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Some Account of Antonio Verrio, an Italian Painter. From Mr. Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.

CHARL

HARLES II. having a mind to revive the manufactory of tapeftry at Mortlack, which had been interrupted by the civil war, fent for Verrio, a Neopolitan, to England; but changing his purpose, configned over Windfor to his pencil. The king was induced to this by feeing fome of his paintings at lord Arlington's, at the end of St. James'spark, where at prefent ftands Buckingham-house. The first picture Verrio drew for the king was his majefty in naval triumph, now in the public dining-room in the caftle. He executed most of the cielings there, one whole fide of St. George'shall, and the chapel. On the cieling of the former he has pictured Antony earl of Shaftsbury, in the character of Faction, difperfing libels; as in another place he revenged a private quarrel with the houfe-keeper, Mrs. Marriot, by borrowing her ugly face for one of the furies. With ftill greater impropriety he has introduced himself, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Bap. May, furveyor of the works, in long perukes, as fpectators of Chrift healing the fick. He is recorded as operator of all thefe gaudy works in a large infcription over the tribune at the end of the hall.

The king paid him generously. Vertue met with a memorandum of monies he had received for his performances at Windfor: As the comparison of prices in different ages may be one of the most useful parts

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*St. George's-hall is not specified, I fuppofe it was done afterwards.

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† Copied, fays Vertue, from a half feet of paper, fairly writ in a hand of the time.

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In all

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Yes, fir, replied he, but that was foon paid away, and I have no gold left. At that rate, faid the king, you would spend more than I do, to maintain my family. True, anfwered Verrio, but does your majesty keep open table as I do?

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6845 8 4 The king's bounty did not ftop here; Verrio had a place of maftergardener, and a lodging at the end of the park, now Carelton-houfe. He was expenfive, and kept a great table, and often preffed the king for money with a freedom which his majesty's own frankness indulged. Once at Hampton-Court, when he had but lately received an advance of a thoufand pounds, he found the king in fuch a circle that he could not approach. He called out, Sire, I defire the favour of speaking to your majesty. Well, Verrio, faid the king, what is your requeft? Money, Sir, I am fo fhort in cash, that I am not able to pay my workmen; and your majefty and I have learned by experience, that pedlers and painters cannot give credit long. The king fimiled, and faid he had but lately ordered him a thousand pounds.

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The Revolution was by no means agreeable to Verrio's religion or principles. He quitted his place, and even refuted to work for king William. From that time he was for fome years employed at the lord Exeter's at Burleigh, and afterwards at Chatsworth. At the former he painted several chambers, which are reckoned among his beft works. He has placed his own portrait in the room where he reprefented the hiftory of Mars and Venus; and for the Bacchus beftriding a hogshead, he has, according to his ufual liberty *, borrowed the countenance of a dean †, with whom he was at variance. At laft; by perfuafion of lord Exeter, he condefcended to ferve king William, and was sent to Hampton-Court, where among other things he painted the great ftair-cafe, and as ill, as if he had fpoiled it out of principle. His eyes failing him, queen Anne gave him a penfion of two hundred a year for life, but he did not enjoy it long, dying at Hampton-Court in 1707.

DESCRIPTION of the City of PARIS.

PARIS, in Latin Lutetia, Pari- This is a very large, populous, and

fiorum, or Parifium, a city in the middle of the government of the ifle of France, both its capital, and also that of the whole kingdom. It lies in a fpacious plain on the Seine.

ftately city, built of a circular form, about two French leagues in diameter, and fix in circuit, including the fuburbs.

It is reckoned to contain 912

* It was more excufable, that when his patron obliged him to infert a pope, in a pro. ceffion not very honourable to the Romish religion, he added the portrait of the archbishop of Canterbury then living.

Graham.

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Tho' Paris ftands on more ground than London, which may be much doubted fince the great increafe of new buildings in the latter; it is not fo populous, London exceeding it by at least 200,000 fouls.

The houfes of Paris are built of white hewn-ftone and uniform; the streets are of a competent breadth, the foil of which is conveyed into a canal, and washed-down by means of a large body of water conveyed from a neighbouring fountain.

As almost every French nobleman has a palace, or hotel as they call it, in this city, with courts and gardens belonging to it, in this refpect Paris furpaffes any thing of that kind to be met with in London. The Louvre, the Tuillieries, and other royal palaces here, are indeed large and fpacious, but old and decayed buildings.

Paris has three capital divifions; namely, I. The town, which lies to the north of the Seine: 1. The city, which is entirely furrounded by the river, being in the center of all, is called L'Ife du Palais, the Inland of the palace, as the royal palace takes up a great part of it; and, 3. The univerfity, which lies to the fouth of the Seine, together with twelve faburbs. The whole is farFebruary, 1764.

ther fubdivided into twenty quartiers, or wards.

Paris is the fee of an archbishop, the feat of the principal parliament of the kingdom, and other chief courts. There is an univerty and fifty-four colleges, but in only ten of these are public exercifes performed. 'The Sorbonue is one of the finest colleges in Europe, and formerly very famous, by which name the whole univerfity is frequently figniñed: but it is prefent very much on the decline, on account of its civil jurifdiction, and the other privileges it former enjoyed, being taken from it.

Befides the royal academy of fciences, of much the fame nature as our royal fociety; here is an academy for refining the French language; alfo academies of painting, fculpture, and architecture; with many others for the improvement of all mechanic arts and manufactures, as tapeftry, Mofaic works in plate, iron, fteel, brafs, embroidery, &c.

The principal manufactures in Paris are gold and filver ftuffs, alfo lace of the fame materials, tapestry, ribbons, linen, and glass.

The moft confiderable palaces in Paris are the Louvre, behind which is the Tuillieries; beyond that is a fine walk, called the Queen's-Walk, a Le Cours de la Reine, the palace of Orleans or Luxemberg, the rovai palace, with the palace where the parliament meets. Befides thefe, there is the Bafile, a prifon for state prifoners, and fuch as are taken up by lettres-de-cachet; the Arfenal; the King's Library; the Royal Phyfic-Garden; the Royal Obfervatory; the Gobelins for all forts of manufactures; and the Town houfe in the fquare called the Greve.

Its principal churches are, the C1thedral of Notre-Dame, St. Gune

vieve,

vieve, the abby of St. Germain, with the church and nunnery of Val-deGrace, &c.

The first magiftrate of Paris is called Prevot des Marchands, or the provoft of merchants.

fine quays in feveral places; and in this city are upwards of twenty hofpitals, of which the Hotel-Dieu is the largeft, &c.

In the fquare called La Place des Victoires, is a noble ftatue of Louis XIV. but very much degraded by flattering infcriptions, and the mean proftrations, &c. ufed formerly, even to a degree of adoration, by the duke On both fides of the Seine are very de Feuillade who erected it.

In Paris are ten bridges, the three moft confiderable of which are the Pont-au-Change, the Pont neuf, and the Pont-royal.

To the Authors of the BRITISH MAGAZINE.

GENTLEMEN,

I think I have no occafion to make any great apology for troubling you with the inclofed Story, extracted from Mr. Grofe's Voyage to the East Indies; as its circumstances have fomething extremely interesting in them, and cannot fail of proving entertaining to fuch of your readers as delight in the marvellous or pathetic. You will doubtless remember to have feen worfe incidents felected for the fubject of fome modern tragedies.

Windfor, Feb. 21,

17641

A Gentoo, a man of fubfiance,

refiding on the banks of the Ganges, had a wife of great beauty, with whom he lived happy in the utmoft reciprocal affection. One morning early, as he went, in the fimplicity of their manner of life, to fill a water-veffel at the river, a Mogul nobleman chancing to pafs by, was fo ftruck with her at the first fight, that, yielding to the impetuofity of his paffion, he fpurred up his horfe to her, feized her, and laying her a cross his faddle-box, rode off with her, regardless of her cries, and overpowering her ftruggles. Whether The was alone or accompanied, no one it seems could inform her unfortunate spouse, who was the ravifher, that he might have implored juftice against a violence, certainly not tolerated under the Mogul government;

I am, &c.

W. J.

or of what road he had taken, that by his perquefitions he might find her out and reclaim her. In this dilemma, life being grown odious to the inconfolable hufband, he quitted his habitation, and turned wandering Gioghi, with a double intention of humouring his melancholic turn to folitude, and of fearching the whole country for her. But while he was thus employed, the Mogul nobleman had accomplished his brutal purpose, and though at first very cautious at first of allowing her the leaft liberty, for fear of a discovery, on having two children by her, grew relaxed in that point, even more than the Mahometans commonly are, thinking perhaps to gain her heart by that indulgence, cuftomary among the Gentoos. After two years then, her husband, now a Gioghi,

came by chance to a garden door, at which she was standing, and begged alms of her. It is not faid whether he knew her or not; but at the firft fight, and found of his voice, the knew him, though in a plight fo fit difguife him. Then it was, that in a rapture of joy the welcomed him, and related to him all her adventures, and the innocence of her heart in all the had fuffered, concluding with her deteftation of her prefent condition, and an offer of immediately making her escape, and returning to his bofom. To this the Gentoo made no other answer or objection, but to represent to her the inviclable rule of their religion in fuch a cafe, which did not admit of his receiving her again as his wife, or having any communication whatever with her. However, after joining in the bewailment of the cruelty of their feparation, and of the law that prohibited that re-union, for which they both ardently fighed; and after abundance of confultation, about what measures could be taken, it was agreed between them, that the husband fhould inceffantly repair to the great temple of Jaggernaut, near the fea-fide, in the kingdom of Orixa, near the mouth of the Ganges, there to confult the high-prieft and his chief affiftants, whether any thing could be done to restore her at leaft to her religion, Accordingly he went, and returned to her with fuch a countenance as prepared her for the worst. He then told her, that he came to bid her an eternal adieu, for that the taking off the excommunication he had however innocently incurred, could not be affectuated but on fuch conditions, as he could neither expect, or advise her to comply with. They were thefe; that the fhould deftroy the children

fhe had by her ravisher, fo as to leave no living monuments of her pollution by his prophane embraces, then fly with her husband to the temple of Jaggernaut, and there have melted lead poured down her throat, by which means only the might be admitted to die in her caft, if the could not live in it. The wife on hearing these terms accepted them, hard as they were, notwithstanding all the tenderft diuafions on the man's part. Urged then by the manifold incentives of zeal for her religion, love for her husband, and a hatred for her ravisher, that made her fee in those children of hers nothing but his part in them, all confpiring to fteel her heart against the motions of nature, the perpetrated the first part of the injunction, and found means to escape undiscovered with her hufband, who durft not even renew with her the privilege of one, as her perfon ftill remained polluted, and unapproachable by him under the penalty of a mortal fin, and of falling into the fame predicament in which fhe ftood. Arrived at the temple, the prefented herself with the utmost conftancy and intrepidity to the priefts, of whom the demanded the fulfilment of the rest of her fentence. After a fequeftration of a few days, and other preparatory ceremonies, fhe was led to the appointed place of execution in the area before the temple, where, in the presence of an innumerable concourse of people, the appeared without the leaft fymptom of fear at the dreadtul folemnity and apparatus of the fire, and inftruments of her fuffering. After a fhort prayer he was blindfolded, and extended on the ground, with her mouth open ready to receive her death in the melted lead. Inftead of which, fome cold water prepared O 2

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