garth was duly appreciated, Mr. Sandby joined with his friend Churchill, in ridiculing hun. Churchill and Wilkes were almost the only real characters which were attacked by the moral pencil of Hogarth, but, in this instance Hogarth completely failed. Nothing could be more coarse than the abuse and satire employed by the two combatants; and the failure of Hogarth is more extraordinary, as, at first, one should have been led to suppose that, in proportion as his feelings were excited by personal animosity, so much the greater would have been the success of his exertions. It was, however, the contrary. Hogarth, appears as a real satirist, as a personal adversary; his performances were not worthy of the talents he employed. Besides this, he had fallen into an error common to many men of genius; he had mistaken his own powers. Conceiving he had discovered the true line of beauty, he published his "Analysis of Beauty," which was far from meeting the success, or producing the effect, he expected. It was then the opportunity for the adversaries of Hogarth, and the friends of Churchill, to open upon him; and he was assailed from several quarters in burlesque prints, satirising his system; and some of the best of these were from Mr. Sandby, who, afterwards becoming better acquainted with the merit of Hogarth by the production of his works, he was the first to express his regret at having endeavoured in any way to depreciate the merit of so extraordinary a genius; and every thing was done by Mr. Sandby to suppress his former publications; and no one could afterwards be more forward in expressing his unqualified admiration of this artist, with whom, indeed, he subsequently became acquainted.

Mr. Sandby was-honoured by the intimacy of the late Mr. Charles Greville, so well known as a collector and man of science; and through a com munication of Mr. Greville's, Mr. S. was enabled to make some very important discoveries in working on copper, in a way which is now called aquatinta.

Upon Mr. Greville's return from Italy, where he had purchased the secret of Le Prince's method, he made it known to Mr. Sandby, but it had been so im perfectly communicated to Mr. Gre ville, that much research and investiga.

tion remained for Mr. Sandby's indus try, and it was in the endeavour to complete a plate in Le Prince's method, (by sifting the rosin over the surface, &c.) that he discovered a readier and more beautiful effect might be obtained by bringing the rosin into solution, and floating it on copper, in which way he afterwards carried the art to an astonishing degree or perfection, as may be secu in the many fine works executed by him in that manner. This process for a long time was known to him alone; but with a liberality the more praise worthy from its rarity, he communicated his discovery to Sukes, Robinson, Malton, and others, who have practised it with great success.

Mr. George Alexander Stevens had conceived an idea of a lecture on wigs, and communicated it to his friend Mr. Sandly, who suggested the adding blocks to the wigs, which was accordingly done; and Mr. S. made the designs for the celebrated Lecture on Heads.

It is the object of this memoir to connect with it a few remarks on the state of landscape-drawing, in this country. It has been remarked about that time, that, in a country like this, so profusely adorned with the beauties of nature, it was extraordinary that we should have produced so few good paiaters of landscape; and that as our poets warmed their imaginations with sunny hills and sighed after grottos, so our painters draw rocks and castellated mountains, because Virgil gasped for breath at Naples, and Salvator wandered amidst the Aips and Apennines. That our own country affords subjects eminently suited to landscape-painting, no one who views the fine productions of our modern artists can doubt. But this is of any recent introduction; and it may appear singular when it is said, that the first person, who, by his works familiarized us with our own scenery, died but the last year. But such is the fact; for before the drawings of Mr. Sandby, I believe there were few of any merit representing English scenery, and it would have been curious through such a man to have traced the art in its gradual, though rapid, progress; as he had witnessed its dawn, and lived with unimpaired faculties to enjoy its splen doar; as no one (perhaps) had had more opportunities, (from his extensive acquaintance with all classes of admirers, patrons, and professors, than himself,)

ог

or could have better known their feelings and opinions, as they increased in taste and intelligence, with the vast exertions of the artists to reach their present perfection.

It should be observed that for many years after Mr. Sandby commenced landscape drawing, no colours were in general use except such as were peculiarly adapted for the staining of maps and plans; and indeed it was himself who first set Middleton the colour-maker to prepare them in somewhat like their present state, and which are now brought to so great perfection by Reeves, Newman, and others.

In viewing the works of Mr. Sandby it is hardly possible to trace any other than nature for his guide: he looked alone to ber, and his style appears to have been compleatly formed in the three places where he had chiefly studied, Scotland, Wales, and Windsor. The Forest and Park of Windsor seem to have preponderated, and from the studies made in those places that it is -evident it early appeared to him, that the becoming a draughtsman was no easy smatter of attainment; and whatever the force of genius may be, without the most accurate and faithful minuteness, it is impossible to arrive at real excellence; and accordingly his studies were prosecuted with unremitting ardour.

In his careful sketches and highly finished drawings, great precision is to be found in the outline. The foliage and raanifications of the trees, the management of the perspective, in foreshortening the Jimbs as they advance or recede together with the fine feeling and exquisite taste with which the extremities are touched, is surprising; his pencil-sketches from Nature have seldom been seen but by his particular friends, by whom it has been admitted, that those of about forty years back, have not been exceeded by any one; and this all will allow to be no small admission, when it is considered who are now living.

Outline was Mr. Sandby's peculiar fort; he drew with amazing facility and the greatest correctness, whatever might be the subject, or however complicated its parts. He sat down without the slightest embarressment, and drew buildings, figures, cattle, or landscape, with equal ease, and free from all trifling. His Views of Windsor Castle shew a thorough knowledge of perspective.

When the works of this master are

considered, it should be remembered, that all his endeavours were to give to his drawings a similar appearance to that seen in a camera-obscura, and when looked at with this impression, their beauty becomes very conspicuous; the truth in the reflected lights, the clearness in the shadows, the aerial tint and keeping in the distances, and skies, will be found to have been generally got up to reach the artist's intention. As he never appears to have introduced, or depended at all upon, violent contrast for effect. His drawings will ever be esteemed by the judicious, for their portrait-like resem blance to nature, and as bearing the minutest inspection. Residing in the country where Mr. Sandby studied, and having several Views in the neighbourhood drawn by him, I have enjoyed over and over again, the pleasure which my ride, or walk, had afforded me, upon coming home and seeing in my room so close a copy of every thing I wished to recollect in scenes I had just been contemplating. There is among them a drawing of the cottage in which I live, with many figures, and animals about it; and in which my own and other infant children, instantly recognize, and call by name all the persons, and even the dogs and cattle.

Whoever has seen the exquisite drawings of Wilson, will take a lesson from that great man's method (as well as from the similar one of Mr. Sandby) in the value of adhering to fact in their imitation of nature; and yet it is to be lamented, that there are some (not professional men though, thank God!) who, while they are presumptuously advancing strong claims to connoisseurship, do great harm, by affecting to doubt its im portance, and prefer an undefined wild rumble-tumble, (or any thing else you please) of penciling, to a just represen tation; which work they call bold, and sprited sketching; and aptly is it named, for bold must be the doers, bolder the admirers.

Not long before Mr. Sandby's death, I repeated to him the remarks of a gentleman who had just acquired a taste by commission. "Aye, (said he) these gen tlemen, when they attempt to fly their kites, little suspect how soon you dis cover the length of the string."

Few people had a more varied mode of execution, or possessed more knowledge respecting his art, than Mr. Sandby; some of his best works, I have always

1

thought

thought to be his body-colour pictures, in the execution of which he was most eminently successful; and which are rendered more valuable from the very few artists, who have encountered the laborious difficulty attending that scientific mode of painting, and met with any very considerable success.

Towards the latter part of his life, he accustomed himself to paint in oil, in which he was also successful; the same faithfulness, clearness, and accuracy, and that appearance of day-light, is to be seen in a few oil pictures he left behind him. Mr. Sandby was a great admirer of the works of Marco Ricci, and studied them with fond attention; whenever one of Marco's pictures was to be met with, Mr. Sandby, if possible, became its purchaser; and, perhaps, he had the largest collection of that master extant in the country.

With Wilson he lived in habits of great intimacy, and it is no little praise to him that he early discovered and advocated the genius of that great man; he possessed a prodigious number of the finest sketches and studies of Wilson, obtained from the artist himself. His love for the profes sion tempted him to collect, at a con siderable expense; and, in the course of a great number of years, he had accumulated an immense quantity of the works of various masters, both ancient and modern..

No man communicated with greater freedom, and with less reserve, than Mr. Sandby, any information he was possessed of; though I am not aware that he ever gave to the public any thing respecting his art: but, it is certain, there were few persons more perfectly skilled in the the ory and practice of painting than himself; and, as he never could be prevailed upon to take under his instruction any professional pupil but his son, it is to be presumed, that that gentleman is the repository of his discoveries and peculiar methods of working in his art.

In his domestic virtues he was excelled few, and his private worth (the most

certain of all testimonies) may be found in that confidence, respect, and attach ment, which attended him through life; and, though latterly, amongst his surrounde ing friends, there must have been few with whom he began life, yet there were some. I remember with infinite pleasure, being one day about seven years ago athis house, when the late ingenious Mr. Grignion, the engraver, came in, who, though then upwards of eighty years of age, had come from Kentish-Town, to visit his old friend; and, as the venerable gentlemens' hands met, Mr. Grignion exclaimed, "My dear Paul, I am come to spend the day with you; for, by the memorandum on this scrap of paper, it appears, that, on this day sixty years back, you and I first met; and though, my dear friend, our hands may be colder now than then, I am sure our hearts are hotter."

Those early impressions, formed by gentlemanly habits and feeling, which are never to be eradicated or mistaken, were very conspicuous in Mr. Sandby. There was a politeness and affability in his address, a sprightliness and vivacity in his conversation, together with a coustant equanimity of temper, which, joined with his having been the friend and companion of such men as Foote, Churchill, Garrick, Goldsmith, Macklin, and others of the same class, rendered bis society and conversation singularly animating and interesting. Arrived at an age which few are permitted to attain, and spared almost all those infirmities which so generally accompany the accumulated years of man, his vigour of mind abated not to the last. Till within a few days of his death, he continued to paint, and, daring fourteen days only preceding tha: event, he finished his largest work in oil, which possesses equal spirit and truth, with any of his former productions in that way: when, at the conclusion of his eighty-fourth year, he left this world affectionately remembered and beloved by all who knew him,

S. T. P.

MONTHLY MAO. No. 218.

SL

SCARCE

[That wretched parasite, Sir Roger L'Estrange, published the following work to recommend himself to the office of Licenser of the Press, in which he was the creature of the courts

of Charles II. and James II. The pamph let is in every respect a great curiosity, and, by shewing the sentiments of his party on this subject, it ought to put the friends of liberty on their guard. A late vizier doubtless had this publication be,fore him, when, in the years 1793, 4, and 5, he laid so many restrictions on the press. At that time it was contrived to register presses, to compel printers to indorse what they printed, and to pass some laws which imposed on libellers, under certain circumstances, the penalty of trans

portation. L'Estrange's work procured for its author, the appointment of licenser, and he played the sycophant till the revolu tion. He wrote other works as contempt. ible for their bad taste, as this is for its principles.]

Considerations and Proposals in Order to the Regulation of the Press: together with Diverse Instances of Treasonous and Seditious Pamphlets, proving the necessity thereof. By Roger L'Estrange, London, printed by A. C. June 3, M.DC.LXIII.

To the King's Most Excellent Majesty.

SIR,

I do most humbly offer to your royal con. sideration, not presuming in any sort, to concern your Majesty in the former.

In this extract, is presented to your Majesties view; first, that spirit of hypocrisie, scandal, malice, errour, and i!fusion, that actuated the late rebellion. Secondly. A manifestation of the same spirit reigning still, and working, not only by the same means, but in very many of the same persons, and to the same ends; that is, there is a combination, and design against your sacred life, and dignity, which is carryed on by the same arguments, pretences, wayes, and instruments, that ruin'd

your royal and blessed father. All which I think myself bound, not only in generals, to declare, but, more particularly, to trace, and to discover to your Majesty, as a duty which I owe both to God and to my sovereign.

The first part of the conspirator's work, is to disaffect the people toward your Majesties person and government; and their next business is to encourage and carry on those seditious inclinations into

action.

Touching the former; scarce any one regicide or traytor has been brought to publique justice, since your Majesties blessed return, whom either the pulpit bath not canonized for a saint, or the press recommended for a patriot, and martyr, (beside the arraignment of the bench, for the very formalityes of their tryals) what is the intenf, or what may be the effect of suggesting to the people,

that there is no justice to be found, either in your cause or in your courts; (both which are struck at in the same blow) is submitted humbly to your royal wisdom. Nor is the faction less industrious to draw an odium upon your Majesties person, and to perplex, seduce, and exasperate, the multitude, in matters of religion, and concerning the government of the church.

There have been printed, and re. printed, since your Majesties happy restauration, not so few as a hundred schismatical pamphlets, against bishops, ceremonies, and common-prayer: in many of which, your Majesty is directly, and in all of them implicitly, charg'd with an

inclination