this time,
was the Due d'Orleans, the eldest child of Louis
Philippe, who not very long afterwards was killed
in Paris by the running away of his horses. He sat
to Holmes for his portrait during a brief sojourn in
this country. On his first visit to Wilton Street
(whither the artist had removed in 1828) the door

Aristocratic Friends and Others loi
was opened by a pretty maid, and being struck
by her good looks, the Prince addressed her
with —
" Parlez-vous frangais, mademoiselle ? "
" No," replied the maid with a curtsey.
" But you understood me," returned the Prince.
" Yes, but I did not speak French," was the girl's
prompt reply.
This last answer so greatly amused the Prince
that he related the incident to Holmes.
Another anecdote that the artist used to relate
of the Due d'Orleans Is perhaps better worth re
peating. One day when he was sitting his valet
came out of the studio and said His Royal Highness
would like a cup of tea. The beverage was duly
provided, and presently the valet returned, saying
that the tea was too strong, and that the Prince
would like some hot water to weaken it. This was
sent in. Very soon, however, the valet was back
again, saying that the tea was now too hot, and that
his royal master would like some cold water to cool
it. But even with the addition of the cold water,
the tea was not quite right, for after a minute or two
more, the valet returned for the fourth time with the
request that he might have a drop of cognac to
correct the tea and make it to His Royal Highness's
taste.

I02 Life of fames Holmes
No wonder Holmes thought this a somewhat
roundabout way to arrive at the cognac.
Another of the artist's acquaintances of this
period was the redoubtable Count D'Orsay, of
whom, at one time or another, he saw a great deal,
albeit without being greatly struck with admiration
for him — apart, that is, from his clothes. Holmes
always had great taste in dress, and although he
was simplicity itself in his own attire, he had ever
an artist's eye for costume, and did not look with
dislike upon the brave foppery of the Georgian
dandy. But while he may have admired D'Orsay
the dandy, he utterly despised D'Orsay the painter,
regarding him, as did most of his artist confreres,
as a trickster, being able to do little in the artistic
line himself, and succeeding simply by having resort
to the now well-known expedient of employing a
"ghost." An artist named Mackle worked for him
for a long time In this way. He used to be hidden
behind a screen in which there was a little hole for
him to peep through (unseen and unsuspected of
course by the sitter) and so make his study. Mean
while D'Orsay would be busy at his easel pretending
to paint. But it was a peculiarity of his method
that he would never allow anyone to watch him at
work. In short, he succeeded by dash, dress, and
effrontery.

Aristocratic Friends and Others 103
He used to drive about town and go to his
sitters' houses in a handsome cabriolet, accompanied
by his tiger. This gaudily-dressed little creature,
as may be seen in the prints of the time, stood at
the back of the vehicle, and on his master's wishing
to descend, would jump down from his perch and
either hold the horse's head or take the reins. Or,
if there was nothing more to be done, he would
simply deliver his master's message or card.
D'Orsay, who had the credit of being the Inventor
of the tiger, prided himself on having the smallest
specimen of the article in town. He was so tiny
that he had to make a goodly jump to reach
Holmes's knocker; and it used to be a constant
source of delight to the artist's children to see the
Count's carriage drive up and then to watch the
tiger's agile assaults upon the knocker, at which he
had generally to make several jumps before achieving
success. Amongst the men of his own profession with
whom Holmes associated more or less intimately at
this time, was John Varley, who was one of the
"characters" of the day. He had a circle of his
own, which included some of the most notable men,
whether in science or art, of the time, and was
greatly sought after both on account of his good
nature and the queer conglomeration of " sciences "

I04 Life of fames Holmes
with which he was filled. But while Holmes had
the highest esteem for his undoubted attainments In
art, he laughed at his astrological notions and
whimsical theories generally. For some time they
were near neighbours. This was when Holmes was
living at No. 9 Cirencester Place and Varley was
in Great Titchfield Street.
Of Varley's circle was William Blake, the poet-
artist, of whom Holmes saw and heard much from
time to time. But while he respected and looked
with some admiration upon his art, he had not the
kind of temperament to care for his mystico-poetical
writings. What was not perfectly clear to him was,
it must be confessed, little better than rubbish.
Hence he could no more understand Linnell's
patronage of Blake, and what he considered the
exaggerated praise of his work, than Linnell could
understand his — that Is, Holmes's — devotion to
music. Less still could he appreciate the enthusi
astic discipleship of such men as Richmond, Palmer,
and Calvert, who, whenever they could, sat at
Blake's feet, drank in his wisdom, and imitated his
work and ways.
An amusing anecdote may be given here in
illustration of the Blakelsh spirit that was cultivated
by these men. It has reference to Edward Calvert,
and was communicated to me by Miss Linnell, of

Aristocratic Friends and Others 105
Redstone Wood, Redhill Calvert, who was very
intimate with the family, was one day at her father's
house in Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, and was
describing one of his drawings, representing a land
scape with sheep, a brook, and so forth, which he
did in these terms. " These are God's fields," said
he, in a low, solemn voice to Miss Linnell and her
sisters; "this is God's brook, these are God's trees,
and those are God's sheep and lambs." "Then
why," asked John Linnell, who was sitting near,
" then why don't you mark them with a big G ? "
Whilst referring to Blake and things Blakelsh,
it is worth while noting the fact that the colouring
of the poet-artist's later works is said to have been
much improved through the influence of Holmes and
Richter, both of whom were noted as amongst the
first colourists of their day.
As time went on, and his hands became as full
as they would hold of miniature work, Holmes did
fewer and fewer subject pictures ; although now and
for some years to come, he was executing commis
sions in that line for Sir Henry Meux and others.
In 1827 he painted an important work entitled
" Oime ! Santa Maria," representing a poor Italian
image boy standing over his tray of broken wares
in the midst of a number of unsympathetic
bystanders. All the figures are broken except one.

io6 Life of fames Holmes
and that one Napoleon Bonaparte. This circum
stance was remarked by the critics, who drew from
It the inference that the artist had introduced some
political feeling into the picture. The simple fact is
that Holmes had the greatest admiration for the
"Little Corporal," and took this way of Indicating
that his image, in his mind, was still unbroken.
He used to say that the world hitherto had produced
only two great men, and they were Napoleon and
Hogarth. Where this picture went I have not been able to
discover.

CHAPTER XI
SOME OF THE ARTIST's CIRCLE
In personal appearance Holmes was, like many men
of genius, comparatively short of stature and inclined
to spareness of figure rather than the reverse. He
was, however, very strongly built, quick of motion,
and of a vivacity of temperament that often enabled
him to overcome an obstacle by the mere impetuosity
of his attack, where more powerful, though slower,
men would have hesitated and failed. Thus once in
Piccadilly he made a dash at a runaway horse which
had put the occupants of the carriage behind it in
great peril, and almost miraculously succeeded in
stopping it. When asked if It had not occurred to
him how much danger he ran, he replied that he had
had no time to think of anything but the danger the
occupants of the carriage were in.
He always enjoyed the best of health, which
doubtless contributed in no small degree to the
geniality of his disposition. Though exceedingly

io8 Life of fames Holmes
sprightly in conversation, and of a witty and
humorous turn, he was but little given to saying
sarcastic things. He could on occasion, however,
very aptly turn the tables on people ; as, for
instance, when at the table of a friend, he met a
phrenologist, who, after pestering others with his
professional observations, turned to Holmes and,
unasked, began to finger his " bumps " and explain
their significance.
"You seem to have most of the organs well
developed, sir," he began. "Wit, comparison,
imitation  "
"There is one at least that I have not got,"
replied the artist.
"And pray what is that?" queried the phren
ologist. "The bump of gullibility," returned Holmes.
But the most striking of his qualities was the
almost perpetual good spirits that he enjoyed.
Depression or dejection was known to him never
for long at a time. It was this invariable serenity
of temper and cheerful outlook upon the world
that caused the somewhat gloomy Walpole (Lord
Derby's Home Secretary) to reply to him on one
occasion when he had remarked on the fineness
of the weather, " Ah, it is always fine weather with
you, Mr. Holmes."

Some of the Artist's Circle 109
This incident, however, occurred somewhat later
in life, when the artist used to meet the politician
at Ealing, where he lived, and where Holmes used
to be a frequent guest of the Misses Perceval,
daughters of the murdered Prime Minister.
It was this sunny nature that caused him to be
a favourite almost wherever he went, and that
opened to him the doors of so many aristocratic
houses. It was next to impossible for dulness to
reign where he was. " Gloom could not long
prevail in presence of his invariable cheerfulness,"
notes one of his sons. He adds : "I never knew
anyone else so quick of perception, and so Intensely
rapid in thought and action, and at the same time
so uniformly bright and happy."
In regard to his facial characteristics, I have the
further note : "His features were very pronounced,
and he possessed a sharp dark brown eye."
With such a nature and disposition one can well
believe that the artist was one of the " live " members
of the "Widows' Club," composed of some of the
leading wits and " characters " of the day, which had
its home in a public-house opposite to Aldridges', in
St. Martin's Lane. Amongst other members were
Edmund Kean, William Linton, "Jerry Sneak"
Russell, the actor (so called from a part he played
to perfection) ; David Roberts, R. A., Clarkson

no Life of fames Holmes
Stanfield, R.A., Nugent, a writer for the Times;
and Turner, the animal painter.
The latter had a wooden leg and was one of the
butts of the club. Once, when Linton was in the •
chair, Turner was very persistent in calling his
attention to some remark he wished to make, and
kept rising and shouting, " Mr. Linton ! Mr.
.Linton!" At length Linton knocked loudly on
the table, and called his fellow-guests' attention by
saying, " Gendemen, attention, please, lor Mr.
Turner, who is on his leg." Turner's eagerness
subsided at once, and he sank into his chair and
was silent for the rest of the evening.
On another occasion, when the confraternity
were about to disperse, and Turner was found to
be fast asleep in his chair, they wheeled him in
front of the fire, stuck the end of his wooden leg
between the bars, and there left him. When he
awoke several Inches of his timber " understanding "
had been burned off. He used to say that he was
awakened by feeling his toes burning.
This sort of practical joking was very prevalent
at the time, and formed one of the most common
amusements of both high and low. Kean, however,
served the wooden-legged painter a trick that was
hardly fair. Turner left the club along with the
tragedian, and was persistent in his efforts to hang

Some of the Artist's Circle 1 1 1
on to him, hobbling along behind and calling out,
" Mr. Kean ! Mr. Kean ! I say, Mr. Keah ! " Kean
had no desire for his company, and did not wish to
be followed. Finding, therefore, that he could not
get rid of the painter, he stopped a policeman, gave
him his name, and bade him look after poor Turner,
saying, "He has been following me for this ten
minutes, and I fear can't be up to any good."
When in 182 1 the Society of Painters in Oil and
Water Colours was going back to its old limits of
a society for water colourists only. Holmes was
beginning to abandon that branch of art in favour
of oils — a medium in which he never appeared to
so good an advantage as in water colours. For
this reason it was that he did not exhibit any picture
in 1821. He subsequently exerted the whole of his
influence towards the founding of the Society of
British Artists, which held its first exhibition in
1824. He was a constant exhibitor with that
society for a period of nearly thirty years, both in
" subject " and portraiture.
Heaphy was the first president of the society.
Holmes followed him in that office soon after
(1829). George Robson, the water-colour painter and
a member of the Water Colour Society, thought

112 Life of fames Holmes
Holmes did wrong to leave that society, and used
to tell him "he was never satisfied; he was always
hankering after something new. In this respect he
differed very much from Robson, who was, perhaps,
as steady -going as Holmes was erratic. The latter
was for many years on terms of great intimacy
with Robson, whose work he greatly admired.
Robson was a man of great energy and much
originality. It Is said of him that he was so
determined as a boy to devote himself to art that
nothing could repress him ; and at sixteen years of
age he set out from his home (in Durham) for
London with five pounds In his pocket. But so
well did he make his way that, during his first
year in the metropolis, he was able to return the
five pounds to his father. This was about the
year 1807; in 18 14 he was elected a member of
the Water Colour Society, of which he became
president in 1820. A curious story Is told in re
gard to his death, which occurred in 1833. While
going by steamboat to visit his friends in the
North, he was taken seriously 111 and had to be
landed at Stockton-on-Tees. Others fell sick at
the same time, though not so seriously as he ; the
result, it Is said, of eating food that had been
cooked in a copper utensil that had not been
properly cleaned. He never recovered, and his

Some of the Artist's Circle 1 13
last words were, " I am poisoned." The curious
part of the story, however, is that some years
after his reported death the sons of his old friend
Holmes went to stay at a place in Devonshire
where Robson had been in the habit of putting up ;
and in the course of conversation one of them said
to the landlady, "You have, of course, heard of the
sad death of poor Mr. Robson by poison on board
ship as he was on his way North ? " " Oh dear, no,
that's all a mistake," replied the old lady. " Mr.
Robson was here only a few months ago, and stayed
several weeks with us. He was never better in his
life, or looked less like dying." And nothing could
persuade the good creature that such was not the
case. It was about this time (1823 or 1824) that Holmes
became acquainted with a man of his own profession
with whom he remained in the closest ties of friend
ship till death came to separate them. This was
Frederick Yeates Hurlstone, a painter now almost
forgotten, but in his day looked up to by many of
his brother artists as of the first rank. Indeed, but
the other day one who remembered him well re
marked that " he was the only British artist who
held his own at the International Exhibition of
1862." Hurlstone's father was a writer, and was on the

114 Life of fames Holmes
staff of the Morning Herald, in connection with
which he used to tell an amusing story. The
Herald was supported by members of the Govern
ment, and one large contributor to the funds had
his nephew, a young sprig of aristocracy, placed on
the staff of the paper. But he proved to be a
terrible plague ; everything he wrote caused trouble,
whether it was on politics, social matters, religion, or
what not ; and at last, at a meeting of the Board, it
was bluntly said that he must be got rid of, or the
paper would be ruined. " You can't get rid of him,"
said the chairman; "his uncle is in the Govern
ment."" "What can we do then?" asked the
others. No one could tell. At length one of the
directors, who had hitherto remained silent, smilingly
said, " I will tell you how to get out of the difficulty."
"How?" asked the others eagerly. "Make him
the art critic," was the reply. " But he knows
nothing about art," they all said. "So much the
better," returned the one who had proposed that
way out of the difficulty. Finally, after some talk,
this advice was taken, the paper was saved, and the
young gentleman got a post in which he worked to
his own entire satisfaction, and to the no small
content of those who worked with him.
Hurlstone was introduced to Holmes by Mr.
Rudall, the flautist. He had a little while before

Some of the Artist's Circle 1 15
(1823) taken the Royal Academy gold medal for
historical painting, the subject being "The Con
tention between the Archangel Michael and Satan
for the Body of Moses." There was some dis
inclination to award him the medal because the
picture was not considered academical enough in
style, but its undoubted great qualities, including
fine colour, carried the day. It is not very credit
able to the artist's sons to learn that this noted
picture was allowed to rot away In a damp cellar.
When Holmes and Hurlstone first became
acquainted the latter had just commenced portrait
painting, and was living in Howland Street, Fitzroy
Square, being consequently a near neighbour of
Holmes. He subsequently acquired an extensive
practice as a portrait -painter. He used to take
his first rough sketch of a sitter in Indian red,
black and white, and in the course of an hour or
two would get a very effective outline, using the
red pure here and there, and especially to mark in
the line of the jaw, the nose, etc. He used this
method In painting the portrait of Malibran, who,
upon seeing the red and black strongly laid in,
observed, " Ah, Mr. Hailstone, I see you put in the
bones and muscles first, and of course you will place
the skin on afterwards."
In 1835 Hurlstone went to Italy, Holmes

ii6 Life of fa7nes Holmes
accompanying him as far as Milan. He remained
for some time in Rome, where he at once began to
study and produce pictures of boy-life In the Eternal
City that soon placed him in the front rank of his
profession. He subsequently visited Spain and Morocco.
While in the latter country he painted his " Last
Sigh of Boabdil," or a large portion of it. He
experienced a difficulty in getting models ; but
finally one morning, as he was painting in his
studio, he was startled by hearing the voice of his
dragoman from the courtyard crying out, " Master,
come ! Master, come and help me ! Master, quick,
quick ! " Running down in great haste to see what
was the matter, Hurlstone saw his man struggling
with a couple of natives, whom he had dragged into
the court and was trying to get into the house.
Being aware of his master's dilemma, and not
knowing how to procure models in any other way,
he had laid hold of these men in the street and was
bringing them in against their will. But they
kicked up such a hullabaloo that Hurlstone had to
give them money to pacify them, fearing a disturb
ance by the people. By this means, however, they
were finally won, and the painter got all the sittings
he wanted. Hurlstone's weak point as an artist was In

Some of the Artist' s Circle 117
regard to composition, in which he used to seek
Holmes's advice. But he was a splendid colourist ;
he drew the head well ; and there was a fine daring
about his work. These qualities were recognised
by Mr. Whistler when, happening to drop one day
into Mr. George Holmes's studio, he saw Hurl
stone's "Gil Bias and the Canon Sedillo" stand
ing against an easel.
"Ah!" exclaimed the worthy M'Nell, raising
his glass to his eye more suo, "Ah, an excellent
bit of work that — very excellent ! Who is the
painter ? "
" Hurlstone," replied Mr. Holmes. " It did not
sell, and so I purchased It of the artist's sons."
"Sell! sell!" lisped Mr. Whistler. "Of course
it did not sell : it is much too good."
There are many amusing stories told of Hurl
stone, who was quite a character in his way. He
painted with so much haste ,and vigour, blowing and
hissing through his teeth the while, that artists used
to say, " He works away as though he were groom
ing a horse." On one occasion a big blue-bottle fly
flew against his canvas and stuck to the wet paint,
but so great was the fury of the artist's industry that
he could not spare time to take It off, and so worked
it up with his brush and allowed it to go as a bit
of body-colour. Someone asked him why he did

II 8 Life of fames Holmes
not take it off. " No time — it all helps ! " was the
reply. Like Turner, he was always abused by the
critics, who seldom understand original men.
In his later years Hurlstone showed signs of
becoming insane in regard to money. He was
always rather avaricious and miserly, and when his
sons were growing up he often complained to
Holmes that they would not work.
"Work! of course not," replied his friend.
" They know you are rich, and that they won't need
to do so."
" But I'm not rich," said Hurlstone.
" They know better ; make up your mind to
that. If they did not, they would work. My
sons have no doubt as to my poverty, and they
work." As a matter of fact, Hurlstone left his sons very
well off, but his hardly-accumulated wealth seemed
to do them very little good, and one, if not both,
died in the greatest poverty. One, indeed, was
reduced to the extremity of becoming a kerbstone
musician. Among leading contemporary artists there were
few that were not known to Holmes. He was well
acquainted with David Cox, both of them being
members of the Water Colour Society ; and on one

Some of the Artist's Circle 119
occasion Cox made him a sketch of a cottage for his
picture of " Boys going to School."
He used to meet Turner on the committee of
the Artists' General Benevolent Fund, of which
Holmes was a member, and they were on very
friendly terms. On one occasion the case came up
of an old lady who applied for relief Turner asked
what she had done. Someone said she had once
painted some flowers. " That won't do," replied
Turner ; " to have once painted some flowers is not
enough to entitle her to relief"
" Oh, give her a couple of guineas for some snuff
and tuppany," suggested Holmes. "Very well,"
acquiesced Turner, " give her a couple of guineas ;
but I tell you what it is, Mr. Holmes, if you had
the management of this fund there would soon be
an end of it."
This was characteristic of Holmes. Although
in the receipt of a good income, amounting at the
best times to 2000 guineas or more per annum,
yet he was always in need of money. He once
told Linnell that an artist could not save on ;^20oo
a year ; ^ and certainly he did not arrive at the
achievement himself
Once he asked Sir Henry Meux, for whom he
was at the time executing many commissions, for
^ Linnell told him he would put by is. out of ;^20 a year.

I20 Life of fames Holmes
an advance. Said Sir Henry in reply, " It is no
business of mine, Mr. Holmes, but how do you
manage to get through your money ? It is only
a short time since you had a large sum from me."
" I really don't know, I'm sure," replied Holmes.
"It goes somehow. There always seem to be no
end of expenses."
It Is the more difficult to understand what he
did with his money, because at a time when hard
drinking was the custom, he was always a temperate
man ; nor was he addicted to any special extrava
gance in other directions. But the fact Is — and
this is the only explanation in such cases as his —
that he had "a hole in his pocket," and when he
received a cheque the money soon found its way
through the aperture.
Hawkins, a sort of assistant and hanger-on,
used to say that no sooner had Holmes received a
cheque than he would say, "I've received a cheque,
Hawkins; come along and I'll change it. Is there
anything I want ? "
" No, I don't think there is," Hawkins would
r^ply ; " you seem to have everything you need."
" Never mind ! Come along, it must be changed,"
was the artist's almost invariable response.
Of Turner Holmes used to declare that he saw
nothing in his face indicative of genius or of great

Some of the Artist's Circle 121
intelligence except his bright, piercing eye. " He
had," he was wont to say, "a glance of almost
preternatural keenness."
Everyone noticed that exceptional quality.
William Westall was accustomed to relate how
Turner's look went through him when, on one
occasion, seeing a picture of the master's in which
he had painted a palm-tree yellow, he ventured to
approach the famous painter with trepidation and
apologies, and inform him that a palm-tree was
never yellow. " I have travelled a great deal in
the East, Mr. Turner," he went on, "and therefore
I know of what I am speaking ; and I can assure
you that a palm-tree is never of that colour ; it Is
always green." " Umph ! " grunted Turner, almost
transfixing him with his glance. " Umph ! I can't
afford it — can't afford it ; " and with these words
he walked away. " I felt under his steady gaze,"
said Westall, when relating the incident, — " I felt
that it was quite immaterial what colour it was In
nature, so long as he desired it different, and I
think I could have sworn that it was different
when under his eye."
Another anecdote of Turner may fittingly come
in here. On one occasion Lee exhibited a farm
house on fire. On varnishing day the Academicians
gathered round it, as is their custom, and passed

122 Life of fames Holmes
their criticisms. Landseer, amongst others, made
his suggestions, and also put a dab of his brush in
it. Then Turner approached, and Lee said, "Ah,
here is Mr. Turner, but he never has anything to
say." " Put more fire in your house," said the
master, and passed on. It was not half blazing
enough for him.

CHAPTER XII
SIR HENRY MEUX AND COMPANY
Mention has already been made of Sir Henry
Meux (of the firm of brewers of that name) as
being amongst the number of Holmes's patrons
during the later years of George IV and the
earlier part of the reign of William. Sir Henry
was a great admirer of his friend's talents, and his
mansion at Theobalds, near Edgeware, was largely
decorated by his pencil. For a long time the artist
enjoyed a commission for one picture a year, besides
portraits. He was a frequent and honoured guest at
Theobalds, where he met many celebrated men,
including some of the leading wits and politicians
of the time. Amongst others he frequently had
the pleasure of meeting Lord Brougham, whose
description of breakfast as a "skirmishing meal"
greatly amused him.
There it was that he first met Abraham Cooper,

124 Life of fames Holmes
R.A. Abraham had formerly been a groom in
Sir Henry's stables, and owed his rise very much
to his master's kindness and patronage. Seeing
once the drawing of a horse on his stable door.
Sir Henry remarked to his stableman, " Surely
that must be meant for So-and-so," mentioning
the name of one of his horses.
" It is," said the stableman.
"Who did it?"
The stableman replied that It was the work of
the lad Cooper. Questioned further, he said that
the youth was always drawing, and seemed very
clever at It.
Sir Henry sent for Cooper, questioned him,
and finished by asking him If he would like to
learn to paint. Cooper replied that he would,
whereupon Sir Henry gave him money to buy
brushes, paints, etc. ; in short, started him upon
his career.As It was the drawing of a horse that first called
attention to his budding gifts, so It was the portrait
of a horse that first brought him into public notice.
This was in 1809, when he was about twenty-five
years of age. Some years later he won the premium
of the British Institution for his finished sketch of
the "Batde of Ligny."
It was during this period of Holmes's intimacy

Sir Henry Meux and Company 125
with Meux that a large ale-vat in the firm's brewery
at the corner of Tottenham Court Road burst,
and, as is said, flooded the adjacent streets. At
that time New Oxford Street had not been formed,
and the labyrinth of courts and lanes through which
it was afterwards cut was known as Little Hell.
It was into this minor Inferno that the flood
descended, and Holmes often told how he saw
the squalid denizens prone upon their bellies drink
ing the ale from the gutters till they were dead
drunk. The artist used to relate an incident in the life
of Sir Henry Meux that is rather striking. Early
in his career he was involved in a lawsuit, the
loss of which would have carried with it the loss
of the brewery, and indeed reduced him to poverty.
Fortunately, judgment was given in his favour. So
doubtful, however, was the issue (and when is not
law doubtful ?), and so great Sir Henry's anxiety,
that, on the last day of the trial, he went into court
with a loaded pistol in his pocket, determined, if he
lost the case, to put an end to his life.
Many of the artist's pictures, as well of course
as his portraits, still adorn the walls of Theobalds,
as well as the town house of the Meuxes.
Another rich art patron with whom Holmes was
intimate at this time, although I am not sure that

126 Life of fames Holmes
he had any commission from him, was Mr. Hope,
the well-known virtuoso, who inherited from his
father, John Williams Hope, head of the famous
banking house of Amsterdam, an immense fortune
and estates in Cornwall. He spent large sums of
money on pictures, besides indulging an extravagant
taste for diamonds, which he was not ashamed of
wearing plentifully upon his person. He showed a
somewhat effeminate taste in other matters also ;
and amongst his many oddities possessed that of
being generally averse to male society. In Paris,
where he spent the latter part of his life, he formed
a coterie of eighteen ladies distinguished for their
artistic or musical gifts. When one died or quitted
the society she was replaced by another, but the
number eighteen was never exceeded. He was
noted for his princely hospitality as well as for his
eccentricity, and his mansion in the Faubourg St.
Germain was among the best known in fashion
able circles in Paris. His collection of pictures was
one of the largest in the world owned by a private
person. These and his other works of art were on
his death dispersed by auction.
When In London Holmes frequently met Mr.
Hope at his house in Harley Street, where it was
the rule to meet the nicest people and eat the
choicest of dinners.

Sir Henry Meux and Company 127
On one occasion when there the artist noticed
a portrait by Joseph of Mr. Spencer Perceval, the
Prime Minister who was assassinated (in 181 2) as
he was coming out of the House of Commons by
the man Bellingham,
" I see you have got a portrait of Mr. Perceval
by my friend Joseph," Holmes observed.
" Yes," returned Mr. Hope, " You know him
then?" Holmes replied that he did, adding that he
liked Joseph very much, that he was a very
agreeable man, and so forth.
"Oh yes," responded Mr. Hope. "Joseph is a
very nice man — a very nice man indeed ; but there
Is one thing about him that you may possibly not
have remarked."
"What is that?" asked Holmes.
"That, Academician though he be, he can't
paint." " Oh, that's nothing," replied Holmes. " It's a
failing with a lot of them."
Mr. Hope's portrait of Mr. Perceval was doubt
less one of a large order which Joseph received.
He used to boast that he had been the recipient
of the largest portrait commission that was ever
given to one man : this was to paint fifty portraits
of the murdered Premier.

128 Life of fames Holmes
So great was the indignation caused throughout
the country by the crime that a subscription was
started, and associations formed, to perpetuate Mr.
Perceval's memory ; and Joseph's portrait com
mission was one of the forms the memorial took,
each person or association subscribing so much
being entitled to a copy of the likeness. Nor was the
price, fifty guineas per portrait, bad for those days.
Prices were then very different from what they
are now, both for portraits and for pictures.
Holmes painted a replica of his " Boy going to
School " for Mr. Chamberlayne, for which he asked
£ 1 20. Chamberlayne demurred at first, saying he
never gave more than ;^ioo for a water-colour
drawing, but finally paid the price asked.
Once when Holmes and Richter were walking
out together, they met Joseph, who had just been
elected an Academician. They congratulated him,
saying they had but now heard of the honour con
ferred upon him. "Yes," he said, "it is true I
have been elected an Academician, and that not
withstanding I won the gold medal."
It was a tradition in those days that a man who
won the Academy's gold medal never became an
Academician. Joseph gained the gold medal in
1792 for a " Scene from Coriolanus." His election
as an associate took place in 181 3.

Sir Henry Mettx and Company 129
There were very few notable or notorious
persons of that day, male or female, that the artist
was not brought in contact with, either professionally
or otherwise, and he was as ready to smile at their
foibles as to condole with them in their distresses.
" He is proud of his wound," he remarked of
Lord Castlereagh, when that nobleman called upon
him with his arm in a sling after his duel with Signor
Melcy, the husband of Grisi. The quarrel arose
out of the nobleman's attentions to the songstress.
Melcy was very vicious and aimed at his opponent's
heart, intending to kill him. Castlereagh, on the
contrary, had no desire to hurt his antagonist, and
pointed his pistol In the air. The act probably
saved his life, Melcy 's bullet striking his elbow and
running up his arm to the shoulder.
It was remarked at the time that Castlereagh's
arm was an unconscionably long time getting well,
and that he paraded a good deal up and down the
Mall with the injured member in a sling. He sat
to Holmes for his portrait during its mending.
Another society scandal of the time exercised the
artist's feelings in a different way. This was the
elopement of the beautiful Lady EUenborough, wife
of Lord EUenborough, sometime Governor-General
of India, with Prince Schwarzenberg, an attache
of the Austrian embassy in London, and subsequently
9

1 30 Life of fames Holmes
Austrian Prime Minister. Holmes knew the lady,
as well as her father. Admiral Digby, well, and
had painted two portraits of her, one as a child
and another just before the elopement. Prince
Schwarzenberg was making frequent calls on the
artist during the sittings for the latter, and it would
appear that while his visits were ostensibly intended
for Holmes, they were virtually made in order to
get speech with the lady.
Society was greatly scandalized by the event,
and the marriage was annulled by a special Act of
Parliament. This was in 1830.
Twenty years afterwards the divorced wife
called upon Mr. Holmes to introduce to him her
new husband, Count Theoroky, a Greek nobleman.
She then told her old friend how scandalously
Schwarzenberg had treated her, deserting her in
Paris, whither they had gone on quitting England,
without a shilling. The recollection of his heart-
lessness was still so poignant that she wept over the
recital. At this time Holmes painted a third portrait of
her. A celebrity of a very different character with
whom the artist had become acquainted a little before
this time was the Earl of Dundonald, whose career
is one of the most romantic in the long and brilliant

Sir Henry Meux and Company 131
roll of our naval heroes. He possessed unfor
tunately, in conjunction with a coolness and daring
that was never excelled, an impatience and intol
erance of wrongdoing that brought him into
constant conflict with his superiors and the corrupt
governments of those days. Both in the House of
Commons, to which he was elected as a meifiber for
Westminster along with Sir Francis Burdett, and
by pamphlet he exposed and attacked the abuses
of the naval administration, and by that means
made himself obnoxious to the Admiralty and the
authorities generally.
He gave further offence by charging Lord
Gambler, his superior officer, with neglect of duty
(which was true), and by denouncing the abuses of
the prize-court and the treatment of prisoners of war.
U nfortunately an opportunity soon ( 1 8 1 4) occurred
for his enemies to wreak their revenge upon him.
They succeeded in convicting him on a charge —
afterwards proved to be false — of originating a
rumour for speculative purposes that Napoleon had
abdicated. He was expelled from Parliament,
deprived of all his honours, sent to prison for a year,
and condemned to pay a fine of ^ 1 000. As a further
punishment he was required to stand in the pillory,
exposed to the gibes of the populace. This last
indignity, however, was spared him ; his colleague

132 Life of fames Holmes
in the representation of Westminster, Sir Francis
Burdett, saying that he would stand with him if that
part of the sentence were enforced.
The electors of Westminster immediately sub
scribed the money to pay his fine and re-elected
him, but he had to remain in prison till the expiration
of his sentence.
In June 1815 Lord Cochrane (as he then was)
was told that, his term of imprisonment having
expired, he would be set at liberty on payment of
the fine of _;!f 1000. At first he refused to be set free
on this condition, but finally, on the 13th of July,
he accepted his liberty, paying the fine with a
banknote on the back of which he wrote : " My
health having suffered during my long and close
confinement, and my pursuers having resolved to
deprive me of property or life, I submit to robbery
to protect myself from murder, in the hope that I
shall live to bring the dehnquents to justice." This
note Is still preserved amongst the archives of the
Bank of England.
He was subsequently tried and again imprisoned
because he would not pay a fine of ;^ioo. The
people were so strongly roused by the injustice and
persecution to which he was subjected that the
^100 was raised by a penny subscription. Then,
so popular was the movement, that the subscription

Sir Henry Meux and Company 133
was continued and the original fine of ;^iooo,
together with the costs of his defence, was paid
by it. In 1 81 7, in response to the invitation of the
leaders of the newly-established Republic of Chili,
Dundonald accepted the command of its navy, and
did so well for them that to him is due perhaps more
than to any other man the ultimate independence of
that country. He subsequently did the same service
for Brazil. In 1832 he was restored to his rank in the
British navy, and died Rear-Admlral of the United
Kingdom. Dundonald did much to promote the
adoption of steam and the screw-propeller in war
ships. A close friendship subsisted between him and
the artist for a long series of years, ending only
with the death of the former in i860. Holmes
painted two portraits of his friend, one of them as
late as 1846, which should still be among the
heirlooms of the Cochrane family.

CHAPTER XIII

A FAMOUS SMUGGLER

Holmes seems to have had the faculty of attracting
about him the strangest oddities and eccentricities
of character. Amongst the number of these was
Captain Johnson, a famous smuggler of the early
part of the century, when, in consequence of the
general upset and confusion arising from the pro
tracted wars, smuggling between France and
England, and indeed all along the French and
Dutch coasts, was carried on to an enormous extent.
Captain Johnson was one of the most noted and
notorious of the men occupied in this nefarious
business. He had a vessel of his own, was a man
of iron nerve, and of great intrepidity of character,
full of resource and daring to the last degree. His
long experience In the trade had made him
intimately and minutely acquainted with the French
and Dutch coasts. Indeed, so well was he versed
in the intricacies of the latter, that he was employed

A Famous Smuggler 135
as pilot in the ill-fated Walcheren expedition; an
officer standing over him with a loaded pistol as he
gave his directions, ready to blow his brains out if
he showed the least indication of treachery.
Thrice Johnson broke out of London prisons,
his most daring escape being from Horsemonger
Jail. It shows the lawlessness of the times that he
could manage to do so with such comparative ease.
Friends outside were in the secret of the intended
attempt, and a postchaise was in readiness near the
prison, to convey him to Dover.
The attempt took place early in the morning.
The prisoner had been clandestinely supplied with
pistols. His cell was shared by a companion.
Johnson said to him, " Do you feel inclined to go
out to-day ? I intend to do so."
The man said he should like to get away.
" Then," said Johnson, " follow my example," at
the same time giving him a pistol.
When the turnkey entered, Johnson drew his
pistol, and presenting it at his head, bade him open
the door if he did not want to be a dead man. The
fellow obeyed, and the two prisoners were soon
outside the walls and driving post-haste to Dover.
Mr, Thomas Frost, in his Reminiscences of
a Country fournalist, gives the following addi
tional details of this prison-breaking exploit : " All

136 ' Life of fames Holmes
arrangements for Johnson's escape from prison and
his flight to the Continent had been made before
hand, and a large number of persons must have
been in the secret, yet the whole plan was success
fully carried out without a hitch. A postchaise
awaited him near the prison, relays of horses being
in readiness at every stage between London and
Dover; the turnpike gates were thrown open at his
approach, and a fast-sailing lugger was lying off the
coast with her sails set and anchor weighed by the
time he reached it. ' Guineas flew right and left,'
as my father expressed it, to secure the smuggler's
escape." Such an exploit in broad daylight in London
seems hardly possible — at least to us of to-day.
But, in order to make it conceivable, we have only
to bear in mind the changed aspect of things since
the beginning of the century. The entire condition
and aspect of society have changed so materially
that we might almost be in another world.
On another occasion Johnson broke out of Fleet
Prison, tearing up his bedclothes to make ropes, and
descending hand over hand from the roof to the
street. When advancing age made it incumbent upon
him to settle down as a simple citizen, Johnson used
often to speak of the adventures and hairbreadth

A Famous Smuggler 137
escapes of his earlier manhood, when half the time
he seemed to carry his life in his hand.
Aske:d once whither he went after breaking out
of Fleet Prison, he said he went and took breakfast
with his wife in B.loomsbury Square. He knew, he
said, that they would never seek him in his own
house. At this time Johnson was comparatively a rich
man, the profits on a successful smuggling operation
being enormous.
On one occasion he is said to have cleared as
much as ;if 20,000 from one trip across the Channel.
The trade was the more profitable because the
French connived at it. It was for this reason
probably that Johnson was as well known to the
French authorities as he was to the English,
With the former his reputation for daring and
intrepidity, as well as for seamanship, was so great
that he was once offered the command of a French
man-of-war. He was lying in a Dutch prison for
some smuggling escapade when the offer was made.
An officer entered, and looking round and seeing no
one but a man on his knees washing the floor of the
cell, he asked where he could see Captain Johnson.
" I am Captain Johnson," said the man, inter
mitting his work and looking up.
The officer, after taking a good look at him,

138 Life of fames Holmes
asked him whether, on condition of being set at
liberty, he would take command of a French vessel.
Johnson reflected for a minute or two. He
knew that it meant fighting against his own people,
and in open war. He did not quite fall in with the
idea, and therefore replied that he should like to
have a few days to consider the matter. This
delay was accorded ; and Johnson at once wrote a
letter to Lord Sidmouth,^ telling him of the offer
that had been made to him, and explaining that,
while he would rather not fight against his native
country, yet he had his wife and children to think
of, and was therefore prepared to refuse to accept
the command on condition of being given a free
pardon for his offences against the laws of his
country in regard to smuggling.
The letter was despatched to London by means
of some of his trusty smuggling friends, and in due
course, by the same channel, an answer was
returned, granting him the pardon he asked.
Upon the receipt of this document Johnson
resolved to escape from his prison and get back to
England as soon as possible. He quickly found a way
to do so, hiding securely, when he had succeeded, in
' Lord Sidmouth became Lord President of the Council in 1805 under Pitt,
and in 1812, under Lord Liverpool's administration, he was Secretary of State
for the Home Department.

A Famous Smuggler 139
a house next door to the jail, until such time as an
opportunity afforded of getting a passage home.
He appears subsequently to have been in the
pay of the Government, as a secret-service agent or
something of the kind, as he used often, when he
called at Holmes's studio, to say that he was going
to the Horse Guards to see the Duke of York,
sometimes showing papers which he intimated were
of importance to the Commander-in-Chief Unless
he had been useful to the Government in some such
way, it is hardly likely that, notorious smuggler as
he had been, he would have died in the enjoyment
of a Government pension. Nominally, however, I
believe it was given to him for having conducted
the Walcheren expedition, although the service then
rendered was hardly sufficient to warrant such a
reward. One of Johnson's last schemes was to build a
submarine boat with which to rescue Napoleon from
his imprisonment on the Island of St. Helena. His
idea was to construct such a craft as could be
propelled for a certain distance under water, and by
that means elude the vigilance of the men-of-war
guarding the island ; then having reached the shore,
take off the prisoner, and by descending again under
water, reach a vessel far out at sea, in waiting to
proceed with the rescued Emperor to Europe.

146 Life of fames Holmes
According to his own statement, Johnson must
have been in connivance with influential friends of
Napoleon to effect this purpose, as he used to tell
Holmes, and Hawkins, the artist above referred to,
who was wont to act as his assistant, that if he
effected his purpose it would be worth half a million
of money to him.
However, the scheme proved abortive. The
boat, which was being constructed on the Thames,
was one day quietly seized by custom-house officers,
and no more was heard of it.
Johnson and Hawkins, through meeting at
Holmes's house, became very close friends ; and up
to the day of his death, not many years ago,
Hawkins was never tired of talking about Johnson
and the various adventures and escapades that he
had from time to time described to him.
On one occasion the latter was lodged in the
King's Bench Prison for debt. Hawkins asked
him why he did not escape, as he had done so often
enough before. "Ah," Johnson replied, "times are
changed. Besides, I am not so young as I was."
Hawkins, as a young man, gave great promise
of future eminence — a promise which was not ful
filled however. "Could Hawkins ever paint?"
Holmes was once asked. " Oh yes," he replied,
" when he was twenty. Once he painted very well

A Famotis Smuggler 141
indeed, and we thought he was going to do some
thing great — become a Michael Angelo, or some
thing of the kind. But he has been steadily going'
back ever since."
Perhaps the mischief lay in the fact that he was
so good a companion as to be much sought after by
men who wanted to be amused, and the artist was
only too ready to fall into their humour. On one
occasion he was asked by a Mr. Ackers, a member
of Parliament, now pretty well forgotten, like so
many others, to accompany him and one or two
others to Paris, promising to give him a holiday and
pay all his expenses. Hawkins objected, saying
that he was busy on a picture which he wanted to
finish for exhibition. " Never mind that," said
Ackers. "Bring it with you and paint there."
Hawkins yielded and the canvas was put into the
carriage. As they were driving along, Mr. Ackers
asked to be allowed to look at the picture. It was
accordingly uncovered. "What do you want for
it?" he asked. "I shall want £^0 for it when
it is finished," said Hawkins. "Very well," replied
the member of Parliament, "I will give it you,
and will finish it for you too." With these words
he kicked a hole right through the canvas.
Hawkins died in a poor lodging in Camden
Town, at an advanced age. He had never known

142 Life of fames Holmes
what It was to be in easy or even in fairly comfort
able circumstances ; but he was of an easy-going,
good-natured disposition, and had been lucky enough
to have had many good friends, who sought him out
for his amiable and amusing ways. When he was
on his death-bed, one of the sons of his former
master said, " Well, Hawkins, you have had a long
life ; how have you enjoyed it ? " " Oh," he replied,
"it has been a charming existence. I have done
such splendid work, have had so much praise, and
have lived in the best society, that it has been
perfectly delightful."
"A good instance," observed the narrator, "of
how a man may live and be happy in a fool's
paradise." The fact Is that Hawkins, whatever he may have
been able to do at the age of twenty-one, was never
after able to paint the least bit. He could not be
brought to recognise his Incapacity, however, and
continued to the end to believe in his own great
achievements. One story that he was never tired of telling was
how he was one day met by William Linton, the
sculptor, who asked him where he had been, as he
had not seen him for some time. Hawkins replied
that he had been in Hertfordshire (which was his
native county, and where he had friends), and that

A Famous Smuggler 143
he had been painting portraits ; adding that in
Hertfordshire they thought a great deal of his
portraits. "Ah, yes, of course," replied Linton,
"and very properly too, for everybody knows you
are the Hertfordshire Vandyke," The name of the
Hertfordshire Vandyke stuck to Hawkins ever
afterwards ; and he himself was not the least ready
to style himself by that title.
Holmes used to say that it was impossible to
kill Hawkins ; he was bound to achieve old age and
die in his bed, which, in fact, he did, passing away
at over eighty years of age. He had many narrow
escapes of his life, but always came out safe and
sound. One day a big door fell upon him, that
would certainly have killed another and lesser man ;
another time he was overturned in a coach. Once
he went out swimming at Weymouth, and never
thought of the turning tide till he found himself far
away from shore, with the sea running swiftly out.
He owed his life to being perceived by some coast-
guardsmen. When he was telling some of his
friends of the narrow escape of drowning he had
had, they replied, " Oh no, we know better than
that. A man who is born to be hanged cannot be
drowned." And so, nearly always the butt of jest
and merriment, Hawkins was always happy.
One of the artist's sons, Mr. Edward Holmes,

144 Life of fames Holmes
used to tell an amusing anecdote of a daughter of
his father's old friend Johnson. He met her one
day, long after her father's death, in Hyde Park.
She was then trying to earn a living by teaching
the guitar, and explained that she had put an
advertisement in the Morning Post to the effect
that a daughter of the late Captain Johnson, the
famous smuggler, wished to find pupils for instruc
tion on the guitar, and hoped that it might be the
means of bringing her business. Mr. Holmes rather
discouraged her by saying that he feared it might
have the opposite effect to the one she hoped, at
the same time reminding her how much the times
had changed since her father was regarded as a sort
of popular hero.

CHAPTER XIV
AN UNLUCKY AND A LUCKY ARTIST
In 1835 occurred the brief visit to Italy, along with
Hurlstone, already referred to. It lasted barely
two months, and does not appear to have had any
effect in stimulating new work. The friends jour
neyed together as far as Milan, whence Holmes
proceeded to Venice, attracted thither probably by
a desire to witness the scenes amidst which his
friend Byron had passed so many of his later years.
After spending some time there and making a few
studies, he went back to Milan, where he made a
short stay, and then returned home.
He continued to exhibit with the British Artists
until 1850, when he resigned his membership of the
Society. In 1843 he paid a visit, extending over a few
months, to Ireland. He was the guest of Mr,
Maxwell, of Co. Louth. While there he was for a
short time also the guest of the Earl of Kingston,

146 Life of fames Holmes
who was an old friend. At his table he once met
Father Mathew, the great Apostle of Temperance,
in whom he became much interested. Seated next
to him at dinner, he said, " Mr, Mathew, I should
be pleased to drink wine with you." " I shall be
most happy," said Father Mathew. With that he
poured out a glass of water, saying with a smile,
" This is my vintage — a very old and safe one.
Your very good health, Mr. Holmes ! "
" A splendid man ! " was the artist's comment.
"A fine handsome face, healthy, good colour,
beaming with good-nature ; but how he could keep
it up on water God only knows ! "
During his stay at Lord Kingston's he paid a
hasty visit to the Lakes of Killarney, and made a
number of sketches ; but he does not appear to
have done anything further with them.
In 1846 died Haydpn by his own hand. Holmes
was greatly shocked to learn the sad tidings. He
had known Haydon from his very early days, and
had a great appreciation of his talents, considering
him one of the greatest historical painters of the
time. But so lacking in tact was poor Haydon, and
so wanting In all those qualities of the heart that
constitute half the battle In enabling men to win
their way, that he failed practically in everything he
undertook, and in nothing so signally as in his

An Unlucky and a Lucky Artist 147
attempt to start a school in opposition to the Royal
Academy. In his hostility to the Academy he had Holmes's
entire sympathy, as well as that of Hurlstone.
Both Holmes and Hurlstone were always hostile
to that institution, and rarely sent either pictures or
portraits to it. Holmes stigmatized it as a "close
borough," and used to express his wonder to Linnell
that he should contribute to its exhibitions. Linnell's
answer was that, though the Academy had its faults,
so had the other societies, and in larger measure.
Hurlstone was for ever warring against it.
One of the most astonishing things about
Haydon's career is that he won the affection of so
few and the hatred of so many. In some cases the
latter feeling can only have betokened a narrow and
unsympathetic nature. John Linnell, for instance,
used to relate how he once met Sass, who kept a
drawing school in St. Martin's Lane — and a famous
one in its time — as he was going Into Covent Garden
Theatre, and Sass immediately began to relate how
Haydon had that afternoon called upon him and
asked for a trifling loan.
"And what did you say?" asked Linnell.
" I said," replied the little drawing master, "that
if the schoolroom was filled so full from floor to
ceiling with golden sovereigns that not another

148 Life of fames Holmes
could be got in, I would not lend him a single one,
no, nor half of one. If it were to save his life. And
I wouldn't, the wretch ! "
As he was uttering the last words Haydon stalked
past them into the theatre, not deigning to notice
the spiteful little viper.
Holmes used to tell the following story of poor
Haydon. Calling one day on " Roman " Davies
(so called in contradistinction to Richard Davies,
the animal painter, and brother of the well-known
Queen's huntsman) to see his just completed picture
of " The Lord Mayor visiting the Sick at the Time
of the Plague," Holmes found that artist sorely
perplexed over a note which he had, just received
by the twopenny post from Haydon, Davies had
earlier in the day received a visit from that gentle
man, who expressed himself as being much pleased
with the work, although he made some slight criti
cisms upon the Lord Mayor's horse. One may
Imagine his surprise therefore when he read the
following brief epistle : —
My dear Davies — Go instantly and dissect a horse. — Yours
faithfully, W. B. Haydon.
Handing the precious document to Holmes,
Davies questioned hopelessly —
"How can I do as he says ? The picture goes
away to-morrow."

An Unlucky and a Lucky Artist 149
" Oh, it's only one of Haydon's after-thoughts,"
laughed Holmes. " Take no notice of it — till you
get a commission for a replica."
It was during these years, that is, early in the
forties, that Holmes was invited by the Duke of
Wellington to call upon him with a view to painting
a portrait of him. He met the Duke at the Countess
of Jersey's. His Grace was then about to go over
to Paris on some diplomatic business, but said he
should be pleased to see him at Apsley House when
he returned. The artist happened to be away when
he did return, and so the opportunity passed,
or he failed to seize it, much to his subsequent
regret. Lady Jersey was a good patron of his and
brought him many commissions. She also sat for
her own portrait, and took her coronet to Wilton
Street in order to be painted in it. The coronet
remained there for some time afterwards as a
memento of the person and the occasion ; and the
two surviving sons of the artist have still a vivid
recollection of its crimson velvet magnificence.
Another artist contemporary with whom Holmes
was well acquainted, and of whom an infinite number
of jests used to be related, was William Tassle, the
modeller and reproducer of antique gems. He was
not so great an artist as his uncle, Robert Tassle,

150 Life of fames Holmes
whose pupil he was, and to whom he succeeded in
the business the former had established in Leicester
Square (on the site now occupied by the Hotel
Cavour), but he was a notable man in his day, and
as pious as he was clever. Of his cleverness, or
rather, one should say, of his resourcefulness, an
interesting instance is recorded. He had received
a command to attend on George IV and model his
portrait. While waiting in an anteroom of the
palace he discovered that in the flurry of the
moment he had forgotten to bring with him one of
his favourite smaller modelling tools that was essen
tial to the work in hand. There being no time to
go back for it, the artist was at first in despair ; then,
with ready inventiveness, he took out a pocket-comb
he was in the habit of carrying, broke off one of its
teeth, and with this improvised instrument modelled
the medallion.
Tassle was of a generous and considerate turn,
and once at least his good-nature met with a curious
and most unexpected reward. An impecunious
artist had one day come to him bemoaning his
imprudence in having invested a much - needed
guinea in a ticket for the lottery by means of
which Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery was to be
disposed of Tassle, in pity for his distress,
bought the ticket from him, but not without giving

An Unlucky and a Lttcky Artist 151
him a grave lecture on the folly of such extrava
gance. The lottery was drawn for on the 28th of
January 1805, and out of 22,000 tickets sold, that
held by William Tassle won the chief prize, which
included the Shakespeare Gallery, pictures, and
estate ! After making a present to the artist who
had been the original owner of the ticket, Tassle
sold his winnings by auction, the works of art
realising over ^6180, the Gallery itself being pur
chased by the British Institution.
The day after Tassle drew this lucky prize,
of which everybody naturally was talking. Holmes
met him, and at once congratulated him on his
good fortune.
"An astounding piece of luck, Mr. Tassle!"
he exclaimed, in his impulsive, jocular way. "All
we other poor devils of artists are quite envying
you. We would like to know how on earth you
hit upon the lucky number."
"The Lord knows His own," replied Tassie
with great gravity.
" Oh, does He ? Dear me ! Ah yes, of course !
Good morning, Mr. Tassie ! " cried Holmes, and
away he hurried, fearful of laughing in the artist's
face. Describing the incident afterwards to some
friends, he finished by exclaiming, " Did you ever

152 Life of fames Holmes
know anything so funny ? The idea of his brag
ging about being one of the Lord's own, and he all
the while making a collection of Priapian gems ! "
As a matter of fact Tassle was noted for his
collection of this nature. The elder Tassie, a man
of real genius, made one of the largest collections
of antique gems then in existence, a complete set
of which he supplied, "by command," to Catherine,
Empress of Russia, in 1783. The Tassie collection
of "pastes in imitation of gems and cameos," de
signed "to represent the origin, progress, and
present state of engraving," thus made for the
great Tsarina, was arranged and described by
Rudolph Eric Raspe, a German savant, professor
of archaeology and keeper of the Museum of Anti
quities at Cassel, and the author of several important
works, including, it is said, the famous Adventures
of Baron Munchausen. Raspe was a man of infinite
wit and humour, and one of the quaintest of univer
sity stories, told in verse, and still recited by German
students at their convivial gatherings. Is attributed
to his pen. It records how a very green Black
Forest youth, on his arrival at the university, was
taken hold of by a student named Hans Schrecke,
and carefully schooled as to how he should answer
certain questions which would, on his presentation
to the professor of divinity, be put to him by that

An Unlucky and a Lticky Artist 153
worthy. This schooling was combined with certain
duties paid to twelve goblets that stood on the
mantle -shelf of a little tavern frequented by the
students, and known as the Twelve Apostles, Each
one was of "different material, glass, pewter, and so
forth up to gold, and each was supposed to represent
in a measure the character of the apostle for whom
it stood. From each likewise was imbibed a
different liquor, which was reputed to inspire the
devotee with the qualities of the respective saints
whose names the goblets bore. The simple fresh
man, eager to enter upon his divinity course, drank
in the teaching of the friendly and insinuating Hans,
with the avidity of one whose whole nature is athlrst
for knowledge, and speedily went from the glass and
pewter to the gold, with the result that he presently
felt a fervour swelling his breast combined of the
qualities of all the apostles. In due course he came
before the professor of divinity, and answered his
questions relative to the apostles with such readiness
and discrimination — not to say elevation — that the
worthy professor, taking his pipe from his mouth,
murmured his approval in the words, "You are a
most ready student, and of a certainty either the
devil or Hans Schrecke has been your instructor ! "
"Ah, not the former, dear Professor," replied the
student, " but the learned and genial Herr Hans

154 Z^ of fames Holmes
Schrecke was my noble instructor." " I am sorry
to hear it," replied the professor; "it had far
better have been the devil himself Now go back
to the tavern of the Twelve Apostles, and drink of
each from the one of gold backwards, and when you
come to the one of glass, drink of that twelve times,
and then each day twelve times for twelve moons,
and of no other." " But, dear Professor," im
plored the youth, " from the goblet of glass one
drinks nothing but clear water — uninspiring water!"
"So be it," answered the professor; "only by so
doing can you obtain the wisdom which will enable
you to bear with safety the fervour and inspiration
imparted by the other eleven."

CHAPTER XV
BOYDELL, OWEN, AND OTHERS
John Boydell, the promoter of the Shakespeare
Gallery, was quite a character in his day, as well as
an "influence for good" in regard to art, and as
such was greatly admired by Holmes, although he
died when the latter was comparatively a young
man, having passed away a few months before the
drawing of the lottery above referred to. Still
Holmes may almost be said to have been an eye
witness of the result of Boydell's energy and
enterprise in making English art known and even
popular on the Continent, especially that department
of art with which at that time he was then perhaps
most conversant, namely, engraving.
Himself an engraver by profession, Boydell
soon perceived that he could do better for himself
and his fellow-craftsmen by turning printseller than
by plying the graver. Though he began at first
with but half a shop, he did so well in that that it

156 Life of fames Holmes
was not long before he had a whole one to himself
His first noteworthy enterprise was to import a
large number of Vernet's "Storm," engraved by
Lerpiniere. But having to pay for these in money,
it occurred to him that matters might be considerably
improved from a business point of view if he could
pay for them with English prints. He accordingly
got William Woollett to engrave Wilson's " Niobe,"
paying him ^150 for it, and at once began to ex
port large quantities. This was followed by the
"Phaeton" of the same artist (published in 1763),
which had an especially large sale on the Continent.
Gradually an extensive business in British en
gravings was developed abroad, and with the
increase of his capital Boydell's enterprise was
greatly stimulated, with the result that at one time
or another he gave commissions to most of the
leading engravers of the day. Amongst others he
employed besides Woollett, were M'Cordell, Hall,
Heath, Sharp, J. Smith, Valentine Green, and
Earlom. A large proportion of the prints issued
were after Reynolds, R. Wilson, Benjamin West,
and other English painters. His foreign trade made
the works of English engravers and English painters
known on the Continent for the first time. The
receipts from West's " Death of General Wolfe "
and his " Battle of La Hogue " (both engraved by

Boydell, Owen, and^Others 157
Woollett) were almost fabulous. In 1790 — the year
that he was Lord Mayor of London — Boydell stated
that his receipts from the " Death of General Wolfe "
alone were ;^ 15,000, notwithstanding both this and
other of his prints were copied by the best engravers
of Paris and Vienna.
But although Boydell employed many other
engravers, his chief works were done by Woollett,
who was perhaps the best all-round craftsman in his
department of his day. The prints of the " Niobe "
were originally sold at 5s., but a fine proof has
since sold for ^50. His " Battle of La Hogue " is
generally regarded as one of his finest works, though
he was equally successful in landscape, being particu
larly gifted in the interpretation of moving cloud
and water, as well as in the delineation of foliage.
The English school of engraving was greatly raised
through his exertions. He was a man of very un
selfish character, and worked as much for the love of
his art as for money. He spared no pains in his
work, took pleasure in overcoming its difficulties, and
whenever he had finished a plate went up to the
roof of his house and fired off a cannon to announce
and commemorate the fact. This was his cock-crow,
as one of his brother-engravers put it. He lived
for many years in Green Street, Leicester Fields,
subsequently removing to Charlotte Street, Rath-

158 Life of fames Holmes
bone Place, and was well known as one of the
characters of the day.
But to return to Boydell. Having accumulated a
large fortune, he (In 1786) embarked upon a new and
still more important enterprise in connection with art.
This was to publish by subscription a series of prints
illustrative of Shakespeare's plays, after pictures
painted expressly for the work by English artists.
All the best known and most highly reputed native
artists received commissions for pictures, and when
finished they were exhibited in a gallery specially
erected for the purpose in Pall Mall. At the ex
hibition, which took place in 1789, there were 34
pictures hung. By 1791 the number of works
had increased to 65, and by 1792 to 162. The
total number executed was 170, many of these
being in sculpture. One of the latter was the bas-
relief of Banks called the " The Apotheosis of
Shakespeare," which was placed over the entrance.
There were also two bas-reliefs by the Hon. Mrs.
Damer. The latter belonged to an old family of
aristocratic connections but reduced circumstances,
one scion of which signally distinguished himself
He was one of the Queen's earliest pages, and
was greatly esteemed by Her Majesty for his
kindly and attentive disposition. But the time
came when, on account of increasing age and infirm-

Boydell, Owen, and Others 159
ities, the respected servitor had to be pensioned off,
and someone else put in his place. It grieved the
old man for a time to have to change his wonted
habits, but he was consoled in some measure by
being allowed to be present at certain functions,
such as garden parties and the like. It was at one
of these that he so greatly distinguished himself, and
at the same time vastly amused his former mistress.
Attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace,
he was seen wandering about alone by Her Majesty,
who, ever thoughtful for her servants, and doubly so
for her old and tried ones, hastened towards him
with extended hand and a kindly word of greeting.
He took the proffered hand and held it for a moment
¦<vhile he gazed with a smiling, though puzzled ex
pression at the Queen ; then he said, " I know that
face — I know it as well as I know any face ; but —
pardon me, madame — I can't for the life of me
recollect where I have- seen it." "Poor Damer!"
exclaimed the Queen with a smile, as she turned
away, " poor Damer ! " The old man looked after
her for a moment and then asked a gardener who
happened to pass by who the lady was that had
just spoken to him. When told that it was the
Queen, he laughed and said, "I'm afraid Her
Majesty will think I have forgotten her ! "
Boydell's Shakespeare was published in 1802,

1 60 Life of fames Holmes
and, as almost everyone now knows, it contained
prints after paintings by Reynolds, Stothard, Romney,
Northcote, Smirke, Fuseli, Opie, Barry, West,
Richard Westall, Hamilton, Wright (of Derby),
Angelica Kaufmann, and others. But by this time
the French Revolution had put a stop to his con
tinental trade, and placed him in such difficulties
that in 1804 he was obliged to apply to Parliament
for permission to dispose of his property by lottery.
The result enabled him to pay off his liabilities, but
he did not live long enough to see Tassie carry off
the prize.
As already said, the Gallery was purchased by
the British Institution, which held its exhibitions
therein for upwards of half a century. The British
Gallery did a great deal of good in its time, and was
the resort of artists who were not in favour with the
Royal Academy. On this account, perhaps, it was
not greatly admired by Academicians, and one in
particular, noted for his rancour, was never so
delighted as when he could deal a blow against it.
Possibly these ungenerous attacks were the chief
reason of its having finally to close its doors. Had
the artists as a body rallied to its support, this
catastrophe might have been averted ;] but they
seem to be the only set of craftsmen left who have
no trade organisation, and who are destitute of any

Boydell, Owen, and Others i6i
sort of esprit de corps — until they get into the
Academy. But the attacks from outside were not the sole
cause of the Institution's downfall. Those who
relied upon it for support and publicity were not
always wise ; sometimes they were the reverse.
One instance of the latter description may be
mentioned, as It points a moral, and makes besides a
very good story. Inskipp was a constant exhibitor
at the British Gallery. He was an artist who,
though he painted figure subjects in a rough, sloppy
manner, was much thought of in his day, and had
the good fortune to be generally well placed at the
British Institution, The Academy, however, in his
later years failed to appreciate his work as he
desired, and he did not get much " show '' on its
walls ; the consequence being that he never spared
that Institution when he had a chance of slinging a
stone at it. On one occasion his missile proved to
be a boomerang, much to his surprise. When one
spring the exhibition of the British Institution was
opened it was found that he had a picture there in
which was a donkey on whose flank were inscribed
the letters R.A. This was considered a great joke,
and the laugh was against the Royal Academy until
Clint, the Associate, sauntered into the Gallery, saw
the ass so humorously R.A.'d, and exclaimed,

1 62 Life of fames Holmes
" Hallo ! what's this ? R.A. ! Oh, I see— Rejected
Associate ! " This turned the tables — and, it may be
added, the laugh also — so effectually upon poor
Inskipp that he never got over it. Nor did the
British Institution long survive it.
But apart from these little amenities, it is a
thousand pities that the Institution was allowed to
come to an end. It did an immense deal in its time
to foster British art, not only by the encouragement
of rising men, but by its annual winter exhibitions of
Old Masters ; for to It Is due the initiation of the
movement which was afterwards so successfully
taken up by the Academy.
Holmes was ever a warm friend of the British
Gallery, although he never exhibited there. This
did not prevent him from venting a bit of harmless
satire against It now and again, as when he once
observed, "If you deduct B.I. from R.A., you
have the remainder XX — Xpectation and Xasper-
ation ! "
But though the artist had doubtless many faults,
they were never of the heart. Friends were the
same to him whether they were rich or poor, one
might almost say, wise or foolish. Misfortune never
alienated him or checked the flow of his sympathies.
One old friend, who in his later years fell into much
trouble, received both sympathy and aid from him.

Boydell, Owen, and Others 163
as well as gave him much amusement. This was a
man named Tickle, who, after trying many occupa
tions, went finally into the coal trade and soon found
himself in the debtors' prison, a bankrupt.
Holmes visited him there, and in the course of
conversation asked him what made him become a
coal dealer.
" I weally dotht know," replied Tickle, who had
a terrible lisp. "It wath altogether a black
bithneth." He attributed his failures generally, however, to
a termagant of a wife. In condoling with his friend
on this infliction. Holmes remarked that anyway it
was better to have a woman with a violent temper
than a sulky one. "The storm is fierce while it
lasts, but it is soon over," he added.
"Oh, the ithn't thulky," replied Tickle, "the's
pathionate — exthwemely pathionate — and a pathlon-
ate woman can do more miththief in five minuteth
than a thulky one can do in a lifetime."
Holmes certainly had the knack of making
acquaintance with the oddest sort of people, and of
extracting the greatest amount of amusement out of
them. Another of his friends was Lord Templeton, who
was a well-khown character in his day, always to be
seen driving furiously about in a light cabriolet with

164 Lif^ of fames Holmes
his hat on the back of his head. He took a fancy
to a pretty girl who sat to the artist for "Trulla" in
Hudibras, and for female characters in several
other of his subject pictures painted for Mr. Taylor
of Strensham. The girl's mother was as ugly as
she herself was pretty, and when Templeton one day
dropped In while both were in the studio. Holmes,
seeing his lordship glance once or twice at the elder,
and always ready to help along a little fun,
introduced her as the mother of his model.
" What ! what ! " exclaimed Templeton, looking first
at one and then at the other, the mother making
absurd "bobs" the while. "What! You the
mother of that pretty girl, and you so — you so 
Impossible!" He finished up with a loud laugh,
the artist joining in.
"It was very rude," remarked Holmes drily,
describing the scene ; " but it was impossible to
help it, the old woman looked so absurd bobbing
up and down and grinning. And then the Witch of
Endor was a beauty in comparison with her."
The girl afterwards married — well, it was
thought, and she was lost sight of for a time.
Then one of Holmes's sons met her aunt and asked
after her. " Oh, she is married," the woman replied.
"Indeed! who has she married?" "An itinerary
surgeon ; I forget his other name," was the reply.

Boydell, Owen, and Others 165
But the " itinerary " appears to have tired of his
bargain after a while, and went off to America,
leaving his wife with two or three children. Lord
Templeton then came to the aid of the family,
putting them into a tobacconist's shop, but dropping
them after a time, like the husband, as too expensive
a luxury. Among the more intellectual of the artist's many
acquaintance was the famous Robert Owen, the
Socialist. They first met at the house of a gentle
man who was a relative of Owen's. The latter was
at that time a young man, and not so widely known
as he afterwards became. On this account it was
perhaps that the artist had not previously heard of
him or his views. He then spoke of his colonies as
" Parallelograms," a name which greatly amused
Holmes, who, though not much taken by the
idealist's schemes, was greatly impressed by the
intelligence and the fine enthusiasm of the man.
After this they did not see each other again for
several years. Their second meeting took place
on the occasion of a lecture delivered by Owen
in the Egyptian Hall. Holmes then renewed his
acquaintance, and Owen became a frequent visitor
at 15 Wilton Street. He was there introduced to
Mr. and Mrs. Hurlstone, and was invited by them
to 9 Chester Street. Hurlstone painted an excellent

1 66 Life of fames Holmes
portrait of him, the present whereabouts of which it
would be pleasing to know.
Owen was not a popular man with society. His
religious views, and more particularly his advanced
ideas In regard to matrimony and divorce (divorce
at that time being almost impossible, even to the
richest), put him outside "the dining and being
dined " class of society. Holmes, though a warm
friend of reform and in some respects an Idealist,
found little in Owen's schemes to commend itself to
his sober common-sense. The man's enthusiasm
for humanity he admired, and believed many of his
ideas. If properly carried out, would greatly benefit
society ; but, strangely enough, it was not the
idealistic tendency of Owen's general schemes so
much as their dry utilitarianism that was most
repugnant to him, as well as to Hurlstone. In
many respects his ideas were very crude. His
views of life had been gathered from the lower
walks of life, and were of the simplest. They did
not extend much beyond the physical wants, and
how best to supply them. Believing that four
hours' work a day was sufficient to provide for a
man's animal needs, he would have had every man
labour for that length of time, and devote the
remainder of the day to recreation and study.
But his opinions changed somewhat after this

Boydell, Owen, and Others 167
second acquaintance with Holmes. At the latter's
table, as well as at Hurlstone's, he met a different
set of people from those he had been used to, but
chiefly artists, writers, wits, and perhaps one would
add at the present day, "cranks"; and the en
larged views of society he there obtained caused
him to extend or modify many of his notions. The
change was noticed in his lectures. For one thing,
he had not previously realised any of the higher
wants such as are satisfied by the study of art,
science, or literature, and only now began to con
sider in what way they might be made useful In his
" parallelogrammatic " system.
Holmes, with his penchant for looking at things
in a ludicrous light, once suggested a difficulty in
regard to the partition of work, saying that he him
self might object to sweeping chimneys, or other
such discolouring work. Owen promptly got over
the difficulty with the remark, " Oh, the boys would
do all that kind of work. They like to be in the
dirt." Another answer he gave to an objection showed
how, in his cut-and-drled system, the facts of human
nature were quite got rid of Someone observed
that a Napoleon might arise when he had reorgan
ised society according to his plan, and knock his
parallelograms into a cocked hat. "Oh no," said

1 68 Life of fames Holmes
he. " Education would have entirely changed the
thoughts of men, rendering each one amenable to
the others and to the general order."
On one occasion there was a great Socialist
gathering at Highbury Barn, to which Holmes and
his family, Hurlstone and his wife, and others of
their set went, "for the fun of the thing." There
was the usual discoursing, eating and drinking, and
the like, the whole finishing up with a dance.
Owen, who was tall and of manly proportions, with
strongly-marked features, yet with an expression
and a manner as gentle and simple as a child,
walked about smiling and benignant, chatting first
with one and then with another, and looking, with
his grand head, as one man remarked, "like a
deity." An amusing little incident occurred, showing
how little easy it is to bring human nature down to
a common level. When the music was going, and
the couples were whirling about the room to its
inspiring strains, a little man approached Mrs,
Hurlstone, and asked her if she would favour him
with her hand in a dance. She immediately drew
herself up and rather haughtily refused ; whereupon
the man replied with a grin, " You're not very
Socialist." "Oh, I quite forgot where we are!"
she exclaimed, turning to Holmes. " It will take

Boydell, Owen, and Others 169
an age to socialise you, I'm afraid," he returned with
a laugh. " Here, let me give you a lesson in
parallelogramisation," and away he went round
the room with a hastily - picked companjpn of the
working-class type, with whom he soon floundered
against the benignantly-smiling Mr. Owen.
" Ah, this is nice of you, Mr. Holmes — this is very
nice ! We are progressing beautifully. At this
rate we shall soon reach the — soon reach the  "
"Millennium," suggested the artist with a laugh, and
away he whirled again with his partner.
, Recounting the joke afterwards to Hurlstone,
and observing Mrs. Hurlstone's smile. Holmes
remarked, "You probably, Mrs. Hurlstone, would
think the progress was towards a Mile-end-Ium ? "
But she did not see the point of the witticism.
Another of the artist's reminiscences of Owen,
though touching his views on religious subjects, may
be recorded without irreverence. At the close of
his lectures in the Egyptian Hall it was customary
to give an opportunity for questions to be asked and
objections advanced. One evening a clergyman
rose, but instead of attempting to combat the
lecturer's position, he simply held up a Bible and
said, " This is my stronghold ; I believe in this ;
on this I am prepared to stand or fall." " Have you
any argument to advance, sir ? " politely asked Mr.

1 70 Life of fames Holmes
Owen. No, he had simply to say that In the
Scriptures he had the most implicit belief. "Can
you believe that these three candles are one ? " ques
tioned the lecturer. "Yes, certainly," replied the
clergyman. "That being so," returned Mr. Owen
with a bow, " I have nothing more to say ; there is
indeed nothing to be said."
Towards the close of his days Owen became a
convert to Spiritualism, and everybody said, repeat
ing the witticism of one man, that in the end the
best of china got cracked. To which Holmes's
answer was, " The point that they do not see is that
the crack was there from the beginning."

CHAPTER XVI

BARON DE BODE

Another of Holmes's most Intimate friends, and a
man who was sufficiently notorious, if not celebrated,
in his day, calls for a few paragraphs If only for the
misfortunes that embittered his days and finally
brought his career to a tragic end. Many, possibly,
whose memories carry them back to the mid-period
of the century will recall the name of the Baron de
Bode and the oft-repeated story of his claims upon
the British Government, or, to put it more correctly,
upon the Crown, consequent upon his being obliged
to take refuge In England during the Reign of
Terror. Baron Clement Joseph Philip Pen de Bode was
the eldest son of Charles Augustus de Bode, the
first Baron, a German by birth, and was born at
Loxley Park, in the county of Stafford, in 1777, his
mother being a daughter of Mr. Kinnersley of that
place. Baron Charles Augustus acquired an estate

172 Life of fames Holmes
at Soultz in Alsace in 1787, and made it over to his
son in 1791. He migrated in 1793 and died four
years later. The son went to reside in Alsace in
1787, and migrated with his father in 1793,
whereupon the estates at Soultz were confiscated.
Subsequently he became a naturalised British
subject. Thus matters stood when, upon the downfall of
Napoleon, Louis the Eighteenth was raised to the
throne of France, and a treaty of peace was signed
between that Power and England in May 18 14. In
the following year (November 181 5) a convention was
framed in accordance with the above treaty, whereby
it was agreed that a commission should be formed,
composed of one half English and the other half
French commissioners, for the purpose of examining
the claims of British subjects and determining the
amount of indemnity they should receive for the loss
of property in France in consequence of and during
the Revolution, and a sum of money or property
representing a capital of 70,000,000 francs, bear
ing interest at 5 per cent, was at the same time
set aside to pay the said claims.
The Baron first of all sent in his claim to the
French commissioners, but being informed that he
must lay it before the English section of the com
mission, he rectified his error and presented his

Baron de Bode 173

claim for indemnity In 18 16, within the limit of time
fixed for such demands to be deposited. Many of
the claims were paid, but the Baron de Bode's was
passed over. Subsequently a change was made in
the commission, the French section of it being done
away with, and a lump sum, amounting to something
like ^2,000,000 sterling, being paid over to the
British Government with which to settle all outstand
ing claims.
Again and again the Baron applied to the com
mission for payment of his indemnity, producing all
the documents necessary to support his claim, and
proving his title up to the hilt, but still without
success. Finally, in 1822 the commission decided
against him. The matter was then brought before
the Privy Council, who upheld the decision of the
commission. Some years later (May 1826) the case
came before the House of Commons on petition,
and once, if not twice, subsequently, but on each
occasion with the same result — non-success.
But the Baron was not to be beaten, and In 1837
or 1838 he entered an action-at-law against the Crown,
or, in legal phraseology, instituted a petition of right.
This was only the first of a series of trials, the upshot
result of which was that, though De Bode won verdict
after verdict, he never got one step nearer to the
realisation of his claim. In the end the disappoint-

1 74 Life of fames Holmes
ment consequent upon these repeated failures broke
his heart. Holmes used often to speak of the visit De Bode
paid him the day the jury gave a verdict in his
favour, and found him entitled to a sum of ^350,000.
As he entered the studio he exclaimed —
"¦ Enfin, mon cher ami — enfin j'ai triomphd !
Justice has been done me at last — I am to have
^350,000, Enfin — mais comme je suis las /"
De Bode was then getting old, but the worries
and anxieties he had gone through had aged him
more than his actual years. When he said he was
tired. Holmes noted the deep furrows that care had
ploughed upon his face and the shadow of sorrow it
had cast over his eyes, and he could hardly contain
his grief " But you do not congratulate me on my success,
mon cher Monsieur Holmes" said the Baron.
" I congratulate you with all my heart," the artist
replied, " but I shall be able to congratulate you with
much more heartiness when you get your money."
De Bode was struck with his friend's words, and
asked, " But shall I not get my money now ? Will
they not pay it to me ? "
"Who?"" The Government."
Holmes shook his head.

Baron de Bode 175

"You afflict me," said De Bode. "Do you
think they will not pay me ? "
" I think, my dear Baron, that you have still to
get your money, and I do not exactly see who is
going to pay you."
The artist had lived through a bad time; he had
mixed with all ranks of society, and had seen how
corrupt and rotten it was. He was not at heart
what would be called a cynical man, but what he
had seen of governments had made him doubt ;
and he did not believe the litigant was any nearer
the actual accomplishment of justice than before his
verdict. De Bode went away saying that if the money
were not, paid him he should sue the Queen. This
eventually he did. The case was tried before Lord
Denman, who, to his eternal disgrace be it said,
found that, though De Bode's claim was good,
and the verdict of the jury just, yet he had no means
of recovery, as the persons who had received the
money and who ought to have paid it were all dead.
A more unfair judgment was probably never given
in a court of law.
Our system of jurisprudence has been improved
since then, and it is to be hoped that never again
will it be possible for an English judge to fail
in regard to so elementary a principle of justice

1 76 Life of fames Holmes
as that the responsibility of governments continues
notwithstanding the decease of individuals, as did
Denman. Nevertheless, our system of so-called
justice is very far from perfect. It is one by
which a suitor is apt to get a monstrous deal
of law, but very little equity.
This terrible end to the poor Baron's long years
of effort proved too much for him, and he was a little
while afterwards found dead in his bed.-^
An inquest was held, and as the facts of his life
and of his sad end were brought out, the jury found
that the deceased gentleman had died from natural
causes, but that his death had been accelerated by
the bad treatment of the Government. The coroner
refused to receive this verdict. "It means a charge
of manslaughter against the Government," he said,
" You must retire again and reconsider your verdict,
gentlemen," And like true invertebrate British
jurymen, they did as they were told, and spared the
Government. De Bode left a son, who continued to prosecute
the family claim against the Crown, though with
the same ill success as his father. The last time it
was heard of was in 1853, when Lord Lyndhurst
brought the matter before the House of Lords,
and in a speech that did credit alike to his manhood
^ This took place in 1846.

Baron de Bode 177

and the high reputation he had won as a lawyer,
laid bare the flagrant injustice that had been done
in the case of this long-pending claim. But all his
eloquence was in vain ; the money had been
swallowed up by " Bode Palace," ^ or in some other
way, and there was no redress.
It is worth while, however, quoting two or three
sentences from Lord Lyndhurst's speech to show
the light in which such an authority viewed the
matter : —
"I have, my Lords," he said, "grown gray in
the profession of the law, but I have never in my
experience known a question so completely mysti
fied, if I may so express myself, by the perverted
ingenuity of its practitioners, as this unfortunate
question respecting the claim of the Baron de
Bode." He further said, " I must add that I never
in my experience witnessed a more inexcusable and
flagrant breach of trust than that which has been
thus committed. . . . Every step has been marked
with low chicanery and technical obstruction."
De Bode was well known amongst the aris
tocracy, by whom he was greatly esteemed for the
courageous way in which he bore his misfortunes,
as well as for his cheery good-nature and light-
^ This was the name given by De Bode to Buckingham Palace, which, as
he used to say, had been built with his money.
12

178 Life of fames Holmes
heartedness under crosses that would have soured
ninety-nine men out of every hundred. By these
friends he was largely supported during his pro
tracted litigations through gifts and loans. One
of his best and most generous patrons, to whom
he was introduced by Holmes, was Sir Gerald
Noel, afterwards the Earl of Gainsborough,
and father of the Rev. Baptist Noel, the famous
preacher. Holmes never spoke of this nobleman except in
terms of the highest praise, as being the most
admirable type of a man that he had ever known.
He had many anecdotes of his kindness and gen
erosity, as well as of his invariable good-humour
and sunshiny nature. It appears that as a young
man he joined some bank speculation, and when it
unfortunately failed, he was so seriously Involved —
there being then no such thing as limited liability —
that he had practically to give up his estates to the
liquidators and live upon an allowance out of them.
This meant greatly narrowed means for years ;
nevertheless Sir Gerald bore his altered circum
stances, with their constant need for careful
retrenchment, without a murmur. Nay, he even
managed at times to be generous in the midst of
his poverty. Thus, on one occasion, when a new church was to

Baron de Bode 1 79

be built in his neighbourhood, and the subscription list
was going round, those who had the management of
it thoughtfully refrained from laying it before the
baronet until the larger donors had been passed, and
they had come down to the givers of ^50 and
under, delicately suggesting, of course, that they
could not expect him in his impoverished condition
to give more. Sir Gerald took the list and carefully
ran his eye down it, noting the various donors, from
those whose names stood first to sums of ;^ 500 and
the like, and so on to the end, and then, taking a
pen, put down his signature to a sum of .i^iooo.

CHAPTER XVII
ARISTOCRATIC FRIENDS AND PATRONS
Amongst the artist's aristocratic friends there were
few so generous in their support and patronage
as Mrs. Essex Cholmondeley, the sister of Lord
Delamere. His friendship with this lady and her
family continued for many years, and he was fre
quently both at Cassia, her residence, and at Vale
Royal, the seat of Lord Delamere, and painted por
traits of many of the family. The following letters
all refer to portrait commissions ; but they have a
general interest apart from that circumstance : —
Vale Royal, August 9, 1835.
Sir — I am desired by Lord and Lady Delamere to hope that
it will not be inconvenient to you to come to Vale Royal
as soon as possible, as the youngest boy is very soon going to
school, and the second son, being in the army, may be called
away any moment. If you will write to me and fix any day that
you will be at Vale Royal, Lady Delamere will send the pony
carriage to meet you at Northwich. Essex Cholmondeley.

Aristocratic Friends and Patrons i8i
Please to direct to me, Mrs. Essex Cholmondeley, under
cover to Lord Delamere, Vale Royal, Northwich, Cheshire.
P.S. — The parents of the youths wish their likenesses to be
taken in water colours, the same as the young Cholmondeleys of
Hodnet Hall, and not in oils. 3 Summer Seat, Bootle, Liverpool.
Sir — It will much oblige me if you will undertake a journey
to Knutsford in Cheshire. I wish for my brother Charles's
picture as a small full-length painting. He is a very elderly
gentleman and not so fine a figure as my eldest brother, but was
thought handsome in his youth. I have apprized him of your
approach, and his very oldest coat has now been brushed. Pray
allow me some interest in your truly elegant likenesses. Vale
Royal will receive you from Knutsford, and I entreat you to
follow its master and gain a likeness of him. — From your true
friend, Essex Cholmondeley.
Charles Cholmondeley and his daughters will mention you at
Tatton and Dunham Massey, two principal mansions in Cheshire.
Tatton possesses a numerous family, and the high-bred manners
at Dunham Massey will, I am sure, be approved of by you.
September 29, 1835. Cassia, May 29, 1836.
Sir — I hope you are taking my niece Miss Drummond's
likeness — you are so superior an artist. She is rather fat, but
pretty, with elegant hands and feet; she lives at Chesham Place,
Grosvenor Place, and will expect you, if you have not already
called upon her. Her brother, John Drummond, tells me he
will be happy to see you, and I desire you will take a likeness of
Miss Hester Drummond, his daughter. They must be done in
the style of Charley Cholmondeley's, and when finished you must
send the account to me and I shall be happy to settle it. Lady

1 82 Life of fames Holmes
Delamere will bring the drawings to Vale Royal when she leaves
London. — I am ever your true friend, Essex Cholmondeley. June 21, 1836.
Sir — Whenever you are at leisure I know you will oblige me
in making a good likeness of a sister I never can forget, namely,
Hester Drummond Conce Cholmondeley. You are expected to
occupy a room in Vale Royal, where a picture hangs of her by
Monsieur Monier, a French artist. You must know she was in
a deep consumption when the painter drew it. Pray, I beseech
you, enliven the lovely beauty, and in one of your small lengths
try to recollect and represent to the eyes every beauty of body
and mind in the representation of Hester Cholmondeley. — Yours
much obliged, Essex Cholmondeley.
Cassia, December 20, 1837.
Sir — Surely it is encroaching on your time to write to me
from Acton Park your obliging attentions. I hope you will
recollect that old Mr. Okell of Sandiway is dead, and that I will
accept from memory a likeness of him from you. I would not
mention his demise in my last troublesome letter to you, although
I thought of it. Is it possible to forget a real friend ? Thank
you for complying with my requests, and allow me to wish you
and all your family a merry Christmas.
Essex Cholmondeley.
Cassia, io;";^ March 1839.
Sir — When you have elegantized with your pencil Archbishop
Drummond and George James Cholmondeley, you will be so
obliging as to introduce them at Charing Cross, for ;^io each,
by Essex Cholmondeley's orders. You will receive Hester and
Essex Cholmondeley to copy for my nephew John Drummond,
and present them to him at the same order. Take care this

AiHstocratic Friends and Patrons 183
accompanies your beautiful effects and produce it to them,
namely, to the Messrs. Drummond,
I thank Mrs. Holmes for her obliging attentions to
Essex Cholmondeley.
Cassia, February 16, 1840.
Sir — I have just received your obliging letter. I have heard
from Mrs. Cholmondeley, and she agrees with me in regard to
your going to Hodnet in the autumn. I hope to meet you
there, but that is uncertain.
I will accept with pleasure your likeness of Reginald, as you
appear to wish it.
Pray excuse this concise letter, and believe me your true
friend, Essex Cholmondeley.
Another family for whom Holmes painted almost
as many portraits as for the Cholmondeleys and
Delameres was that of the Duke of Leeds. The
Duchess was one of his warmest and most constant
friends, and he executed a miniature portrait of her
as well as of the Duke. He also painted a minia
ture of their daughter, the beautiful Lady Charlotte
Mary Lane-Fox, wife of Sackville Walter Lane-
Fox, M.P., who died at a comparatively early age
17th January 1836. The following interesting letter,
addressed to her aunt, has reference to the portrait
in question : — Hornby Castle, Thursday.
My dear Aunt — Thank you ten thousand times for all your
news. I do hope the aspect is brightening and Sir R(obert) P(eel)
is determined to go on as long as the King will keep him.

184 Lif^ of fames Holmes
I am sending this by a box going up, and I seize the oppor
tunity to enclose some hints for Le petit Peintre au sujet de mon
Portrait. I am si reconnaissant for what you tell me, and shall
be further obliged if you will see to the finishing. I wish the
little man would scrawl in pencil on any scrap of paper the
outline and how he has put the figure together, as neither the
hands nor the arrangement of jthe flower-vase was at all defined
when I last saw it.
I beg by all means the point lace may be dabbled a point
higher on the shoulder. Pray see to this propriety, je fen prie,
dear aunt. Then the rose ; I would wish white (House of York).
I did not wish the blue lining ; my conceit was to have been a
sable bordure along the edge of the mantilla about the width of a
boa. He will say the contrast would not be enough with the
feuille morte. To set against this, show him a sketch of the most
perfect picture in the world as to colouring, subject, " La Maitresse
de Titian," the original in the Studio Gallery at Naples ! and the
colour of the squirrel, which would be nearly that of the fur. I
wish not quite so red brown, and it harmonizes perfectly with the
feuille-morte garb. I trouble your patience still further with two
prints, the one of Lady Radstock, to show him the sort of
balustrade and creeping plants about it, and the Duchess of
Bedford, to show him the size and description of vase, which
should be filled with roses, white and red. But pray tell him the
red roses ought to be a tender pink, or else they make the picture
look dauby and bad, and jessamine besides, if he pleases.
If he attends to these suggestions, he has our free permission
to hang me (I hope the simile ends there) in the exhibition if he
wishes it so much. I do not write to him, as I have troubled you
with these observations, which perhaps you will at your leisure
read to him. If the blue lining to my mantilla is persevered in, I
beg it may be distinctly turquoise blue, or a very bright royal blue.
This colour, and not a gray or Marie Louise blue for the world !

Aristocratic Friends and Patrons 185
I am writing this in flying haste for the box.
I am afraid all this will be such a plague to you. — Believe me,
my dear aunt, your affectionate grateful niece, C. M. L. F.
The following letters from the Duchess of Leeds
have reference to her bereavement through the
death of her daughter : —
The Duchess of Leeds' compts. to Mr. Holmes, and would
be very glad to see him here, and should her life extend to
another year, hopes some good chance may occur to the causing
his coming into the North, and that it may suit better than at
present his coming to this melancholy abode. The next month
the Duke will be wholly engaged with his agent's accounts, and
therefore he would not desire any one else here. She need not
say how very much she would like to see the sketch he writes he
had done for himself, of '' the head finished and the rest touched
delicately." She absolutely yearns for it, for now that she has given
Mr. Fox the miniature she never sees it ; perhaps he would have
the goodness to send it here, and she would on his return to town
send him the MS. book she wishes him to put a likeness into of
the dear angel.
The picture must not come from his possession at present, she
imagines, for she never can speak to Mr. Fox on the subject.
When he and the Duke are next in town they will determine
regarding all the pictures, and the Duke will give the finishing
sittings for his picture.
She hopes Mr. Holmes can send her the sketch as immediately
as possible. Hornby Castle, October 28.
Begs, if Mr. Holmes can let her possess the sketch, that he
will state its price.

1 86 Life of fames Holjnes
The Duchess of Leeds is very wishful Mr. Holmes could
paint her another miniature as faithful a likeness as the last of
the beloved daughter, as she has given that one to Mr. Fox and
cannot do without one for the dear children, and she will send
him a book to town next week. She wishes him to make a sketch
in water colour, as she will point out ; but wishes immediately to
bespeak the miniature to be doing. Is glad to say the dear
children are well, so is Mr. Fox. As to herself, her malady keeps
increasing. She hopes Mr. Holmes and family are well.
Hornby Castle, Cattenik, October 26.
Mr. Holmes paid several visits to Hornby
Castle, the Yorkshire seat of the Duke of Leeds.
Another house at which he was a frequent visitor
was Woburn Abbey, the Bedfordshire seat of the
Duke of Bedford. The Duchess was his very good
friend, and his visits were continued after the death
of the Duke. He used to say laughingly that he
went to keep the place warm for Sir Edwin Land
seer, who afterwards became very intimate with the
Duchess, and had, as is well known, some hopes of
marrying her.
Holmes did not know the famous animal painter
well, although he had met him from time to time.
There is an amusing anecdote about him which is
well worth relating. Once when he had gone into a
new house with a garden (In St. John's Wood, I
believe) he planted the latter with a lot of standard

Aristocratic Friends and Patrons 187
rose-trees. They did not thrive, however, and so
disappointed was the artist when he was about to
have a party that he bought a large quantity of
paper roses and made his garden bloom resplendently
with them (on his standards). He used to smile
when he related the incident, because he said none
of his guests detected the deception, while many
praised the beauty of his garden.
Sir Josiah Mason, the Birmingham millionaire
(to whom the queen-city of the Midlands owes her
Erdington Orphanage and the Mason College), used
to boast of a similar, though less innocent deception.
At his grand dinners he was wont to put home-made
gooseberry wine upon the table in place of cham
pagne, and then laugh in his sleeve at the way his
guests gulped down the liquid and praised the
excellence of the vintage.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE END

Hitherto Holmes had found life very pleasant, and
upon the whole he had had no great reason to com
plain of want of success. But he was now destined
to meet with a sore trial. Always of a perfectly
honest and truthful nature himself it did not enter
into his thoughts to regard his friends as in any
respect less trustworthy. Amongst the number of his
business acquaintance was the head of a well-known
firm of builders in Doughty Street. This man he
had known since the early days of his settlement in
Cirencester Place, when he had built a studio for
him at the back of his house. The artist employed
him also to put up a studio in Wilton Street, when
he removed thither in 1828, and was charged what
he considered an exorbitant price for it.
About, or shortly before, the time of removal to
Wilton Street, Holmes introduced this man to his
friend Mr. Taylor, of Worcester, who was meditating

The End 189

building upon his magnificent estate of Strensham
Court, near that city, and was the means of his
securing a commission that amounted in all to
nearly ;^5o,ooo. For this friendly service he not
only barely received the thanks of the builder, but
was induced by him, by the most specious pre
tences, to become security for a large amount. The
firm, falling into difficulties shortly afterwards,
realised on the artist's security, and then became
bankrupt. The result may be imagined. Lawyers
on both sides went to work, and when they had
finished — Holmes at least was a ruined man : ruined,
but neither broken nor embittered.
This was in 1846, consequently when the artist
was just upon seventy years of age, and no longer
capable of doing the amount or the quality of work
he had formerly done. He was obliged to give up
his house in Wilton Street (in 1847) ^^^ remove to
humbler quarters at Hendon, where he remained for
several years.
For the Mr. Taylor above mentioned he executed
many commissions. Mr. Taylor was a member of
the family of bankers of Worcester, but, being of a
literary turn, was not employed in the business. He
devoted much time and money to doing honour to
the memory of Samuel Butler, the author of Hudi
bras, who was born at Strensham. To him the

190 Life of fames Holmes
village owes a memorial of the poet ; by him also
Holmes was commissioned to paint several pictures
the subjects of which were taken from Butler's
famous poem. One of them represented the widow
visiting Hudibras in the stocks. Doubtless some,
if not the whole, of these pictures still adorn the
walls of Strensham Court.
In 1853 the artist lost his wife. She died on
the day that their eldest surviving son Henry landed
in Melbourne. This son was the cause of consider
able grief to his father In his latter years. He was
attracted to Australia during the great gold rush,
but does not appear to have gained much from the
change save disappointment. He engaged in some
theatrical enterprises, married an actress, and after
condign failure, migrated with his family to Auckland,
New Zealand, where he became scenic artist at the
Opera House, and where he died of suffocation, in
consequence of a fire in his workshop, on the 24th
of January 1885.
Soon after his arrival in the queen -city of the
Antipodes Mr. Henry Holmes ceased to write home,
and from then until his death his family had no
communication whatever from him. This neglect
to acquaint them with his whereabouts and fortunes
was the cause of much trouble to his father, who had
always evinced a tender solicitude for the welfare of

The End 191

his children. But, despite his grief, he could not help
laughing very heartily at a droll saying of Hurlstone's
once when he had asked if any news had been re
ceived from Harry. "No," said Holmes sadly. " Oh
well, never mind ! " replied Hurlstone. " If you have
not heard, depend upon it he is making his fortune."
After the death of his wife Holmes's time for
some years was divided between London and
Shropshire and the adjoining counties, where he
had many friends and where he spent much of his
time going from one house to another. Amongst
the number of his warmest friends were Viscount
Hill, of Hawkstone (where Rowland Hill was born) ;
the Corbets of Acton Reynold ; the Kenyons of
Pradoe, near Shrewsbury ; Viscountess Dungannon,
and many others. In not a few of these houses a
room was constantly kept in readiness for him, and
he always had a hearty welcome when he paid their
owners a visit.
Nor, when speaking of his friends, should the
Misses Perceval, of Ealing, the daughters of Spencer
Perceval, the murdered Premier, be forgotten.
These three ladies were always very sincere and
devoted friends of the artist. It was under their
roof that he first made the acquaintance of Walpole,
who found in his unfailing good spirits so striking a
contrast to his own more serious mood.

192 Life of fames Holmes
When in London he lived with his sons Edward
and George, the former of whom had succeeded to
a good deal of his father's practice as a portrait-
painter. These were now the only members of his
family remaining to him.
The last four or five years of his life he spent
entirely in London, invariably active and cheerful,
albeit mildly regretting the advances and ravages of
old age. "This is that confounded old age," he
would say when he felt the touch of rheumatism
stiffening his fingers and so preventing him from
playing the flute so deftly as of yore. "It is that
confounded old age stealing upon one in the dark.
Eh bien, telle est la vie ! "
This latter was a favourite saying of his, and
seemed to sum up in a convenient phrase his
philosophy of life, which was simply to make the
most of it by contentment aiid good - humour.
That had always been his way, and on the whole he
had enjoyed life. Perhaps it would have been
better for him in the end, and for those he left
behind him, if he had taken more care of his means.
He appeared to think so himself in his later days,
but the thought was not allowed to trouble him
much. When speaking of his inability to leave
anything for his sons, he would say —
" Oh well, I had to fight my way and do

The End 193

the best I could ; you will have to do the
same." Then he would add, " There's a lot of enjoy
ment to be got out of life, even by a poor man, if he
knows how to go about it " — or words to that effect.
Though, like everything else In the world. It has
its drawbacks, this way of looking at life is not
without its advantages, and Holmes did not choose
it .altogether without thought. Amongst others he
had seen his friend Hurlstone grow to care more
and more for money, and to worry himself about
many things, until he became half insane ; and
though he left a competency to each of his sons,
. they profited little, if at all, by it. Thus he came to
think that a profession, a love of work, courage, and
contentment were about the best equipment for the
battle of life that anyone could have. They had
served him very well, and he thought they would
do the same for his sons. "Work hard and never
mind," he used to say to people when they were
worrying too much. "Life is ever the same; you
can't cure it of its sorrow by caring, therefore do
not care too much, but do your work — and play the
flute when you can." This generally came at the
end with a little laugh. Flute-playing to him
signified a sensible way of taking recreation.
Such had been his way of looking at life all
13

194 Life of James Holmes
through his career, and It had robbed it of much of
its harshness and many of its minor worries. Thus
he performed upon his flute- — his early friend — up to
within a week or two of his death, and found in It,
and in his art, a never-failing source of consolation
and delight.
Sitting one winter evening by the fire, shortly
before the end, with one of his sons, and the latter
having spoken a little despondingly of life, for death
had again been busy, he said, "It is no good
looking on the dark side. If you do that you will
always see enough to make life sad, and to depress
and discourage you. Look on the bright side ;
it is much the best way. You will then generally
find enough to keep you cheerful and in good spirits
most of the time. But, above all, seek for strength
and comfort in your art. I have seen life in all Its
phases, and have had my ups and downs ; but
remember when I am gone that there has at all
times been but one real and lasting pleasure to nie,
and that has been the study and practice of my art."
Not long after this, in the eighty-third year of
his age, he quietly passed away In his sleep. As his
life had been, for the most part, happy and tranquil,
so was his death. About a fortnight previously he
had spent the evening with some young friends, and
was as gay and almost as frolicsome as the rest.

The End 195

He stayed out rather late and caught a slight cold.
For several days no alarm was felt, but two days
before his death It took a serious turn, and his
strength fell away with amazing rapidity. Still he
kept up, and the very last day of his life he went
out and took a short walk. Going to bed rather
late, he fell into a doze, and. in that state passed
away. He retained the full use of all his faculties
to the last, including his eyesight, which was hardly
In the least impaired. The date of his death was
the 24th of February i860.

JOHN VARLEY

CHAPTER I

first beginnings

It is given to but few men to fail so utterly In
respect to everything relating to worldly affairs, and
yet to leave such a name behind both for goodness
of heart and for the sterling results of genius, as did
John Varley, the artist, and one of the founders of
the Society of Painters in Water Colours. Born
only three years after Turner, and five before David
Cox, he came Into the world at a time when the
national art of water-colour painting was still in its
infancy, and as yet giving but slight Indication of
the sturdy growth to which it was shortly to attain,
and to attain in large measure through his example
and guidance.
His father, Richard Varley, was a native of
Epworth, in Lincolnshire, famous as the birthplace
of John Wesley ; but, not finding sufficient scope
for his talents and energy In that place, he removed
into Yorkshire, where he married, his wife being a

2 GO Life of fohn Varley
Fleetwood, a descendant of General Fleetwood,
some time Lord Deputy of Ireland, who married
Cromwell's daughter Bridget. Thus, through his
mother, John Varley inherited the blood both of the
Cromwells and the Fleetwoods.
Richard Varley did not find Yorkshire any more
to his taste than Lincolnshire, and he accordingly
soon migrated to London, where his son John was
born. This event took place on the 17th of August
1778, at Hackney, in what was previously the Blue
Posts Tavern, but which, with its surrounding
grounds, his father had converted into a private
residence. It stood next to the churchyard, and
seems to have been a pleasant and sufficiently com
modious abode.
We have no means now of ascertaining precisely
what was Richard Varley's calling. That he was a
man of some mechanical ability and of considerable
scientific attainments there can be no doubt. It
has generally been understood that he was for some
time tutor to the famous Earl of Stanhope, but
doubt has recently been thrown upon this sup
position, the suggestion being that his elder brother
Samuel was the one who held that position. Such
could hardly have been the case, however ; for at the
time of Richard Varley's decease the former was a
thriving watchmaker and jeweller, a position he

First Beginnings 201
could not have attained all at once. It is more
than probable that Richard was originally of the
same profession as his brother, and that he gave it
up for the more intellectual, and very likely at the
same time more lucrative, one of tutor. At all
events John Varley appears always to have asserted
that his father was tutor to the son of Earl Stanhope,
father of the celebrated Lady Hester Stanhope, who
acted for some time as secretary to her uncle Pitt,
but after his death went to Syria, where she assumed
the male dress of a native of that country, and
devoted herself to the study of astrology.
It is not a matter of merely recent observation
how deeply the opinions of a man of original mind
may pervade and influence his surroundings, and
there is no telling but the character of Earl Stanhope
may, through his father, have had its effect upon the
subject of this biography. Charles Stanhope (who
succeeded his father in the peerage in 1786) distin
guished himself by espousing the principles of the
French Revolution, which he carried out to the
extent of setting aside the titles and privileges of a
peer. He was elected a member of the Royal
Society in 1772, and devoted a large portion of his
income to experiments in science and philosophy,
which resulted in a number of valuable Inventions.
Amongst others were a method of securing buildings

202 Life of fohn Varley
from fire (which, however, proved impracticable), the
printing press and the lens which bear his name,
and a monochord for tuning musical instruments.
He also suggested Improvements in canal locks,
made improvements in steam navigation (1795-97),
and contrived two calculating machines. His
experiments in electricity resulted in the publication
of a volume on the Principles of Electricity. Indeed,
so devoted was Earl Stanhope to his scientific and
literary pursuits that he neglected his wife and
children for them. His youngest daughter. Lady
Lucy Rachel Stanhope, eloped with an apothecary
of Sevenoaks, who used to serve the family, and
her father, notwithstanding his republican principles,
never forgave her for the mesalliance.
It may have been the example of Earl Stanhope,
who would naturally be much talked about in his
father's family, that subsequently caused John
Varley to turn his attention to invention, and
perhaps to speculative science generally.
John was one of a family of five, three boys and
two girls, all born at the house in Hackney. After
John came Cornelius, and then William Fleetwood,
both of whom, as we shall see, like their elder
brother, made their mark as artists, as did also one
of the girls, Elizabeth, who became the wife of
William Mulready, the Academician.

First Beginnings 203

John almost from his infancy found more delight
In drawing than in any other amusement. He was
noted among his schoolfellows not only for the
possession of this gift, but also for a degree of
muscular strength which exceeded that of all the
lads of his age with whom he associated. The
latter qualification was the means of bringing him
frequently Into hot water, for he could never see a
boy put upon or in any way molested by another
without interfering. Many were the times that he
felt himself thus called upon to intervene in the
cause of justice. Of so generous and amiable a
disposition was he. Indeed, and so full of courage,
that he would never think twice when there seemed
need for his assistance, but would at once take sides
with the oppressed, even though his antagonist were
a much older or bigger lad than himself The
consequence was that in a short time there was
hardly a youth In the neighbourhood who would
fight him alone. Once, we are told, when upon
some trifling occasion which produced a quarrel
three attacked him at once, he maintained the
unequal contest for several minutes and objected to
any interference, till the onlookers stepped In and
insisted on fair play. He then fought his three
antagonists singly, and punished them all.
As he grew In years Varley's bent for art became

204 Life of fohn Varley
stronger. But in accordance with the almost in
variable rule In such cases, the disposition was
discouraged — at least by his father, who would not
hear of his son's becoming an artist. Painting, said
the elder Varley, was a poor trade, and none of his
children should become artists. But while man
proposes, God disposes. At the age of thirteen
John was placed with a silversmith, with the view
of his serving an apprenticeship to that craft. But
his father dying (November 1791) before he had
reached his fourteenth year, the intention was not
proceeded with. Friends urged his mother to
apprentice him to a mechanical trade, but either
from inability to pay the premium required In those
days, or for some other equally cogent reason, this
course was not taken. Possibly It may be, as has
been said, that she did not wish to go counter to her
son's desire, his heart being firmly set upon becoming
an artist. There is a story, and not by any means an
unlikely one, to the effect that while still a boy
Varley was in the employ of a stockbroker named
Trower, his duty being to sweep out the office and
run errands. This gentleman, to while away the
time, was in the habit of making sketches on scraps
of paper, which in the end were generally thrown
upon the floor. These young Varley used to collect.

First Beginnings 205

and afterwards try to copy them. One of these copies
Mr. Trower by some chance got hold of, and found
it so well done that he told the youth he had better
take to drawing. It is further stated^ that ever
after this Mr. Trower and his family assisted Varley,
though in what way or to what extent is not re
corded. A short time after his father's death young
Varley was placed with a law stationer. His
nature, however, was one that could not be tamed
down to the sordid drudgery of such an occupation,
and one fine morning, having emptied his pocket
in the purchase of paper and pencils, with the excep
tion of three halfpence, he set forth on his first
sketching excursion. His mother saw nothing of
him for several days. At length he returned dirty,
half- famished, and with sketches of Hampstead
and Highgate in his portfolio.
Mrs. Varley, who had more taste for art than
her husband, appears at length to have been con
vinced that it was useless to oppose her son's
inclination to art, and decided to give him every
encouragement, and to assist him In his studies as
much as was in her power.^ Unfortunately, how-
1 Roget, History of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours.
^ Mrs. Varley appears to have been a woman of exemplary piety and
strength of character, and thoroughly worthy of her descent from the Crom
wells and the Fleetwoods.

2o6 Life of fohn Varley
ever, it was not much that she could do, for after
her husband's death she seems to have been greatly
straitened in means. The house at Hackney had to
be given up ; and a few years later we find John
residing with his widowed mother and his brothers
and sisters in a court off Old Street, City Road,
opposite to St. Luke's Hospital.
Left thus at liberty to follow his bent, Varley
resolved to support himself by his pencil. It was
a courageous resolution, and he went nobly to
work, drawing whatever came in his way, copying
figures, making sketches of animals, and exhibiting
the results of his labours to his friends and acquaint
ance, some of whom encouraged him to renewed
perseverance by an occasional purchase. His draw
ing materials were so constantly before him that his
mother used to say, " When Johnny marries it will
be to a paper wife." But he found the fight, handi
capped as he was by poverty, a terribly uphill
one, and discovered ere long, as many others have
done, that It was easier to get praise than halfpence.
Eager for practice and instruction, and at the
same time finding the need for money, the youth
for a short time found employment with a portrait
painter in Holborn. When at the age of fifteen or
sixteen, he succeeded in placing himself under a
teacher of the name of Joseph Charles Barron, who

First Beginnings 207

had a class for drawing twice a week at No. 12
Furnival's Inn Court. In return for tuition Varley
was obliged to give some menial services, such as
running errands and doing odd jobs generally, and
this not only during the class hours, but at other
times also. In addition he had to assist in teaching.
He drew, however, with the other pupils, and was
also instructed in etching. Among the youths he
met here was Francia, one of Girtin's fellow-pupils,
who was likewise an assistant, although in a higher
position than Varley.
" Poor Varley," writes one who knew him well
at this time — " Poor Varley began the world with
tattered clothes and shoes tied with string to keep
them on. Yet nothing," he adds, "could damp
the ardour of his mind. His evenings were given
either to drawing or to copying the works of the
great masters, his favourites among the latter being
Claude and Caspar Poussin. Only when he could
no longer hold up his head did he go to bed. Yet
with the earliest dawn of day he was again astir,
drawing indefatigably until it was time for him to
go to business — whatever for the time being that
might be. Then, with an old portfolio slung over
his shoulder, he would start off full trot, and not
stop till he arrived at his master's door."
Many of these details of Varley's early days we

2o8 Life of fohn Varley
owe to John Preston Neale, a brother-artist who,
though about seven years his senior, did not take to
art as a profession until a later period. According
to Redgrave,^ Neale began life as a clerk in the
post-office ; but he seems to have spent his leisure
in the pursuit of tastes Inherited from his father,
who was a painter of insects. Early in March
1 786 he went one Sunday morning to Hornsey
Wood to sketch and collect Insects. There he
fell In with John Varley, who was likewise out
sketching. They entered into conversation, and
so commenced an acquaintance that lasted during
their joint lives.
Becoming frequent companions on similar ex
peditions, Neale appears to have tried to Inocu
late Varley with his taste for entomology, but
signally failed in the attempt. He persuaded him,
however, to join him in a project for the produc
tion of a somewhat ambitious work on natural
history. It was to be In royal quarto, and to be
called the Picturesque Cabinet of Nature ; consist
ing of landscapes, beasts, birds, insects, flowers, etc.
Varley was to do all the landscape drawings ; Neale
was to etch them, as well as to make all the
other drawings and colour the plates. The first
number duly appeared (September 1796), and,
^ Dictionary of Painters.

First Beginnings 209

consisted of three prints — of horses, cows, and an
ass. Neale gives the following graphic description of
one of his sketching excursions with Varley in the
same year. It was on a fine Sunday morning in
spring, and John Varley and he sallied forth in
search of the picturesque. "About seven a.m.,"
he writes, " we reached the private madhouse at
Hoxton, and as the foHage was beautiful round its
banks, we sat down to copy their beauties. We had
been seated but a short period when we began to
frighten each other by tales regarding the unhappy
persons confined within this sad abode. Suddenly
a terrible rush was heard among the trees and
bushes. Having previously raised our fears to the
highest pitch, we stayed not to inquire the cause ;
but scrambling up, made a precipitate retreat to the
middle of the field, where we stopped to watch the
supposed maniacs that were making their escape.
We then discovered our mistake, the noise being
made by some men who were robbing the garden
falling from a tree, and who were equally surprised
with ourselves, supposing us there to watch their
movements. Having been thus satisfied, we re
sumed our seats, finished our sketches, and proceeded
to Tottenham, where we commenced sketching the
church. . . . To give my friends som^e idea of our
14

2 ID Life of fohn Varley
feelings at this time as young artists, it will be only
necessary to state that we saw the people going to
public worship ; In the morning, in the afternoon, and
in the evening they found us there. So exact were
our notions that in colouring my sketch I copied
the colours and even counted the bricks, minutely
attending to every other particular. During the
day we subsisted upon a crust of bread and water."
On another occasion they drew and coloured
Stoke Newington Church.
Neale often visited Varley at his mother's house
In the Old Street court, and he describes ^ a theatrical
performance which they got up between them, hiring
a room of a neighbour for the purpose, and losing
money because the venture proved a failure. One
of the pieces performed was "George Barnwell."
In a "Notice of the Life and Labours" of Cor
nelius Varley, drawn up during the latter's lifetime,
and under his supervision, if not actually by his own
hand, it is said that as a youth John Varley was so
advanced In his studies that he "commenced teaching
drawing." This may refer to the assistance he gave
to his teacher Barron. The latter must have thought
highly of his pupil's talent, for we find that he took
him as far as Peterborough on a sketching tour. He
made a drawing of the cathedral of that city, which
^ Roget, History oj Water Colour Society.

First Beginnings 2 1 1
was greatly admired, and which subsequently was the
means of winning for him his first fame as an artist.
Of evenings he was enabled to take advantage
of the academy, or whatever it may be called, of
Dr. Munro, who, to the profession of specialist in
insanity, joined that of art patron and dealer. He
had a house on the Adelphi Terrace, overlooking
the river, and to it resorted many of the young
artists of that time — probably, however, more with
a view to profit than for study. For it was the
habit of Munro to pay his students and retain their
drawings and sketches. This, at all events, was his
method with those who showed any marked ability,
like Turner, Girtin, John Linnell, William Henry
Hunt, and others, his scale of payment being from
half-a-crown to three shillings an evening. Nor
does Munro appear to have made a bad thing of it,
since for some of the works thus acquired he seems
to have obtained good prices.^ But, taking his
income from this source altogether, it must have
been small in comparison with what he derived
from his private asylums and from his position as
one of the physicians who attended George III
during his malady.
' Amongst John Linnell's correspondence is a letter from Munro, in which
he refuses an offer made by Linnell for one of his drawings by Girtin, saying
that he always looked upon it as an equivalent for a ten-pound note.

2 12 Life of fohn Varley
By these means Varley made rapid progress in
the art he had adopted as his profession ; and in
1 798, that is, when he was nineteen years of age, he
exhibited his first picture, a " View of Peterborough
Cathedral," at the Royal Academy.

CHAPTER II

the GROWING MAN

From being an assistant to Barron, Varley soon
developed into a teacher on his own account. He
had already commenced to do a little in this line
before sending his first drawing to the Academy ;
but the fame that he won by that exhibit speedily
increased the number of his pupils, whilst it at the
same time enabled him to increase his prices. In
short, what with the sale of his drawings (for they
were now in demand) and his tuition, he was ere
long earning so handsome an income — for so young
a man — that he was enabled to bring comfort back
to his home, and to become the chief stay and
support of his mother and his brothers and sisters.
He at this time lived, according to the Academy
catalogue, at No. 2 Harris Place, a sort of blind
alley situated in Oxford Street, near the Pantheon.
He subsequently moved from there to No. 5 Broad
Street, Golden Square. This was about 1806, and

214 Lif^ of fohn Varley
his house here was shared for a time by William
Mulready, who had just married his sister.
In the year 1799 he was again an exhibitor at
the Royal Academy, his subject this year being
"A View on the Thames." He continued to
exhibit under the same auspices until 1804, when.
In conjunction with others, including his brother
Cornelius, who, like him, was devoted to landscape
art, he helped to found the Water Colour Society.
In the "Notice" of Cornelius Varley above
referred to, the latter claims to have originated the
idea of founding the Water Colour Society. He
says the notion occurred to him at St. Albans, and
that "on his return to town his brother John called
a meeting at the Stafford Coffee House, Oxford
Street, to arrange the preliminaries and fix the time
and place of meeting." After the foundation of the
Society John Varley identified himself almost
exclusively therewith.
Many of his subjects during these early years of
endeavour were from the banks of the Thames,
always a favourite resort of his, as it has been to many
a landscape artist since. They bear undoubted
evidence of having been painted on the spot, and
are marked by great individuality and truth to
nature — characteristics which are likewise stamped
upon the drawings executed during three visits

The Growing Man 215
made at this period to North Wales, in whose wild
mountain scenery he found the subjects best suited
to his brush.
The first of these visits to the Principality took
place in the summer of 1799; it was followed by
others in 1800 and 1802. He made many studies
during these tours, and these supplied him with the
material for numberless pictures, with which, when
the Water Colour Society was founded, he almost
deluged its exhibitions, sending to the first no fewer
than forty-two subjects (nearly all Welsh), and
during the first eight years contributing in all 344
drawings. He also made a journey to the Northern
counties for the purpose of study, but he did not
there find so congenial a field for his art as in Wales,
amongst the solitude of whose hills and vales he
received impressions that powerfully influenced the
whole course of his art.
On one of these visits to Wales the artist came
near losing his life by being attacked by a bull. As
he was seated sketching a bit of delightful scenery,
altogether oblivious of any threatening danger, he
was charged by an infuriated animal and tossed,
together with his paraphernalia, several yards in the
air, which, seeing that he weighed seventeen stone,
was not a bad hoist for the bull.
This was only one of his " hairbreadth " escapes

2i6 Life of fohn Varley
from serious injury or death by the horns of bulls.
Once during the Old Street period he was attacked
and tossed by a bull in Old Broad Street Road and
much hurt. Somewhat later he was in still more
imminent peril of his life from a similar cause. He
was crossing one of the London bridges— West
minster, I believe — when an infuriated animal, which
was being driven to the slaughter-house by a butcher,
ran at him and threw him on to the parapet, over
which he was slipping when the man in charge of
the creature caught hold of the skirt of his coat, and
thus saved him from a watery grave.
When in after life Varley turned his attention to
astrology, he declared that, by reason of the con
junction of certain stars, he had from his infancy
been liable to casualties from the attacks of animals.
Whatever one may think of the prediction — if, being
after the event, it may be called one — certain it is
that he seemed destined by some untoward fate to be
subject to the onsets of infuriated animals. For at
another time, much later in life, he came very near
losing his life from a furious onslaught by hounds.
He was sketching at the Earl of Blessington's
country-seat when he got in the way of the hunt,
and the hounds set upon him with the utmost fury.
Every stitch of clothing was torn off" his back, and
the maddened brutes would doubtless have done

The Growing Man 2 1 7
him further hurt if the huntsmen had not just
then ridden up and beaten them off". As it was,
they found him without a rag. upon his back.
Either the Earl of Blessington or one of the
gentlemen of the hunt lent him a cloak in his
extremity, or he would have had to get back to his
lodging as best he could without so much as
Adam's primal covering to hide his nakedness.
vA somewhat similar story is narrated of
Cornelius Varley, although in his case the incident
occurred in Ireland, whither, after a third visit' to
Wales (in 1805), he journeyed and made a number
of sketches. Cornelius, who was of a genial and
companionable disposition, like his brother, was
greatly delighted with the Irish people, whom he
found both warm-hearted and generous, though his
enjoyment of the country was considerably dashed
by an adventure he had one day while busy
sketching. It was in the hunting season, and quite
unknown to him a fox, slinking away from the
hounds, took refuge under the camp-stool (or what
ever it was) upon which he was seated, and over
which he had thrown his greatcoat. In the course
of a few minutes he became painfully aware of
Reynard's malodorous presence, and rose, sniffing,
to discover the cause ; whereupon the fox quickly
levanted. The artist, with a quiet chuckle at the

2i8 Life of fohn Varley
animal's odd choice of a place of refuge, reseated
himself and went on with his painting. But scarcely
had he got to work again ere the hounds burst upon
him, and finding the scent very warm, upset him and
his traps in no time. Poor Cornelius found him
self in a sad plight, and In his perplexity could think
of nothing better to do than mount a convenient
tree. The huntsmen, riding up a minute or two
later, thought the hounds had "tree'd" the fox, and
laughed uproariously when they found it was "only
an artist." They joked him about his " brush," which
he had dropped In his hurry to get up the tree, and
treated him, as he thought, most unmercifully.
They afterwards solaced him to some extent by
inviting him to the hunt supper, but nothing would
induce him to prolong his stay in the country, or to
pay It a second visit.
But to return to the one who is more particularly
the subject of this memoir. Much of John Varley's
work in later years was executed in haste and with
out due care ; but at this time, when he was at his
best, he was undoubtedly a fine landscape painter,
and many of his drawings will compare favourably
with the best work of his contemporaries ; albeit he
may have been outdone by some of them, both in
breadth of treatment and in grandeur of conception.
His range was not a large one ; but probably no one

The Growing Man 219
has done fuller justice to the sunlit slopes of Welsh
mountains, or to the quiet vales and peaceful lakes
of that delightful land. In this respect he opened
out a new realm to the landscape painter, and
showed to the art-loving world possibilities in water
colours that had hardly been dreamed of before.
But in estimating his influence it must be borne
in mind that he was the great art teacher of his time,
and that his enthusiasm for painting in water colours
amounted almost to a cult, and Infected nearly all
who came under his influence.^ It was a saying of
his that while painting in oil might be compared to
philosophy, the practice of landscape in water colours
must assimilate to wit ; and, considering the wonder
ful things that were done in his time, and the cleverer
and more daring ones that have been effected since
in that medium, the saying seems abundantly justi
fied. ' As an instance of the way in which his enthusiasm infected others, the
following anecdote may be given. One day when he called at the Earl of
Blessington's to give a lesson to a member of the family, he noticed the lackey
who opened the door for him slip something that looked suspiciously like a
drawing-board behind a chair. "What is that you have put away? "cried
Varley. The man blushed and said that he had been trying his hand at a
drawing while seated in the hall. He had, he confessed, been so much
interested by hearing Varley expatiate at his lordship's table on the glories
and delight of water-colour painting, that he had expended a month's wages
on drawing materials, and had gone to work in his spare time, " Let me see
what you have done ! " exclaimed Varley ; and some time later he was discovered
by the Countess giving an impromptu lesson to the lackey, having completely
forgotten that someone else was patiently waiting for his coming.

2 20 Life of fohn Varley
He put forth no exaggerated claims on behalf
of his favourite art, and it may be somewhat in
consequence of the modesty of their aim that the
water-colourists of his school did so much. " While
locality and texture is {sic) one of the great excel
lences of oil-painting, clear skies, distances, and
water, in which there is a flatness and absence of
texturo, are the beauties most sought after in the art
of water colours." Such was his view of the general
scope of water-colour painting, and within the limits
thus indicated, few have done better than Varley at
his best. Tranquil scenes of mingled hill and vale,
quiet waters reposing in subdued sunlight or 'neath
evening skies, or wide-rolling, verdant champaigns
— these were the themes that Varley loved best
to handle, and these he could touch and interfuse,
as it were, with a brooding poetry. Stronger or
more venturesome subjects he rarely attacked,
perhaps because his sympathies did not run in that
way, possibly because he doubted his powers of
accomplishment, or the potentialities of his art. It
remained for other men to give us pictures of storm
and tempest, the turmoil of agitated waters, and the
burning splendours of sunset and sunrise ; he was
content to wield a calmer brush, and to revel in
quieter and more homely scenes.

CHAPTER III

CORNELIUS VARLEY

As reference has been made to Cornelius Varley,
and as he was a man of considerable mark In his
day, it will not be out of place to give a few particu
lars about him here. As already said, he was some
three years younger than John. Like his younger
brother William and his sister Elizabeth, Cornelius
appears to have been his elder brother's pupil ; or,
if they were not actually his pupils, they owed much
in respect to their art development and training to
his example and Instruction.
Cornelius was born at the house in Hackney on
the 2 1 St November 1781. The earliest impression
that he was wont to refer to, was an accident that
might have cost him his life. When four years old
he fell head foremost from a first-floor window.
Fortunately he descended upon a flower-bed the
earth of which had been newly turned, and to
its softness he attributed his safety from harm.

22 2 Life of fohn Varley
as he could well remember his father taking him
to see the Impression his head had made in the
ground. His father died when he was ten years of age,
and he continued his studies at home until he was
twelve, occupying his leisure time by going out with
his elder brother to sketch. At that age he went to
live with his uncle Samuel Varley, the watchmaker
and jeweller, who was doing a thriving business.
Like his brother, Samuel Varley seems to have
been a man of considerable attainments in science,
and something of a genius to boot, and under him
his nephew Cornelius obtained an insight into
many cognate arts, besides being initiated into the
mysteries of watchmaking. He first learned the
art of working jewels, and on one occasion when
soldering a diamond in the steel mount with a
blowpipe, he saw it catch fire and burn with a blue
flame. This phenomenon, which is now well known,
was at that time new, and was not fully confirmed
until some years after Cornelius Varley's observation.
Diamonds are now frequently burned in oxygen, and
the exhibition of the experiment constitutes one of
the most instructive chemical experiments of the
present day.
Samuel Varley possessed air-pumps, electrical
machines, telescopes, microscopes, and generally an

Cornelius Varley 223

extensive collection of chemical apparatus. These
had a greater attraction for young Cornelius than
watchmaking. His uncle had made some small
microscopic lenses, and Cornelius, who had mastered
the ^rt of making jewelled holes for watches, turned
his attention to making lenses as his uncle had done,
although with only partial success until he devised
the method of polishing them by making the tool of
a composition of bees'-wax hardened by oxide of
iron ; and for the smallest lenses a composition of
still tougher material made with shellac hardened
with polishing powder. This mixture is universally
employed by opticians at the present day. By his
fourteenth birthday Cornelius had made his own
microscope, the lenses and the whole of the mechan
ism being of his own manufacture.
In 1794 his uncle began a series of chemical
experiments, and as he required a large room for the
purpose, he took the celebrated Hatton House,
which then had the reputation of being haunted.
Here they carried on their experiments and founded
a Chemical and Philosophical Society, of which the
famous Josiah Wedgwood and other eminent men
became members. These meetings and lectures
and those of the old Philosophical Society were the
forerunners of the formation of the Royal Institution
in the year 1800.

2 24 Lif^ of fohn Varley
On one occasion, when his uncle was delivering
one of his chemical lectures at Hatton House,
Cornelius was busy in an adjoining room preparing
the oxygen for one of his experiments. During the
operation the retort exploded, smothering him in
black oxide of manganese, and making him as black
as a sweep. However, he carried in the gas, for
which his uncle and the audience were waiting,
without stopping to consider his sooty condi
tion. When he appeared in the lecture-room there
was a hearty laugh at his expense. The incident
gained for him the sobriquet of "Varley's Devil," a
name by which he was known to some of the older
members of the Royal Institution for many years ;
indeed until he was long past middle age he was
often so called.
Many of the earliest experiments with compressed
carbonic acid gas for freezing mercury were made
at Hatton House, where was devised and constructed
the first apparatus for charging water with the gas
under pressure, thus originating the manufacture of
soda-water. In the sketch of Cornelius Varley
above referred to, the writer says that, among other
things that were done at Hatton House, "they made
and erected a large electrifying machine with a con
ductor twelve feet long, and produced with it many
very interesting and useful experiments which

Cornelius Varley 225

advanced materially the knowledge of electricity and
electrical science."
Cornelius still continued to fill up his spare
moments by making lenses, and he succeeded in
producing one of ^^ of an inch focus, which
was exhibited at various scientific meetings, and
was decided by all present to be the most perfect
that had then been produced. Thus encouraged,
Cornelius made several such lenses, for which pur
pose he constructed special lathes for working and
polishing them. These special tools, as well as his
observations upon the microscope, and a number of
investigations relative to animal and vegetable life
which he made therewith, formed the subject of
several communications addressed by him to the
Society of Arts, for which he received on various
occasions the Society's awards of silver and gold
medals. Earl Stanhope, who was one of the patrons of
the Hatton House lectures, about this time asked
Samuel Varley to join him with a view to helping
him to perfect his discoveries in stereotyping. He
consented, and his time being thus fully occupied,
the Hatton House lectures came to an end, and
soon after the Royal Institution started into life.
CorneHus now turned again to art, joining his
brother once more on expeditions to sketch from
15

2 26 Life of fohn Varley
nature. John had now acquired fame as an artist,
and it was his success, both as a teacher and in the
sale of his works, that probably induced Cornelius
to relinquish those scientific pursuits for which he
seemed so strikingly fitted, in order to resume his
studies in art. Like John, he came for a time under
the influence and patronage of Dr. Munro, and that
gentleman Introduced the two brothers to the Earl
of Essex and to "the Prince Lascelles" (as he was
then popularly called), afterwards better known as
Lord Harewood. He turned his attention also to
teaching, and both he and his brother obtained many
pupils through the recommendation of the Earl of
Essex, who not only gave them great encourage
ment, but aided them with his advice as a friend,
suggesting the amount they should charge for giving
lessons, and so forth.
In June 1801 Cornelius was invited to GilHng-
ham Hall, Norfolk, where h© gave lessons in drawing
from nature to Mrs. Bacon-Schutz and her daughter,
as well as to some of their relatives. This change
from the work of the laboratory, notwithstanding
the great fascination the latter had for him In
appeasing his thirst for investigation and research,
was a very happy one, and he felt the hardest day's
work he then did in drawing from nature was " a
glorious holiday." He was of a most genial and

Cornelius Varley 227

contented disposition, and became almost at once a
universal favourite in all societies with which he
mixed. The period of these excursions and visits
to various country seats was one of thorough,
earnest, and truly healthy enjoyment. The pure
air, the sense of liberty in roaming about and
exploring the works of creation, and the certainty of
receiving a hearty reception whenever he returned
indoors, there to be surrounded by the most culti
vated and amiable kindness that removed all care
and brightened hope, "left with him" (to use his
own words) "an impression upon his mind that
nothing could efface."
From Norfolk he went into Suffolk, making
numerous sketches. He remained there till mid
winter, sketching out of doors all day long, often
amid frost and snow.
During this tour of mingled sketching and
lesson-giving the artist became painfully aware of
his deficiencies in respect to perspective, and he
returned to London In the early days of 1802 in
order to lessen his ignorance. In the course of a
few months he made himself thoroughly acquainted
with the laws of perspective, and from that time was
able to give his pupils instruction in what was then a
greatly neglected department of study, and one which
artists had for the most part entirely overlooked.

2 28 Life of fohn Varley
In the month of June he travelled into North
Wales, where he was joined by his brother John
and Mr. Thomas Webster, the architect of the
theatre of the Royal Institution. While there he
made drawings of Snowdon, the Pass of Llanberis,
Dolgelly, Beddgelert, Carnarvon Castle, Harlech,
Cader Idris, etc., after which he returned to Chester,
going thence to Chepstow. In 1803 he made
another tour in Wales, being accompanied on this
occasion by John Cristall and William Havel.
In 1804 occurred the visit to St. Albans, where,
as he says, he conceived the idea of the Water
Colour Society. He went there to make some
drawings to illustrate a work by G. Lewis. At
the first exhibition of the newly-formed Society
he exhibited what he calls " coloured sketches and
views " of St. Albans and of the Market Place, Ross,
Hereford, and other places. Truly at this time
water-colour drawings were little more than coloured
sketches, and the colours indeed were very watery,
not to say washy ; but the art gradually improved
under the influence of the men who constituted the
early members of the Water Colour Society, together
with colourists like Holmes, Richter, and others.

CHAPTER IV
WILLIAM MULREADY AND SONS
In the year 1803, at the age of twenty-four, John
Varley married Esther Gisborne, a sister of John
Gisborne, the friend of Shelley, with whom, as well
as with Godwin, the poet's future father-in-law, and
his set, he appears to have been well acquainted.
Another sister of Gisborne's became the wife of
Copley Fielding, the artist ; while a third was married
to Muzio Clementi, the composer and pianist, and
improver of the pianoforte (afterwards associated
with a leading firm in the manufacture of pianofortes),
whose talents won for him a resting-place in the
cloisters of Westminster Abbey. ^
^ At the early age of twelve Clementi wrote a successful Mass for four
voices, and had made such progress in the pianoforte that Mr. Beckford
brought him (from Rome) to this country to complete his studies. He
was then engaged as director of the orchestra of the opera in London ;
and his fame having rapidly increased, he went in 1780 to Paris, and in
1781 to Vienna, where he played with Mozart before the Emperor. In 1810
he settled down in England, where he died in 1832. His most important
compositions were his sixty sonatas, and the collection of studies known as

230 Life of fohn Varley
During these years John Varley had not confined
his attention solely to art, but, like his brother
Cornelius, had given much time and attention to
the study of science. But the " science " to which
he more particularly devoted himself was that of
astrology, in which he became one oi the greatest
adepts of his day. Among fashionable people he
was better known as a " ruler of the planets " than
as an artist, and many persons, while ostensibly
calling upon him to see his works, were In reality
more attracted by his fame as an astrologer. Nor,
seeing that he was never loth to be drawn out
upon his favourite subject, did they often go away
without being given an opportunity of testing his
powers in that respect. Had he been living at the
present time instead of fifty years ago, he would
undoubtedly have run the risk of being sent to jail
as a rogue and vagabond — if, that is, as is said, he
was always ready to take his fee for casting a horo
scope. There Is considerable doubt, however, as to
whether he ever did take money for such services.
It was always a hobby of his to draw the nativity of
persons he met, and to amuse them by his predic
tions. He would hardly have done this if he had
the Gradus ad Parnassum. He represented perhaps the highest point of
technique of his day, and his influence upon modern execution led to his being
characterized as "the father of pianoforte playing.''

William Mulready and Sons 231
looked upon his astrology as a money-making
affair. Nor would there have been anything very
blameworthy If he had by this means added a little
to his income, which in the early days of his marriage
was probably small enough, though what with his
art and his teaching (of which he had very soon as
much as he could manage), it must ere long have
been very considerable for one of his years and
position. But whatever his income, such was his
kindness of heart (which made it impossible for
him to refuse to help a friend in need) and such his
unbusiness-like habits, that even in these early days
he was never long out of money difficulties. One
of the first effects of his disadvantages in this
respect was that he was thrown very much into the
hands of the dealers, and from this circumstance
doubtless arose" much of the weak and common
place work with which his name is unfortunately
associated. Among the-Tiumber of his pupils were William
Mulready, R.A., who, as already stated, married one
of his sisters ; William Henry Hunt, the fruit and
flower painter, and delineator of scenes In humble
life ; John Linnell, the famous landscape artist ;
Francis Oliver Finch, who became a member of
the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours ;

232 Life of fohn Varley
William Turner of Oxford, a landscaplst of great
talent ; Samuel Palmer (who was his pupil for a
short time) ; Ziegler, a German Swiss ; to say
nothing of a host of others who had not the good
fortune to attain to equal fame with some of
these. Hunt and Linnell were under Varley at the
same time. Linnell records^ how he was once
making sketches of pictures in Christie's sale-room
in King Street, St. James's, when he was accosted
by William Fleetwood Varley, who admired his
drawing, and advised him to go and see his brother
John. The young artist did so, with the result
that his father agreed to place him under Varley's
tuition for a year, giving him a premium of
^100. Linnell says that he first saw Varley in a
little house in Harris Place, Oxford Street ; from
which he removed to No. 5 Broad Street, Golden
Square. He had a cottage also at Twickenham,
where his pupils lived some part, if not the whole of
the time, for the convenience of sketching from
nature. Linnell and Hunt spent most of their time
in this way, now on the river, now in the lanes and
fields, drawing, as Varley told them, " everything in
nature, and in every mood." He was an enthusi
astic admirer of nature himself and he generally
^ Life of John Linnell.

William Mulready and Sons 233
succeeded in inoculating most of his pupils with his
enthusiasm. Linnell, in some autobiographical notes which
he left behind him, has much to say about his
master, and especially about this early period of
their acquaintance. Judged by this record, as well
as by the reminiscences of all who knew him, John
Varley must have been possessed of very excep
tional qualities even among men of genius. Not
only was he a man of genial character and amiable
disposition, but one of large and liberal views, and
full of striking and original conversation. His
house was the resort of wits and men of talent and
education in every branch of art and the pro
fessions, and he attracted and delighted all alike
by the kindliness of his heart and the extent and
variety of his knowledge. Something of the quality
of the man may be gathered from the fact that he
was as full of play as of work, that he indulged in
both with equal vigour in due season, and that he
never thought of himself when he could help a
friend. Such was the amiability of his disposition
In this latter respect that he would often put
teaching and commissions In the way of his friends
that he might have had himself
He was especially fond of boxing, and he used
to vary the tedium of painting and teaching by an

2 34 Life of fohn Varley
occasional bout with the gloves. His studio was
often the scene of a lusty set-to of this description,
especially if his brother-in-law, Mulready, happened
to drop in, he also being a great adept in the art
of self-defence. ' Mulready, being younger and not
so stout as the somewhat heavy and elephantine
Varley, generally had the best of it at these
diversions ; but, discomfited or not, Varley enjoyed
the fun, and after a good laugh and a rest for wind,
he would come up again, smiling and undaunted.
Everybody in their circle, indeed, appears to have
caught their enthusiasm for boxing (which was one
of the fashionable crazes of the time), not excluding
even the diminutive Linnell, who refers In his
Autobiography to these pugilistic encounters with
a zest which half a century of toil and religious
meditation had failed to weaken. He speaks of
others who took part with them in these exercita-
tions, and records, not without a touch of pride,
that upon the walls of his lumber-room still hang
the veritable gloves that had drawn George Dawe's
"claret." Mulready was a pupil of the Jew pugilist,
Mendoza, and he Is said to have been- the best
scholar that worthy ever turned out. He was a
man of splendid physique and enormous strength.
No end of stories are told of his prowess In this

William Mulready and Sons 235
direction. He is said to have made the acquaint
ance of Mr. Sheepshanks, the art patron, by
defending him when attacked by a number of
London roughs. Nor did his bout of fisticuffs
prove a bad piece of business, considering the
number of commissions It was subsequently the
means of bringing him.
Once a hackney coachman demanded of him an
exorbitant fare, and when Mulready would not pay
it, he became exceedingly abusive and offered to
strike him. The artist thereupon threw off his coat,
and the two stood up at the corner of Great Portland
Street and Oxford Street and fought for an hour,
Mulready at length doubling up his man and
coming off victorious. The fight was witnessed by
a couple of thousand people.
Mulready and Sir John Swinburne, uncle of the
poet, were walking one evening near to the gates
of Holland Park, when a man came out of the
public-house opposite and rudely attempted to push
between them. They, naturally enough, resented
the insult, whereupon the fellow struck Mulready.
The artist, carefully judging his distance, struck the
man a blow between the eyes, felling him to the
ground like an ox. Sir John, afterwards narrating
the circumstance, said, "It was a most fearful
blow. I heard it echo among the trees overhead."

236 Life of fohn Varley
Mulready had four sons, all big strong men,
taking in this respect after both the Varleys and
the Mulreadys. Their names were Paul, William,
Michael, and John. They were all nearly as expert
boxers as their father, who appears to have taught
them impartially both the arts in which he W2.s facile
princeps. But while one of them at least was his
equal as a boxer, none of them came in any way near
him in regard to the art of painting. They all
became artists, and .made their living in that way,
but chiefly by portrait painting and teaching. All of
them, however, had the one fault : they were too
academic, with the result that they were stilted in
composition and style, and so never came to the
front. A singular story is told of Paul Mulready, the
eldest of the Academician's four sons, touching his
fame as a pugilist. He was one day going out of his
house in Bayswater when he was met at the gate by
a rough-looking fellow and incontinently knocked
down. Picking himself up as quickly as he could,
Paul naturally asked the man to what he was in
debted for the blow. "Why, you see," said he,
"I'm the Somers Town champion, and I 'eard as 'ow
you was a fust-rate boxer, Mr. Mulready, and so I
thought I'd come and 'ave a turn with you." Paul
replied that, seeing that he had made so free with

William Mulready and Sons 237
his fist, he would indulge him, and asked him where
he proposed the contest should take place. The
answer of the Somers Town champion was to the
effect that he had already been to the landlord of the
Rose and Crown opposite, and that that gentleman
had consented to let them have a room and see
fair play. The proposal was agreed to ; and the
story goes that the worthies fought all night, and in
the end finished with a drawn battle, so well were
they matched. But Mulready gave his antagonist
such a dressing that he never fought again, while he
himself was confined to his bed for several days
after the event.
Albert Varley, John Varley's eldest son, was
Paul Mulready's executor and the guardian of his
son. When Paul was on his death-bed Varley went
to see him. He found his old friend greatly affected
at the prospect of his approaching dissolution.
" Good-bye, Albert," he sobbed at length, " I shall
never see you again. You have always been a
good friend to me, and I don't know anyone that
I have thought so much of But, my dear boy," he
added, "you ought to have fought the barber."
Varley thought his friend was surely wandering, and
replied that he did not understand him. "Don't
you remember," Paul asked, "how when we were
boys together, you and I and Michael once threw

238 Life of fohn Varley
stones at a barber's apprentice, and he challenged
you to fight, and you would not ; the result being
that Michael, who had to take your place, got a
tremendous hiding? He will never forgive you to
his dying day. He has told me so often — he told
me so again the last time I saw him. I have always
taken your part; but I think you ought to have
fought the barber."
When it was thus recalled to his mind, Varley
recollected the circumstance, and could only be
surprised at the way in which the ruling passion
still showed itself strong in death.
Another anecdote of the family's boxing propen
sities is equally well worth recording. The sons
never got on well with their father, any more than
he did with his wife. Referring to these causes of
difference one day when with Albert Varley, Paul
said, " Well, I can forgive my father for all that he
has done wrong towards us except one thing, and
that I will never forgive him for as long as I live."
"And what is that?" asked Varley. Paul then
explained to him that one of the first principles of
the pugilistic art was in fighting not to keep the
fist tightly clenched all the time. By doing so
the muscles and ligaments of the forearm become
strained and too soon tired, whereby the boxer is
unable to continue to deliver his blows with all the

William Mulready and Sons 239
force that he otherwise would. The proper way,
he explained, was to keep the hand flexed but not
tightly closed until actually about to deliver the
blow, when it should be strongly clenched. " Now,"
said Paul, with vehement indignation, "my father
knew that secret for years, and never told me! It
was a mean thing to do, and I will never forgive
him — never ! "
After Paul's death, amongst other documents
was found a letter from his mother. It was a recent
one, and was to the following effect : "My dear
son, bear in mind that you are now nearly sixty
years of age, and remember what your uncle, John
Varley, predicted about this year. Do not box or
play at cricket, for you may receive an injury to
your knee or leg which may prove fatal."
The prediction referred to was contained in
the horoscope cast by John Varley at Paul's birth
sixty years before, and was remembered by his
mother, who knew how apt her brother's prophecies
were to turn out true.
It happened, however, that one day in the
summer of this year Paul went to Kennington Oval
to see a cricket match, when a ball, driven from a
long distance, struck him on the knee. White-
swelling was produced ; he was 111 for a long time,
and finally the leg had to be amputated. It was

240 Life of fohn Varley
taken off by Dr. Holmes Coote, and the patient died
under the operation.
John Varley was quite as fond of boxing as
Mulready, and had he been less ponderous in size,
he might have shown equal prowess as either he or
his sons. As the case stood, however, it was used
more as a means of exercise and relaxation than
for attack or defence. The gloves always hung up
in his studio, and nothing pleased him more than to
put them on and confront his doughty brother-in-
law. Occasionally, in order to vary the fun and
excitement, they would put off" the gloves and toss
Mrs. Varley from one to the other across the table,
she screaming, while the rafters resounded with
their laughter.
They must have been gay, laughter-loving times,
those of our grandfathers at the other end of the
century, and not a little uproarious to boot.
All Mulready's sons lived to an advanced age
except Paul, who, as we have seen, died at the age
of sixty. Michael, the second, was over eighty when
he died. All four of them were born before
Mulready was twenty-one years of age, he having
married Varley's sister when he was seventeen.
When he was little more than twenty - one he
separated from his wife, and they never lived
together again. Incompatibility of temper was

William Mulready and Sons 241
generally supposed to be the cause of their separ
ation ; but though this may have been the main
difficulty between them, the real reason for their
final quarrel and parting was the fact that Mrs.
Mulready, who, like her brothers, was a talented
artist and frequently exhibited, used to go into her
husband's studio when he was out and work upon
his pictures. Mulready was a very slow worker,
sometimes devoting a year to a single picture, and
the wife doubtless thought she could expedite
matters, and bring a little more grist to the mill, by
lending an occasional helping-hand. But the R.A.,
who managed to put up with a good deal, felt
obliged to draw the line at having his pictures
touched upon by his wife.^
^ According to Mulready's own statement to a friend (from whom I had
my information), Mrs. Mulready, when out of humour, used to go into his
studio and paint out the eyes of his figures.

16

CHAPTER V

VARLEY AS ASTROLOGIST

But we are getting along a little too fast. Mention
has been made of Varley's eldest son Albert, whose
second name was Fleetwood. Besides him there
were four other sons : Henry, Frank (who was
subject to fits and died young), Charles Smith,
and Haydon, the latter named after Varley's friend
Benjamin W. Haydon, the painter. Then there
were three daughters : Emma, Susan, and Esther.
A characteristic story Is related respecting the
naming of the artist's fourth son, Charles Smith.
When the time arrived for him to be christened
Mrs. Varley was too ill to leave her bed. She kept
reminding her husband, therefore, not to forget to
have the child christened In time, but he as con
stantly put the matter off". Finally, when It" was not
possible to delay a day longer, he sent the servant
with the child to the church. She herself acted as
godmother, but as no one had been provided to

Varley as Astrologist 243
stand as godfather, she asked a stranger who
happened to be present if he would act in that
capacity, and so relieve her from a difficulty. He
consented, but when the girl asked him his name,
he appeared reluctant to take any responsibility in
the matter, and replied, " Oh, Charles Smith." So
the boy was called by that name.
Although so good-natured and even tender
hearted, John Varley was not the one to spoil his
children or his pupils by over-indulgence. With
both he was a severe disciplinarian. Finch tells
how, if he heard a noise in the room above his
studio, where the youths were at work, he would
suddenly take a cane out of a drawer, rush into
their midst, administer castigation freely all round,
and as suddenly disappear. It was the day of such
exercises ; the tenets of Solomon were observed in
all their glory, and John Varley followed them like
the rest. Even the dog would come In for a share
of the blows if he did not behave himself Finch
records that on one occasion the dog set up a
barking when a visitor called. Out came the cud
gel, and the dog was speedily reduced to silence,
when the rod was put away with the remark, " I
hate affectation."
Varley's son Albert frequently bore testimony to
his father's peculiarities in this respect. " If we got

244 Life of fohn Varley
up to any mischief or skylarking, and made a noise,
the next thing was a vision of his yellow dressing-
gown and brass-edged ruler. He did not stop to
ask who was the ringleader or the greatest culprit,
but treated all alike with the greatest impartiality,
not even sparing a visitor. If we should happen to
have one."
He was a great advocate of cold-water bathing,
and In order that there might be no lack of this, he
had a tank made at the end of his garden, into
which, seizing each of his sons by a leg and an
arm, he plunged them, neck and crop, three or four
times every morning, and then sent them off" to dry
and dress. If they howled too much over these
rough ablutions, he gave them an extra dip.
Varley was a tremendous worker. Always up
by daybreak, he set to work at once, and did not
intermit his industry until day was done. He used
to say that for forty years he had worked on an
average fourteen hours a day. He did not even
stop work for his meals ; but a corner of the cloth
was turned up, and there while he ate he worked at
his drawings. His attention was given so thoroughly
to what he was doing that he took little notice of the
food that was put before him. Once, it is said, two
horribly bad eggs were given to him by mistake,
but so intent was he upon the drawing before him

Varley as Astrologist 245
that, though the others were offended by the smell
of the eggs, he went on eating them as though they
were most deliciously fresh.
George Goodban, the artist, who married Varley's
daughter Susan, called one day, and finding him busy
in his studio, said, "Well, have you anything ready
for the Water Colour Society?" Varley replied,
" God bless my soul, no ! When is the day for
sending in ? " Goodban told him that it was in five
or six weeks. Varley replied, " I must begin on
something at once." When the day for sending in
arrived he had forty -two drawings ready. The
prices ranged from 5 guineas to 250. All, or nearly
all, were sold ; the Prince Consort being the pur
chaser of the highest priced one.
As reference has been made to his food, it will
be convenient to say here that the artist was as
abstemious In regard to drinking as to eating. He
cared little for liquors of any kind, and seldom
indulged in anything stronger than a little table-
beer. Even that was ordinarily too strong for him,
and was usually diluted with water to obviate its
intoxicating effects. His tea too had to be of the
weakest description. His money, therefore, of
which he made so much and kept so little, did not
go in self-indulgence or in feasting.
In short, he was an enthusiast, and as such gave

246 Life of fohn Varley
but little attention to anything save his art, or the
"science" of astrology to which he was so devoted.
Every morning, as soon as he rose, and before he
did anything else, he used to work out transits and
positions for the day, or what astrologists desig
nate "secondary directions and transits." Thus he
would work up his own horoscope for the day. As
an example of what this means I may give the
following interesting incident, which shows something .
of the character of the man, as well as the nature
of his astrological studies.
One morning while living at Bayswater Hill he
sent his son Albert out Immediately after breakfast
with his watch to get the exact time at a watch
maker's close by. When he returned with the time
Varley went over his calculations again very carefully.
Still not being satisfied, he sent the boy out again
to see if the itime was exact. When he returned
the second time, saying the watch was right, Varley
said, " I can't make it out ; there is something
very serious going to happen to me to-day so many
minutes before twelve o'clock, but whether the
danger Is to me personally or to my property I
cannot tell."
He went on to explain that the planet which
was thus menacing him was Uranus, which, having
been but recently discovered, was something of a

Varley as Astrologist 247
puzzle to astrologists, because its astrological powers
were not yet well understood. He had an engage
ment that morning, but he was so anxious about the
threatened danger that he would not go out. His
reading of the aspect of the heavens was to the
effect that the peril would be sudden and serious.
Thinking therefore that he might be run over or
get a tile on his head, or suffer some such accident,
he thought it would be prudent to risk nothing, and
so remained at home.
As the hour of twelve approached he became
greatly agitated, and walked up and down his studio
unable to settle to anything. A few minutes before
the hour he said to his son, " I am feeling all right ; I
do not think anything is going to happen to me per
sonally ; it must be my property that Is threatened."
Just then there was a cry of fire outside. He
ran out to see what was the matter, and found that
it was his own house that was in flames. "He was
so delighted," said his son Albert, describing the
occurrence — "he was so delighted at having dis
covered what the astrological effect of Uranus was,
that he sat down while his house was burning,
knowing though he did that he was not insured for
a penny, to write an account of his discovery. He
had timed the catastrophe to within a few minutes.
He knew the square or opposition of Uranus would

248 Life of fohn Varley
have a bad effect, but in what way he could not tell.
Although he lost everything "in the fire, he regarded
that as a small matter compared with his discovery
of the new planet's potentiality."
However much deception there may be in
astrology (of which I leave others to judge), there
can be no doubt of Varley's bona fides in the matter.
He thoroughly believed in the "science," and if there
was deceit, he was the subject of it as much as
anybody who went to him for his forecasts. Many
are the stories told of the wonderful predictions he
made, and how astonishingly they were verified.
On one occasion he drew the horoscope of the
children of an artist friend, James Ward, and made
some revelations so astonishingly true that the
father had the documents destroyed, as indicating
beyond doubt some commerce or collusion with the
father of lies.
No one could come in contact with Varley
without speedily being made aware of his leaning
to astrology. It was "a mania with him, and his
common theme at table," says one who knew him
well.^ "He was no sooner introduced to a friend
than he would ask him the date of his birth, and
having obtained that knowledge, he would quickly
make out the stranger's horoscope." Gilchrist in
' My informant was Mr. William Vokins, the picture-dealer.

Varley as Astrologist 249
his Life of William Blake gives some anecdotes of
his success In this direction, and others are recorded
in the Life of fohn Linnell. Some of them are
astonishing enough, as, for instance, the statement
that he foretold the death of William Collins, R.A.,
to the very day years before the event took place ;
also the declaration made by Scriven, the engraver,
to the effect that certain facts of a personal nature,
which could be known only to himself were never
theless confided to his ear by Varley to the smallest
particular. Nor were these by any means the most remark
able of his astral revelations or vaticinations. On
one occasion he drew the horoscope of a young lady
who was then about sixteen years of age. He told
her that she would marry in the course of a few
years, and that there would be one child issue of the
marriage. But, having gone thus far, he suddenly
stopped and exclaimed, "Hallo! what is this? a
second marriage ! " Then he added after a pause,
" There is something wrong here." The young lady
asked him to explain, but he declined to do so.
What he saw was that the second marriage was to
take place before the death of the first husband.
Hence his hesitancy and doubt. But the sequel of
the lady's history proved the truth of his reading of
the horoscope.

250 Life of fohn Varley
She was married to a clergyman, who was vicar
of a parish somewhere in the east end of London.
A few years after their union, however, he left her,
disappearing so completely that she neither saw nor
heard of him for a long time. Then, after a lapse
of some ten or twelve years, she received a letter
from him. He was in Australia, and the letter
stated that he had made his fortune at the gold-
diggings. A draft for a large amount was enclosed,
and with it the wife was instructed to furnish a house
and expect his coming to join her in a short time.
Nothing more, however, was heard from him, and
though the wife caused inquiries to be made respect
ing him, she could learn nothing for several years,
when she heard that he was dead. Some time after
this she married again, her second marriage proving
a very happy one. Subsequently, however, it turned
out that the one-time clergyman was not dead, but
was still living in some part of Australia. His
strange conduct appears to have been due to Insanity.
Thus was Varley's prediction strangely proved to be
true. Here is another of his astrological vaticinations.
One morning when he and two friends — probably
artists — were in the country they set out for a walk.
Before they started he said — having doubtless
worked his transits for the day — " We shall witness

Varley as Astrologist 251
some horrible accident before we get back." In the
course of their walk they came to a river over which
a railway bridge was being built. Workmen were
busy driving piles for the foundations, and as they
stood and watched the operations, a man, who was
leaning over one of the piles to do something,
was crushed to death by the falling hammer, the
trigger of which had been accidentally pulled. When
they got back to their inn one of the men said,
" Well, you said we should see a horrible accident,
and we have seen one-= — a horrible one indeed ! "
On another occasion he sent his son Albert to
deliver a drawing to a gentleman who had given a
commission for it. When he got to the house he found
that it was not in the portfolio. In consequence of
being Insecurely tied, it had doubtless slipped out at
the end while the boy was going carelessly along.
When he reached home he was afraid to tell his
father of his mishap, anticipating a jacketing for his
negligence. Varley, however, looked at him steadily
and said, " Did you deliver that picture ? " The boy,
trembling, answered that he had not, explaining
the accident. " I did not think you could have
delivered it," replied Varley very quietly, to the boy's
great relief " I foresaw from the aspect of the
stars that I should have an accident with a drawing
to-day."

252 Life of fohn Varley
Mr. William Vokins informs me that Varley was
at his house when his daughter was born. As was
his custom, he at once, on hearing of the event, took
out a piece of paper and cast the infant's horoscope.
When it was done he turned to Mr. Vokins and
said, " Be very careful of the child when she is four
years of age. At that time she will be in danger of
a severe accident from fire." The parents did not
take much notice of the prediction, and had indeed
almost forgotten it, when, at the age named, the
little girl was so severely scalded that her life was
for some time despaired of She lost both hearing
and sight, and was thus afflicted for two or three
years. Finally, she regained her sight, and to some
extent, though not fully, her hearing.
Varley made a similar prediction in regard to
Wakley, the well known truculent and radical
member of Parliament of those days, editor of the
Lancet and coroner for Marylebone.
Another story connected with his astrological
leanings is as follows. Once his son Albert, who
was then married, went to dine with a famous Scotch
physician. In the course of the evening the doctor
said, " Why, Albert, you have a very bad cold. I
must give you a prescription that will cure it.''
When Albert Varley was about to leave, his friend
wrote out the prescription and told him to get It

Varley as Astrologist 253
made up at the nearest chemist's. It was late, and
when he got to the first chemist's shop the man was
just about to close the door. He consented, how
ever, to make up the prescription, but in his hurry
he forgot to put a label on the phial. When he got
home Varley took the whole of the contents of the
bottle, and at once fell insensible on his bed. In
course of time he woke up, but was unable to move.
He sent for his friend the doctor, and told him that
he had taken the dose that he had prescribed, but
that it had disagreed with him. " Did you take the
whole of It?" asked the doctor. "Yes." " I don't
wonder It disagreed with you ; the wonder is you are
alive. The phial contained forty doses." Albert
Varley had a prolonged illness, and at times it was
not thought he would recover.
John Varley was at this time living at Kentish
Town, which was then really a country suburb.
One day he walked down to see how his son was
progressing. He had found by consulting his
astrological books that it was a critical day, and
he was extremely anxious, and remained with the
patient until the hour of danger was past.
He appears, however, not always to have been
equally happy in his forecasts — if, that is, we are to
believe the report of the late Sir Richard Burton.
The famous Oriental scholar and traveller was well

2 54 Lif^ of fohn Varley
acquainted with Varley in his younger days, and he
told the artist's grandson and namesake, whom he
met in Egypt, that he had learned how to draw
horoscopes from his grandfather. In the Life of
Burton recently published by his widow, he is
quoted as saying, "Mr. Varley was a great student
of occult science, and perhaps his favourite was
astrology." He adds, "Mr. Varley drew out
my horoscope and prognosticated that I was to
become a great astrologer ; but the prophecy
came to nothing, for although I had read
Cornelius. Agrippa and others of the same school
at Oxford, I found Zadklel quite sufficient for
J)
me. Burton was not the only famous man who was
indebted to Varley for aid and guidance in occult
studies. Amongst others who went to him for
Instruction In the quasi -science of astrology and
allied subjects was Bulwer-Lytton, whose predilec
tion for studies of this kind is manifest In his
novels Zanoni and A Strange Story. He and
Varley worked at astrology together, and in the
occult machinery of the works named Bulwer is said
to have been much indebted to suggestions given
to him by the artist.
One of the three works to which Varley
appended his name is a Treatise on Zodiacal

Varley as Astrologist 255
Physiognomy} It is a curious work — what there is
of it, for it was never completed, only one of the
four projected parts appearing ; but the theories
enunciated in it are clear enough. He holds (with
Ptolemy and other ancient writers) that persons
born under certain signs have certain well-defined
lineaments of face, and that for this reason not only
their characters and dispositions, but to some extent
their fortunes also, can be read in their countenances.
In his preface he says : " The apparent power of the
various signs of the zodiac in securing a diversity in
the features and complexions of the human race " is
"as well established among inquiring people as the
operation of the moon on the tides, and may be
properly termed a branch of natural philosophy."
But, though he goes on to affirm that "it is a
subject capable of much more ample and ready proof
than the astronomical fact relating to the tides," he
unfortunately fails to make it clear to the unenlight
ened reader. Indeed, he does not seem to try ; he
gives us such statements as that, though "Lord Byron
was born under Scorpio," he "received enough of
the Taurus principle to prevent his nose from being
^ Its full title is "A Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy, illustrated with
Engravings of Heads and Features, accompanied by Tables of the Rising of
the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac ; and containing also New and Astrological
Explanations of some of the Remarkable Persons of Ancient Mythological
History."

256 Life of fohn Varley
aquiline, and to give to his character a degree of
perverseness or eccentricity ; " but he does not show
us by what subtle chains or gradations of Influence
the zodiacal sign of the Bull militates against the
enjoyment of a straight nose.
Among the " heads and features " illustrating the
text (which are from the drawings of his friend
Linnell) there appears Blake's portrait of the
" Ghost of a Flea," of which he says that "it agrees
In countenance with a certain class of persons under
Gemini, which sign is the signlficator of the Flea,
whose brown colour is appropriate to the colour of
the eyes of some full-toned Gemini persons." In
this sentence we have a slight indication of the way
in which we come by the colour of our eyes, but it
still leaves us in the dark as to the exact astral
Influences that make or mar a perfect nose.
In this amusing little work the author hazards
several vaticinations, of one of which Lord Rosebery
would do well to take note. So far as one can
gather from the somewhat vague phraseology, it
predicts that Ireland will not make much headway
in the line of her present political aspirations until
the year 2001. At that time, however, she will
experience "the regard of a great monarch, and
probably of a great continental nation, and of the
people signified by Virgo," whoever they may be.

Varley as Astrologist 257
"Englishmen will then, make choice of many Irish
ladies for their wives, and the country may, under
the auspices of this star (Regulus), become eminent
for the education of females ! " — which of course
signifies the very best sort of Home Rule.
In his day Varley's fame as an astrologer made
him almost better known among a certain class of
people than his celebrity as an artist. One who
knew him well says he has seen him the centre of a
group, consisting of ladies of aristocratic position,
well-known authoresses, and others, who hung upon
his words while he told their fortunes. In which he
became so absorbed as to forget the lessons he
should at the time have been giving. It was a
common thing for him to question people whom he
met casually as to the date of their birth. Having
obtained the desired information, he would proceed
to draw their horoscopes and tell them their future.
In this way he would frequently be able to tell a
person that he was In error as to the time of his
birth, explaining that as Jupiter (or it might be
some other planet) was at the time in such and such
a conjunction, his countenance must necessarily
have been quite different from what it was If he had
been born under the aspect of the heavens prevail
ing at the reputed time of his birth. On the same
principle he was able, it is said, from a person's
17

258 Life of fohn Varley
physiognomy to name the star, or conjunction of
stars, under whose influence he was born.
In addition to his Zodiacal Physiogno7ny, Varley
was the author of two other works, both of them on
the art upon which rests his more permanent title to
fame. One is entitled Observations on Colotiring
and Sketching from Nature, and the other A
Practical Treatise on Perspective. The former was
to have been completed in twelve numbers, but four
only were issued. They were published by the
author himself, who, on the cover of the work, gives
his address as 44 Conduit Street. Each part
contains a couple of landscapes in monochrome, and
these serve as texts for the author's remarks.
Although without any approach to style, often even
without grammar, they are ably put together from
the artist's point of view. What he has to say is
clearly and concisely stated, and his views on light
and shade, colouring, and composition are so well
stated that the merest novice cannot rise from the
reading of them without bringing away very definite
notions as to the scope and methods of the art of
which Varley was a master ; while to the young
beginner in- water-colour painting they would be
Invaluable. The wonder is that this treatise,
together with that on Perspective, has not been
republished with annotations bringing it up to date.

CHAPTER VI

BLAKE AND LINNELL

The most interesting period of Varley's life — to the
literary world at least — is probably that which
brought him in contact with the mystical painter
and poet, William Blake. This may, roughly
speaking, be said to comprise the period from 1819
to 1826. He was Introduced to Blake by his former
pupil, John Linnell, who was, at the period named,
married, and steadily making his way to the success
and fame which he subsequently — though not till
comparatively late in life — achieved.
Linnell's first meeting with the dreamer took
place in 181 8, the two being brought together by
the younger Mr. Cumberland of Bristol. As
Linnell and Varley were at that time residing near
to each other, the one in Cirencester Place and the
other in Great Titchfield Street, and frequently
met, it is more than likely that the introduction
occurred at Varley's house, where they subsequently

2 6o Life of fohn Varley
often met in the evening. Sometimes Linnell
would be present, an attentive observer and listener,
taking everything In, but saying little. On one
occasion he made a characteristic sketch of the two
as they were arguing together.-^ It shows Varley
alert, eager, inquisitive, Blake calm, thoughtful, con
templative. What a contrast they present! It
would be hard to find two men more opposite in
their general qualities, and yet they were perfectly
at one in regard to their belief In the possibility of
the ghosts or spirits of men dead making themselves
visible to the living.
Thus when Blake had got his seeing cap on,
Varley, sitting by, would say — I quote from
Gilchrist : "' Draw me Moses,' or David; or would
call for a likeness of Julius Caesar, or Cassibellaunus,
or Edward the Third, or some other great historical
personage. Blake would answer, ' There he is ! '
and paper and pencfl being at hand, he would begin
drawing with the utmost alacrity and composure,
looking up from time to time as though he had a
real sitter before him ; Ingenuous Varley meanwhile
straining wistful eyes into vacancy and seeing nothing,
though he tried hard, and at first expected his faith
and patience to be rewarded by a genuine appari
tion. . . .
' Reproduced in the Life of Linnell.

Blake and Linnell 261
" Sometimes Blake had to wait for the Vision's
appearance ; sometimes it would come at call. At
others, in the midst of his portrait, he would
suddenly leave off", and, in his ordinary quiet tones,
and with the same matter-of-fact air another might
say, ' It rains,' would remark, ' I can't go on, — it is
gone! I must wait till it returns'; or, 'It has
moved. The mouth is gone ' ; or, ' He frowns ; he is
displeased with my portrait of him,' which seemed
as if the vision were looking over the artist's
shoulder as well as sitting vis-a-vis for his likeness.
The devil himself would politely sit in a chair for
Blake, and innocently disappear."
The portraits were often criticised, but Varley
never doubted their genuineness. He believed
implicitly Blake's statements in respect to them, and
indeed appears to have regarded them as perfectly
authentic. In the way described, Blake executed for Varley,
always in his presence, some fifty or more pencil
drawings of these historical or mythical personages.
They were generally of small size, although two, now
in the possession of his grandson and namesake, are
larger. They are carefully drawn, and rather pleasing
in expression, albeit somewhat feminine. One re
presents Jonathan, the friend of David, and the other
Harold the Second after the Battle of Hastings.

262 Life of fohn Varley
Most of the Heads were subsequently purchased
by John Linnell, and are still in the possession of
the family. The majority bear the date August
1820, but a few were executed nearly a year earlier.
The name and date are in the handwriting of Varley,
who Is very explicit in his description. Thus one Is
endorsed " Richard Cceur de Lion, drawn from his
spectre, W. Blake /^a'/, Oct. 14, 1819, at quarter
past twelve, midnight." There is a second inscribed
" Richard Cceur-de-LIon," and different from the
first. Another is described as "The Man who
built the Pyramids, Oct. 18, 1819, fifteen degrees
of 2, Cancer ascending." In a third we have
"Wat Tyler, by Blake, from his spectre, as In the
act of striking the tax-gatherer, drawn Oct. 30, 18 19,
I h. P.M."
But the most curious of all the Visionary Heads,
or Heads from the Spectre, and the one that has
perhaps excited the greatest curiosity, and called
forth the most remark, Is the "Ghost of a Flea."
Of it Varley gave an engraved outline and a descrip
tion in his Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy. The
latter Is sufficiently singular, and at the same time
characteristic of the author, to be worth quoting.
It is as follows: "This spirit visited his (Blake's)
imagination In such a figure as he never anticipated
in an insect. As I was anxious to make the most

Blake and Linnell 263
correct investigation in my power of the truth of
these visions, on hearing of this spiritual apparition
of a Flea, I asked him if he could draw for me
the resemblance of what he saw. He Instantly
said, ' I see him now before me.' I therefore gave
him paper and a pencil, with which he drew the
portrait of which a facsimile is given In this number.
I felt convinced, by his mode of proceeding, that he
had a real image before him ; for he left off, and
began on another part of the paper to make a
separate drawing of the mouth of the Flea, which
the spirit having opened, he was prevented from
proceeding with the first sketch till he had closed It.
During the time occupied in completing the drawing
the Flea told him that all fleas were inhabited by the
souls of such men as were by nature bloodthirsty
to excess, and were therefore providentially confined
to the size and form of insects ; otherwise, were he
himself for instance, the size of a horse, he would
depopulate a great portion of the country."
The Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy contains
also an engraved outline of another of the Spectre
Heads — that of the Constellation Cancer. Coloured
copies of three of the Visionary Heads — those,
namely, of William Wallace, Edward I., and the
Ghost of a Flea — were made for Varley by Linnell.
It is worthy of note before closing this chapter

264 Life of fohn Varley
that Linnell, who, knowing both men intimately,
was well qualified to judge, considered Varley to be
of a more credulous turn of mind than Blake. This,
indeed, appears to have been one of the weak points
in his character. A phrenologist of that time — a
man of some eminence In the world of science and
letters, and well known to Varley — attributed to him
excessive credulity. "He believed nearly all he
heard, and all he read," was his judgment upon him.
It appears to have been borne out by his phreno
logy, a science which scientific men had not yet
learned to taboo because unfashionable.
Varley tried hard to convince Blake of the truth
of astrology, but could never make much headway
in that direction. It involved a theory too material
istic for the transcendental spirituality of the mystic.
Curiously enough, too, neither Blake nor Linnell
— both strongly religious men, though differing on
points of doctrine — could make any impression upon
Varley's scepticism in regard to current religious
dogmas. Though credulous to the last degree, the
spiritual was a realm to which he seems to have had
an utterly blind eye. According to Mr. Atkinson —
above quoted — he knew no distinctive God or creed.
" He belonged to no sect, took no private road, but
looked through Nature up to Nature's God."
Could there have been a finer exemplification of

Blake and Linnell 265
the truth of Gall's doctrine of the plurality of faculties
than these three men presented — Varley, Blake, and
Linnell ? Here was a trio devoted heart and soul
to art, full of genius, full of enthusiasm, and yet in
all other respects how different ! In Blake we see
the calm, confident transcendentalist, a man who
with the inward eye looked sheer into the spiritual
world, the full and complete circle, so to speak, of
which this nether and outer world is but a broken
and imperfect segment ; neglecting this world, and
in turn neglected of it ; a mere child, in fact, so far
as earthly things go, but spiritually a man of such
stature as the world seldom sees. Varley was the
converse of all this. Worldly to the last degree, all
his schemes, ideas, and feelings were stamped as of
the earth earthy. Though extremely credulous, and
ready to believe on the least, or even on no evidence,
yet when it came to the supernal wonders, the divine
attributes, manifested on every hand, there was no
sentient tablet to receive impressions ; his mind was
there a blank.
In Linnell we see again a different type. In
him we have a more fully rounded and filled out
man, and yet he too had his frailties. With genius
perhaps greater than either, greater even than Blake
in jrespect to art, more normal and manageable ;
with the same fine spiritual turn, though wedded to

266 Life of fohn Varley
less heterodox views, he was nevertheless far from
being, like Blake, disqualified by his unworldly
powers for the business of the world. Indeed, he
possessed a superabundance of those prudential
faculties of the mind that specially qualify a man for
worldly success. In this respect he could set .an
example to the physical and material Varley. In
truth. It might have been better for his fame If he
had been less gifted in this respect, as It made
enemies for him among those of his profession who
were less successful than himself; It appears to have
caused him enemies too among dealers, who found
in him a match for themselves in all that concerns
business matters. The latter are pardonable, but
it Is hard to find words of condemnation strong
enough for brother painters who, in order to justify
their injustice to him. Invented falsehoods to prove
him to be unutterably selfish and mean.
That he was " canny " no one can deny ; but that
he was so despicable as to make his aged father pay
five shillings a week for his board while living under
his roof one cannot believe without doing violence
to one's feelings. Yet it Is stated on the authority
of someone who pretends to have witnessed the
scene, that on one occasion he was present at the
artist's tea-table when a white-haired old man whom
he did not know entered the room and took his

Blake and Linnell 267
place with the rest. A mug of tea and a plate of
bread and butter were placed before him ; but before
he touched either he took five shillings from his
pocket and pushed them with a trembling hand
towards Mr. Linnell, saying, " Here Is my week's
money, John. Let me have a receipt for it." A
receipt was at once pencilled on a bit of paper and
handed to him. The old man scanned it carefully,
then, as he folded it and put It In his pocket,
he turned to the stranger and said, "That, sir,
is the way father and son do business." The
fact that the story has been given to me in three
different versions, each fathered on a different
person. Is perhaps proof sufficient of Its utter lack
of foundation in truth.
That John Linnell was very keen after the
shekels, very shrewd in driving a bargain, and equally
cautious not to be done In any way, is beyond doubt.
There are many anecdotes — genuine ones — in
attestation of the fact. Perhaps the following Is as
good and characteristic a specimen as could be found,
and it has the merit of being perfectly authentic, as
I have it on the authority of Mr. J. L. Budden (of
Messrs. Budden, Fisher, and Company, of Lime
Street), who writes : —
"John Linnell was sometimes at my office to see
my partner, Mr. J. H. Spencer (since dead), who had

268 Life of fohn Varley
lived in Oporto, and was a first-rate judge of port
wine. They on one occasion went to the vaults of
the London Dock and selected for him a pipe of
genuine fine port wine. After they had done this,
Linnell turned to the cooper and borrowed his scribe
(with which the casks are marked), and stooping
down with the lamp, and using the tool on the head
of the cask, he returned it to the man, saying,
'There! you won't Imitate that.' The cooper,
after inspecting the cask head for a short time,
exclaimed, ' Why, sir, it's your own profile ! ' And
so it was. A few days after he went to the dock in
a cart, and after getting the pipe out of the bonded
customs vaults, duty paid, he rode home with it
among the straw In the cart, ' with his martial cloak
around him.' " Mr. Budden adds : " If this cask
head were still in existence it would be a curiosity."
As Varley's residence In Great Titchfield Street
has been referred to, it may be as well to say that I
understand it was here that he suffered great loss
from being burnt out. On two other occasions he
was subjected to a similar disaster : one has been
already referred to in connection with his astrological
leanings ; the other fire, his grandson, John Varley,
informs me, took place in Conduit Street, where he
had a gallery as well as a studio.

CHAPTER VII

CHARACTER OF VARLEY

That Varley was a most original and eccentric
character there can be no question. All who knew
him, or were in any way brought in contact with
him, agree on this point. Linnell, who, as we have
seen, lived in his house for a year, and from 1805,
when they first became acquainted, until 1842, when
Varley died, knew him intimately, has but two criti
cisms to make against him. One is, that he was
lacking in the qualities that constitute a shrewd,
successful business man ; the other, that he was not
of a religious turn, or, in other words, that he was
not much given to church-going or to dogmatic
religion. In spite of these defects, however — and
they were the negative of the qualities upon which
his critic set the highest value, and were those
which characterized him the most — Linnell's admira
tion for Varley was very high. He was accustomed
to say, and indeed he wrote In his Autobiography,

270 Life of fohn Varley
that Varley was possessed of many noble qualities,
and that, while he was not a religious man, he was
not a hypocrite. It is curious to note too this
further judgment, namely, that he might not have
been a better man, even if so good, had he made a
profession of religion. One can well believe that.
Popular religion — the all-absorbing effort and desire
to save the soul, or the skin — has a tendency to make
men selfish ; and this Varley could not be. He was
indeed the very antithesis of selfishness. Mr.
William Vokins, one of the few persons still living
who knew Varley well, bears emphatic testimony to
his unselfish disposition. " His kindly, unsuspicious
nature," he writes, "was constantly bringing him
into difficulties. He could not say 'No' when his
purse or name was of any use, and it was no
uncommon thing for him to lose a lesson (the fee
for which was one or two guineas) in order that he
might aid some case of distress. But more than
this — he would often give to others who were In
need what he actually wanted for himself and so
put himself in the most unheard - of difficulties.
Nor was it always the deserving he thus assisted ;
often enough the very opposite was the case ;
for, as Linnell says, he profited scarcely at all
by experience, and put Implicit confidence in
the most treacherous and crafty people. Indeed,

Character of Varley 271
though a man in stature and years, he seems to
have retained to the last the simple and unsus
pecting heart of a child."
He was indeed of such an easy-going, sympa
thetic disposition, that he absolutely could not
refuse to help others when in difficulties. He was
constantly being asked to put his name to bills, and
he as constantly consented. Invariably, of course,
he had to pay or go to the sponging-house as the
result. Things at last arrived at such a pass that
he did not feel that all was right unless he was
arrested for debt at least once or twice a month.
With the utmost regularity the tipstaff would make
his appearance and say, "Mr. Varley, I am afraid I
must trouble you to come along with me." Varley
took the visit as a matter of course, replying, "Just
wait a minute until I put together a few materials,
and I shall be at your service."
The materials were a portfolio with two or three
boards, colours, brushes, etc. With these, as soon
as he arrived at the place of detention, he would
rapidly execute a couple of drawings, and when
they were finished he would get the bailiff to take
one to his friend Mr. Vokins, and the other to
another dealer, and with the proceeds pay off" his
debt. No wonder much of the work of his later
years was of a somewhat slipshod character.

272 Life of fohn Varley
In one year he had upwards of thirty writs
served upon him, and most, if not all, of them for
the convenience of other people ! Again and again
had he to suffer arrest and go to the sponging-house,
with the result that he was obliged to pay double or
treble the amount of his debt before he got free.
' Yet nothing broke the spirit of the man. Always
cheerful, hearty, and brimming over with kindness,
he would even protract his stay In the house of
detention in order to cheer and hearten the down
cast and despairing men whom he found there who
were not able to bear up under their load of trouble
and worry as he did.
He even found a beneficent providence in his
tribulations. "All these troubles are necessary to
me," he once said to his friend Linnell. " If it were
not for my troubles I should burst with joy ! " Nor
were his debts his only troubles ; for, besides a son
grievously afflicted (with epilepsy or some kindred
disorder), he had a helpmate, who, though she was
not wasteful and extravagant, yet lacked the ability
to make up for his unbusinesslike disposition.
Gilchrist says she "dissipated as fast as he could
earn " ; but that gentleman was too apt to take any
one's tittle-tattle as evidence of truth, much to the
detriment of his otherwise very interesting work.^
1 The Life of William Blake.

Character of Varley 2 73
Here is an instance in point. Speaking of Varley's
astrological leanings, he says he was "not learned
or deeply grounded, or even very original in his
astrology, which he had picked up at second-hand."
This is the reverse of fact. There may not be much
to be said in favour of a "science" the principles of
which appear to be based on a wild and untenable
theory ; yet what there is of it, that Varley seems
to have known well and thoroughly. In fact he wa's
such an enthusiast on the subject that he would
often devote hours to it that would have been better
perhaps and more profitably spent in painting or
teaching. There is probably a considerable amount
of truth in Linnell's criticism upon him when he says
that, though he was always calculating nativities, he
could never calculate probabilities. Or, did he place
too much reliance on the " promise " of the stars, and
find them fail him at the last moment ? This would
be quite like him, with his immense faith, his easy
good-nature, and his unquenchable friendliness.
" He was a most sincere and kind - hearted
friend," says Mr. Vokins — too often to his own hurt
and undoing, as would appear. "It was extra
ordinary," says Linnell, "how easily Varley acquired
a large and valuable professional connection among
the nobility and others, and how ready he was to
recommend to their notice and employment his
18

274 Life of fohn Varley
brother-artists. I believe Mulready was greatly
indebted in that way to Varley." He adds that all
his acquaintance benefited by his generous activity
to serve them, and no one more, perhaps, than
himself As to his character in other respects, Gilchrist
pictures him not untruthfully, although with a touch
of caricature, as was his wont, and apparently his
delight. Contrasting Blake, Linnell, and Varley as
they appeared to an eye-witness (possibly Samuel
Palmer) at Linnell's place at Hampstead " in
animated converse," he presents us with the follow
ing picture : " Blake, with his quiet manner, his
fine head — broad above, small below ; Varley's the
reverse. Varley, stout and heavy, yet active, and in
exuberant spirits — ingenious, diffuse, poetical, eager,
talking as fast as possible. Linnell, original, brilliant,
with strongly-marked character, and filial manner
towards Blake, assuming nothing of the patron,
forbearing to contradict his stories of his visions,
etc., but trying to make reason out of them. Varley
found them explicable astrologically — ' Sagittarius
crossing Taurus,' and the like ; while Blake, on his
part, believed in his friend's astrology to a certain
extent. He thought you could oppose and conquer
the stars."
To this picture Gilchrist adds that " Varley was

Character of Vatdey 275
a terrible assertor, bearing down all before him by
mere force of loquacity. . . . But there was stuff" in
him. His conversation was powerful, and by It
he exerted a strong influence on ingenuous minds."
Then we have this further touch, again with a slight
leaning towards caricature : " Varley was a genial,
kind-hearted man ; a disposition the grand dimen
sions of his person — which, when in a stooping
posture, suggested to beholders the rear-view of an
elephant — well accorded with." Truly he was of a
broad, solid build, heavy in mould, and not much
like an artist to casual lookers ; indeed, more like a
farmer in appearance ; generally somewhat untidy
in his dress, wearing at all times and in all seasons
a tail-coat with great salt-box pockets — a not un
common habit in those days.
These pockets were apt to be stuffed full with
all kinds of indiscriminate odds and ends calculated
to be of use some time or other. But, whatever else
happened to be there, one article was never wanting,
namely, a plenteous supply of pills. These were
not of his own invention and manufacture, as it has
been the habit of some to represent, but were made
on the prescription of a well-known doctor of that
day, and, like many others, were held to be good for
most of the ills that flesh is heir to. At least, Varley
had faith in them ; and used to carry them about

276 Life of fohn Varley
with him, and prescribe and give them freely to
all and sundry who appeared in any way to be
ailing. One day he was accosted by a poor fellow
whom he met by the wayside, and who asked him
for alms. "I have not, unfortunately, a single
copper left," replied the famous painter with un
feigned regret, " but " (taking a box of pills from
his pocket) "here is a box of pills which I will give
you ; they are excellent things — good for almost
every complaint." The beggar took the pills with
a rueful countenance, doubting probably whether
they would quite meet his particular case, but unable
to refuse them from so genial a giver.
These pills, still known as " Varley's Pills," are
sold and taken— doubtless with as much benefit as
the generality of such medicaments — to this day.
This habit of carrying about pills was so peculiar
that nearly every one who came in contact with
Varley was made aware of it — even to the con
ductors of the omnibuses running from Bayswater
to the City. There was a standing condition of
hostility between them and him on account of his
enormous size, which caused him to take up the
room of two ordinary persons. For this reason
the conductors were wont to pretend not to see him
when he hailed them ; at other times they would
shake their heads when he made signs for them to

Character of Varley 277
stop, and he was obliged to offer double fare in
order to get them to take him up. But even that
bribe would not always tempt them to do so ;
accordingly he was in the habit of conciliating their
hostile mood by an occasional gift of a box of pills.
In respect to size and girth, he presented a
striking contrast to his second wife (a sister of
Joseph Lowry, the inventor of a machine for line
engraving, which entirely revolutionized that art), to
whom he was married in his later years. She was
as thin and lath-like as he was broad and stout, and
many were the jokes passed at their expense ; which,
however, never disturbed Varley, whatever may
have been their effect upon his better -half She
appears to have been a most excellent woman,
affectionate and devoted to the last degree, and so
far as her husband put it in her power to do so,
made his later years happy and comfortable. All
who knew Mrs. Varley spoke in the highest terms
of her many good qualities, and it is said that when
she became a widow Bury the architect sought her
in marriage. Notwithstanding Varley's almost inexhaustible
good-nature and kindliness of disposition, there was
one source of annoyance which tried his patience
exceedingly, and which he often said had caused
him more chagrin than almost all his other troubles

278 Life of fohn Varley
put together. This was the disgraceful conduct of
his son-in-law, George Pyne, who had married his
daughter Esther, a woman as high-minded and as
refined in manners as he was the reverse. There
appear to have been no depths of infamy to which
this creature could not sink. Though wedded to a
woman as comely as she was accomplished, and as
fondly devoted to him as wife could be until his
habits made him an object loathsome to every
decent-minded person, he used to leave her for the
worst sinks of vice ; whence he had repeatedly to be
redeemed, his clothes and everything he had having
been pawned or sold for the wherewithal to carry
on his debauch.
Although a clever artist, he was too erratic as a
worker and too unstable as a man to be able to carry
on an independent home, and so he was allowed to
share the house of his too -indulgent father-in-law,
with the result that Varley was frequently obliged
to support both him and his wife, when he was too
idle or in too vicious a mood to work. Nor was
this the worst of the matter ; for when the wretch
had not the means, the fruit of his own industry, to
indulge his appetite, he would steal from his wife's
father, sneaking into his room at night and taking
the money from his pocket, and robbing him in any
other way that chance afforded. Yet this was a

Character of Varley 279
man of so much natural talent that he could have
earned any amount by his brush had he been so
minded, while he was the author of one of the best
works on perspective that has ever been written.
Fortunately, the new divorce law came into opera
tion in time enough to enable his wife to get rid of
him, and to become the companion of a man who
was better worthy of her and made her in every way
a happy and contented woman. Esther Varley's
petition is said to have been the second under the
new law.
This Pyne, the ne'er-do-well husband of Varley's
daughter, should not be confused and confounded
with another Pyne of Varley's acquaintance, namely,
J. Pyne, better known as "Walnuts-and-Wine Pyne"
— a very different man, and of a very different
character, from the one described above. J. Pyne
was one of the original eight or nine artists who
founded the Old Water Colour Society, and a man,
one would think, after Varley's own heart ; at any
rate he would appear to have been very much after
his pattern — in one respect at least.
At one time he came into a legacy of ;^300,
and, thinking it too small a matter to invest, he
put it into a bag and hung it up by the fireside.
Whenever anything was wanted, it was, "Well,
take a guinea out of the bag." But to his

28o Life of fohn Varley
astonishment, in the course of a few days, when he
was in need of a little money himself, and went to
the bag, he found it empty.
A similar story is told of Wills the dramatist.
Whenever he drew money for a picture or for one of
his plays it was put on a shelf over the door, and
whoever wanted money simply reached up and
took what he had a mind to. As Wills had many
pensioners, as well as many parasites, and all were
in the habit of helping themselves, it may be
imagined that the hoard never lasted long.

CHAPTER VIII

CLOSING SCENES

Although troubles thickened with his increasing
years, Varley to the end preserved the same hopeful
and amiable disposition ; he never lost his faith in
men, nor any of his willingness to help them, even
to the extent of greatly inconveniencing himself and
his family ; while his energy for work, whereby he
still hoped to overcome all his difficulties, remained
unimpaired to the last. He was, indeed, one in ten
thousand — a man such as, in the main, the world
needs more of.
Enthusiasms like his, whether for art, science, or
literature, are as the salt of the earth, and preserve
it from the canker of either selfhood or worldli-
ness. His imprudence and lack of business judgment
occasioned him many miseries, although he regarded
them rather as wholesome checks to his otherwise
too great happiness ; but the world derived nothing
except gain from the enthusiasm he had for his art.

282 Life of fohn Varley
That he would have done better for the
world in this respect but for his improvidence is
undoubted. For, falling into the hands of the
dealers, and not being able to go to that Nature
which had been his early inspiration, his later works
were more or less of the nature of compositions
merely. He had probably his early sketches in
Wales and elsewhere to go by, but his resort was
chiefly to the stores of memory, whence he derived
an almost endless series of pictures of mountain
and lake scenery. Thus, though possessing many
of his distinctive qualities, they became mannered
and conventional, and not in any way comparable to
the work of his early and middle period, in which
we find such a breadth of effect, combined with
such simplicity of treatment, that they, together with
the works of Bonnlngton and one or two others of
their school, so aroused attention In France and
stimulated imitation, that they laid the foundation of
modern landscape art in that country.
Varley's best works are pre-eminently distin
guished by these two great qualities of breadth and
simplicity. His tints are refreshingly light, with a
full and free pencil ; and his colour is fresh and
pure. Body colour Is rarely, if ever, used in his
best works, and seldom indeed do we find a man
better versed in the rules of composition, which he

Closing Scenes 283

applied with the aptitude of true genius. He had,
in truth, an inborn instinct for composition, which
he had further strengthened by making himself
master of Its principles. Few can read his treatise
on the subject without being convinced of the
fulness of his knowledge of composition, even if
they had not obtained such conviction from his
drawings. He was weakest perhaps in his foliage, which
he treated rather as a mass than in Individual detail.
In the delineation of mountain scenery he has had
few equals. Ruskin in his Modern Painters calls
attention to this quality in Varley, and says that
Turner and he were the only men he knew who
could draw mountains.
As already said, he usually confined himself to
the more everyday aspects of nature, to common
sunlight and the fulness of summer foliage, rarely
venturing upon autumnal tones or sunsets or their
effects. We occasionally meet with the effects of
light and shade in mountain valleys or amid cleft
rocks, with still reflecting water, that exhibit here
also the seeing eye and the master hand.
He did not feel strong in regard to figures,
and used frequently to get other artists to put
them in for him, as in his " Burial of Saul," one
of the few pictures in oil that he executed,

284 Life of fohn Varley
the figures of which were painted by his friend
Linnell. Varley almost invariably used a paper prepared
by himself, and subsequently called by his name.
It consisted of ordinary whitey-brown or thin yellow
paper laid down on good Whatman paper. This
gave him the rich warm tone to work on that he
so much affected. If he wanted to get a brilliant
point of light, he would just moisten the surface
with a handkerchief and rub it clean away. Many
of his finest sunset effects are obtained in this way.
His son Albert was at one time in the habit of
using the same kind of paper, and on the occasion
of a visit paid to Paris in 1826 he brought home
with him a wire-marked cartridge paper made in
Holland, which his father greatly admired and used
much of This was an imitation of what was known
as his paper, and was called by his name. A manu
factory in Holland was making this paper within a
few years past, and possibly may be still.
His last great trouble, which probably shortened
his days, was, like so many previous ones, the result
of his utter inexperience in business matters. He
had, in common with his brother Cornelius, inherited
from his father a gift for mechanics and invention,
and generally had some mechanical contrivance on
hand. In his later years his ideas ran chiefly on

Closing Scenes 285

the improvement of carriages. His place at
Bayswater Hill was strewn all over with wheels, in
the construction of which he had hit upon some
secret, or conceived he had, by which the draught
of vehicles would be greatly facilitated. But though
he spent both time and money on his invention,
nothing came of it — nothing, at least, except further
trouble. He took out a patent for his invention — a cab
with eight wheels, which by some sort of com
pensatory action were supposed to render the vehicle
both safer and swifter. Such, at least, is the account
generally given of the thing. But it did not come
up to expectation. Indeed, the first trial with the
cab proved so disastrous that the man who had
advanced the money in order that the invention
might be tested and the patent secured was nearly
shaken to pieces in it. He was a nervous little
man, with a somewhat slipshod hold on life, and
when he had once landed out of the vehicle in safety
he exclaimed, " Never no more, Mr. Varley — never
no more ! Ten minutes in the thing has all but
shaken the life out of me ; ten more would quite
finish me. Never no more, thank you, John."
The old gentleman was so emphatic that it became
a byword among Varley's friends when speaking
of his invention : " Never no more, thank you.

286 Life of fohn Varley
John." Varley never heard the words which brought
the scene to his mind but he laughed till his sides
ached. And yet it was no laughing matter. The scheme
which was started to work the invention turned out
so disastrous that it proved to be the last straw that
broke the camel's, one might almost say the elephant's,
back. In order that Varley might participate in the
expected profits of the undertaking, a friend, as
already said, agreed to advance ^looo. Unfor
tunately the advance was made in acceptances
instead of in money. Varley discounted the bills
and acquired a share ; but his friend failed to honour
the bills when they matured, and the scheme ending
in failure, the discounted bills were thrown back
upon Varley, who was unable to meet them. Great
embarrassments followed ; writs were Issued upon
his furniture and effects, and also upon his person.
In his extremity Varley reaped the reward of
previous kindnesses shown to a poor fellow who
was obliged to act as jackal to a notorious bill-dis
counting lawyer of Golden Square, whose clerk he
was. One who knew the man describes him as a
sort of Newman Noggs, and his master as another
Jonas Chuzzlewit, whom he thinks Dickens must
have known, if he was not. Indeed, the original of
that famous creation. The man's name was RIghey,

Closing Scenes 287

and he and two others of his cloth, named respect
ively Theobalds and Reynolds, were never long
without having their clutches upon poor Varley.
Reynolds, be it said to his honour, only took 5
per cent for his discounting transactions, but he
had in addition to be sweetened with presents of
drawings — from Varley, that is. Whether it was his
custom in like manner to require " inducements " in
kind from his other clients is not recorded, but
after a visit to one of his lawyer friends Varley one
day staggered into the shop of a friendly dealer
weighed down with a load of pickles, which the
worthy had compelled him to buy. Said Varley, as
he disgorged the bottles, one after another, from his
pockets, " There's a lot of them ; but they will come
in useful ; and I had to do something to put him in
a good humour."
The clerk in question was deputed to serve
Varley with a writ, but instead of doing so he took
the artist to his own humble lodging, over a tripe-
and-trotter shop in Gray's Inn Lane. Having thus
placed him in safety, he took a note for him to his
friend Vokins, who at once hastened to his assist
ance. Mr. Vokins found him in great discomfort, but
as usual still cheerfully at work. This had always
been his panacea for every evil, and his never-ending

288 Life of fohn Varley
solace in trouble ; and now, in his sixty-sixth year,
he was as sanguine as ever and talked as confidently
as ever of the industry and perseverance that would
soon overcome all difficulties. But, as the sequel
showed,. his hopper of work had been filled and there
was little more for him to do.
On the following day he was got away from the
tripe-shop by stealth, and conveyed to Mr. Vokins's
private residence at 67 Margaret Street, Cavendish
Square. There the artist remained six weeks in
hiding, painting away as indefatigably and as
hopefully as ever, for the most part happy and
cheerful, though worried in mind and not well in
health. One of his last acts before being carried off" by
the lawyer's clerk was to go to the gardens of the
Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Chelsea, to make a
sketch of a famous cedar there. In order to do this
he sat upon the damp grass. As the result he
caught a severe cold, which flew to his kidneys,
resulting in severe inflammation. He took but little
notice of it at first, thinking that the confinement and
want of exercise had resulted in a slight attack of
indigestion. One day, feeling very low, he thought
he would like some stout. This was got for him,
and he drank it; but so unused was he to such
potations that the effect of it was to increase the

Closing Scenes 289

inflammation to such an extent that his death speedily
ensued. During his stay with Mr. Vokins he was visited
by many distinguished persons. Hearing that Mr.
Varley was staying with him, they would beg to be
introduced, "not more," says Mr. Vokins, "for his
artistic celebrity than for his astrological knowledge,
and for the interest there was In the man himself,
for his was a most genial spirit."
He was visited too, as a matter of course, by his
friends, his son Albert being frequently with him.
To the latter he said one day, as he sat by his bedside,
" I shall not get better, my boy. All the aspects are
too strong against me for me to recover." He had,
as usual, been consulting his astrological books,
which were at the time lying on the bed beside him.
Thus did this extraordinary man pass away,
mourned and lamented by all who knew him —
grieved over even by men like the poor lawyer's
clerk, who had only come in contact with him casu
ally and as an embarrassed debtor ; but even to such
as he Varley could not help showing his true nature
and disposition, kindly and good-natured to the core.
There appears to have been something as extra
ordinary about his sudden demise as about his life.
The doctor who had attended him could not make It
out, and In order to resolve his doubts, he asked per-
19

290 Life of fohn Varley
mission to make a post-mortem examination. He
was a surgeon at one of the hospitals, and after
making the autopsy, he brought some of the students
to see the body. " I want," he said, " these gentlemen
who are studying medicine to see the body of a man
of his age who has the organs of a child." The
heart, lungs, liver, all the organs. In fact, except the
kidneys,^ were in a perfectly healthy condition, and
"as though," to use the surgeon's expression, "he
had never used them." The doctor added that this
perfectly normal condition of the organs was one
of the most marvellous things he had witnessed In
the whole course of his experience.
Mr. Vokins, in a few notes he gave me about
Varley for my Life of fohn Linnell, says he doubts
if the former ever had an enemy. But he appears
to have had one at least — perhaps the only one.
Mr. Vokins was a personal and deeply -Interested
witness of a scene In which this individual mani
fested his hostility.
At a meeting of the Phrenological Society, held
in Exeter Hall shortly after Varley's death, a paper
was read upon his phrenological peculiarities, illus
trated by a cast of his head.^ The writer of the paper
held that the conformation of the skull was singularly
' One of the kidneys weighed 6 oz. , the other 16 oz.
' This cast is now in the possession of his grandson and namesake.

Closing Scenes 291

confirmatory of the science of phrenology. A discus
sion followed, in which much was said pro and con.,
although nothing derogatory to the high character of
the deceased. But finally a man rose from the body of
the hall who took quite an opposite view to all that
had been advanced. He said that he had known
Varley personally, and that so far from his develop
ments being in favour of phrenology, they were quite
the reverse ; for, instead of being the generous,
liberal-minded man he had been described to be, he
held him to be little better than an impostor.
Considerable excitement was caused by this
address, which was delivered by John Lewis senior,
the engraver, who, it afterwards turned out, had been
under no small obligation to the man whose memory
he traduced. Such is gratitude !
However, there was one present who was both
able and ready to speak In favour of the deceased
artist. This was Mr. Vokins, who happened to be
in the gallery. He was observed by someone who
knew him and his connection with Varley, and Dr.
Elliotson, who occupied the chair, was asked to call
upon him to speak. Invoked thus by name, he rose
and spoke at some length in vindication of his friend's
character for unselfishness and liberality. He was
himself indebted to him for numberless acts of kind
ness, and he knew many others who were equally his

292 Life of fohn Varley
debtors. Referring to these, he concluded by say
ing that if Varley did err — and undoubtedly he did
— it was in consequence of the inherent and un
quenchable generosity of his spirit, and from the fact
of his being unable to say " No."
Mr. Vokins spoke warmly and with enthusiasm,
and carried the meeting with him almost to a man.
Mr. Vokins concludes his story by saying that on
the following morning a gentleman holding a high
position In the Civil Service left his card at his busi
ness place, and said how much he should like to see
him. On their subsequently meeting, the gentleman
thanked him very warmly for his vindication of
Varley, and remained on the most friendly terms with
him to the day of his death.
The Edinburgh Phrenological fournal for 1843
contains a report of the proceedings at the meeting
here referred to. It was Mr. Atkinson, F.S.A.,
who read the paper "On the late John Varley, the
eminent painter." He described him as having been
a man of wonderful genius and intellect, original in
all his conceptions, grand in all his designs, and
an ardent admirer of Nature and Nature's works.
" He loved the sublime and beautiful, the cloud-capt
mountains, the lovely valley, the placid lake, the
umbrageous wood impervious to the sun. These
were his delights to view, and these he was enabled to

Closing Scenes 293

transfer to canvas. In landscape painting he stands
pre-eminent ; none have excelled him ; few can
equal him. He was the founder of this species of art
in water colours. In manners he was lively, affable,
benevolent, and communicative ; his charity was as
large as his expansive heart. He knew no definite
God or creed. He bowed to no sect, he took no
private road, but looked up through Nature to
Nature's God. As our memory has its dark side, so
has human nature its frailties. Varley's may have
been quite amiable — it was credulity. He believed
nearly all he heard — all he read. He was an astro
nomer and was deeply impressed with the occult
science of astrology. He imagined the starry hosts
to possess an influence over the actions and feelings
of men, and that there are more things in heaven and
earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. Varley
was wholly devoted to worldly pursuits, and was
consequently always in difficulty. A cast of his
head was exhibited. The coronal region was large,
the social faculties fully developed, and the intellectual
of a high degree. Ideality, his predominant senti
ment, was strikingly large, also benevolence and
constructiveness. "

CHAPTER IX

CONCLUSION

Varley, the incomparable, was survived by both his
brothers. William, who, like his brothers, turned
his attention to teaching, had gone to Cornwall
about 1 8 ID, where he taught with much success,
as afterwards at Bath and Oxford. At the latter
place, in consequence of the thoughtless frolic of a
party of students, he was nearly burned to death.
As it was, his nerves suffered a shock from which
they never recovered. In his later years he was
sheltered in the house of his son-in-law. He died
at Ramsgate in February 1856, at the age of
seventy-one. His other brother, Cornelius, survived him
thirty-one years, dying on the 2nd of October 1873,
at the advanced age of ninety-two years. Of this
worthy's youthful achievements in science something
has already been said. It may be added that in
1809 (when he was twenty-eight years of age) he

Conclusion 295

invented what he called the Graphic Telescope and
Portable Table, by which, in an artist's hands,
portraits from life and views from nature can be
taken with greater facility and accuracy, of any size,
and In correct perspective. With this instrument,
which he turned to much use, Cornelius Varley
made many sketches of country scenery, drawings
of machinery, as well as pencil drawings from life.
He subsequently Improved the telescope, and had it
patented in 181 1. Hereupon a difficulty arose ; the
opticians of that day were not sufficiently advanced
in the science of their trade to manufacture these
instruments. This made it necessary for the
inventor to turn manufacturer, which he did with
some regret, his desire being to devote all his time
to art and scientific research.
The Colosseum, the Institution In Regent's Park
so well known In former years, built for the reception
of the panorama of London, had its origin In the in
vention of the Graphic Telescope. Mr. T. Horner,
the originator of the panorama, after having satisfied
himself of its capabilities, erected an observatory In
the dome of St. Paul's, fitted up one of these Instru
ments, and so traced his gigantic picture.
From this time forth Cornelius Varley's time
was divided between mechanical pursuits and the
arts. He made many improvements In the micro-

296 Life of fohn Varley
scope, devising among other things the lever
microscope for watching the movements of animal-
culse. For this invention he received the gold I sis
medal of the Society of Arts, of which he had
become a member in 18 14. He was a frequent
visitor at Kensington Palace, the Duke of Sussex,
who was then president of the Society, giving soirees
there, at which Varley exhibited his microscopes
and other apparatus. It pleased the little man
greatly when His Royal Highness on one occasion
said, " I need not remind you, Mr. Varley, that
there Is always a knife and fork laid for you here."
There was not In Cornelius the sturdy independence
and the Indifference to rank and fashion that there
was in his brother John, and it must at the same
time be said, there was none of that incapacity to
look after his own affairs that the elder displayed.
At the formation of the Royal Institution
Cornelius Varley became a member, and at the first
Friday evening meeting he exhibited the very first
diamond lens that had then been made, whereby a
great increase of aperture as compared with glass was
obtained, with the same magnifying power. Varley
likewise delivered the fourth Friday evening lecture
at the Institution. This was on the 24th of Feb
ruary 1826, Professor Faraday having delivered the
inaugural discourse on the 3rd of the same month.

Conchtsion 297

In 182 1 he had married Elizabeth Straker, a
cousin of Miss Barnard, afterwards the wife of
Professor Faraday. One of the issue of this
marriage was Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, F.R.S.,
the electrician, who had so much to do with the
laying of the first Atlantic cable, a man of striking
originality, and possessed of not a little of the genius
of his father and of his still more gifted uncle, John
Varley, of whom he from time to time related to
the writer many interesting facts and anecdotes.
Singular to relate, Cromwell Varley was a confirmed
spiritualist ; and the way he became one was this.
There was much talk about the "phenomena" of
spiritualism and the " manifestations " to be seen at
spiritualist circles. Believing these to be all sheer
trickery and humbug, he thought that the applica
tion of a little of the scientific method to which he
had all his life been trained would speedily result in
a thorough exposure of "the whole rag-tag and
bobtail of conjurors and quacks," as he put it
himself, "who were imposing upon and making
capital out of the credulous public." He was so
sure of being able to show up the whole system of
trickery and fraud practised by the mediums, that he
designed to write a pamphlet on the subject for the
enlightenment of the world. But when he went to
work to apply his scientific tests, he found the

298 Life of fohn Varley
matter not so easy as he thought. In short, he was
speedily made aware that he had got into deeper
water than he had imagined, and, instead of
exposing spiritualism, became a convert thereto.
But to return to Cornelius Varley: in 1822 he
accepted the appointment of governor of some mines
in Brazil, a very lucrative appointment, and every
thing was arranged for the voyage ; but on his
discovering that slaves were to be employed on the
estates he at once threw up the engagement, an
act thoroughly characteristic of the man, and illus
trative of the intense aversion he had all through
life to every kind of tyranny, whether physical or
moral. In 1850 Mr. Varley was elected chairman of the
committee of exhibitors in Class 10 of the Great
Exhibition of 185 1, and received a prize medal from
the jurors for his Graphic Telescope forty years
after its introduction. He was the author of
papers, among others, on the following subjects :
Atmospheric Electricity, communicated to the Philo
sophical Magazine ; Improvements in Lathes for
cutting Screws, for polishing Lenses, and in the
Manufacture of Iron and Steel ; on Live Boxes for
Animalculae ; Cages for keeping Plants and Animals
alive for several Days to watch their Progress and
Development; and on a Phial Microscope for the

Conclusion 299

continuous observation of Chara vulgaris and
Nitella. These latter, with other microscopic
observations, were communicated to the Society of
Arts, and are published in their Transactions ; while
a series of microscopic observations extending over
thirty years, communicated to the Royal Microscopic
Society, were published in the journals of that
Society. He was likewise the author of ^ Treatise
on Optical Drawing Instruments, and he published
a series of Etchings of Boats and other Craft on the
River Thames. The last-named was the only work
amongst the many he wrote dealing directly with
the subject of art to which he put his name.
As an artist Cornelius Varley did not come near
his more celebrated brother. His works were few,
and for the most part of a semi-classical and some
what conventional character, introducing architecture
and groups of figures. They were composed with
care and generally finished with much elaboration.
There was a quality in his work, however, which
always gained for him the respect of his brother-
artists. Among his chief works exhibited at the Water
Colour Society were, in 1809, "A Mountain
Pastoral"; 1 8 10, " The Sleeping Shepherd" ; 181 1,
" Evening " and " Palemon and Lavlnia " ; and
1 81 5, View at Ardfert, Ireland. In 18 16 he

300 Life of fohn Varley
exhibited "Evening in Wales"; in 1819, "Ruins
of Troy"; 1820, "The Vale of Tempe." Jn the
following year he resigned his membership of the
Society. For forty years he formed one of a small sketch
ing club, which met at the houses of members, and
comprised such men as J. M. W. Turner, R.A.,
J. J. Chalon, R.A., A. E. Chalon, R.A., H. P. Bone,
Josh. Cristall, F. Stevens, -and W. M. Sharp.
Cornelius Varley had, while a member of the
Water Colour Society, occasionally sent a work to
the Academy exhibition ; later he exhibited his
principal pictures there, though seldom more than
one at a time. He exhibited for the last time in
1859. At his death he was the oldest member of the
Society of Arts and the last survivor of the founders
of the Water Colour Society.
John Linnell, who knew Cornelius Varley as
well as he did his more famous brother, speaks of
him as having been of a more religious turn than
John. He was by profession a Baptist, and it was
through his inducement that Linnell himself went to
hear the preaching of the Rev. John Martin, a well-
known Baptist of that day, and in the end became a
member of his church. But while he makes this
statement about Cornelius, he confesses that he had

Conclusion 301

not the courage to follow his convictions to their
logical or legitimate conclusion, as he himself did.
Where Cornelius had the advantage over his
brother was in the methodical habits in which he
had been trained by his uncle Samuel, and which
served him to good purpose all through his life.
Hence he was enabled to make the most of his
smaller abilities, and to keep clear of financial
difficulties which his brother, with a far greater
income, was doomed to struggle with all his days,
and finally had to succumb to. Treatises have been
written to establish the truth of the thesis that
genius is near allied to madness. But it would
be just as easy to prove that the eccentricities of
genius are often to be accounted for by partial
idiocy — that is, the lack, or rather inadequacy, of
one or more faculty, and the preternatural size or
activity of others. In Varley we see the almost
total extinction of the power that values money and
watches over the pocket, whilst his sense of the
beautiful and the faculty that makes a man the per
fection of good-nature and geniality were present in
the highest degree. Nor does he appear to have
had the slightest sense of order or method in his
mental equipment, or any idea of foresight or
circumspection. His son Albert used to say that
when his father was living in Conduit Street, and

302 Life of fohn Varley
was in the receipt of an income of something like
;^3000 a year, he appeared always to be impecunious,
and would frequently go to him and borrow small
sums of money.
Moreover, connected with his marvellous and
indefatigable industry, he displayed a carelessness,
and one might almost say a wastefulness, that was
astounding. When he had money it frittered away
in what others would call extravagances and useless
expenditures. For instance, he would have the
most expensive articles of furniture made, and when
they were obtained, he would think no more of them,
but allow them to go to rack and ruin In the most
absurd way. Once when he was living in Titchfield
Street, Linnell, then his near neighbour, found a
costly set of deal drawers, which had been specially
constructed for him, full of valuable paper and
sketches, under a shed in the yard, exposed to rain,
and soiled by fowls, which used it as a roosting-
place. Careful John Linnell's sense of order and
economy was shocked by such wastefulness. He
therefore bought the drawers, removed them to his
house, and there had the article cleansed and
Varley's paper and sketches put in order.
Surely these facts go in favour of a theory of
partial idiocy, rather than in favour of that of the
madness of genius. But, notwithstanding all our

Conclusion 303

speculations on this subject, our knowledge in rela
tion to psychology is still in its infancy, and probably
will be for a long time to come. When we come to
look at the matter in the right light, however,
such peculiarities as those displayed in the character
of John Varley will be of the utmost value.
All the portraits of Varley that I have been
able to discover are two sketches by John Linnell,
In one of which (reproduced in my Life of fohn
Linnell) he is shown arguing with William Blake ;
a pencil drawing by William Henry Hunt, in the
possession of his grandson ; and a lithograph
published by Messrs. Vokins, after a drawing by
himself All represent him as a man of marked
physical characteristics and of great constitutional
vigour ; but in Hunt's drawing we see him in a
much more refined aspect than in Linnell's vigorous
and life-like sketches.

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