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MEMORIALS

SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY, R.A.

SCULPTOK,

IN HALLAMSHIRE AND ELSEWHERE.

Cottage in which Chantrey was Born.

BY JOHN HOLLAND.

SHEFFIELD :
J. PEABOE, JUN., TIMES OFFICE, HIGH-STREET.

£55*57 /Us (Le)

PEEFACE.
The following Reminiscences of an individual whose well-
earned celebrity is, in various ways, identified with the town and
neighbourhood of Sheffield, including especially the adjacent
village of Norton, are published with unaffected diffidence, as to
their particular interest and value, though without any misgiving
on the ground of their general truthfulness. Their appearance
at this particular moment is mainly clue to a perusal of "Recol
lections of Sir Francis Chantrey," by George Jones, R.A., a work
which, however acceptable in some respects, shows how many
original mistakes, in relation to its subject, are passing from
periodical to permanent publications, and thus suggesting to the
present writer the propriety of at once giving to his own notes
some form less restricted and fugitive than that of MS. memoranda.
He was the more inclined to this course, inasmuch as the
matterwhich he had collected was wholly distinct from that which
forms the staple of Mr. Jones's book — three of the following
sections, relating chiefly to periods in the life of Chantrey pre
ceding, and the greater portion of the others to that subsequent to
the term formally comprised in the "Recollections." Of course,
neither separately, nor together, have these Collections any claim
to be considered as — nor will they, it is hoped, be allowed long to
stand in the place of — a regular "Life" of the great English
Sculptor; while, for such a work, whenever or by whomsoever
worthily undertaken, even these pages may yield some hint, or
afford some clue of value to a competent biographer.
Less doubtful about the propriety of preserving, in some way,
memorials of the early life of so distinguished an individual as
the late Sir Francis Chantrey, than confident as to the best mode
of doing so, some apology is felt to be necessary for the style —
if not for the substance — of this volume. In the first place, it
may be alleged, that many matters absolutely or comparatively
A 2

trivial are noted ; and, secondly, that the writer, instead of con
tenting himself with the simple record of a fact as such, has not
seldom associated it with some remark or allusion of remote, if
not doubtful relevancy. For the first point, the interest of local
association at least may fairly he pleaded — a paragraph of domes
tic intelligence is often read with deep interest in a Sheffield
newspaper, that would be quite out of place in a London journal —
much more in a History of England. For the second matter —
that of diffusiveness, or sentimentality — let the privilege of the
Poet be conceded to the Memorialist, who felt, even when his task
appeared little else than making a catalogue of pictures, busts, or
statues, that perhaps a time might come when identification, if
not value, would depend upon a few characteristic words written
while evidence was fresh. If this may be said to be anticipating
an after-interest in objects, the present estimate of which Time
will probably rather lessen than enhance — be it so : one fact is
certain — whatever place the works of Chantrey, the British
Sculptor, may ultimately occupy in the History of Art, the memory
of Chantrey — the munificent patron of the Royal Academy, the
grateful and graceful Norton benefactor — will be perennial through
living generations.
The foregoing sentences were written some months ago, when
this work was first placed in the hands of the printer ; hut while
the writer is conscious that he must lose something of whatever
forbearance the public might have readily accorded to a fresh and
seasonable contribution to the interest excited at that time by the
book above-mentioned, he is grateful that such unanticipated
delay has enabled him to render the following pages less imper
fect than otherwise they might have been. Instances in which
obligation has been created by the kind co-operation of friendly
individuals will, each in its proper place, be specially, as they are
here in general terms, very gratefully acknowledged.
Sheffield, May 1, 1801.

CHANTEEY IN HALLAMSHIEE, &c.
six parts.
I. The Boyhood of Genius  1 54
II. Chantrey as a Portrait Painter 55-129
III. Pen and Pencil Sketches ... ]30 177
IV. The Sculptor in Sheffield ... 178 - 239
V. London Life and Works  240 304
VI. Mortuary Memorials  305 364

Hallamshire is a district, of which the ancient limits have
been variously defined, but of which Sheffield is the modern
capital. In its widest early meaning, it comprehended what are
now the separate parishes of Sheffield, Ecclesfield, and Hands-
worth; and as a territory over which the jurisdiction of the
" Company of Cutlers" extended by Act of James I., a still wider
additional outline of " six miles compass" was assigned to it.
The history of the infeudation and early government, as well as
of the ecclesiastical, social, and commercial vicissitudes of this
interesting and important locality, by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, is
one of the most elegant and instructive topographical works in
the language.

Say, what is Genius ? — that mysterious power,
The secret birth- right of few marvellous minds!
One man, in Nature's every aspect, finds —
Or calm, or storm, mist, sunshine, cloud, or shower,
Communion with the elements : the dower
Of some — that rarer faculty, which gives
Birth to ideal beauty, such as lives
In picture, song, or marble : in an hour, —
Perchance a moment, — springs to active life,
That deep, creative energy of soul,
Beyond all vulgar commerce or control,
Which finds no sympathy in sordid strife :
Art, taste, and skill, — each in its highest state,
Obedient menials, all on heaven-born genius wait.

PART I

THE BOYHOOD OF GENIUS.

" I found Chantrey fond of talking of the humbleness of his
own origin : the feeling that he toot from it was one of pride,
and not of shame : he felt what he was, and was proud of
accompanying it with what he had been." — Sir Henry Russell.
Chantrey — a surname which has conferred
lasting celebrity on the village of Norton, was
undistinguished during the eighteenth century, even
in that locality, amidst the mass of common
appellatives borne by the rest of the rustic families
of the parish. And whence did it originate ? a
question often asked, — and repeated here, not as
the prelude to a learned answer, but, for the
B

2 name of chantrey.
purpose of mentioning a fanciful notion once
entertained of some connection between the ances
tors of the late eminent sculptor, and the existence
of an ancient Chantry in tbeir parish church.
In the building just named, still exist the tomb
and effigies, in alabaster, of William Blythe and
his wife, of Norton Lees, the parents of two bishops
who, towards the end of the fifteenth century,
evinced their filial piety by the establishment of a
service of perpetual orisons for the souls of their
ancestors. The song for the dead ceased, on the
abolition of all such offices, i. Edw. VI., but the
ruins of the house formerly occupied by the
officiating priest, existed under the appellation of
The Ghantry, adjacent to Norton Hall, almost to
the time when sufficient interest began tb attach
to the name of Francis Chantrey, to lead persons
to seek in merely synonymous sounds, something
more than a mere accidental resemblance. It
would be disingenuous on my part, not to confess

its supposed origin. 3
a sympathy with the popular desire thus to add the
interest of old historic association to the local
repute of a name so eminently distinguished : and
could it be shewn that any family bore that name
in this pleasant northern nook of the county of
Derby, — immediately after the Eeformation, the
fanciful claim thus set up for the memory of the
old Canteria might, perhaps, have passed un
challenged. I am not about to exhibit, at length, the
genealogy of Chantrey — for Genius, whatever
its origin, in this instance at least, was not here
ditary — but it may be interesting to mention that,
although I have not noticed any trace of the name
in the parish of Norton, at an earlier period than
about the middle of the eighteenth century, the
family appears to have been long identified with
other places in North Derbyshire. In the parish
of Staveley, there was residing " George Ohauntry,"
who died before 38 Elizabeth, leaving a widow,
b 2

4 REV. GEORGE CHANTRY.
who had been " Grace Lyllie :" she was dead in
1631, her son and heir being "Thomas Ohauntry,"
who was living in 1634. These are, as we shall
presently see, family names, as well as the follow
ing, viz. : — " Francis Chantrye," who was dead in
1661, leaving a son and heir of the same name,
who was alive in 1 701. I take the latter to be the
"Francis Ohauntry" who, along with "Godfrey
Ohauntry," is rated under the " Unston Quarter," in
an assessment for the parish of Dronfield, collected
1667. He was probably the father of the Eev.
George Chantry, who was rector of Clown, in
Derbyshire, from the beginning of June, 1693, to
the 6th of November, 1721, when he died, leaving,
by will, twenty shillings a-year — chargeable on nine
acres of land, at Barlbrough — to be distributed to
ten poor persons in the parish of Clown. His wife
was Elizabeth, daughter of Phineas Mace, rector of
the adjacent parish of Barlbrough — having pre
viously, it would seem, been himself " Eectoriffi de

ANN CHANTRY. 5
Clowne." They had one child, a daughter Margaret,
who died in infancy, October 21, 1701. All three
are commemorated on gravestones within the
communion rails at Clown. In this church were
married, February 16th, 1700-1, Francis Chantry
and Ann Cooper, both of the parish of Dronfield.
I have very lately had in my hand the little pocket
Bible of this worthy woman, containing the follow
ing quaint inscription : —
" ANN CHANTEY— Her Book.
If it be lost, and yon it find,
I pray that you will be so kind
As to restore it me again,
And I'll reward you for your pain."
I am informed by my friend, the Eev. W. 0.
Whiter, the present incumbent of Clown, that the
foregoing comprise all the instances of the occur
rence of this name in the register, or in the parish,
and I believe, I may add, in the county of Derby.

6 CHANTREY OF NORTON.
It was not, however, the individual above-named,
but his cousin, Francis Ohauntry, of Handsworth
Woodhouse, who, on the 13th January, 1700, was
married at Dronfield, to Sarah Mower, of Holmes-
field, and went to live at High-gate House, who was
the father of Francis Chantrey, (as the name is
spelled,) joiner, who, with Mary his wife, were living
at Backmoor in 1736, in which year their first child
was born ; they then removed to Sheephill,* where
their second child was born ; and, lastly, to Jor-
danthorpe, where they had two other children,
including the father of the sculptor. The following
is a brief tabular view of the descent of Chantrey of
Jordanthorpe, in the parish of Norton — a spot
which has to me the additional interest of having
been the residence of my own paternal ancestors,
about the Elizabethan era : —

Adjacent places, on a bleak eminence near the village of
Norton, on the north side.

RESIDENTS AT JORDANTHORPE.

Francis Chantrey,
Died at Jordanthorpe,
Oct. 25, 1766, set. 56.

Mary,
Died April 6th, 1770,
set. 63.

Anne,
Died unmarried,
July 19, 1767,
Aged 29.

I
George,
Died unmarried,
July 28, 1776,
Aged 35.

Sarah,
Died unmarried,
Jan. 5, 1779,
Aged 35.

Francis,
Died at Jordanthorpe,
March 21, 1793,
Aged 45.

= Sarah,
Daughter of Martin Leggitt,
Of Okeover,
In the County of Stafford,
Died Oct. 29, 1826, aged 81.

I
Francis Chantrey == Mary Ann,
The Sculptor,
Born April 7, 1781,
Died Nov. 25, 1841.

I
Thomas,
Daughter of Danl. Died in
Wale, Esq. Childhood.
Born Ap. 9, 1787.

Sine Prole.

Most of the writers of Memoirs of the late Sir
Francis Chantrey have sought to convey the notion
that he narrowly missed some valuable family
patrimony. Mr. Ehodes says — "His ancestors
were in respectable but not opulent circumstances,

8 FAMILY possessions.
and some heritable possessions still belong to the
family. His father was involved in considerable
pecuniary losses, chiefly by the conduct of a
brother, whom he endeavoured to serve beyond the
extent of his means. He saw the property which
his forefathers had accumulated, progressively
departing from him, his spirits became depressed,
and be died in the prime of life." In the humblest
yeoman family there usually floats some tradition,
more or less vague, of the loss of heritable property,
which the poor labourer or small copyholder would
have enjoyed, "had right things gone forward."
Some reckless ancestor squandered the freehold;
some unprincipled cadet of the family supplanted
the right heir in the patrimonial birthright; or
some improvident uncle disappointed the hopes of
a whole generation of expectants. Well or ill
founded, these traditions are almost sure to form
a sort of " peerage question," whenever a cottager's
son happens to rise to extraordinary eminence in

FREEHOLD PROPERTY. 9
one of the learned professions, or in any way
acquires sufficient importance to become known at
the Herald's College — then it is they gild the old
adage — " When Land is gone, and Money spent,
Then Learning is most excellent."
Thus, the fame and wealth so honourably won by
Sir Francis Chantrey, have led his biographers to
embody vague phantoms of hereditary mischance
in their notices of his early life. Some property,
however, there was in the family, for I have before
me an abstract of the will of the first Norton
Chantrey — whether it was executed or not, I cannot
say — in which he first leaves to his widow during
her life, and then, to his son George, two freehold
closes of nine acres at Barlbrough; and to his
son Francis, " all that copyhold estate in the parish
of Bradfield," charging the latter with the payment
of twenty pounds to his said son George, and

1 0 chantrey's grandfather.
ninety-five pounds each to his daughters Sarah and
Ann Chantrey. These are, no doubt, the heredita
ments alluded to by Mr. Ehodes, and to which
probably the testator above-named, was heir-
apparent; but it seems, after all, so doubtful
whether he ever actually entered into possession,
that I have sometimes thought neither the father
or grandfather of Chantrey ever de facto possessed
a foot of freehold, or lost a foot of leasehold
property during their lives : the Sculptor himself
afterwards acquired both sorts, through bequests
of Eaworth and Cooper, to whom his family were
related through marriage.
Chantrey's grandfather, of both his names,
lived, as we have seen, on the farm at Jordan
thorpe, as tenant to the Offleys of Norton; and
there he died, Oct. 25, 1766, at the age of 56.
Concerning him even local tradition is silent : nor
have I been able to learn where he came from, or
who he married. His "great chair'' — if we may

MARRIAGE OF CHANTEEY's FATHER. 1 1
trust the catalogue — was one of the curiosities in
an exhibition held in the Music Hall, Sheffield,
1840, for the " Mechanics' Institution," on which
occasion it so happened, that Sir Francis himself
complimented the managers by a visit to the rooms.
In the cultivation of the farm at Jordanthorpe,
consisting of forty-five acres, the first Norton
Chantrey was succeeded by his son Francis, who
was also brought up a carpenter, his workshop in
later years being the old priest's house in the
" Chantry Croft," whence probably arose the specu
lations on the local origin of the family name.
He married, in 1780, Sarah, one of the four
daughters of Martin Leggitt, of Okeover, Stafford
shire, a man of some property, who died in the
house of his son-in-law, and lies buried in Norton
Church-yard. She had been living as house
keeper, with Eobert Newton, Esq., of Norton
House, the gentleman who figures so conspicuously
and benevolently in Mr. Ward's "owre true" tale
c 2

12 HIS CHARACTER.
of St. Lawrence, in his work entitled "Human
Life." His brother George, described as a maker
of " sheep -shears," was, I suspect, the person pre
viously alluded to, as having impoverished the family.
There is an elder personage of the name who has
a traditionary celebrity of another kind : he was
huntsman to the Offleys, and, as I learn from a note
in the handwriting of the late Samuel Shore, Esq.,
their representative, was remarkable for the sten
torian power of his voice — being able, it is said,
to make himself heard from Norton Hall to Coal-
Aston, a distance of a mile at least !* Francis —
father of the Sculptor, upon whose " depression of
* There is still (May, 1850) in Norton Hall, a full-length
portrait of this stalwart retainer ; he is good-looking, with black
bushy hair, a large hat, and bands like a clergyman : in one hand
he holds a. long staff, and with the other caresses a couple of
hounds. Beside him stands a squab, dwarf-looking fellow, with
a hare on a stick over his shoulder : he is said to have been a
satellite of the huntsman. In the back-ground is a view of old
Norton Hall.

BIRTH OF THE SCULPTOR. 13
spirits," as arising from the departure of ancestral
property, so much stress has been laid, is described
to me in very different terms by several persons
who knew him well. He was, indeed, regarded as
no ordinary man in his own sphere of life. He
sung a song, told a tale, or bandied a joke but too
cleverly for his own welfare. The public-house
was not far off ; and still nearer was the hospitable
residence of " Squire Newton," among whose eccen
tricities was a too frequent preference of the
hilarious frankness of persons in a grade of life
below his own, to the. more formal intercourse of
the neighbouring gentry. With him " Frank
Chantrey" was a great favourite. He died on
the 21st March, 1793, at the age of forty-five,
leaving a widow and one son, twelve years of age.
Francis Chantrey — the third and last of the
name at Norton — was born at Jordanthorpe, in the
southern precinct of that pleasant village, " on the
7th of April, 1781, about seven in the morning,"

14 MISTAKES ABOUT IT.
says his mother, in a memorandum before me ;
and he was baptized at the Parish Church on the
27th of May following. I am the more careful to
record the foregoing dates, extracted by myself
from the original entries, because several previous
writers, including Mr. Jones, in the " Eecollections"
just published, and dedicated to Lady Chantrey,
represent Sir Francis to have been born in " 1 782."
Indeed, whatever degree of interest may be claimed
for the bulk of Mr. Jones's book, the early portion
is at once meagre, vague, and erroneous, in a
remarkable degree, considering the accessibility of
better information. After the mistake about the
year of Chantrey's birth, we are told that "his
father cultivated a small property of his own" — the
fact was, he rented a small farm first under Mr.
Offley then under Mr. Shore. It is added — " to his
son Francis he wished to give an education suited to
his station, and based on the best dictates of common
sense." Whatever may be the intended meaning

HIS EARLY EDUCATION. 15
of this passage, the actual reality of the case shall
presently be stated: meanwhile, it must be re
membered, that Chantrey's father did not die when
his son "was eight years of age," as Mr. Jones
tells us in bis book, but when he was twelve — as
appears from the inscriptions on his gravestone,
with which Mr. Jones might have been presumed to
be familiar. The projects of his parents relative to
his tuition are, in fact, too often spoken of in the
same misleading phraseology, as the loss of their
patrimony. Mr. Ehodes says, truly enough, that
"his mother was left in narrow circumstances;"
but when he adds, "she yet contrived to bestow
upon him as liberal an education as her limited
means would admit," — something more than what
was participated by most of the children in the
village, seems to be implied. The fact is, he learnt
his letters at home ; and as much more as a
" spoiled child" might be expected to acquire before
the age of six, with "Dame Eose:" he was then

16 THE VILLAGE SCHOOL.
transferred to " The School," conducted by Thomas
Fox. I have seen the register book of this worthy
pedagogue, from which it appears that Francis
Chantrey began to learn to Read with him, April
16, 1787; to Write, in January, 1788; and
Accounts, in October, 1792. After several weekly,
and even monthly intervals of non-attendance,
during which he was no doubt usefully occupied at
home, his place in the list of scholars is, on the 3rd
July, 1797, filled up with the name of another boy.
The little lane-side school, " rebuilt and enlarged in
1787," as we are informed by a tablet over the door,
and to which Chantrey was sent, remains unchanged
in its exterior : the writing-desks, made by his
father, occupying their wonted places within — and
" The bench on which he sat while deep employed,
Though mangled, hacked, and hewed, not yet destroyed."
His somewhat irregular attendance at the village
school, is perfectly compatible with many boyish

CHANTREY AS A MILK BOY. 17
employments in the fields or the byre at Jordan
thorpe ; and, for awhile, he certainly drove an ass
daily, with milk barrels, between Norton and
Sheffield. This circumstance in his early history
has been made the subject of a sweet little picture
by H. P. Parker, coloured prints after which are
common in Sheffield, under the title of "Milk
Boys." Pretty as the scene looks in the painter's
treatment of it — and pleasant as the Norton lanes
are in reality, it was well the ingenuous boy was so
soon rescued from a calling so very unfavourable to
morals, manners, and intelligence. I confess I am
somewhat surprised, after Mr. Ehodes's explanation
of the mistake has been more than twenty years be
fore the public, to find even Mr. Jones reiterating the
assertion that, when Chantrey's "profession was de
termined by his friends — it was their intention to
place him with a lawyer in Sheffield." " This is an
error into which his biographers have fallen, in con
sequence of the term factor being understood to have

18 DEATH OF HIS FATHER.
the same meaning in Sheffield as it has in Scot
land, where the memoir of this distinguished artist
was first published," instead of its being applied to
an inland merchant. " Being an only child," says
Mr. Ehodes," he was naturally the object of the
tenderest care and most anxious solicitude of his
surviving parent, who retained him about her
person until he was nearly eighteen years old. He
was intended for agricultural pursuits, but his
employment in attending to the concerns of the
farm, was but little suited to his views and inch-
nations." This is not untrue ; but it is not " the
whole truth," as regards the cause of his unsettle-
ment at home.
Francis Chantrey, the carpenter, died, as already
mentioned, in 1793, and was buried in Norton
Church-yard. He made a will — which, it seems,
was never proved — one of the witnesses to which
was Job Hall, a man who could not spell his own
name ; but who presently became the servant, or

HIS MOTHER MARRIES AGAIN. 19
adviser, and subsequently the husband of the widow.
This marriage was, at the first, exceedingly
distasteful to young Chantrey, not so much on
account of anything objectionable in the character
of his father-in-law, who was a worthy man, as
because he was supplanted on the family hearth
stone, in his title to the little homestead, and,
presently, put to a new and irksome employment.
As some sort of relationship existed between Hall
and Ebenezer Birks, at that time a respectable
grocer, in Fargate, Sheffield, it was determined to
place young Chantrey with the latter, with a design
of his apprenticeship. It is believed his mother
was led to advise this ungenial experiment from the
fact of having herself dabbled a little in the sale of
groceries to her neighbours. Thither, accordingly,
he went; but a probation of a few weeks behind the
counter, in one of the most tasteless and unintellec-
tual of all respectable occupations, was more than
sufficient to convince the poor lad — and, presently,
D 2

20 CHANTREY LEAVES HOME.
his friends also— that this, at all events, was a mis
taken aim. Nor was he, according to all accounts,
slow to put himself right ; for his mother having
called to see him, he walked out with her into the
town, explained the misery of his present position,
and then, taking her to the shop window of Mr.
Eamsay, carver and gilder, in High-street, besought
of her to get him placed in that establishment : he
accordingly left the grocer's service, and the parties
thus brought into temporary connection, never met
afterwards but once, when Mr. Birks went, in 1806,
as many other persons did, to look at Chantrey
work on the model of Mr. Wilkinson's bust : the
quondam pupil appeared glad to see his old master :
I may add, that the latter is still alive. It was
now arranged that the youth should go into Bam-
say's establishment. This was, apparently, the
most important turning point of his history and
fortunes. As this period of the Sculptor's history has been

APPRENTICED TO RAMSAY. 21
especially obscured by indistinctness and mistakes,
I may as well cite, as the best of all evidence, the
very terms of the Indenture of Apprenticeship —
"made the 19th of September, 1797, between
Francis Chantrey, of Norton, in the county of
Derby, and Job Hall, of Norton aforesaid, farmer,
and Thomas Fox, of Norton aforesaid, schoolmaster,
friends of the said Francis Chantrey, of the one
part, and Eobert Eamsay, of Sheffield, in the
county of York, carver and gilder, of the other part,
witnesseth — that the said Francis Chantrey, of his
own good liking, and by and with the counsel of his
friends, hath put, bound, and by these presents
doth put and bind himself servant," &c. I am
aware this is the usual legal formula; but the
words may be allowed to have had a real significa
tion in this particular case. The sum of ten pounds
was paid at the binding — which was for seven
vears — and breach of covenant, on either side,
incurred a penalty of fifty pounds : the signature

22 STREET-WINDOW FIGURES.
of the above-named parties, and that of John
Eimington, a respectable solicitor, who drew the
instrument, being affixed to it.
I am assured by Mr. Eadon, carver and gilder,
an ingenious and worthy man, to whom I owe other
obligations in connection with these pages, that the
objects which had more immediately attracted
Chantrey's attention to Eamsay's window, were two
little figures of Faith and Charity, modelled in wax,
by James Taylor, and from which he afterwards
carved the two small statues which now stand
beside the door of the Sheffield Infirmary. These
interesting models still exist, and are at present in
the possession of the Eev. Dr. Sutton, at Endcliffe.
The remarks which of late years have been made
relative to the early connection between Chantrey
and Eamsay, have been generally in a disparaging
tone. With better information, and more truth,
a recent writer on the subject says : — " A saying of
Chantrey, not unfrequently heard by his early

THE CARVER AND GILDER'S SHOP. 23
friends, when he chose to unbend and to reveal his
secret purpose, which we do not find in Mr. Jones's
Recollections, is, perhaps, more than any other, a
key to his professional character — ' I do not study
the ancients, but I study where the ancients
studied — Nature.' This may be thought not quite
consistent with the modesty and reserve which were
observable in him at that early period of his life ;
nor would he, perhaps, have suffered such a senti
ment to escape him, except in the presence of
intimate friends. Besides, we happen to know that
if he did not study them, he spent the years of his
apprenticeship in the midst of casts from the
antique. Mr. Eamsay was not merely — as Mr.
Jones represents him (page 2) — a ' carver in wood,'
but was also a dealer in prints and plaster models,
of which he had a large collection in his shop, in
the High-street, in Sheffield, by far the best reposi
tory of works of art then or since in that town.
From these it is impossible that a mind like

24 WHAT IS GENIUS.
Chantrey's should not have taken impression, when
at so early a period of his life he was placed where
they must have been constantly before him. The
effect of his situation at Eamsay's has not been
sufficiently considered by those who have written
concerning him, nor has proper justice been done
to a man of taste, good feeling, and some refine
ment of manners. We believe that Eamsay and
his apprentice did not go on very amicably together
through the whole term of the indenture." The
foregoing passage is from the " Atlas" and I quote
it, as I may do some others from the same source,
with the more confidence and pleasure, because I
recognise, from what Dr Johnson calls its race, an
Hallamshire author, well acquainted with, and a
judicious admirer of Chantrey's genius from first
to last.
It is almost inevitable that we encounter, at this
point, the oft-reiterated question — what is genius ?
Must we admit that an early, long-devoted, and

ORIGINAL GENIUS. 25
finally successful application to any of the higher
arts, implies an original innate bias of the intellect
to a particular study, conformably to the popular
dogma, " Poeta nascitar nonfitf Or must we
adopt the somewhat more convenient, if not more
probable, hypothesis of Sir Joshua Eeynolds and
Dr. Johnson, to the effect that genius is nothing
more than the operation of a strong mind, acci
dentally determined as to object ? It must be
admitted that there is in our day, especially among
the admirers of a certain class of phreno-doctrines, a
strong leaning towards the notion that to attain
pre-eminent success — " every kind of knowledge
requires a peculiar genius, or mental constitution
for the reception of some ideas, and the exclusion
of others ;" an opinion, says Johnson, which has
proved the most mischievous "of all the bugbears
by which Infantes barbate, boys both young and
old, have been frightened from digressing into new

26 IMPORTANCE OF STUDY.
tracts of learning." In conformity with this senti
ment, Beynolds asserts, that " assiduity, unabated
by difficulties, and a disposition eagerly directed to
the object of its pursuit, will produce effects similar
to those which some call the result of natural
powers." Whatever theory we favour, it will not
lack illustration on the one part, from village
gossip, which has attributed to the young rustic
at least the usual amount of precocious ingenuity :
nor, on the other hand, from the early and long-
continued application of patience, industry, and
zeal. The local tradition, which delights in recalling
the days of the " Milk Boy," and in describing
his old ass " Jock," is also fond — but on worse
evidence — of describing the earnestness and inge
nuity with which he was engaged during his drive
along the lanes, in cutting the knob of his stick,
with a penknife, into a likeness of " Old Fox, the

FOXS HEAD. 27
schoolmaster."* This story has also given the hint
of a picture to Parker — the only fact, probably, to
which it has actual relation ; for, on mentioning it
to an old man who was Chantrey's companion as
a "milk-lad," during about two years, at intervals
" off and on," he declared that he " never saw or
heard anything of the sort ; but," added he, holding
out his hand, " when I lost these two fingers, he
sent me ten guineas, besides many smaller sums
afterwards." The latest — and, indeed, the best
story of this kind, which I have met with, inasmuch
as it may not only be said to have been adduced on
"If instead of " Old Fox's Head," we were to read a Fox's
Head, making the date of the story a few years later, ¦ and
changing the scene from "sub tegmine fagi" to Ramsay's
workshop, it might serve to identify a clever little carving in
wood, belonging to Mr. John Sykes, of Duke-street: it was
executed as the model for a sportsman's silver drinking-cup ; and
has always been regarded by the present owner and his father, as
an early production of Chantrey's.
E 2

28 TRADITIONARY ANECDOTES.
quasi royal authority, but avowedly to shew how
" a very slight thing might draw forth great talents,"
was told by Captain Ibbetson, in a public meeting
held at Sheffield, in 1850, to promote Prince
Albert's metropolitan " Exhibition of the Works
of Industry of all Nations." — " A young man was
in the field following the plough with his father,
when the landlord came in, and was invited to
luncheon. The boy was sent home, to desire his
mother to prepare it. She was making a pork-pie,
and the boy requested her to let him decorate it
with a model of poultry he had made. When the
landlord came, he was angry, because he thought
they had sent to the town to get the ornamented
pie. The father replied — No ; it was his son who
had done it ; he made many such things, and
wasted a deal of time upon them. The landlord
perceived the talent of the youth, took him
by the hand, and the boy became Sir Francis
Chantrey, whose first work adorns the parish

EAELY MODELLING. 29
church of Sheffield." It seems a pity to disturb
so pretty a statement ; but if truth must be told —
it is pure invention !
Another version of these Norton butter, pork-
pie, and clay moulding fictions, is given in Fraser's
Magazine for April, 1850. After remarking that
"Mr. Jones passes lightly over this [the appren
ticeship] stage in the great sculptor's career," the
editor proceeds — " We are surprised at this cir
cumstance, because Chantrey, when he could be
got to speak about himself at all, used to describe
with great humour the process of mind which led
him to select the profession in which he rose to
such dignified eminence. Many a pound of butter,
it appears, (?) moulded itself under his plastic
hands into the forms of objects which took his
fancy as he passed to and fro in childhood from his
mother's dairy to the nearest market town ; and
many an hour stolen from sleep was dedicated to
modelling, after maturer years had convinced him

30 TRADITIONARY ANECDOTES.
of the superiority of clay over butter, and morsels
of candle could be conveyed with safety to his
garret in the farm-house. Finally, when it was
proposed to him that he should follow the law, he
protested against the arrangement — ' I would rather
carve mirror frames for Mr. Eamsay,' was the
answer." There is not a single line of pure truth
in the whole of this circumstantial paragraph ! I
wonder no one has noticed, as more tangible — if
not better evidence of an early taste for schnitzwerk,
a little design of clipped paper, such as our
grandfathers exhibited in their valentines, and
which I found, where it had hung framed and
glazed for many years, in the house of one of
Chantrey's distant relatives, and attributed to his
boyhood, — than in most of the traditions above
mentioned ! It would have been still more to the
purpose, could it be proved that the " marvellous
boy" took any particular interest in — what happily,
he never imitated ! — a couple of great cherub-heads,

EARLY MODELLING. 31
which he must have seen Sunday after Sunday,
on Bullok's massive marble tomb, in Norton
Church. Allan Cunningham tells his own story to illus
trate his assertion that — genius draws its materials
from many sources : — " The sight of a few prints
in an obscure village in Yorkshire awakened the
spark in Stothard; the carved figures in an old
picture-frame did as much for Chantrey."* It is
to be regretted that parties who have assigned such
a variety of external promptings to the secret
whisper " Hce tibi erunt artes,'' have been so
inattentive to the where and when of their respec
tive stories. Of these, the least probable, but
most frequently repeated, is certainly that which
represents him to have been, at a still earlier
period, — if not a proficient — a devoted modeller
in butter !— greatly to the surprise of one of his
aunts. Such notices remind us of what Lucien of
* Life of Komney the Painter.

32 ANECDOTE FROM LUCIEN.
Samosata says of himself so facetiously under, the
allegory of " A Dream," and in which he represents
the genius of "Learning" contending for his
allegiance against the genius of " Sculpture," to the
latter of which claimants he was to be consigned,
on the double plea that his uncle was a " Hermes-
carver" — and, moreover, as he adds, "on account
of certain toys, with the making of which, while a
boy, I amused myself: for, after school-hours, I
used to scrape together pieces of wax, whenever
they fell in my way, and make cows, horses, and
heaven forgive me ! even men, and very fine like
nesses — as my father thought. This childish
amusement, for which I had got many a box on the
ear from my schoolmaster, was now brought as a
proof of my natural turn ; and the best hopes were
conceived, that by this plastic disposition I should
in a short time become a great proficient in the art."
The individual who took an active part in en
deavours to place the fatherless Norton Boy in

CHANTREY AND BRAMMALL. 33
some situation where he might, it was hoped,
thereafter obtain a livelihood through his own
industry, was the late Mr. Daniel Brammall, a
celebrated file-manufacturer at Sheffield, and who,
through his wife, a near relative of the Eev. Peter
Eobinson, at that time vicar of Norton, was brought
into intimacy with the family at Jordanthorpe. I
have been told by a lady, who described one of the
interviews between her uncle and the rosy-faced
village lad, shortly before bis brief sojourn at the
counter, that she should not soon forget the kind
ness with which the former asked and pressed the
latter, to name any trade to which he would like to
be put ; nor the wavering diffidence which implied
a disinclination to engage in any of the local handi
crafts. It would, of course, be very easy at this
point, — and, with the advantage of the after-know
ledge of facts, — to sentimentalize on the premoni
tions of genius, so apparently disregarded by the
worthy file-maker in the natural preference of a mere
F

34 CHANTREY AND TAYLOR.
industrial occupation for his protege ; but such a
speculation would be as unphilosophical in itself, as
it would be unjust to him upon whose conduct it
would seem to bear harshly. It is enough to say
that none of the parties were gifted with prescience
in this matter; and it is of more importance to
mention the fact, that of all the friends which
Chantrey made in early life, there was not one to
whom he was more indebted — or whose kindness he
was more ready to acknowledge — than that of
Daniel Brammall.
Emancipated from the thraldom and prospect of
a most ungenial employment, the youth found him
self at once in his proper element, among images
and pictures — pencils and carving tools. Not only
so, but he presently found in his new position,
something still more congenial to his wishes or his
taste — the late Sir Sitwell Sitwell was at that time
finishing the interior of Eenishaw Hall, rebuilt by
him, and there Taylor, in connection with Eamsay,

TRIES TO MAKE A CAST. 35
was engaged in executing some of the work, —
Chantrey, by good luck, being at once sent with
him, to do any little service in his power. Here, he
not only saw the practice, and talked about the art
of modelling, but first tried his own " 'prentice
ban' " on plastic materials. It is said he also
accompanied the same ingenious moulder and
carver while engaged in some work at Wentworth
House. Be that as it may, he very soon began to
indulge in more ambitious experiments, which,
however little likely to enhance his merit in his
master's estimation, sufficiently shew the bent of
his genius. I was told by one of the persons
present on the occasion, that Chantrey having
determined to try his skill at a bust, persuaded
one of Eamsay's workmen to submit to have a
plaster cast taken from his face : the man, who was
willing enough to play his part in the scheme, was
duly laid at length, and properly " banked" on the
work-bench, and a bucket of composition was
f2

36 FIRST ATTEMPT AT A BUST.
poured upon him. But while due provision had
been made for his breathing by the mouth and
his nostrils, the operator had forgotten or not
been aware, how much the power to respire at
all depended upon thoracic action — and such was
the constriction of the muscles by the harden
ing cast, that the man rolled down, and, with some
difficulty, tore off the mould which, as he said, was
" throttling him !" Taught but not foiled by this
misadventure, Chantrey changed places with his
shopmate, and with more courage and better
success, submitting himself to the clammy effusion :
in the mould thus produced, and by a process now
sufficiently common, he cast a face, and thence
proceeded to form the first composition in a line of
art in which his surpassing abilities ultimately
achieved such unprecedented celebrity. As a
further illustration of his devotion to study at this
period, it may be stated that he hired, at a trifling
expense, a small room, whither he retired to

CHANTREY AND RAMSAY. 37
improve himself in drawing and modelling during
every spare hour which he could call his own.
That a youth, thus occupied, was more likely
to make an artist than an artizan — to become,
in process of time, celebrated as a designer
than immediately useful as a workman, may be
admitted without disparagement to Eamsay or
bis apprentice. " We believe," says the Atlas,
" that Eamsay and his apprentice did not go on
very amicably together through the whole term of
the indenture." Perhaps they might not; but
very exaggerated terms have been used on this
point ; and certainly there is no need to throw
the blame of their premature separation wholly
on the master. Eamsay had in the house four
or five apprentices, the eldest of whom, Botham,
became his partner before Chantrey left. It has
been said, on the one hand, that the master did
not treat the youth quite kindly ; and on the other
hand, that Chantrey felt the orderly character of

38 CHANTREY A PICTURE CLEANER.
the family in which he was placed, irksome to him :
neither of these statements is correct. Eamsay was
a man, who — to use a phrase, happily much less
appliable in our day than in his own — " spent his
evenings from home ;" but he was not less
invariably strict about the time his apprentices
should be in the house at night, with the exception
of Chantrey — " Frank," said he, " is incorrigible."
It was often midnight before he came in : but
neither master nor servant ever suspected he had
been anywhere but in his obscure studio, drawing,
modelling, or poring over anatomical plates. It
may be added, that Eamsay was a pretty regular
attendant at a place of worship : not so Chantrey.
It should be mentioned, that in connection with his
ordinary business of carving, gilding, and varnish
ing frames, Eamsay was often employed as a
picture cleaner : this was work to Chantrey's taste,
and in its execution he was generally the chosen
coadjator of his master, — who would sometimes

RECIPROCAL KINDNESS. 39
say, in a moment of peculiar satisfaction, " Our
Frank will one day make a shining character !"
I have been told by one who lived in the family,
that while she never saw the former act toward the
latter otherwise than with kindness and respect;
the young man was, in turn, always as gentle and
amiable in his manners towards those about him
as he was unexceptionable in his moral conduct.
The parties separated, it is true, before the regular
expiry of the period of apprenticeship ; but with
expressions of kindness and good will on both
sides. The writer of an early notice of Chantrey*
says, in allusion to his efforts at drawing and
modelling, exercised by stealth, during his
* Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1820. This article was from
the pen of Allan Cunningham, and was the only substratum of
several subsequent memoirs. No person has better or more
faithfully described whatever came within his own knowledge,
than this writer ; but he has sometimes been misled, or mistaken,
when relying on the information of others.

40 IDLE ALLEGATION REFUTED.
apprenticeship — "These, we have learned, were much
more pleasant speculations to him than to Eamsay,
who, incensed either at the enthusiasm with which
they were followed, or the success with which they
were executed, defaced them, and ordered all such
labours to be discontinued in future. For this
conduct it is difficult to find either an excuse or a
parallel :" and still more difficult would it be to
find any evidence in support of a charge, so entirely
without foundation. With respect to a story which
has been told* to the effect that Chantrey after
wards harshly retaliated this alleged unkindness of
his old master, it may be disproof enough of the
charge to state, that when Eamsay was living with
his son in London, as he did for four or five years
previous to his death, f he was in the habit of
* By a correspondent in the " Gentleman's Magazine,''
March, 1842, p. 258.
t Mr. Ramsay died November 20, 1828, and was buried in
the Parish Church-yard, of Sheffield.

CHANTREY AND WILSON. 41
frequently visiting the rooms in Pimlico, where
Chantrey, when present, always received him kindly :
so I am distinctly told by a gentleman not likely to
be mistaken on this point.
If Chantrey can be said to have received any
instruction in the use of the pencil before he left
Eamsay, his preceptor was Jonathan Wilson, after
wards known in London as a medal-engraver — a
man, whose attainments in an art still more difficult
than that of the sculptor in marble, were the result
of a self-cultivation of intuitive genius, not less
remarkable than that of his eminent contemporary.
Many persons will remember that low, gloomy shop,
which formed a portion of the old High-street,
Sheffield, as "Woollen's Circulating Library" —
I recollect it gratefully, as the source of my earliest
interviews with " The Gentleman's Magazine." In
a back chamber of these premises, night by night,
towards the close of his apprenticeship, did young
Chantrey and his friend Wilson devote themselves

42 EARLIEST ATTEMPTS AT DRAWING.
to the pencil, their principal exercise being to copy
the drapery of a series of French prints of statuary.
The earliest existing specimen of Chantrey's
attempts at drawing with which I am acquainted,
is of a periwinkle flower, framed and glazed, in the
house of Mr. Biggins, adjacent to the cottage at
Jordanthorpe : it is inscribed — " F. Chantrey, fecit,
1798." It is pleasing to find early mementoes of
the artist prized at his birth-place. I last visited
the spot on the 18th of February, 1850; and a
casual glimpse of several tufts of snowdrops in the
garden, not only recalled the touching effect of
these flowers as carved in marble in the hand of one
of " The Sleeping Children" at Litchfield, but also
reminded me that one of these tufts was an early
subject of the same pencil which delineated the
other flower — in fact, the first production of any
kind which, thirty years previously, I had seen
from Chantrey's hand — it seemed not unfitly to
symbolize the early and confident shooting up and

CHANTREY AND RAPHAEL SMITH. 43
expanding of faculties which, like the flowrets
themselves, " Midst sunny gleams, and sleety showers,
Enjoyed a genial spring."
Mr. Jones states that, " at the house of his
master, young Francis met Mr. Eaphael Smith, the
distinguished draughtsman in crayon — he became
so impressed with the desire of practising art in a
higher class than wood-carving that, at the age of
twenty-one, he gave the whole amount of his
wealth, that being fifty pounds — to induce him to
cancel the indentures." The former part of this
paragraph is substantially correct ; but, alas ! for
the " fifty pounds," said to be paid " for the six
months of his unexpired apprenticeship," neither
Chantrey's purse, nor that of his mother, contained
at that time any such sum ; nor were there only
" six months" of the apprenticeship to expire, as
above asserted, but between two and three years, as
g 2

44 INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP CANCELLED.
the indenture — still in existence, and already
cited — sufficiently testifies. I am, of course, aware
that Chantrey could not have been legally detained
beyond the age of twenty-one ; but the pecuniary
obligations of his friends would still have remained
in force. The truth is — the sum of fifty pounds
was really paid for breach of covenant, and not
merely as the price of half a year's outstanding
service. I believe the money was advanced by
Mr. Jenkins, of Hazlebarrow, a respectable farmer,
who had been the friend of the elder Chantrey, and
was highly esteemed by the Sculptor.* On one
occasion, when Sir Francis and Lady Chantrey
* I have heard three other parties named as the friends who
assisted Chantrey in this emergency ; and it is right to state that
John Read, Esq., explicitly concurs in the opinion that it was not
Mr. Jenkins, but Mr. Raworth, of Rycroft— a relation of Chan
trey's — who found the money both to pay the apprenticeship
premium to Ramsay, and the price of cancelling the indenture.
I do not, however, think the fact, that the latter " was a relative,

JENKINS OF HAZLEBARROW. 45
were on a visit with John Eead, Esq., of Norton
House, Mr. Jenkins, son of the last-named, was so
solicitous for the party to pay him a friendly visit,
that Chantrey, with his characteristic kindliness,
accepted the invitation. The only difficulty was
the mode of transit; no gentleman's coach could
get along the miry lanes, and two miles was too
much to walk in bad weather : the medium con
venience of a covered cart was presently hit upon —
the company arrived in safety ; and old " Hazle
barrow Hall " presented that night such a scene of
illumination to the sequestered valley in which it
stands, as it had hardly exhibited since it was the
residence of the Seliokes and Freschvilles.
Little desagremens of time and place, at home
and by will made Chantrey his heir, by which he got £300 or
£400," sufficiently decisive evidence against the statement in
the text, taken in connexion with the fact that the elder Chantrey
made a will, (never, I believe, executed,,) in which Jenkins was
named one of the trustees of the boy.

46 MOWING, THRASHING, AND PLOUGHING.
and abroad, might tickle the temper, but they
could not affect the good nature of the illustrious
artist ; for whatever infirmities he might have,
finicalness certainly was not one of them. It may
indeed be doubted whether any other man, whose
lot it was to share the personal notice of three
British sovereigns in succession, ever exhibited less
of " the proud man's contumely" toward his in
feriors, either in genius or fortune, than the subject
of these pages. Mr. Jones tells us " Sir Francis
felt a pleasure in declaring that in his early career
he had mowed an acre of grass in a day; had
thrashed a quarter of corn in a day; and also
ploughed an acre of land in a day." This is
adduced, and has been repeated as evidence of the
existence of that energy of character in the Norton
farmer, which afterwards developed itself in the
London Sculptor — and it must be admitted there is
nothing sufficiently surprising in these alleged
feats of strength and dexterity, to prompt, in any

CHANTREY'S FEATS AT THE FARM. 47
member of "TheEoyal Agricultural Society" the
question — "How could they be performed by a
stalwart rustic ?" Still, I find the assertion con
fronted in my mind with the natural inquiry —
" When did Chantrey perform them ?" If we are
told it was when he was a boy of sixteen — credat
Judmus Amelia! If, during his apprenticeship
with Eamsay, those who best knew both parties,
will be the first to laugh at the absurdity of the
supposition. The statement can only be saved
from the horns of the foregoing dilemma by
adopting the more desperate hypothesis, that after
Chantrey had, in the impatience of genius, broken
through his indentures as a mere carver and gilder,
he went and qualified his hand for the more
delicate use of the pencil as an artist, by wielding
the scythe, swinging the flail, and guiding the
coulter on his mother's little farm at Norton ! To
return —
I regret to be unable to assign the exact

48 NICHOLAS JACKSON.
dates of Chantrey's withdrawal from Eamsay's
service, or of his first visit to London : but the
former event must have occurred in the winter of
1801-2, as in the month of April, in the latter
year, he was taking portraits in Sheffield; and,
according to his own testimony,* he also came
up to town in 1802, I believe sometime in
May; and this date is corroborated by evidence.
While at Eamsay's, and immediately afterwards,
Chantrey was a frequent and intimate visitor in the
family of the late Mr. Nicholas Jackson, of Shemeld
Croft, file-manufacturer, whose ancestors were also
of Norton. Here, by night or by day, he felt him
self at home, with young and lively persons of both
sexes to welcome him. On one occasion, when he
had retired to bed and was beginning to doze, he
was startled by a tugging at his bolster : the agent

• Gent's Mag. Pt. I., 1842, p. 259. Blackwood's
April, 1820.

CHANTREY AND "SUSANNA." 49
of this midnight molestation, silent as invisible,
was so determined, that, although the young artist
"held on" for awhile, the bolster "moved off."
Instead, however, of burying himself in the bed
clothes, for fear of ghosts, or crying out, "thieves!"
he leapt up, shouting aloud —
" Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!" <fec.
and presently reached the door, where, although all
was lonely and still, the appearance of a string
rendered it unnecessary for him to wait till morning
for a solution of the mystery of this nocturnal
disturbance ! In the summer of 1802, two of the
Misses Jackson went to Buxton : Chantrey way
laid them on the road, and threw into the carriage
a letter, addressed "To Susanna." What that
billet contained, I do not know — the lady's sisters
never knew. The following letter addressed to their
father, fixes the date of Chantrey's visit to Ireland,
H

50 LETTER FROM DUBLIN.
"where he suffered so severely from a fever that his
recovery was doubtful ; and in the progress of the
disease he lost his hair, and was bald at his restora
tion to health, and so he remained during the rest
of his life." " Dublin, August 18, 1802.
" Dear Sir, — I take the earliest opportunity of
writing a few lines to inform you of our safe arrival
in Ireland. But upon my soul, I never experienced
such fatigue in my life ! We had a very rough sea
all the way from Liverpool : I have experienced
sea-sickness to perfection. Having so much
superfluous bile on my stomach, made it fatiguing
beyond description : less than a halfpenny loaf
served me upwards of two days and two nights —
my poor belly and back-bone were never so near
being united since I was born ! Upwards of three
hundred miles' sailing was occasioned by contrary
winds. I am now in Dublin, and shall remain
here three weeks at least. If it is in my power to

LETTER FROM DUBLIN. 51
render you any service, I will do it with the greatest
pleasure. Pray write by return of post, if possible.
Ireland is an upside-down country ; no decency is
observed by the women in particular : 'tis wonderful ;
they are a century behind Sheffield — and Sheffield
as much behind London. I am very much pleased
with my journey ; and hope, ere long, I shall have
an opportunity of giving a better account. Pray
make my respects to Mrs. Jackson, Miss Jackson,
Thomas, and Edward. I hope Susanna and sister
are returned safely [from Buxton], and must beg
of you to excuse me from writing more, for, at this
time, I can say I am completely tired.
" I remain, dear sir,
" Your much obliged humble servant,
"F. Chantrey.'
" Mr. N. Jackson,
" File-smith, Shemeld Croft,
" Sheffield, Yorkshire, " England."
h 2

52 CHANTREY'S FIRST VISIT TO LONDON.
He instructs Mr. Jackson to direct " For F. C,
at the Countess Clare's, Bagot-street, Dublin ;" and
although he neither mentions his business there, nor
names his companion, it is probable the latter was
his friend Mr. Taylor, the carver, and that they
might have some sort of work to do ; for, in a letter
to his mother, dated Sept. 24th, the same year, from
Shrewsbury, he says, " Mr. Taylor is with me," and
talks of " coming to Norton soon." These dates,
and an allusion in the foregoing letter, render it
morally certain that his first visit to London was
in the earlier part of 1802. On reaching the
metropolis, he called upon his uncle and aunt Wale,
who were both living in the service of Mrs. D'Oyley,*
in Curzon-street, May-Fair, and there he first saw
* This lady, the relict of Cliristopher D'Oyley, Esq., of
Southrap, county of Gloucester, and Cadogan Place, May-Fair,
London, died Nov. 28, 1821, at Twickenham, at the great age
of ninety-six. Her name should be mentioned with respect in
any memoir of Chantrey.

MRS. D'OYLEY AND MISS WALE. 53
their lively and lovely daughter Mary Anne, who
afterwards became his wife. It has been whis
pered — I need not say in what confessional — that
the accomplished Miss Wale was not a little
abashed in the presence of the household, by the
first recognition of her country cousin ! Not so,
however, "Madam D'Oyley," who was a grand
daughter of the celebrated Sir Hans Sloane, founder
of the British Museum ; she not only heard the
story of the "Boy of Genius" with interest, but
ordered his uncle daily to place him a plate on the
table ; and, moreover, to let him have a room on the
premises in which to work. He at once directed
his attention to the celebrated School of Arts, at
that time held at Somerset House. " The Eoyal
Academy was then, as now," said the Morning
Post, in 1841, " open to all students who had got
beyond the infancy of art, and Chantrey entered
the academy, and learned, as he says in a paper
before us, to draw and model there." This might

54 THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
seem conclusive as to an ordinary, straight-forward
course, were it not that Mr. Ehodes, who
knew Chantrey early and well, says that he was
never regularly entered as a student ; and Mr. Jones,
although he speaks of him as a student in general
terms, leads us to believe there was something un
satisfactory in the outset of the connection between
the Norton " Farmer's Boy," and that splendid
Metropolitan School of Art, the advantages of
which he was, perhaps, at first unable to command
or appreciate, but which, in after life, he always
asserted, and the honours of which he so worthily
wore, and so amply repaid.

PAET II.

PEN AND PENCIL SKETCHES.

" I hold that in proportion as a man's works are worthy of
notice, so is his conduct as a man worthy of being known : I can
never consent to look upon a man of genius as a mere holder of a
pen or pencil, of whom nothing higher than how he placed his
writing-desk, or mixed up his palette, deserves to be noted : this
would be paying a poor compliment to genius— the world wisely
demands to know as much as possible of the characters of its
benefactors." — Allan Cunningham.
Under the foregoing title, I intend chiefly to
introduce a few memoranda of a miscellaneous
character, several original letters, and such refer
ences to a number of comparatively slight artistic
productions, as would perhaps less properly find a
place elsewhere. i 2

Missing Page

Missing Page

60 CHANTREY AT SHEFFIELD.
Whenever the exact commencement, or whatever
the precise nature of Chantrey's earliest connection
with the Eoyal Academy, he was certainly a zealous
student there — in some sense of the term — during
the winter of 1804 ; at the Christmas of which
year he came down to Sheffield, where, during
the ensuing twelve months — with the exception
of his spring visit to London — he mostly resided,
dividing his time between such professional engage
ments, local gaities, and friendly intercourse, as
that hospitable town afforded. He painted por
traits, modelled busts, was present at assemblies,
listened to Thelwall's lectures on elocution, and
to Carey's conversation about paintings : dined
with his friend Inchbald at the yearly meeting
of the Governors of the Grammar School at
Sheffield, and with the Mayor of Doncaster at
the Mansion House, as well as indulged himself
with various excursions to enjoy the scenery, or
inspect objects of art in the district. His

WARD AND INCHBALD. 61
companion, in all these movements, was Thomas
Asline Ward, Esq., a Sheffield merchant, one of the
Sculptor's earliest and latest friends, and to whose
kindness I am greatly indebted for the interest
and precision of many of these records. Another
of Chantrey's intimate friends at this period, was
a Yorkshire clergyman, the late Eev. Peter Inch-
bald, L.L.D., who conducted a highly respectable
academy for young gentlemen, first at Doncaster,
and afterwards in the ancient hall at the adjoining
village of Adwick, in the church of which he
officiated. Dr. Inchbald, although born in the
neighbourhood of Borougbbridge, spent some
years of his early life at the Sheffield Grammar
School, of which, soon after his removal to
University College, Oxford, he wrote a " most
exact and happy description" in rhyme.*
In the autumn of 1806, Chantrey, accompanied
* Hunter's " Hallamshire," p. 173.

62 PLEASANT YORKSHIRE EXCURSION.
by his friend Mr. Ward, and Mr. Mason, brother-
in-law of the latter, made a pleasant tour into
one of the most interesting districts of the West-
Eiding of Yorkshire. Like Hogarth and his
companions, on a certain memorable excursion,
the party above-named appear to have divided their
relative attention between sketching, journalizing,
and the commissariat department. Before leaving
Sheffield, on the morning of October 27th, they
called at the Angel Inn to take the coach, but not
finding it quite ready to start, they decided to
proceed a little way along the road, — Miss Peech
having considerately admonished them not to walk
" too fast," lest they should not be overtaken before
the end of the stage : a hint not without its
meaning, for the pedestrians entered " Black
Barnsley" — fourteen miles — just as the vehicle
overtook them ! The same evening they reached
Leeds, and there spent the night. In the morning
they rose early, and visited the picturesque ruins

YORKSHIRE EXCURSION. 63
of Kirkstall Abbey ; and afterwards went to the
Mixed-Cloth Hall, where Wilberforce was can
vassing for that election in which, after so energetic
a contest, he and Lord Milton were returned as the
representatives of the county of York, in opposition
to Mr. Lascelles and Mr. Fawkes. Leaving the
din of politics for quieter and more congenial
scenes, the trio proceeded in the direction of Hare-
wood House and Castle, and finally found them
selves at Harrogate, where, — being taken for
electioneering emissaries of questionable colour, —
they had some difficulty in obtaining beds. On
the following morning they started for Plumpton,
which Chantrey declared was one of the sweetest
spots he ever beheld. Having afterwards explored
the "Petrifying Well" and " St. Eobert's Cave" at
Knaresbro', they halted, and slept at Eipley. The
tourists had not proceeded far the next day,
before the sound of thrashing, which proceeded
from a large road-side barn, led to a dispute, and

64 TRIAL OF SKILL IN THRASHING.
finally a wager, between Chantrey and Mason, as
to which could use the flail best ! To decide the
question, they entered the barn — threw off their
coats — each borrowed an implement — and addressed
themselves in so workmanlike a manner to a floor
of oats, as to puzzle not a little the rustic, whom
they appointed umpire, and who awarded the palm
to Chantrey — declaring, however, that " they both
knew how to thrash," though, in his opinion,
"neither of them got his living by it!" Having
visited Brimham Craggs, Fountains Abbey, and
Studley Park, they slept at Eipon, where they
spent the next day in examining the Minster of
this ancient city, which has since become the seat
of a bishop ; and, afterwards, in making a pleasant
excursion to Hackfall. They returned, and spent
the next night at Eipon. The party proceeded
on the following morning to Newby House — a
mansion to which Chantrey had previously made
a pilgrimage for the sake of the statuary, and

CHANTREY S HABITS OF OBSERVATION. 65
which has latterly become better known as one of
the palaces of the late " Eailway King." Passing
through Aldborough and Boroughbridge, the three
friends entered York ; and after spending three
days very pleasantly in this ancient capital city of
the county, they separated for their respective
homes. Chantrey's sketch-book, as filled during this
excursion, was in the possession of Mr. Mason
till the death of that gentleman, after which it was
returned to the artist. To Mr. Ward's journal I
am indebted for the substance of the foregoing
particulars. It will be imagined how delightfully
Chantrey spent his time during such a trip ; but
he would spend it instructively also ; for already
had commenced with him the habit, pursued
through after-life, of gathering hints and illustra
tions of useful study from every available source :
indeed, it was gratifying to his best friends to
perceive, at this early period especially, how

66 LITERARY SOCIETIES IN SHEFFIELD.
diligently and successfully he laboured to counteract
the deficiencies of his juvenile education.
I have before me the original Minute Book of
the proceedings of Meetings held fortnightly in
Sheffield, 1804-5, by about a score gentlemen,
"For the Promotion of Mutual Improvement."
Of this social club — the precursor of the more
public " Literary and Philosophical Society,"
established long afterwards, Joseph Hunter, the
local historian, then a young man, was secretary.
On one of the evenings, Mr. Chantrey was intro
duced as " a visitor," by Mr. T. A. Ward, — not, it
seems, so much out of curiosity to hear an essay
and discussion on the apparently paradoxical
hypothesis of the genealogist, — " that the in
habitants of Britain (with the exception of the
more recent foreign settlers,) are descended from
its Kings," as to satisfy himself on a point of
heraldry. On recalling Mr. Hunter's attention
to the subject, that gentleman writes to me as

THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER. 67
follows : — " My actual acquaintance with Chantrey
began in the spring of 1805 : he came in as a
stranger to one of our meetings, for the purpose
of putting a question to me — viz., in what manner
the heraldic insignia of the Eev. J. Wilkinson, who
was then lately dead, should be displayed on a
hatchment at Broomhall : it was not for himself,
but for a friend, [probably Hunt, the painter,] who
was employed for the work, that he wanted the
information — which I gave him, as well as I could.
In the course of the year, I remember meeting him
a few times at the house of the elder Mr. Ward, in
Howard-street, at that time a very lively cheerful
place : it was in the days before hot suppers were
found out to be unwholesome. Inchbald was a
frequent visitor; and there appeared to be at that
time a good deal of intimacy between him and
Chantrey. When I was living at York, about
1806-7, I remember Chantrey, Ward, and Mr.
Mason coming on a tour to the city — I have reason
k2

68 WARD — MASON — BROWN.
to remember it, in consequence of having been
saved by them from an imminent risk of being
drowned in the Ouse, when we had gone down the
river to Bishopthorpe. But Chantrey has told me
that he remembered me from an earlier period —
when I was quite a boy, or rather child, and stood
on a seat in the minister's pew at the Upper Chapel,
from which he sat, with his master Eamsay, three
pews distant." I transcribe this passage from
Mr. Hunter's letter, meo periculo, the opportunity
thus afforded of mingling so pleasant a specimen of
my friend's reminiscenses with my own, being too
tempting to be withstood. Besides other children,
the elder Mr. Ward of Howard-street, had two
daughters, one of whom was the wife of Mr. Mason,
above-named ; the other married John Brown, Esq.,
solicitor, who afterwards became Chantrey's law-
agent at Sheffield. Both these ladies are living, and
possess mementoes of the Sculptor's friendship, in
the shape of pencil sketches, copies of his busts, &c.

SKETCHES OF DRUNKEN GROUPS. 69
On the 4th of May, 1807, the Hon. Lord Milton,
(now Earl Fitzwilliam,) attained the age of twenty-
one years, on which occasion there were feastings at
Wentworth House, and in the park adjacent, on a
scale of liberality probably unprecedented — certainly
never surpassed at any similar event. Among the
thousands of persons present at the strange scenes
of roysterous intemperance and sober curiosity,
which the mansion and grounds that day exhibited,
were Mr. Chantrey and his friend Ebenezer Ehodes,
who, on their way back to Sheffield at night, were
much struck — as I recollect to have been — with the
grotesque appearance of groups of drunken fellows
staggering, or prostrate, along the road. The
artist — ever alive to the ludicrous — was repeatedly
tempted to pause, and make sketches of these
figures, some of which, I believe, still exist in the
possession of William Younge, Esq., of Endcliffe.
There is a still more interesting pen-and-ink
sketch, the history of which I am tempted to give

70 SKETCH OF " OLD GEORGE.
in the words of Miss Sterndale : — " I really cannot
tell how many years ago — an old man on crutches,
very helpless, very tall, and very neat, — used to
stand at the corner of then Mr. Thomas Watson's
house, in George-street and Norfolk-street, not
asking, but receiving alms. He was an old soldier*
and had been wounded at Bunker's Hill. This
was a snug, quiet situation ; but the poor man had
several kind and constant friends, who failed not to
cheer him with a few kind words and welcome
pence, as they passed by ; and I recollect, as there
were not many pleasures at ' Sheffield Fair' for us
young people, my father made one for us, by
allowing us to fetch ' Old George' to dine at our
house on that day. In the course of time, it
became past his power to walk to his accustomed
sunny corner : Mrs. Mary Younge, of ' The Edge,'
was speaking of this in a large evening party, and
in the benevolence of her nature, trying to remind
those who had known him, of the fact that their

CHANTREY A PICTURE-CLEANER. 71
accustomed charity was now perhaps more required
than ever. Chantrey was present, and said — ' Mrs.
Younge, I have a sketch of Old George — I will
give it you to take in your hand, as a reminder,
when you make your appeal to the kindness of his
old friends.' I need not say the sketch was a
striking resemblance, and answered the purpose for
which it was given. I have often seen it at ' The
Edge ;' and it is still, no doubt, preserved by the
family." Framed and glazed — I need scarcely
add — duly prized — the drawing is in the possession
of Eobert Younge, Esq., of Grey-Stones.
It has already been mentioned that Chantrey
evinced a fondness and a taste for picture-cleaning ;
even during his apprenticeship. When he first
arrived in London, and became acquainted with the
paintings in the mansion of bis generous friend
Mrs. D'Oyley, he noticed in particular one subject,
which appeared to the owner so hopelessly black
and gone, that she told him to take it, and make

72 MRS. d'oyley's "poussin."
what he could of it. To work he went ; and in a
short time disclosed, what was at first deemed a
clever copy, but soon decided to be a very valuable
original Poussin ! The painting was returned to
Mrs. D., and, it is said, sold for a sum which I do
not specify, lest it should seem to disparage the
credibility of an anecdote, not, I believe, wholly
without foundation. That Chantrey should, at this
early period, and with his tastes, have come into
some sort of contact with picture- dealers and
picture- doctors, was almost inevitable ; and his
letters show that his country friends were disposed
to avail themselves of his willing assistance in such
matters. In a letter* dated Feb. 26, 1807, he
says —
"My Dear Inchbald, — You accuse me of irre
gularity and carelessness — have you acknowledged
* I am indebted for this, and two or three other letters, to the
courtesy of the Rev. Dr. Inchbald, of Storthes Hall, Huddersfield,
a son of the gentleman to whom they were originally addressed.

LETTER TO INCHBALD. 73
the receipt of a parcel which I sent you some weeks
ago by coach, containing two copies of 'Blair's
Grave,' and a long letter ? I gave you credit for
being in earnest, when you commissioned me to
purchase pictures for you. Are you aware that it is
a very extravagant whim ? I suppose you will tell
me to mind my own business, and do as I am
ordered. You ordered me to draw upon you : pray
do you imagine that I can negociate a bill in
London, drawn upon a Yorkshireman ? No. The
only way to settle that business, is for your banker
to give me a bill of two months — or an order to
receive it at their bankers in London. I should
not have mentioned this part of the business, but
for two reason s— first, I heartily wish to serve you,
and it is now the season of the year to do it ; and
the second is — I am not prepared to do it. My
dear fellow, you know the difficulties that surround
a young man, and I may truly say — I am in the
midst of them ! Orders increase, and marble costs
L

74 MONUMENT OF SIR JOHN MOORE
money. Give me an . answer by return of post, if
your important engagements will permit, as sales of
pictures are going on every day, and something
worth notice may pass by. I purchased last week,
at Phillips's, a landscape, by Laresce, 2 ft. 8 in. by
2 ft. 2 in., price £2 1 Os., the frame of which, in its
present state, is worth a guinea : don't think
meanly of it because it is cheap: it is a good
picture and will not disgrace the owner.
" I am sure you will be glad to hear that I have
some faint hope of having General [Sir John]
Moore's monument to execute. I have made a
model. My busts for the Naval Asylum, Green
wich, are finished, and much approved. Do you
ever see that good fellow, Ward ? I had a com
mission [to buy engravings] for him lately — I hope
I executed it to his satisfaction.
" You ask what I think of Carey's critique on
Stothard's ' Pilgrims.' — I think it was the expecta
tion of finding a useful friend in Mr. Cromek that

STOTHARD'S CANTERBURY PILGRIMS. 75
induced him to say so much : but, however much
Mr. Cromek may be pleased, it is not clear to me
¦whether Mr. Carey has served him or not. On first
seeing the picture, every one feels a degree of
disappointment — and what Mr. Carey has said, will,
I think, tend to increase that feeling. What I am
speaking of arises from its small size, and general
effect. You have not seen the picture, therefore I
am sparing of my remarks. "Your faithful friend,
"F. Chantrey."
" Rev. P. Inchbald, " Doncaster."
Whatever may be thought of the criticisms of
Carey and Chantrey on the original picture
embodying Chaucer's graphic description of " The
Pilgrimage to Canterbury," the well-known engrav
ing from it is, I believe, generally allowed, both as
a work of art, and as reflecting the description of
the poet, to be highly faithful and satisfactory. l2

76 CHANTREY and HANS sloane.
Mr. T. A. Ward has kindly placed in my hands
a series of letters, the following selection from
which will exhibit the character of Chantrey in
several interesting points of view. The first
illustrates that early fondness for the picturesque
scenery of nature, which, during his after life, as an
artist, passed for the most part amid the fumum et
opes strepitumque of London, was never entirely
extinguished. "Newport, Isle of Wight,
" July 22, 1807.
" My Dear Ward, — You will think me a
strange uncertain fellow. I promised to be in
Sheffield, ere this, and intended it ; but chance —
I hope good-fortune — directed me a different way.
Hans Sloane invited me to Poulton, near Eomsey,
Hants, for a few days. I have been there a month.
His manor adjoins the New Forest, where I have
spent many solitary hours, and rested on the stone
raised to the memory of William Eufus. It is

NEW FOREST, HAMPSHIRE. 77
surrounded by foliage of most luxuriant growth,
and picturesque beauty — of the kind Salvator most
admired. ' Crown'd with the freedom of a single life,
He flies domestic din, litigious strife ;
Abhors the noisy haunts of bustling trade,
And steals secure to solitude and shade ;
There, seated peaceful in his village bower,
He gives to noblest themes the studious hour.'
" On Wednesday last, Mr. Sloane took me to
Southampton : Thursday morning, we went on
board the Isle of Wight packet. After sailing
about three hours, I found myself rather squeamish ;
but I drank a glass of water, which refreshed me
much. Mr. Sloane then introduced me to Lord
Henry Seymour, with whom we dined, in company
with Lady Gertrude Sloane, and Lord and Lady
Grantham. The latter have invited me to Newby.
You remember the cakes and porter. We intend
visiting the most picturesque parts of the island.

78 CARISBROOK CASTLE.
I am, in some measure indebted to my pencil
sketches for this treat ; but have been much disap
pointed with what I have seen of it as yet. I think
it barren of beauty compared with many parts of
Yorkshire : they tell me, indeed, I am not arrived
at the grand scenery — which I can readily believe.
" We are this moment returned from the much-
admired Carisbrook Castle, first built in the sixth
century. In the second year of Queen Elizabeth,
the ordinary expenses of the castle amounted
annually to sixty-nine pounds, nineteen shillings,
and twopence ! The water-works are in good
preservation. The castle is situated on the point
of a hill, commanding a very extensive prospect
from the north to the south shore of the island : on
our first view, it appeared truly venerable. On
entering the arch — 'whose ponderous grate and
massy bar, had oft roll'd back the tide of war ;' —
we were conducted by a virgin — ' she had been
young some seventy years ago !' — along a most

CARISBROOK CASTLE. 79
beautiful gravel walk, with margins of grass, neatly
trimmed, to a square enclosure, which had been the
prison of Charles I. I was then entertained with
the sight of a most excellent onion bed, which
occupied the whole of the square. As soon as I
recovered from my surprise, I cast my eyes around
in search of the beauties I had painted to myself:
they vanished as a dream ; I found myself in —
a garden ! Fortunately I made a sketch of the
gate before I entered, or I should have returned
without one memorandum — save that which is too
deeply impressed on my mind ever to be forgot !
* * * Excuse me, my dear Ward, I have just
received a second summons to dinner — I hope it
will restore me to my usual temper. Make some
apology to Mr. Mason for me: he will think I
neglect his kind invitation ; but my situation in
life, and the object I am pursuing, will, I trust, be
sufficient excuse.

80 YOUNGE — WARRISS — NANSON.
"I shall return to London, about the first of
August: finish part of what T have begun — of
which you shall have more particulars — then pay a
short visit to Sheffield, taking Goodrest [Mason's
house] in my way. I shall esteem it a kindness,
if you will favour me with a letter, and inform me
of our eccentric, worthy, and much-esteemed
friend, Inchbald. Does party-spirit now exist in
Sheffield ? My kind respects to your father,
mother, and sister ; and believe me, my dear
friend, " Yours, most faithfully,
" F. Chantrey."
"P S. Thank God for a good dinner! My
compliments to Dr. Younge, and Mr. Warriss's
family : I hope fine weather will restore Mr. W. W.,
but I doubt it.
" Do you ever see Mr. Nanson ? He is a
favourite of mine. My friend Montgomery's

MONTGOMERY — BRAMMALL. 81
portrait I see advertised with the Bishop of Lon
don's, &c*
" You will have heard of young Master Bram-
mall's indisposition — a pleurisy : his case was
desperate."
" T. A. Ward, Esq."
The closing lines of the preceding postscript
refer to one of the sons of Chantrey's old friend at
Sheaf House, who had accompanied our artist to
London, during the midsummer vacation of Inch-
bald's school. This illness of the youth, was a
cause of extreme solicitude to Chantrey at the
time, as appears by a long letter, at the close of
which he assures the anxious parents that he will
" write by every post, until a change takes place."
He got better, and in due time returned to school,
* Beilby Porteus. The portrait was one of five, engraved on
a single 8vo. page, and prefixed to Blagdon's " Flowers of
Literature," for 1806. Chantrey was much dissatisfied with
this small size. M

82 DRAWINGS — NETLEY ABBEY.
which, says Inchbald, in a letter written to intro
duce Mr., afterwards the well-known Dr. Dalton,
to his friend Brammall, " with regular living, agrees
better with Master Daniel, than excursions to
London." A letter written toward the close of the same
year, introduces us to politics as well as paint
ings : — "London, Nov. 30, 1807.
" My Dear Ward, — I have detained your prints,
on purpose to send at the same time, a small collec
tion of portraits of eminent men, which I have
almost completed. I wish also to enclose a few
drawings for Dr. Younge, and a couple for Mr.
Corbet. I have made a sketch of Netley Abbey
for you : I shall visit that place again about the
10th of next month. I am going to spend a few
days at Lord Palmerston's, Eomsey.
" Have you visited the lakes ? I hope not.
" I have read, with great pleasure, your Lines

THE "FRIENDS OF LIBERTY." 83
on seeing Kirkstall Abbey : you have very happily
touched upon your favourite theme — ' So man shall
feel, but not for ever,' &c. You have had another
visit from Mr. Carey ; what success had he ?
Have you seen his portrait of Montgomery.* You
must not expect me in Sheffield until next summer.
At this time I have in my room eight portraits —
some of them nearly finished — twenty guineas each,
which answers better than painting portraits in
Sheffield for five guineas each. I attend the
Academy every evening, from six to eight o'clock,
and may say, with my friend  , ' T am a
strange, altered, reformed creature !' At a meeting
of the Friends of Liberty, in celebration of the
acquittal of several supposed felons,^ held at the
* This was a likeness in water-colours : what became of it the
poet cannot say.
t Hardy, Tooke, Thelwall, Holcroft, and eight others, who
were indicted on a charge of high treason. Hardy was tried,
and, (Nov. 5, 1794) acquitted : the rest were liberated.
M 2

84 PAINTINGS OF SCRIPTURE SUBJECTS.
Crown and Anchor, on the 5th of November. Mr.
Thelwall gave as a toast — ' Peter Inchbald, of
Doncaster, being a known friend to liberty.'
"I have painted two pictures, from the 24th
chapter of Luke — one, from the third and fourth
verses ; the other, from the 30th and 31 st verses,
in a manner superior to what I had thought myself
master of: I intend them for the British Institu
tion — if not sold before it opens.
" Believe me, yours, truly,
"F. Chantrey."
"T. A. Ward, Esq.,
" Sheffield!'
The following letter, without date, was written
toward the end of 1808 : —
" My Dear Ward, — I am not idle. I labour
very hard, though I produce but little. You know
I am aiming at what mortals call greatness ; and
of how few of the necessary materials am I pos
sessed ! The fruit that should now be ripening, is

MR. tudor's pictures. 85
only in the bud. How true it is, ' Time stays for
no man ;' and I have been strangely negligent of
the past. You are a good fellow — you forgive, in
me, the lack of what you conceive most necessary
in your own character, viz. — Punctuality.
" There are only three pictures in Tudor's*
collection, which I can recommend you to purchase.
The first is one of the pictures which I cleaned —
the binding of Christ, by Old Franks : it is one of
the best pictures of that master — worth twenty
guineas. The second is an Italian picture ; sub
ject, figures and architecture, and has a good effect.
I don't know the artist : it may be worth about
fifteen guineas. The third is a head, by Wright, of
Derby : Mr. Tudor gave twelve guineas for it,
* Mr. Tudor was engaged in the silver plating business : his
house, in one of the garrets of which that important branch of
Sheffield manufacture, is said to have originated, by the acci
dental discovery of a method of coating copper with silver, is still
standing in Tudor Place.

86 CARICATURES OF NATURE.
which I conceive to be its full value. The Guido,
Watteau's, Wouverman's, &c. — as they are pleased
to call them — are, in my opinion, very indifferent
imitations of those masters : I advise you, by all
means, not to purchase. Were I making a collec
tion, I would not give them a place, even if they
cost me nothing. The colours may be brilliant,
and yet the pictures be destitute of the higher
excellencies of art. If brilliant colours are what
you want, I recommend a draper's shop, as you
may there admire them, without being under the
painful necessity of seeing nature caricatured — if
the shopmen should chance to be out of the way !
I may add that pictures of this lower order, always
sell best among country connoisseurs ; and in Lon
don, you may purchase a large, good-looking
painting for two or three pounds.
"Excuse haste._ I am this day moulding a bust
at home, on account of its size — have much news
to tell you respecting myself: give me an account of

MATRIMONIAL PROSPECTS. 87
the sale. My best respects to Inchbald, and
beheve me, dear Ward, "Your sincere Friend,
"F. Chantrey."
" T. A. Ward, Esq., Sheffield."
Passing over a mere letter of business, dated in
February, 1809, my next transcript is of one
bearing the post-mark of September 6th, in that
year : —
"My Dear Ward, — You think me a strange
ungrateful fellow, to neglect my friends, as I have
done you. I acknowledge my fault; and, there
fore, hope for forgiveness. I am just going to ask
a favour, which I hope you will not refuse. Will
you favour me with your company for a week — or
more, if convenient ? at No. 21, Curzon-street.
I have a little leisure time, and very much wish to
spend it with you. I have purchased a house, and
it is now being fitted up for me ; and though I
have not much to do, I cannot entirely leave it, or

88 the walcheren expedition.
I would visit you in Sheffield. Write by return,
and say when you will come : a short time can
make no great difference in your business, and I
will do every thing in my power to make you
comfortable here. Do you ever see Peter Inch
bald ? I hear he has a large family, [his boarding
school,] but don't hear of his being married. Pray
are you in the way of matrimony ? The thoughts
of it have occupied a good deal of my time latterly,
but I have not yet engaged in it. I am just
returned from Buckingham House. I have been
to see the great men who planned the [Walcheren]
expedition. What a change in politics within the
last fortnight ! We must have new ministers.
The Marquis of Wellesley is highly spoken of.
Cannot you send some useful men from Sheffield ?
We have but few here. Write soon and say you
are coming. " I am your sincere Friend,
" F. L. Chantrey."

POLITICAL FEELINGS  BURDETT. 89
Each of the three friends was at this time not
only " in the way of matrimony," but presently in
the enjoyment of its sweets ; and more than twenty
years afterwards, when the passing of the Eeform
Bill invited Mr. Ward's townspeople to " send some
useful men from Sheffield," to parliament, he became
a candidate for the representation of the borough.
In the following letters, Chantrey's sympathy
with the political excitement of the moment rises to
fever-heat : his Burdettism, blending somewhat
oddly with professional and matrimonial business.
"April 1th, 1810.
"My Dear Ward, — The sight of your letter
gave me unspeakable pleasure. I had given you
up as lost, without being able to assign any reason
for it. I observe in your letter something like the
language of a preacher : perhaps you are preparing
yourself for that vocation ; if so, I hope you will
deal largely in pardons. I fancy I see you in Dr.
Philipps's pulpit. * * * *

90 parliamentary reform.
" Part of my humble productions of last year —
which have been much curtailed in consequence of
matrimonial business — were yesterday sent to
Somerset House for the exhibition, which will open
on or about the first of May, and close about the
fourth of June, before which time I hope to see you
in London.
" Oh ! that you, and Broomhead, [a Sheffield
Eeformer,] and Gale Jones, and five hundred such
like, were now in parliament ; my ears would not
be stunned with the sound of the drum beating to
arms ! which is this moment the case ; and where
the consequences will end I cannot pretend to say.
Sir Francis is snug in his own house. I have with
difficulty, and not without danger, this evening
passed through Piccadilly, where he lives. The
street, on each side, is lined with Foot Guards, and
the Horse parade in the middle ; the remainder of
the Guards are under arms in St. James's Park,
and report says the Oxford Blues are ordered from

SIR FRANCIS BURDETT. 9-1
Windsor. Most of the volunteers are under arms
to-night. Every precaution is taken to prevent
the people from assembling — or rather excite
curiosity, and cause a mob. Much is apprehended,
and the mob seems encouraged by the delay which
has taken place in not removing Sir F. to the
Tower. The reason is not generally known ; some
say the King refuses to sign the warrant, and the
constable — Earl Moira — cannot admit the prisoner
without. Should this be the case, it will be another
striking instance of the foresight of that high and
truly honourable house !
" I shall defer thanking you for good wishes until
I have an opportunity of repaying you in kind —
which, I trust, will not be long. Permit me to say,
you are more nice than wise. I once thought as
you do, i. e. I was so satisfied with myself —
' when I had deemed myself almost arrived at the
wished-for haven, some whirlpool, or quicksand,
has happened to threaten my progress.' So says
N 2

92 " BURDETT FOR EVER.
Bunyan — and yet he married. Suppose you had
a companion more perfect than yourself, you would
then be contending for superiority, and would lose
that unequalled pleasure of training and forming a
companion after your own heart. But lest I should
appear as blind in argument to you, as the present
ministers do to me, I will desist, and tell you the
news to-morrow.
" Saturday — Sunday — Monday — &c. &c. — Your
News-room must furnish the rest." "April 17, 1810.
"BURDETT FOR EVER!!
" If he has acted wrong, he has had just reason
for it. F. L. 0. you will say — ' there can be no just
reason for acting wrong :" be it so. I have some
thing to tell you. Dr. Browne is dead : and now I
beg leave to ask you a question, which I hope you
will condescend to answer — Is anything going
forward for erecting a public monument? Who
stands foremost in this business ? If you will

chantrey's POLITICS. 93
favour me with every particular, and also exert
yourself to forward something of the kind, I shall
feel myself obliged to you. What a deplorable
state your town is in — without a leader either in
law, religion, or politics ! * * * *
"Believe me, Dear Ward,
"Yours, sincerely,
"F. L. Chantrey.
" I have been at Windsor, and seen the King."
" T. A. Ward,
" Sheffield."
It seems proper here to mention, that Chantrey's
political views ultimately underwent a greater
change than even those of the popular idol himself;
indeed, in later fife, his old compatriots of the
Whig school, regarded him as " ultra-conservative;"
but it was only seldom, and with very intimate
friends, that he indulged in the expression of any
opinions on the subject of politics.

94 VISIT TO PARIS.
" %2,rd September, 1814.
" My Dear Ward, — I have but just received
your letter, dated from York, (owing to my having
been some time in the country,) relating the
melancholy account of poor Mason's death ! It is
indeed a painful circumstance, and afflicted me
much. On meeting with the account in my paper,
I read it over and over, unwilling to believe, but
unable to doubt. Eemember me to your sister —
her affliction must be great. On Monday morning
I start for Paris, where I shall stay about a fort
night. On my return, I expect you will allow me
the melancholy pleasure of doing whatever you
may think proper to perpetuate the memory of our
departed friend. Prepare the inscription, and
forward it to me. Mrs. Chantrey begs her respects.
" Believe me, Dear Ward,
" Yours, most truly,
"F. L. Chantrey."
" Thomas Asline Ward, Esq."

! (
i \

MR. mason's monument. 95
It will be recollected that the gentleman named
in the foregoing letter was one of the little party in
the Yorkshire tour already mentioned. He was
afterwards accidentally thrown from his horse and
killed. Chantrey evinced the reality of his friend
ship, and the extent of his sympathy, by placing a
neat monumental tablet,* with medallion portrait,
to the memory of Mr. Mason, in the Church of
Sledmere, near Malton, where he was buried.
In 1816, Mr. Ward was elected " Master Cutler,"
the highest civic honour which, previously to the
passing of the Municipal Corporations' Act, Shef
field had to confer on those concerned in its ancient
staple trades. As the inauguration to office on the
first Thursday in September was distinguished by a
dinner, at which some of the neighbouring nobility
• According to the inscription on the tablet, William Wallis
Mason, Gent., died July 25, 1814. " Equally distinguished for
integrity and benevolence, he lived respected by all who knew
him, and died lamented most by those who knew him best."

96 SHEFFIELD " CUTLER S FEAST.
and gentry, as well as many of the respectable
townsmen, usually partook of the hospitalities of
the Corporation, the " Master elect" addressed a
pressing invitation to Chantrey. Besides matter
pertinent to " The Feast," and allusions to those
unsentimental affairs in which the writer was
presently to be concerned, his letter contained the
following passage : —
" I deem myself no uninterested spectator of
the beauties of nature; for I can feel my soul
aroused to the sublime by her grandeur, and
soothed to luxurious calmness by her more gentle
aspect. You, Chantrey, can catch her excellencies
better than I ; but do you — or do you not
experience a sentiment which elevates or softens
the mind, as the scenery is magnificent or tranquil ?
I presume you do : perhaps every one does, in
some degree — for mountains and vallies are often
found to produce, even in the same neighbourhood,
completely different races of men, with differing

BEAUTIES OF NATURE. 97
manners and constitutions, which effect (though
something may be attributed to different modes of
living) may have arisen from the different impres
sions made by surrounding objects. Do you not
on a stupendous mountain stand with erect body
and firmly planted foot ? Do you not raise your
hand to the skies, and seem to stretch every nerve
to its full extent, as if to emulate the magnitude
around you! Whereas, in the lowly vale, beside
the creeping stream, you lay down your inert limbs
under the shady trees, and almost forget to think !
On the mountain, are you not tempted to some
daring deed ? to vault from rock to rock, or commit
yourself to the rolling avalanche ? Whereas, in
the valley, you saunter carelessly along, or content
yourself with plucking the wild-flowers on your
even path." "London, 5th Sept., 1816.
"My Dear Ward, — I tried, but could not
possibly arrange matters at home in so short a
o

98 PICTURESQUE SCENERY.
time. Why did not you give me earlier notice ?
When I am Lord Mayor, my oldest friends shall
be invited first. However, as I have not had the
pleasure of partaking of your great dinner, I will
hope to share with you pleasures of a very different
kind, in the course of next week. Your reflections
on grand and picturesque scenery, are quite in
harmony with my own ; but I have not your happy
facility of communicating them. It is my intention
to dine at Derby on Sunday next, from which place
I shall write to Mr. Ehodes — consult with him;
and believe me, "Dear Ward,
" Most sincerely yours,
" F. L. Chantrey.
" Some time ago, I received a very sober and
most excellent letter from the venerable and learned
Doctor [Inchbald] on the birth of his son."
" Thomas Asline Ward, Esq."

ASHBBOURNE and ILAM. 99
" May 14, 1817. Belgrave Place.
"My Dear Ward,— The bearer, Capt. Toussaint,
of the East India service, is a very old friend of
mine : he wishes to see something of Sheffield and
its manufactures. If you will indulge him you will
oblige me. You will be glad to hear that I have
a monument to erect in Ashbourne Church,* to
the memory of a young lady, who died in the
second month of her marriage : and also one of the
largest monuments ever undertaken in this country,
to the memory of the late Mr. Pike Watts, to be
placed in a chapel which will be attached to Ilam
•The monument was never erected. The "young lady"
was Anne, the youngest and beautiful daughter of Lieut.-Col.
Bainbrigge, who was married at Ashbourne, in the summer of
1816, to her cousin, Mr. Dobre, of London. She was an intimate
friend of Mrs. Jesse Watts Russell, and died presently after her
marriage, as intimated by Chantrey. The design of the monu
ment was probably dropped on the re-marriage of Mr. Dobre,
about three months afterwards.
o2

100 CHANTREY'S VISIT TO ITALY.
Church, Dove Dale. These will afford me the
pleasure of visiting you more frequently.* Now,
my Dear Ward, tell me something about Sheffield ;
about yourself; or of some of your sentimental
rambles, in which I am sure you continue to
indulge : for a mind once formed to pleasures of so
sublime a nature, will never lose sight of the
enjoyment, and must always be prepared with
materials sufficient to make a letter interesting to
your very sincere friend,
"F. L. Chantrey
" Kind respects to Mrs. T. A. Ward."
" T. Asline Ward, Esq.,
" Howard-street, or Park House."
On the 16th August, 1819, Chantrey left Eng
land for Italy, accompanied by John Jackson, Esq.,
E. A., the well-known portrait-painter, and John
Eead, Esq., of Norton. The party hired a carriage
* In similar terms he writes to his mother.

ward's "two days' TOUR." 101
in London, taking with them also an interpreter.
At Milan, they met with W. J. Bagshawe, Esq., of
the Oaks, Mr. Bead's neighbour, who accompanied
them to Borne. They also paid an agreeable visit
from Florence to the celebrated marble quarries at
Carara. A few days before sailing, the Sculptor
thus wrote to his old Sheffield friend : —
" My Dear Ward, — If you have any commands
for the Pope, pray send to me by Friday — I start
for Eome on Saturday.
" I cannot comprehend your motives in publish
ing a 'Two Days' Tour in Three Counties.'* I
have read it. You must have spent a great deal of
* The trifle which provoked this badinage, was a little narra
tive under the title quoted, descriptive of a ramble from Sheffield
to Saltersbrook, on the High Moors, where, as at eight other
places, the three counties of York, Chester, and Derby converge.
It was printed for the amusement of the writer's friends. An
anecdote, which he introduces to show " the former barbarism
of Bradfield," may be repeated. " When one of the Wilson

102 BRADFIELD A CENTURY AGO.
time and money for very little good — only to let
posterity know that you were acquainted with a
Dr. Brown — that you once drank a cup of tea ten
miles from home — and that once in your life, you
were wet to the skin ! Pray send me the next
part — it must be better than the first. Notwith
standing all this, I am sure you will allow me
to say, " I am your sincere Friend,
" F. L. Chantrey."
"15th August, 1819.
" Belgrave Place.
" My next will be from Italy."*
family was married, not a century ago, he went to church in his
carriage, which was so novel an object to a neighbouring squire,
that he begged leave, and was allowed, to sit in it during the
period of divine service!" The family coach of one of the
Burrells, which Horsefield, in his History of Lewes, describes
as drawn by eight oxen, seems hardly to have been a greater rarity.
* No such letter ever came to hand.

CHANTREY'S RETURN TO ENGLAND. 103
The party returned before the end of the year ;
and, on the 30th December, Inchbald, being in
London, spent the day with Chantrey, when he was
equally delighted by the healthful appearance and
the interesting conversation of his friend. " Chan
trey," says he, "looks well after his Italian tour,
and is very amusing, having observed, after his
happy custom, objects and occurrences specially
characteristic of the countries through which he
passed, but of which ordinary tourists, who make
books, are often, indeed generally, strongly inob
servant." On the 4th of January following, Chantrey
writing to Ehodes, says in a postscript: — "Eemem-
ber me to Mr. Montgomery. I often thought of
him, and wished for him in the Eternal City. I
had the good luck to meet Thomas Moore — no
longer Thomas Little — he is chaste and moral,
but as honest a jacobin as ever ! He travelled
with me from Eome to Paris, and I was delighted
with him."

104 JACKSON'S PORTRAIT OF CANOVA.
How greatly this tour extended Chantrey's know
ledge and appreciation of Italian art, beyond the
acquaintance he had previously formed with it in
the treasures of the Louvre and other spoils of
Napoleon at Paris, may be seen from Mr. Jones's
book. Indeed, the Sculptor always spoke of the
excursion with lively pleasure, especially with
reference to his companion-artist, who, like himself,
had sprung from a humble stock, " north of the
Trent." The first Eoman work of Jackson " was
the noble portrait of Canova,* which he painted
for the Canova of England." Allan Cunningham
has given in his " Lives of the Painters," an enter
taining account of the execution of this likeness,
and the interest which Chantrey took in the matter.
* Many of my Hallamshire readers will recollect the magnifi
cent head of Canova, by Rinaldi, in the collection of the Duke
of Devonshire, at Chatsworth : others may be glad to know that
they may see a fine cast from the marble, formerly belonging to
Rossi, in the show room of Edwin Smith, sculptor, Sheffield.

EBENEZER RHODES. 105
Nor shall I soon forget the pleasure with which I
once listened to Jackson's account of this tour.
He mentioned, I remember, that on their return to
England, his friend was the confidential bearer
from Moore to Murray, of that autobiographical
Memoir of Lord Byron, which afterwards became
the subject of so much curiosity and controversy.
Among the early and most intimate Sheffield
friends of our artist, was the late Ebenezer Ehodes,
who, although engaged in the staple manufactures
of the district, indulged a taste for art and litera
ture. This was perhaps little, if at all, conducive
to an energetic display of those dry "business
habits," which were presently to be manifested on
all sides, by his numerous and younger competitors
in trade ; but it made him a delightful companion
in the social circles of his native town. Among
other exercises of his pen was a drama, entitled,
"Alfred;" but his principal literary production —
one with which his name must stand honourably p

106 "PEAK SCENERY.
and inseparably connected — was entitled " Peak
Scenery," towards the illustration of which,
Chantrey contributed a series of beautiful sketches,
(about twenty-five in number, etched by George
Cooke,) a testimony at once of regard for his
friend, and of attachment to his native Derbyshire.
The work appeared in parts, large and small 4to,
1818-23 ; it contains the biographical notice of
Chantrey, on which almost every subsequent
memoir of the Sculptor is founded. These plates
bear the name of "F. L. Chantrey," a form of
signature used by him in 1809, at which period he
added to his baptismal name that of "Leggitt,"
adducing, as a reason, the existence of a synony
mous individual in London, to whom his letters
were sometimes delivered by mistake : he after
wards, however, returned to the single name given
at the font.
One of the plates in the elegant work just
named — Wingfield Manor — was from a sketch by

CHANTREY IN DERBYSHIRE. 107
Mr. Eobert Thomson, who taught drawing in
Sheffield. He spent several weeks with Ehodes
and Chantrey, in their autumn-rambles, while
engaged in this work. On the last of these
occasions, Mrs. Chantrey accompanied her husband
in his Peak visit. The " Eutland Arms," at Bake-
well, was head-quarters ; and Mr. Thomson, to
whose squireship the lady was confided, during
what ought to have been working hours with the
volunteer-artist, gives graphic descriptions of the
anxiety of the author, while the draughtsman
indulged, as he was wont, his predilection for
fishing in the bright waters of the Derwent and
the Wye, instead of plying the camera lucida to
the sweet scenery on their banks. At the final
breaking up of the party, Chantrey made a hasty
pencil likeness of Thomson, as he had previously
done, when at Cressbrook, of William Newton, the
" Minstrel of the Peak."
Ehodes, of course, had numerous anecdotes of
p 2

108 HATHERSAGE CHURCH-YARD.
these Derbyshire rambles, one of which I may
repeat. He was sitting with Chantrey in the inn
at Hathersage, opposite a window which looks into
the Church-yard — " Ehodes," said the latter, " I
should like to make a sketch of the bit of scenery
before us ; but I want a figure in it — just go and
sit upright on yon stone." This was done ; and,
after awhile, a rap at the window called the worthy
tourist back into the room, where he found himself
represented to the life, sitting in — the stocks ! and
a capital vignette for one of the chapters in " Peak
Scenery," the jocular artist contended it would
make. There were probably few of Chantrey's friends
with whom he more frequently corresponded than
Mr. Ehodes, especially, as may be supposed, during
the progress of "The Peak Scenery;" but the
publication of that work exposed the author so
obviously, and, in many cases, so irresistably to
solicitation for " autographs" of the artist, that only

COOKE THE ENGRAVER. 109
a few letters were ultimately retained by him : for
the use of these, I am indebted to the kindness of
Miss Ehodes. " Saturday, Dec. 6, 1817.
" My Dear Sir, — Your letter arrived yesterday.
You have raised my expectations and my hopes in
the mention you made of [name cut out] intentions.
I have great pleasure in telling you that I have
received proofs of all the plates — except Chats-
worth : probably to-morrow I may call upon both
of them, [the engravers,] as I find them anxious to
complete the work. I have no time to waste words,
therefore you must excuse a detailed account of
each plate, and be content with knowing that I am
highly pleased, and not at all ashamed of my name
being attached to them. I have seen George
Cooke, and think I can safely say that he is now in
earnest — the Castle-rock and Weston, by this time,
are ready for a second proof, which probably may
be the only one necessary. Every .thing here is in

HO DIANA AND ENDYMION.
a veiy forward state ; so you may now print as fast
as you can, and advertise till you have spent all
your money ! I am almost lost in business.
" Yours, very truly,
" F. L. Chantrey.
" George has begun Chatsworth."
" Ebenezer Rhodes, Esq."
The first part of " Peak Scenery " appeared in
May, 1818, and was very favourably received by
the public. In speaking of the introduction of an
elegant simile of Endymion, by the Eev. J. Con-
ninghame, of Eyam, in his stanzas on " Chatsworth,"
Ehodes alluded to an old painting of the Italian
school, adding — " I have likewise a recollection
of the subject being attempted in bas-relief, in
marble, by Eossi, but with indifferent success."*
This passing remark drew from that susceptible
artist a letter, which he addressed to Mr. Ehodes,
* In the 8vo. edition, the words are — " but not with equal
success."

CHANTREY AND ROSSI. Ill
through the Morning Post. As the writer impli
cated Chantrey in his complaint, the latter imme
diately disabused himself, through the same paper,
in the following terms : —
" TO CHARLES ROSST, ESQ., R. A., SCULPTOR.
"Sir, — I beg leave to assure you — and the
public to whom you have introduced my name so
unceremoniously — that I never perused the manu
script of Mr. Ehodes's book : that I had no
suspicion any of your works afforded matter for
his criticism ; and that till the publication of the
' Peak Scenery of Derbyshire,' I was unacquainted
with the existence of such a production as the
Diana and Endymion. With the work of the tourist
I had no connection, but as an artist; therefore,
the censure of which you complain, I neither
' permitted ' nor authorized. I am perfectly un
conscious of having merited such unjust and
injurious surmises ; and I hope, when you grow
cool, you will consider that the publishing of

112 "PEAK SCENERY."
your 'imaginings' exposes your anguish more
than it displays your courtesy.* "Yours, &c.
"F. L. C."
The second part of " Peak Scenery" was pub
lished in the winter of 1819; and Chantrey, who
found it awaiting him on his return from a con
tinental tour, thus writes to Ehodes, under date of
Sunday, ith January, 1820 : —
" Peak Scenery, Part 2nd, well printed on fine
paper, well puffed off by the editor of the Literary
Gazette — who complains that he has been rather
shabbily paid for his painful labours. The third
part is loudly called for : pray say in your next
when the important work may be expected. Since
I saw you, I have been in Milan, and Venice, and
* Chantrey, adverting to this disclaimer in a letter to
Rhodes, says — " Thus much I deemed it necessary to say for
myself— from you, I shall expect something very good, and a
great deal of it."

CHANTREY S ITALIAN TOUR. 1 1 3
Bologna, and Florence, and Eome — not Naples; but
Mr. Bead and Mr. W. J. Bagshawe have, and have
dined with Mr. and Mrs. Oates,* who were both
well, and much delighted with their guests — and
their guests were pleased with them. Perhaps you
may see me in Sheffield soon; or, if this fine
weather continues, perhaps you may prefer meeting
me in the Peak — an excursion in winter may
supply the shop with a new article.
" Believe me, yours truly,
" F. L. Chantrey.
" P. S. I have not been robbed, nor carried
into the mountains, nor have I had my ears cut
off; but I have returned with a sound skin and an
unbroken constitution, notwithstanding the seduc
tive looks and actions of the Eoman matrons."
The " tail-pieces " alluded to in the following
letter, were designs originally intended for the
illustration of " Peak Scenery ;" but the author
* One of the daughters of Mr. Rhodes. Q

114 VIGNETTES AND TAIL-PIECES.
finally abandoned them in favour of more effective
vignettes : —
" Eccleston St., Sunday, 8th Jan., 1815.
" My Dear Sir, — I am sure we have not been
acquainted so long without your having discovered
that it is my disposition to do that which is right ;
but circumstances, and a natural inclination to
carelessness, often lead me into apparent neglect
and difficulties. To speak the truth, I did not
attend to your request about the impressions till
last week, when I ordered Mr. Grey to send them
by coach. As to the price of tail-pieces and
proper artists, I have an appointment for Monday,
the 17th, which I hope will settle that matter
satisfactorily : you shall know the result. Long
ere this, you have the bust which has caused you
so much bother.
" You ask me to tell you all I saw in Paris. So
I would, if you were here a week ; but it would
take me a month to write an account of all I saw.

ENGRAVINGS OF BUSTS. 115
However; I will make a beginning — the first thing
I saw, after stepping out of the diligence, (which,
by the bye, is a comfortable carriage,) was a man
slung from the parapet of the new part of the
Louvre, picking out an N which was ingeniously
interwoven in a piece of architectural ornament !
My lady — Lady Chantrey, I suppose, you mean —
is very well, and so is her lord ; and both beg to be
remembered to Mrs. Ehodes and all friends.
" Believe me, Dear Sir,
" Most sincerely yours,
" F. L. Chantrey."
"E.Rhodes, Esq!'
In a postcript to the foregoing letter, Chantrey
adds — "I have it in contemplation to have engrav
ings, or etchings, from my busts of eminent men —
a front and profile of each — and to publish them in
parts, as circumstances may permit, with a short
biographical account of each, on a single folio
page, after the manner of Houbraken's 'Heads' —
Q 2

116 ENGRAVINGS OF BUSTS.
or rather, a kind of catalogue of their principal
works, to be got up in the very best style, and to be
continued as long as I live. What say you to it ?
Will it not be a proper and, perhaps, a profitable
way of making my works known ?" This scheme
never took effect; nor does it appear to have
promised any very advantageous results ; for,
besides the obvious inconvenience of an artist
being avowedly mixed up with the writing and
publication of " biographical accounts" — or even
" catalogues of the principal works" of his patrons —
the engraved representation of busts, or groups of
statuary, however excellent, must have produced
an effect vastly inferior in interest to the Hou-
braken or, perhaps, any other class of heads — well
executed on plates after accredited paintings. The
subject is again adverted to in a letter written by
Chantrey a dozen years' later, when his own
increased reputation and engagements, and the
views of some of his friends, may well be supposed

ENGRAVINGS OF STATUARY. 117
to have altered its relative importance to the
parties : — 21s* April, 1828.
My Dear Sir, — I have been so extremely
engaged with various matters connected with Can
ning's monuments for London and Liverpool — as
well as important matters at Windsor Castle —
that I have not had either time or humour to
attend to anything else. * * * * It is very
kindly meant by Mr. Offley Shore,* I am sure;
but I know not how the plan — which seems to have
grown out of the first idea, viz., that of engraving
my works generally — can be accomplished. In the
first place, accurate drawings or outlines must be
made ; and who can make them ? Any man that
could draw an accurate outline, would demand an
enormous price. Add to this, the engraving : the
cost would be more than any individual ought to
risk. The outlines which I possess, are by no
* Of Norton Hall, near Sheffield.

118 chantrey's pencil sketches.
means worthy of being engraved ; and when I tell
you that Murray took fright [at the project] some'
years ago, I think you will understand that there
are difficulties. I have been well nigh paying you
a visit, for I had thought of returning through
Sheffield from Liverpool ; but I was commanded
direct to Windsor. "Very truly yours,
•tar-- "F. C."
"Ebenezer Rhodes, Esq!'
Miss Shore, of Meersbrook, possesses a small
collection of sketches made with a pencil, in the
vicinity of London, during a series of instructions
in drawing from nature, with which Chantrey kindly
favoured her, long after his fame as a sculptor was
established. Other ladies, I know, possess similar
mementoes. Of Chantrey's sketches for " Peak Scenery," only
three or four are at present known ; and these are
in the hands of Miss Ehodes. They are very

ALLEGATIONS OF MR. REINAGLE. 1 1 9
slightly executed, with a black-lead pencil — and,
although artistic enough in truth and taste of
design, have certainly gained much by the brilliant
and graceful rendering of George Cooke, the
engraver of most of the plates.* Miss Ehodes
• At the moment this sheet is passing through the press, the
Literary Gazette (May 18, 1850,) publishes a letter of an extra
ordinary character from R. R. Reinagle, an artist who has been
repudiated by his brethren of the Royal Academy, for an imputed
artistic fraud. Whether or not, as Mr. R. alleges, he or his
father painted ninety pairs of what passed for Ramsay's copies of
whole-length portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte — or
whether he painted other portraits, which were passed off by the
late Sir William Beechy as his own — made copies of pictures, or
parts of pictures, which were sold by Hoppner and Constable as
their productions — or even wrote an unacknowledged portion of
Allan Cunningham's " Lives of the Painters," I am not concerned
to enquire ; but I cannot silently pass over the following state
ment : — " My next contact with an R. A. was with Mr.
Chantrey, afterwards knighted. Being a Derbyshire man, and
ambitious of a fame for versatility, he engaged to make a set of
= drawings for a topographical work on Derbyshire. His sketches

120 ALLEGATIONS OF MR. REINAGLE.
likewise possesses a larger and much more elabor
ately executed drawing by Chantrey, of "The
were shown to me by him, at our interview at Mr. Wm. Cooke's,
the engraver, then living in Pentonville. They were nearly
unintelligible scratches : words stood, in most cases, for drawn
objects — as trees, a tree, a wall, a road, a path, figures, ducks,
running water, a woman, children, stones, rough stone walls, and
so on. I agreed to make proper drawings from them, at the
charge of six guineas each. When the first six were engraved
by W. Cooke, and I was invited to meet Chantrey at his (Cooke's)
house, to my astonishment Chantrey'B name was engraved at the
foot, and not mine. I expostulated in vain. He had the ambi
tion of being supposed to be a good landscape draughtsman. He
wished me to oontinue the work, but I refused to do another,
unless my name, as the actual artist, and not his, was engraved.
This caused a silent coldness for ten years, when he, of his own
accord, took me by the hand, and hoped that I had forgotten all
that happened many years ago. I said I could forgive. We
were very friendly during the rest of his life. " Now, admitting
the facts to be exactly as stated, what do they amount to but the
disclosure — at which no artist will be surprised — that Chantrey
employed Reinagle to prepare his Derbyshire sketches for the

THE DRAGON OF WANTLEY." ]21
Dragon's Den" at Wharncliffe. It is about twenty
inches square, executed with a dark black-lead
pencil, and appears to be very carefully and faithfully
engraver on copper, just as he employed other ingenious persons
to transfer his monumental designs to marble. Slight enough
they may have been in both cases — yet not " nearly unintelligible
scratohes," or the fidelity acknowledged in the former, and the
congruity observable in the latter class of works, would not have
been attained by men who never themselves saw the objects they
were pourtraying. But will not some parties hesitate to give
full credence to an individual who, after having accepted the
employment, received the wages, and been admitted to the
friendships of an honourable profession, can thus turn round, and
by a large confession of guilty complicity, impugn the integrity
of patrons upon every one of whose tongues and pens he well
knows the seal of death has been set for years ? Lastly, if every
word of this bitter impeachment of the memory of those to whom
the grave denies the power of reply, were true in its worst sense,
still there would not exist the slightest resemblance between the
cases brought forward by the writer of the letter and that charge
against himself, upon which, whether well or ill-founded, his
colleagues have pronounced so conclusively. R

122 MISS ELIZA RHODES.
finished in all the details of rock and tree scenery
which characterize that far-famed spot.
The following is one of those lively notes of
invitation, of which Mr. Jones has printed speci
mens, and to which almost every intimate friend of
Sir Francis could make some addition. Miss
Ehodes, an accomplished teacher of music, was
herself then taking lessons in London : —
" 22nd January, 1832.
" My Dear Sir, — I understand that on Wednes
day your daughter Eliza finishes with her fiddling
masters. Can you, and will you, bring her here to
dinner on Tuesday next, quarter before five o'clock?
If you can, and will, I have provided to take her
and you to Covent Garden, to hear Braham, and
see the best pantomime in the world : we will
either set her down at Sylvester's, or bring her to
sleep the remainder of the night out. And farther,
I have to say, that if you can give her a day or two
more, Mrs. C. or I, or both, will contrive to show

MRS. sterndale. 123
her a few London sights, that will make her stare,
and furnish conversation that may benefit and
entertain her pupils — such as badger-baiting ; the
celebrated dog Billy, that kills one hundred rats in
a minute, &c. &c. Write me a clear and distinct
answer, that we may arrange accordingly.
" Truly yours,
"F. Chantrey."
" Ebenezer Rhodes, Esq.,
" Maiden Lane."
Many persons in Sheffield will recollect Mrs.
Sterndale, authoress of several works, an agreeable
lady of the " old school," who had known Miss
Seward, the " Minstrel of the Peak," and Peter
Cunninghame, the poetical curate of Eyam. She
was early intimate with Chantrey, and happened,
on one occasion, to make one of a large party with
him at Mr. Eevell's, in Norfolk-street, when a
violent thunder-storm came on : having — like the
writer of these pages — a nervous dread of " lightning
r2

124 DREAD OF THUNDER-STORMS.
flash and fearful crash," she quietly withdrew, and,
obtaining a candle, made her way to the cellar. In
a short time Chantrey also disappeared from the
drawing-room ; and, on Mrs. Eevell going to
enquire after her missing guests, the servant told
her " they were both in the cellar," — and there she
found them, Chantrey kindly talking away to lessen
the fears of his friend, and between them a small
candle standing on a barrel f I had hoped to have
found a portrait of the lady from the pencil of the
artist ; and how narrowly she missed that honour
will be seen from the postcript of the following
letter, written only just before he ceased taking
likenesses in oil : — " Twickenham, Dec. 10, 1809.
" Dear Madam, — The day but one or two after
I had the pleasure of seeing you and Mrs. Eoberts,
I was so unfortunate as to sit with my painting-
room window about half an inch open. I did not
discover it until the mischief was done : it gave

chantrey's sketch of mitcham. 125
me such a violent cold in my. left ear, that I have
been under the doctor's hands ever since. Last
Saturday, I thought myself sufficiently recovered to
venture to Twickenham in a close carriage, there to
recover my strength. Notwithstanding all my
precaution, I took fresh cold in the same part, and
have suffered most severely. I did not receive your
letter till last night — it waited for me in Curzon-
street. / am very sorry to find you leave this part
of the country so soon. Unless my doctor can
work something like a miracle, I must be deprived
the pleasure of visiting Mitcham before you leave ;
otherwise I should have taken the liberty of
troubling you with a small commission. Will you
make my kind respects to Mr. and Mrs. Eoberts,
and, though I cannot have the pleasure of present
ing you with a sketch of Mitcham, I hope to have
the pleasure of presenting it to Mrs. Eoberts. All
I can do at present is to promise that you shall
have one : it remains in the state it was when I

126 "VIGNETTES OF DERBYSHIRE.
last saw you ; I havejiot touched pencil since. I
remain, " Yours, very respectfully,
"F. Chantrey.
" P. S. Will you allow me to paint a portrait of
you, when I visit Sheffield ? If I succeed, I shall
have great pleasure if Mrs. Eoberts will give it a
place amongst her friends."
"Mrs. Sterndale, Sheffield!'
In 1824, Mrs. Sterndale published a pleasing
little volume, under the title of " Vignettes of
Derbyshire," and to which she prefixed the name
of Chantrey, in the following inscription : — " To
him whose talents have added distinction to Derby
shire, and destined Norton to be immortalized with
the name of Chantrey, even as Urbino became with
that of Eaffaele, these shadows of his native county
are respectfully inscribed."
I will close this part of my work with a passage
from the letter of a friend : — " Every minute

LOCAL PATRONAGE OF CHANTREY. 127
particular respecting so eminent a man as Chantrey,
ought to be settled. In 1805, he had a room in
the High-street — I think at Botham's, a confec
tioner, who first introduced grand twelfth-night
displays of confectionary, to the great delight of
the youth of Hallamshire. I remember seeing him
there, surrounded by paintings. Carey was in that
year at Sheffield : I met him with Chantrey at Mr.
Ward's, and listened to his excessive volubility.
Chantrey was at that time the one object of atten
tion to every person in Sheffield who made preten
sion to anything like fondness for art, and, I may
say — of their patronage, as far as they could extend
it — which, perhaps, was not very far, especially
when compared with the large success accorded
him in after life. Mr. Daniel Brammall was a
great friend to him : Mr. T. A. Ward was most
zealously and assiduously such, leaving nothing
undone that he could do to bring the artist into
notice: Inchbald did the same. Their efforts,

128 HIS SHEFFIELD FRIENDS.
when looked at from the point to which Chantrey
ultimately attained, may seem insignificant — but
this is not the right way of viewing them : they
ought to be looked at in reference to the position,
at that time, of him who, born in an humble cottage,
had no natural introduction to the better society of
the place in which his lot was cast. They did all
they could, and would have done more if they
could: and for this, I say, they ought not to be
passed over by those who propose themselves as the
guardians of his reputation ; nor ought they to have
been forgotten by the Sculptor himself — if he did
forget them — which I do not pretend to say he did.
Indeed, I know that he gave handsome presents to
two of his early friends, to whom it happened that,
while he got rich, they got poor. It has been, as
you are probably aware, alleged that Sir Francis
Chantrey, like Sir Walter Scott, was too much of a
tuft-hunter, and allowed himself to be puffed in the
newspapers as a companion of the higher aristocracy,

HIS UNAFFECTED MANNERS. 129
to an extent which cannot be admired." In
extenuation of the not very unaccountable charge
alluded to at the close of the preceding extract, I
think it may with truth be affirmed, in the words
of the Eev. H. H. Piper, who " knew a good deal
of Chantrey before he became the companion of
princes and nobles," as well as afterwards, that " it
was the quiet, unaffected simplicity of his manners
which made him an interesting novelty amongst
those conventional aristocratic classes ; but never
was man less changed and spoiled by rising from
humble connexions to intimacy with the great."

PAET III

s 2

CHANTEEY AS A POETEAIT PAINTEE.

" Many of his Portraits are to be seen in the houses of the
principal inhabitants of the place [Hallamshire] ; and it is
desirable that a catalogue of them should be made, while still
the recollection is alive of the persons represented by so
eminent an artist. His charge at that time was five guineas :
in London, his charge was twenty guineas." — Atlas.
Persons who take any interest in the recent
history of art and artists are generally aware that
Chantrey, at an early period of. his professional
career, was engaged in taking likenesses; few
individuals, however, even in Sheffield, will be
prepared to learn, that there still exist around them

1 34 HIS PORTRAITS HIGHLY PRIZED.
so many evidences of his devotion to this art.
Indeed, the writer of these Memoirs has hardly
met with an instance in which a possessor of one
of these rarities did not consider himself, with,
perhaps, an exception or two, the only individual
who was so lucky ! While these pages are going
through the press, the readers of Eraser's Maga
zine are specifically told, that Chantrey " made one
or two essays as a portrait painter." Almost
equally curious is the fact, that most romantic
notions of the value of the paintings are often
entertained, on the groundless report that the artist
had been anxious to have bought them up ! It
must be admitted that, precious as some of these
eairiy performances undoubtedly are, for the artist's
or the subject's sake, many of them have little
merit beside. On the other hand, several of them
exhibit sufficient evidence for the belief that, had
Chantrey continued to pursue this branch of the
profession, he would have attained to eminence in

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE. 135
it. That painting, rather than sculpture, was the
"first love" of his genius, as well as the earliest
source of its pecuniary recompence, is undeniable ;
and he was apparently only diverted from its full
pursuit by one of those " fortunate accidents" upon
which the destiny of an individual so often seems
to turn. For if we even allow all that has been
said in the direction of nascitur non fit, in favour
of the Sculptor, the better-supported story of the
boy having been allowed to cover the stone floor
of his mother's cottage with rude sketches in chalk,
once a week — i. e. on a Saturday, before the flags
were washed for Sunday — is at least as good
evidence in favour of an innate turn for painting.
Whether or not the following list of productions
of his pencil points to the same conclusion, the
reader will judge. Of the number and character
of the productions of Chantrey's pencil in London,
I am comparatively ignorant. I believe the first
work and only picture he exhibited at Somerset

136 PAINTINGS IN LONDON.
House, was a portrait of his uncle, Daniel Wale,
Esq., painted in 1804. We are told that "he
attempted historical painting. In 1807, when he
was settled in London, and was attending the
Academy every evening, he painted two pictures,
which he destined for the British Institution. The
subjects were from Luke xxiv., 3 and 4, and 30
and 31. He was himself, on the whole, satisfied
with them. What became of them we know not,
but they were probably his last attempt in historical
painting." On the evidence of these, and doubtless
other works less known, Mr. Jones, whose opinion
in this matter is entitled to deference, asserts that
had his friend persevered in the use of the brush,
" he would have been a good painter, as bis works,
though few, are remarkable for colour and expres
sion — the former is striking, from its entire
freedom from the too prevailing fault of blackness,
being rich without gaudiness or positive colour;
and they show that he was impressed by the tints

CHANTREY S ADVERTISEMENT. 137
of Velasquez, Murillo, Jan Stein, and Hogarth."
In the Sheffield Iris newspaper of April 22, 1802,
appeared the following advertisement : — " F. Chan
trey, with all due deference, begs permission to
inform the ladies and gentlemen of Sheffield and
its vicinity that, during his stay here, he wishes to
employ his time in taking of portraits in crayons
and miniatures, at the pleasure of the person who
shall do him the honour to sit. F. C, though a
young artist, has had the opportunity of acquiring
improvement from a strict attention to the works
and productions of Messrs. Smith, Arnold, &c,
gentlemen of eminence. He trusts in being happy
to produce good and satisfactory likenesses; and
no exertion shall be wanting on his part to render
his humble efforts deserving some small share of
public patronage. Terms — from two to three
guineas. 24, Paradise Square!'
This, although the first time Chantrey's name.
had in any way appeared before the. public, was not
T

138 SMITH — ARNOLD — HALPIN.
so early as the date of some existing likenesses
from his hand. It will be seen that he acknow
ledges obligations — of style at least — to Smith*
and Arnold ; he might have added the name of
Halpin, a miniature painter, who, having visited
Sheffield in the dramatic corps of the elder
Macready just before Chantrey left Eamsay's, gave
him some useful instruction in the art to which he
was then devoting himself. Notwithstanding the
allusion to " miniatures" in the artist's advertise
ment, as above quoted, and the fact that he painted
* " J. R. Smith, the portrait-painter, who has lately been at
Doncaster, and frequently at my house, spoke of Chantrey's
abilities in terms of very high admiration; and, moreover,
assumes to himself the credit of having been instrumental in first
inspiring him with a love for the arts. He was a lodger at
Ramsay's at the time that Chantrey was an apprentice there.
He used occasionally to employ our friend in the humble office
of mixing his colours. Let no anecdote, however trifling,
respecting this future Phidias, be lost," — Inchlald's Letter to
Ward, Oct. 27, 1809.

EARLY HALLAMSHIRE ARTISTS. 139
two or three in London, I have only met with two
or three other specimens that could be with pro
priety so designated : nor is it possible to fix the
precise date of his first attempts in oil — there exist
heads from his pencil, on canvas, that certainly
deserve the reputation they claim of priority in
any style.
I am not able — even if this were the place for
it — to give a detailed account of all the portrait
painters who may have deserved or enjoyed the
patronage of the good people of Hallamshire before
the time of Chantrey; nor is it likely he would
have anything beyond a very limited acquaintance
with their productions, at the best. In the three
gentilitial residences at Norton, he would see some
family likenesses possessing both local interest and
artistic excellence. One of the earliest of the
painters, whom it is proper to name here, was a Mr.
Cornish, who executed a number of portraits of
some merit in Sheffield, about 1740. Nathanael
t2

140 CORNISH — TUCKER — NEEDHAM.
Tucker, who painted the altar-piece in the Parish
Church, was exercising his art, in Sheffield, about
1780. Several of the respectable inhabitants sat to
him ; among others, the father and mother of my
friend, Mr. Hunter, the learned and deservedly
respected antiquary and historian, to whose per
sonal kindness this volume is — as every publication
relating to " Hallamshire" must be in some way or
other — directly indebted. Ten years after the last-
named artist, came Needham, whom I mention
here, because his two half-lengths of the Eev.
" Justice Wilkinson," and of " Colonel Athorpe,"
in the Cutler's Hall, were, until long after the
commencement of the present century, the only
public pictures which the town could boast. The
artist named by Chantrey as his earliest master
of style in oil-painting, was a son of the celebrated
Dr. Arnold, the musical composer ; he afterwards
became well known in the metropolis as a dramatist
and proprietor of the English Opera House. I

PICTURE EXHIBITIONS IN SHEFFIELD. 141
confess none of Chantrey's portraits strike me as at
all similar in handling to the little I have seen of
Arnold's work. His crayon imitations of Eaphael
Smith are far more successful. It happened also,
about the time when the attention of the young
artist had become so decidedly fixed upon objects
beyond the scope of bis instructions as a mere
carver and gilder — viz., between 1802 and 1805,
that some local circumstances concurred to foster
his growing taste. Engraved views of Sheffield,
after pictures by Bonnington, were advertised ; the
portraits of Wilkinson and Athorpe were published
in mezzotint ; a collection of oil paintings, from
Hooding's, of Pall Mall, was opened for exhibition
in Sheffield ; and, not to mention others — William
Carey, an enthusiastic and ingenious native of the
emerald isle, who painted, copied, bought, sold, or
exchanged pictures, came and staid some time in
the town. This individual, whose conversation was
full of humour, energy, and anecdote, and to whom

142 WILLIAM CAREY.
I shall have to allude hereafter, was very early
struck by the force and bent of Chantrey's genius :
for the first time the latter came, as a stranger, into
the exhibition room, instead of looking and finger
ing, as most visitors did, over the more bright and
shewy pictures, he stood so long rivetted in thought
before a slight but vigorous outline sketch, that
Carey at once suspected, as he presently assured
himself, that the young man thus attracted, was no
ordinary spectator. Portrait painters presently
multiplied likewise, and to the success of one of
these in obtaining sitters, rather than to any merit
as an artist, may be attributed the envy of his
contemporaries. I have before me a paper of
Ehymes, apparently addressed to "Mr. Chantrey,"
on this " Sheffield brush" —
"  a townsman too well known ;
Fancy's prime favourite — Genius ! thy own ;
Now bright emerging from the dust and smoke,
Our Sheldon shines, a diamond, on a coke :
Go, view his handy-works in Orchard-street,
Upwards of two and thirty there you'll meet," <fec.

SHELDON'S PORTRAITS. 143
Thirty-two life-size heads — whatever the style and
price — formed, at the period in question, no incon
siderable item in the small amount of current
local patronage. Indifferent as these productions
undoubtedly were in an artistic point of view, many
of them attained a high relative value, as the only
existing portraits of men whose business-success in
after years placed their families in positions to be
grateful for any personal memento of this kind. I
need scarcely add, that a catalogue of the names
of portrait painters alone who, as residents or
visitors, have exercised the profession with more or
less success in Sheffield, during the last half
century, would be at least as ample as that of the
pictures about to be enumerated.
In preparing this catalogue, I have not attempted
to preserve strict chronological order : but the first
place, if not on the score of priority of execution,
yet for the subject's sake, is due to
1. F. Chantrey ; cabinet head, in crayons ; very

144 CHANTREY — THOMAS AND ROBERT FOX.
neat — about twenty years of age, in sky-blue coat :
the artist's, memento of himself, his profession, and
his progress, left with his mother, when he first
went to London, and retained by her as long as she
lived. In the possession of John Bead, Esq., of
Greenhill, near Norton.
2. Thomas Fox, Chantrey's schoolmaster at
Norton ; a small head, in crayons, evidently a very
early performance ; as is also a full-size head, in
crayons, of
3. Eobert Fox, son of the foregoing. Both
these portraits are at Norton, and belong to Mr,
Fox, schoolmaster, son and brother of the preceding.
They are the only portraits by Chantrey, which
occupy their original position. " In this room,"
says the worthy pedagogue, with laudable com
placency, " the late Sir Francis spent many an hour
at nights and mornings with my father and us."
Nor is it otherwise than gratifying to be thus
reminded that the ingenious boy, as soon as he

PETER ROBINSON. 145
found his faculties awaking, and before he had won
the notice of any of the local gentry, sought what
maybe presumed to have been among the most intel
ligent families of his own class — that of the village
schoolmaster. It is pleasant to add that Chantrey
just lived long enough to acknowledge in a fitting
way these juvenile "noctes," by introducing to the
Eoyal Academy a grandson of his old schoolmaster,
viz., Mr. William Fox, who is now, I believe, him
self a portrait painter in London.
4. Mr. Peter Eobinson, one of the sons of a
late vicar of Norton. Full-size head, in oil ; said
to have been the artist's first attempt. It certainly
deserves this distinction, as nothing more poor, in
every respect, can well be imagined. Belongs to
Mrs. Bunting, at the Bowling-green House, who
was the intimate friend of old Mrs. Chantrey.
5 — 6. Old man and woman, formerly of Norton.
Heads, life-size, in crayons ; in the possession of
Miss Shore, of Meersbrook. These are highly
u

146 OLD MAN AND WOMAN.
characteristic likenesses, painted at the expense
of the late Samuel Shore, Esq., of Norton Hall,
who has enhanced their value by the following
descriptive memorandum on the back of the canvas
on which is mounted the male head : — " This
picture represents Samuel Daken, who completed
ninety-four years, the latter end of November, 1800.
He was formerly a gardener, and when young,
lived three years and a half at Norton Hall, in the
service of Stephen Offley, Esq. Leaving that
situation when be was sixteen, he afterwards lived
on a small farm at Dronfield, and now resides in
the parish of Norton. Done by Francis Chantrey,
a self-taught youth of Norton parish." On the
back of the picture is pasted a paper of rhymes,
written on the old man, by "Thomas Wild, of
Norton Lees, filesmith, 180 L."
" When age of man to fourscore years is run,
I think the thread of life is finely spun."

OLD MAN AND WOMAN. 147
Each individual is represented with a handkerchief
tied about the head : that of the woman — who was
old dame Lee, of Norton Green — worn over her
cap in the comely fashion of a hood ; that of the
man, in whom the expression of extreme senility is
perhaps more faithful than pleasing, is tied on like
a night-cap : to the former of these coverings, the
poet above-named thus alludes in a second set of
lines, the MS. of which is — as in the case of the
other picture — pasted on the back of the framing
canvas : —
" Now from her cheeks the youthful glow is fled,
The waving ringlets taken from her head ;
With prudent care, to guard her head from cold,
A double covering you may there behold ;
That treat which nature craves, the cap denies,
The 'kerchief added, that defect supplies ;
It seems a present which is so supplied,
That quickly 'tis put on, and quickly tied,
As she thinks fit to wear or lay aside."
U 2

148 CHANTREY — MR. AND MRS. BRAMMALL.
7. F. Chantrey ; head, in crayons ; a very early
work ; in the possession of William Overend, Esq.,
barrister-at-law, son of the late Hall Overend, Esq.,
surgeon, Sheffield, who was an early and intimate
friend of Chantrey's.
8. Daniel Brammall, formerly of Sheaf-House,
who died in Paris, March 26, 1830. Head and
shoulders, in oil : execution better, perhaps, than
likeness. It has the general tone of most of the
artist's Hallamshire portraits — the absence of
bright and strongly contrasted colours ; effect
being mainly sought by the management of simple
chiarosuro. A pleasing memento of a worthy man,
and one of the artist's earliest friends : in the
possession of Mr. Almond, Ecclesall Eoad, Shef
field, a relation through marriage.
9. Mrs. Daniel Brammall, (who died in 1841,)
wife of the foregoing, with one of her daughters,
seemingly a child about eight years of age, pre
senting to her mother a flower ; three-quarters, in

BRAMMALL  MRS. ROBINSON. 149
oil. In the possession of the Eev, D. Brammall,
Shaw Parsonage, Oldham, Lancashire.
10. Mr. Smauel Brammall ; quarter portrait,
life-size, in oil ; excellent both in execution and
likeness. Eev. D. Brammall's.
11. Mr. Thomas Brammall, brother of the last-
named ; quarter, life-size, in oil, with back-ground,
and head of a fine bull-dog ; an early picture. Mr.
Watkinson, West-street, Sheffield.
12. Mrs. Eobinson, (mother of Mrs. D. Bram
mall, above-mentioned,) taken at White-House,
Sheffield, where she died: a pencil sketch. Mr.
Cooke, Colebrook Dale. This I have not seen ; but
have heard it praised as an admirable likeness of
the old lady.
13. Mrs. Samuel Brammall; head, life-size, in
oil ; a good likeness.
14. Miss Mary Brammall ; life-size, quarter
figure, in oil ; black hair, confined with an orna
mental bandeau ; outer dress apparently a green

150 MARY BRAMMALL.
velvet spencer. Chantrey used to say that this was
the best executed of his portraits. It certainly does
not lessen our interest either in the execution or
expression of the likeness just named — however it
may modify our confidence in the value of the
artist's self-approval — to know that in this instance
he worked under an inspiration to which, not only
genius and fame, but even wealth itself, may be said
often to have become subsidiary. A collection of
recorded instances in which the " gentle passion''
has influenced the productions of master-minds in
painting and sculpture, would form a curious
chapter in the history of art. In reference to the
case before us, it must suffice to add, that while the
lady went down to the grave in her maiden name,
the recollection of her piety in fife and death, exists
as a more precious memorial to her friends, than
the fact that she was painted by the hand, and
flattered with the admiration of one so pre-eminently
distinguished in art.

BRAMMALL  N. JACKSON. 151
15. Ann Brammall (now Mrs. Hall). These
were the wife and two of the daughters of a brother
of the elder Daniel Brammall above-named. When
I saw the three portraits in 1850, they were in the
possession of Mrs. Williss, of Whitely Wood.
Chantrey — as already mentioned — used to speak
of the head of Miss Brammall as one of his best
performances; while artists — and I agree with
them — perceive more merit in the comparatively
unfinished likeness of Mrs. Hall.
16. Nicholas Jackson, a native of Norton, who
died in 181 J . It is remarkable that this very kind
friend of Chantrey in his early fife was, like Mr.
Brammall above-mentioned, a Sheffield file-smith
of considerable repute. Ancient guests of the
" Cutlers' Feast" will remember how his loyal
songs formerly divided, with those of another local
worthy, (" Billy Batty,") the applause of the cor
poration, when sung at the old Hall, in Church-
street. A very early cabinet portrait, in crayons.

152 JACKSON — WILKINSON  ATHORPE.
Chantrey was on exceedingly intimate terms with
Mr. Jackson's family, including especially the lady
next mentioned — some evidence of which has
already been given along with the letter addressed
to them from Ireland.
17. Susanna Jackson, daughter of the forego
ing ; a good and lovely woman, to whose " golden
tresses and cerulean eyes" the artist has done little
justice: she died in 1812. Cabinet size; very
early — possibly his first attempt in crayons.
18. T. B. Jackson, a brother of the last-named,
when a boy. Full-size head; slight sketch in
black chalk. These are in the possession of the
Misses Jackson, of Eyre street, who have also, by
the same hand, reduced copies, in black crayon, of
two portraits in the Cutler's Hall, by Needham,
viz. : —
19. Eev. James Wilkinson ; and
20. Eobert Athorpe, Esq.
21. Mr. John Porter, a highly respectable

MR. AND MISS PORTER. 153
grocer in Sheffield, who died in June, 1802.
Quarter portrait, life-size, in oil ; in the artist's
middle style. The "benevolence and integrity"
indicated by the countenance of the living indi
vidual, are well rendered by the painter. In the
possession of Mr. John Porter, Spring Lane.
22. Mr. Porter (duplicate of the last-named),
and 23. Miss Porter ; a profile likeness, in oil, from
a cast taken after death. Chantrey never saw this
lady, who died in early life. Both these paintings
are in the possession of Mrs. Brydges, Blackheath,
London. 24. James Montgomery, the poet; head and
shoulders, life-size, in oil. Of the numerous
portraits which have been painted of this gentle
man, none of them strike me as conveying the
intellectual expression of our venerated townsman
in the early vigour of life, so satisfactorily as this
by Chantrey. Perhaps the many happy hours —

154 JAMES MONTGOMERY.
the happiest I have ever enjoyed ! — spent in edify
ing intercourse with the individual pourtrayed, and
in sight of this likeness, may have given it an
undue preference in my estimation. It was neatly
engraved in the "Mirror," 1807, being, I believe,
the first product of the artist's skill, as well as the
first reflex of the poet's face ever transferred to
copper-plate ; and although I have before me, at
this moment, upwards of twenty prints of Mont
gomery, of varied merits and published at different
times, few of them rival this early and unambitious
memento of the genius and friendship of Chantrey.
Besides the admirable likeness just described,
Chantrey made two unsuccessful attempts at a side
face of the poet. These sketches were formerly in
the possession of the late Mr. Moorhouse, surgeon,
of this town, beyond which I have not been able to
trace them. He likewise executed
25. A full-size profile of Montgomery, in
crayons. This is a slightly executed sketch, but

DICKENSON  RHODES. ] 55
was deemed so good a likeness that a reduced copy
of it, made by the artist, was engraved, along with
five or six other heads, in the frontispiece to " The
Flowers of Literature," 1807. The original crayon
sketch is in the possession of Mr. Nanson.
26. Mr. John Dickenson, formerly a respectable
farmer, at Langley, near Sheffield; said to have
been an excellent likeness, in oil, of a strongly-
marked individual; but I have not been able to
trace the painting.
27. Ebenezer Ehodes. It was to be expected,
considering the great intimacy and entire congeni
ality of tastes which subsisted between the artist
and the author of " Peak Scenery," that some
portrait of the tourist by his early friend would
exist. Such is the case ; and it would hardly be
too much to say, that this work — full-size head
and shoulders, in oil — is one of the happiest efforts
of the fertile pencil to which it owes its existence.
Most persons, indeed, who knew the late Mr.
x2

156 PORTRAITS OF CHANTREY.
Ehodes — especially those who remember him in
the prime of life, will admit that he was a " good
subject" for portraiture; and eertainly Chantrey
has not only thrown into this composition all the
effort which might avail to secure a likeness, but
much more than his ordinary liveliness of colour, I
regret to add that this interesting portrait has
passed from the family of him whom it represents :
it is at present the property of Mr. W. Eadon, of
Spring Hill Cottage, by whom it is justly prized.
28. Portrait of Chantrey, by himself, in oil;
head and shoulders, life-size. It is at once a
pleasing and effective picture, and indicates the
open, healthy, expressive countenance of the artist
when a young man. It formerly belonged to Mr.
Ehodes, but is at present the property of T. A.
Ward, Esq., Park House, Sheffield. It seems in
place here to mention, that Joseph Dixon, Esq.,
of Pitsmoor, has a beautiful cabinet head of Chan
trey, in crayons, by Eaphael Smith.

T. A. WARD — REV. J. WILKINSON. 157
29. T. A. Ward, Esq. ; head and shoulders,
life-size, in oil ; military costume ; carefully
painted. Park House, where there is also an
elaborate pencil head of
30. The Eev. James Wilkinson, formerly vicar
of Sheffield. It is said to have been taken when
the preacher was in the pulpit. It resembles, in
size and character, the well-known mezzotinto
print of the same individual by Eaphael Smith.
31 — 32. Anne and Eliza, daughters of the late
Mr. Thomas Harrison, of Weston House. These
are two little girls, about four and six years of age,
full-length, but reclining on the ground in a garden,
and reaching towards a group of hollyhocks : they
are on one canvass, and were charged twenty
guineas. This picture, now in the drawing-room
at Weston, is an interesting composition in at
least two respects — it is a pleasing specimen of that
graceful and natural simplicity which characterized
every production of the artist ; and it is especially

158 MISSES HARRISON.
a gratifying memento of the infantile age of the
two excellent ladies to whom belong the mansion
and the picture at Weston. Chantrey's " two
children" in marble, in the Cathedral at Lichfield,
have justly given a wide celebrity to the Sculptor
who has immortalized them in their death. Chan
trey's " two children," on canvas at Weston,
although contributing not one feather's weight to
the reputation of the painter, have their living
representatives in two ladies, whose christian muni
ficence entitles them to, and secures for them, the
gratitude of the poor, and the admiration of the
rich, in the town and neighbourhood of Sheffield.
How much good they do in secret — and how
solicitously they keep their charity as secret as
possible — is only fully known to themselves and to
their God : but the erection and endowment of
churches, and subscriptions to every local benevo
lent institution, are alms-deeds which cannot be
hid, and ought not to be unacknowledged, even on

JOHN AND JOSEPH LAW — MRS. HOLMES. 159
this passing occasion. I may just add here —
though I shall advert to the subject afterwards —
that one of the great Sculptor's latest works in
marble, was an embodyment of the filial piety of
the Misses Harrison in the monument erected near
the vestry door in our Parish Church.
33. Mr. John Law, formerly a silver cutler,
Sheffield : a miniature — the price of which Chan
trey said was the first guinea he ever received
for the exercise of his pencil. Mrs. Taylor,
Eotherham. 34. Mr. Joseph Law, brother of the above ; a
miniature, better than the foregoing, but both
indicating early effort.
35. Mrs. Holmes and child; quarter portrait,
life-size ; head of the infant deservedly admired ;
features of the mother said to be like, but " too
strong" — terms used to imply a want of softness
generally observable in Chantrey's early female
heads. At Mr. Pickfdrd's, Highfield Eoad, Sheffield.

160 MR. BLAGDON  MR. WARRISS.
A lady says, in a note addressed to myself: —
" In my early years I spoiled some canvas ; and my
second effort with the brush was nothing less than
a portrait of my father, the size of life ! He was
so pleased with it that, to my great dismay, he
must needs shew it to Chantrey, whose good nature
and tact I have often thought of since that time.
Looking at the picture, he said — ' It is very like : I
know men who get their living by the pencil who
do not paint better ; but it wants breadth— a thing
more talked about than understood.' " Chantrey's
own works, in any class, rarely wanted breadth.
36. Mr. Blagdon, formerly a silver-plater, in
Nursery-street. I have been the more anxious to
trace this portrait because, in the opinion of Mont
gomery, it was of more decided merit than most of
its fellows. It is in the possession of Madam
Eamuz, (Mr. B.'s daughter,) at Niewyd, near
Coblentz, on the Ehine.
37. Mr. Warriss, optician, Sheffield (who married

ROBERT RODGERS — THOMAS GREGORY. 161
Dr. Younge's sister), full-size head, in oil ; the
likeness vigorous and true, but wanting apparently,
like some of his other portraits, a few "last
touches." In the possession of John Jeeves,
Gent., Sharrow Grange.
38. The late Eobert Eodgers, Esq., solicitor,
Sheffield, when a young man ; cabinet size, in
crayons ; cost one guinea— -forty said to have been
refused for it ! Decidedly one of the best portraits
of its class. In the possession of Mr. Thomas,
surgeon, Norfolk-street.
39. Mr. Thomas Gregory; full-size head, in
crayons. This is the first portrait by Chantrey with
which I became acquainted ; it was, I believe, one of
the earliest executed by him. Many persons in this
town will recollect the late Mr. Gregory, as once
engaged in the office of Vincent Eyre, Esq., the
Duke of Norfolk's steward in Sheffield : others may
remember him, at a later period, as the builder of
Lancaster Place, near Waterloo Bridge, London,
Y

162 MRS. HILL  W. WILD  S. A. YOUNGE.
where he lived and died. The portrait, I have
lately learnt, is in the possession of his son, of the
same name, a solicitor in London.
40. Mrs. Hill, wife of the late Mr. Hill, carver
and gilder, Sheffield, and Chantrey's fellow- appren
tice with Eamsay ; head, in crayons, small life-size ;
the likeness good.
41. Mr. William Wild, son of the above, by her
first husband ; head of a young man, in crayons ;
cabinet size, and indicating very decided artistic
improvement in the handling of the subject — this
result said to be due to the fact of the artist having
then seen and studied more the clever productions
of Eaphael Smith, in a similar style. These
pictures (of his mother and brother) are in the
possession of Mr. Wild, George- street, Sheffield.
42. The late Mr. Simon Arthur Younge,
haberdasher, High-street, in the 75th year of his
age, in a wig ; a pleasing portrait, full size head
and shoulders, in oil.

MRS. YOUNGE — REV. E. GOODWIN. 163
43. Mrs. Younge (his wife), same size and
style ; the painting said to be better than the like
ness ; a good-looking, middle-aged woman. Both
these pictures are at Sheaf House, the residence
of George Younge, Esq., an appropriate depository
of specimens of the genius of Chantrey — the house
having been erected and occupied by the late Mr.
Daniel Brammall.
44. Eev. Edward Goodwin, senior, one of the
assistant ministers of the Parish Church, Sheffield,
who died in July, 1817, in the 86th year of his age.
Head and shoulders, full-size, in oil. The likeness
at once reminds a stranger of the common prints of
Dr. Parr; few persons, therefore, who remember
this highly respected and venerable Sheffield
clergyman, will .be surprised to learn that Mr.
Goodwin's friends always regarded this portrait as
embodying an idea rather of his strength of
character than of the benignity of his countenance.
In the possession of William Younge, Esq., of
y2

1 64 S. YOUNGE — MISS PORTER — DR. SUTTON.
Endcliffe ; who has also a profile head, in oil, of his
brother 45. Simon, third son of Mr. S. A. Younge, a
young man, who died in February, 1807; and
one of
46. Miss Porter — both painted after death.
47. Eev. Thomas Sutton, D.D., Vicar of Shef
field ; half-length, in oil, with various accessaries —
the whole judiciously composed, but slight — price
ten guineas. It was painted in 1805, for the late
Mrs. Middleton, of the Vicarage, Hendon, and was
in her possession as long as she lived : is now
(1850) in Dr. Sutton's study at Endcliffe House.
I may mention that Chantrey made a series of
sketches on the Eivelin — a Hallamshire river, the
picturesque banks of which have often inspired
artistic pencils — these he promised to give to the
vicar of Sheffield, but the promise was never
realized. 48. Sleeping Boy ; small life-size, in oil. This

SLEEPING BOY — BEGGAR BOYS. 165
picture is said to represent a real incident, viz., that
Chantrey, on walking out one summer's day into
his mother's fields, found the "Farmer's Boy" thus
laid asleep on his arm under the hedge, his hat off,
and the dog watching at his feet. The dog is quite
unfinished ; but the sweet, happy expression of the
sleeper's face, and the tone of the back-ground,
forcibly recal the style of Gainsborough. This
picture, which was painted over one of the artist's
abortive attempts to make a satisfactory likeness
of his friend, the late Mr. D. Brammall, was highly
prized by Chantrey's mother as long as she lived ;
it now belongs to John Eead, Esq.
49 — 50. Two Beggar Boys ; half-length, life-
size, in oil ; very slight, but admirably drawn.
The subdued expression of the blind boy, and the
supplicatory countenance of his companion, are
admirably caught : the whole shows how much
more effect depends upon accuracy of outline than
contrast of colours. Mr. Eead.

106 BROOMHEAD  WALKER — HENDERSON.
51. Benjamin Broomhead ; side face, in oil,
half-length, life-size; a book in the hand. This
youth died in January, 1806 : he was son of Benjn.
Broomhead, who was Master Cutler in 1784. This
portrait, painted from a cast, and a view of the
features after death, is one of the most effective
of Chantrey's productions of this class ; the expres
sion is gentle and pleasing, and the handling
altogether indicative of enlarged experience in a
tasteful use of the pencil.
52. The late Benjamin Walker, confectioner,
Church Gates, Sheffield ; a young man, full face,
in oil, but rather tamely executed, of the brownish
tint which prevails in other of Chantrey's portraits :
price paid to the artist £5, and a pair of top-boots !
At present in the possession of Mr. Johnson, china
man, Fargate.
53. Eobert Henderson ; head, in oil; originally
a fellow apprentice with Chantrey at Eamsay's, and
an ingenious man, who afterwards assisted him in

COOPER — INCHBALD — PIPER. 167
executing some of the details of the Wilkinson
monument : he ultimately commenced business as
a carver and gilder; but, "taking an enemy into
his mouth," he died in obscurity, and I know not
what became of the portrait.
54. Mr. James Cooper (late governor of the
Sheffield Workhouse) ; head, in oil. At Detroit,
United States.
55. Eev. Peter Inchbald ; head, in oil ; but
repainted, I believe, by Smith. In the possession
of Dr. Inchbald, of Storthes Hall, Huddersfield ;
who has also a cleverly executed head, in the style
of Eembrandt ; much admired for its effective
imitation of that master.
56. Eev. H. H. Piper, formerly Unitarian
preacher in the chapel erected by the late Samuel
Shore, Esq., adjacent to his residence, Norton Hall.
Full-size head and shoulders, in oil. This portrait,
which I recollect to have seen and admired several
years ago, was of the prevailing low, brown tone

1 68 SAMUEL STANIFORTH.
of colouring, which characterizes so many of
Chantrey's heads painted at that period. It is
now, I believe, in the possession of Mr. Piper, at
Banbury, Oxfordshire.
57. Samuel Staniforth, Esq. ; half-length, life-
size, in oil; an excellent likeness, though taken
under disadvantageous circumstances. The old
gentleman would not consent to sit ; but Chantrey
being at the house of his son, Mr. W. Staniforth,
in Castle-street, it was arranged that he should
place before himself an old picture, and while appa
rently copying that, really get a likeness of the
patriarch on the canvas on the easel. The trick
succeeded ; " and thus the family," to adopt the
language of one of them, " obtained, as an offering
of gratitude, a most excellent likeness of their
much-loved and valued head." The word in italics
points to early acts of kindness experienced by the
young artist in the family alluded to. Mr. William
Staniforth, above-named, was a surgeon of large

MISS BRAMMALL  MARY GREEN. 169
practice in Sheffield, a man of great urbanity of
disposition, and with the predilections of a virtuoso.
At his house, Chantrey found not only skeletons,
books on anatomy, and instructive conversation on
almost all subjects, but a large collection of prints,
mostly after the old masters ; indeed, the series of
Eembrandt's etchings, which Mr. Staniforth had
accumulated, was unrivalled in Sheffield at that
period, except by the portfolios of Madonnas
belonging to his friend Dr. Younge, with which
Chantrey was also familiar. This painting is in
the possession of Mrs. Staniforth, of Swansea.
58. Miss Brammall, a sister of Eamsay's second
wife; and
59. Mary Green, his young housekeeper ; both
cabinet size, in oil ; painted by Chantrey just
before he left Eamsay's, and carried off by him.
60. Samuel Peech, of the Angel Inn, Sheffield;
a famous posting-house in the palmy days of
stage-coaching. He was a worthy man, a most
z

1 70 SAMUEL PEECH — JOHN HEWITT.
enterprising competitor for the profits and privileges
of "The Eoad," and in his stable-yard and bar,
quite " a character." James Eamsay, son of Chan
trey's old master (and subsequently known as a
respectable artist in London), likewise made a
portrait of the same well-known individual. Both
these early works of the two young aspirants are in
existence, and differ chiefly in expression : one
represents " Old Peech," as he was familiarly called,
with that stern, John Bull look, which the govern
ment of his large hostelry sometimes compelled
him to put on when dealing with incorrigible
servants ; the other, as he appeared when he had
just shaken hands in his bar with an old friend.
61. Mr. John Hewitt, of Sheffield, merchant, a
native of Norton, and a school-fellow of Chantrey's
in boyhood; half-length, in oil. In breadth,
vigour, and truth, this likeness is not inferior to
the best specimens of the artist's pencil ; it is like
wise in beautiful condition. In the possession

BROWN — OLDFIELD  WARD — MAW. 171
of Mrs. Hewitt, Sheaf Gardens. In the same room
hangs a portrait of Mr. Hewitt's brother, Thomas,
by Sheldon; and certainly the contrast in style
between these two pictures of similar price is most
striking !
62. Mr. John Brown, boot-maker, Church-
street ; cabinet head, in crayons ; an early produc
tion. In the possession of Mr. Brown.
63. Sarah Oldfield, housekeeper to the late
Misses Smelter, Howard- street ; same size and
style as the last-named. I cannot trace this
picture. 64. T. A. Ward, Esq. ; a miniature, executed
with a degree of delicacy, elegance, and spirit
which was hardly to be expected from the artist's
hand in " 1806" — the date which it bears. In the
possession of Mrs. Brown, of Endcliffe.
65. Captain J. Maw. In the month of January,
1806, Chantrey was on a visit to Doncaster — a
professional visit we may call it — for he got printed
z2

172 LIEUTENANT MAW.
and distributed in the town and neighbourhood a
circular, announcing his terms and residence* as a
portrait-painter ; and it is remarkable that although
he remained there at least three weeks, the only
sitter he had was the gentleman above-named — a
brother of H. L. Maw, author of " A Journal of a
Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific." I believe
both the gentlemen above-named had been the
pupils of Inchbald, who, on the 7th December,
1805, thus wrote to his friend Ward: — "Lieutenant
Maw wishes to improve himself in the use of the
pencil during his Christmas vacation — particularly
in the laying on of colours and sketching land
scapes. It would be an introduction to Mr.
Chantrey, should he think it an object; and Mr.
Maw is desirous of his assistance. Every thing
• It is worthy of remark, that the same lodgings in Baxter-
gate, Doncaster, were successively occupied by three artists of
note, viz.— Raphael Smith, Chantrey, and Hofland : the former,
I am told, died there,

BOOCOCK — COWLEY  JENKIN  ATKIN. 1 73
that is liberal in the way of remuneration would be
allowed, should our ingenious friend think it worth
his while to devote a portion of his time for a few
weeks to instructing a respectable military student
in the necessary art of sketching views from
nature." I have not been able to learn whether
or not Chantrey embraced this offer : from the
collocation of dates, it is most likely he did. More
than twenty years afterwards, Southey mentions
having met Lieutenant Maw, the intrepid explorer
of the Orellana Eiver, at Chantrey's house in
London. 66. The late James Boocock, grocer, Sheffield ;
head, in oil. Mrs. Woodcroft, Bennet Grange.
67. Mr. John Cowley, hatter, Sheffield ; head,
in oil.
68. Mr. Jenkin, of Hazlebarrow, the old friend
and neighbour of the Norton Chantreys ; and
69. Mr. Atkin, formerly a grocer in King-street.
These both passed, with other unfinished portraits

1 74 TWIGG — THOMPSON — NEWTON.
in oil, into the hands of the late Mr. Moorhouse,
surgeon, and have eluded the search of parties most
interested in their preservation.
70. Mrs. Twigg, formerly of Market -street. This
likeness of the comely-looking matron was copied
from a miniature ; it is a life-size head, in oil,
carefully painted, and belongs to Mr. Marsden,
of Norton, near Eetford.
71. A slight pencil likeness of Mr. Thompson,
a teacher of drawing, in Sheffield : in his possession.
72. Mr. William Newton, Cressbrook, near
Tideswell, for an account of whom, see "Peak
Scenery," or Miss Seward's " Letters." A pencil
sketch, in Mr. Newton's family, and highly prized.
Of the portraits painted by Chantrey in London
we possess, as I have said, no specific information ;
they were, at least it is probable, more numerous,
if not more meritorious, than is sometimes repre
sented. The likeness of his uncle, Daniel Wale,
Esq., was in the exhibition of 1804 ; and it appears

PORTRAITS IN LONDON. 175
probable, from the following passage in a letter of
Inchbald's, written in February, 1809, that he also
painted a portrait of Miss Wale : — " I have lately
had a letter from Chantrey, which began with
concluding ! only he informed me, in a postscript,
that he had commenced housekeeping, from which
I infer that he is going to take unto himself a
wife — of his own nation and kindred. From the
portrait which he has painted of her, she should be
a most charming little creature !" Allan Cunning
ham had a likeness of the artist, painted by himself.
In one of his letters written in 1807, he says he has
in his room eight portraits, nearly finished, at
twenty guineas each ; and that he had reason to be
flattered with the quality of his sitters at a still
earlier period, appears from the following letter : —
" 21, Curzon-street, May-Fair,
"June 16, 1805.
<
Dear Sir, — Your's I duly received — am sorry
to inform you the books you mention are both sold.

176 LETTER to t. a. ward.
If I meet with P. P. Eubens' Landscapes by
Bolswert, will purchase them for you : they are the
best — and scarce. ***** Senior says,
business and want of news are no excuse among
friends for not writing ; however, I take the liberty
of attributing my silence to business. 1 have been
so much engaged on a portrait of Lady Scarsdale,
and a half-length of Lady Bromley, that for four
weeks past I have continually had one or the other
before me. You may easily conceive my situation
on so important a subject. I have finished them,
and they give satisfaction. The exhibition closed
on Saturday last : as soon as I have settled the
business relative to Mr. Wilkinson's bust, I shall
return to Sheffield — if the weather be favourable,
by way of Hull. I shall leave London in about
ten days. ***** I have just visited
Kensington Gardens. Two of the most fashion
able belles were dressed in white; over their
shoulders were carelessly thrown plain thin muslin

KENSINGTON GARDENS. 177
cloaks (purple) ; they wore mob caps and straw
hats ; and, round their necks, a broad brass
collar, |nL___^>| gilt.*
"Believe me, dear Friend,
" Your's, sincerely,
" F. Chantrey."
"Mr. T. A. Ward, Sheffield."

* The little sketch in the letter really illustrates the writer's
statement ; but in after years, Chantrey was always fond of a
pencil pun, or representing a word by a hieroglyphic, especially
when addressing any of his old and familiar friends, whose names
were susceptible of being thus indicated. Indeed, there is reason
to suspect that his fondness for graphic jokes led him, at least on
one or two occasions, to venture incognito into the province of the
celebrated Gilray.
2A

PART IV.

2 a2

THE SCULPTOR IN SHEFFIELD.

" Those who wish to trace the return of English Sculpture
from the foreign artificial and allegorical style, to its natural and
original character — from cold and conceited fiction to tender and
elevated truth — will find it chiefly in the history of Francis
Chantrey." — Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1820.
To Norton, as the birth-place of Chantrey, I have
already adverted at length, and to that village, as
his selected burial-place, I shall return hereafter ;
meanwhile, it has been shown that Hallamshire had
a parental claim on the Painter — as the facts of
this chapter will prove it had on the Sculptor also.

182 LACK OF SCULPTURE IN SHEFFIELD.
Eidiculous as it would be to look for the germ
of his genius in any of those fictions of boyhood
which I have previously mentioned, it does not
seem equally immaterial here to remark, that at the
time when Eamsay's apprentice first began to try
his hand at modelling, there was not perhaps a
large town in England that afforded fewer examples
or incentives to such a pursuit than Sheffield.
Three recumbent figures, and one kneeling effigy,
in the " Shrewsbury Chapel," at the Parish Church,
comprised the monumental statuary — probably the
work of Italian artists; while out-of-doors there
were a respectably executed figure of Justice, by
Waterworth, of Doncaster, at the head of the
Shambles; a spirited profile of Shakspeare, with
some dramatic symbols, on the pediment of the
Theatre, executed by a wandering stranger of the
name of Eenilowe,; a poor exhibition of the " Nor
folk Arms" on the old Hospital Chapel, the joint
work of one of the masons — Peter Skinner, of

CHANTREY VISITED DISTANT COLLECTIONS. 183
Gleadless — and a rambling genius called "Jem
Officer," from York ; a small lugubrious lion over
the door of the Assay Office, by H. Mozlejr, once
an employe of Eamsay's ; and, best of all, an
" Angel," in terra-cotta, with a brazen trumpet, as a
sign on the inn and in the street denominated there
from — the early work of Eossi, who, while a youth,
lived with his father in a house opposite. Of course
our young aspirant saw what works of the chisel
were to be seen at Wentwbrth House — the present
noble gallery at Chatsworth did not then exist:
indeed, with the writer in the Atlas, I " happen to
know that the few collections of ancient sculpture
which were within his reach while he lived in the
country were visited by him, and that in particular
he paid two visits to Newby, whilst still a young
man and still younger artist, and came away deeply
impressed by the works of sculpture in that man
sion." Perhaps it should be added, as somewhat
remarkable, that, with the exception of the figures

184 DETERMINES TO BECOME A SCULPTOR.
of the Marquis of Eockingham at Wentworth, and
the Earl of Strafford at Stainbro', there did not at
the period of Chantrey's apprenticeship; — nor am I
aware that there does at this day — exist a single
standing life-size statue, of modern man or woman,
in marble or gritstone, within doors or without,
either in Sheffield or within the circuit of more
than a hundred miles around the town.
When, and wherefore then, did Chantrey abso
lutely determine to abandon painting for sculpture ?
These are questions which have repeatedly been
asked and answered. But most of the printed
notices on this subject are more ingenious than
satisfactory — accident having apparently had as
much to do with the matter as abstract reasoning.
Undoubtedly his tastes for the sister arts may be
said to have been twin-born, and for a time, mutu
ally cherished. We have already seen how long
and largely, and with what measure of success and
promise, he exercised the brush — even in Sheffield :

PROFESSIONAL COGITATIONS. 185
perhaps, it may be said, because this was the only
immediate source of income.
Mr. Ehodes — who knew Chantrey well — has a
graphic passage descriptive of the perplexity and
the embarrasment of the young enthusiast soon
after he became an attendant at the Eoyal Academy.
Leaving the students' room, which was then at
Somerset House, in a state of bewildering indecision
as to the branch of profession finally to be adopted,
he returned to his own apartments — "spread his
canvass before him, prepared his pallet, took up his
pencils, began to paint; landscape, portrait, and
history by turns attracted his notice, and mingled
with his contemplations ; but the sculpture of the
academy was continually before him, and the images
it presented became associated with his thoughts,"
&c. Mr. Ehodes adds that, during this critical
crisis, the young student visited and re- visited the
Elgin marbles : — " this influenced his choice, and
determined him to become a sculptor." This is all,
2b

186 EARLY ATTEMPTS AT MODELLING.
no doubt, very true, in a general sense ; but if we
apply the test of dates, it will be found that what at
first sight seems only like the record of an after
noon's struggle between the rival fascinations of
Phidian and Apellean art, is really by the context
shown to comprehend between three and four
years !
Of the nature and progress of his early studies in
London, it is not my purpose to speak; I have
seen nothing that he produced at that time beyond
a spread eagle, about four inches high, in wax, and
a small hand and arm, formerly belonging to his
mother at Norton, in clay; also a spirited study
of an ancient head, in the possession of Eichard
Bayley, Esq., of Castle Dyke ; and a child's head, in
the possession of Thomas Stirling, Esq., at Shef
field. This early work happened, when I last saw
it, to be placed beside some fine specimens of the
most ancient sculptures in the world — a couple of
slabs from the mounds of Ninevah ! But there is

CHANTREY'S ADVERTISEMENT. 187
evidence in what follows, coincidently with the
earliest date of any existing life-model from his
hand, that he was consolidating the success of the
student into the confidence of the artist ; for in the
Sheffield Iris of October 18, 1804, appeared the
following advertisement : —
" SCULPTURE AND PORTRAIT PAINTING.
" F. Chantrey respectfully solicits the patronage
of the ladies and gentlemen of Sheffield and its
environs, in the above arts during the recess of the
Eoyal Academy, which he hopes to merit from the
specimens he has to offer to their attention at his
apartments, No. 14, Norfolk-street. As models
from life are not generally attempted in the country,
F. C. hopes to meet the liberal sentiments of an
impartial public."
A lover of the arts, and having a head admirably
adapted for the modeller's purpose, William Younge,
Esq., M.D., of Sheffield, sat to Chantrey for a bust ;
for this work, which, when finished, was deservedly
2 B 2

188 BUSTS OF YOUNGE, HUNT, AND WHEAT.
admired, as presenting something more than the
mere promise of excellence, the artist received
twenty guineas. It is at present in the possession
of John Jeeves, Esq., of Sharrow Grange.
Two other busts were modelled at this period —
one of the artist's early friend Mr. Hunt, a teacher
of drawing, in Sheffield ; and one of James Wheat,
Esq., solicitor, of the same place, who died in
January, 1805. The exhibition of these works,
along with that which will immediately demand a
more extended notice, may almost be said to have
formed an era of art in Sheffield, as well as in the
history of the artist himself.
It was during Chantrey's professional visit to
Sheffield at this time, that an opportunity occurred
for the exercise of his skill, upon which his destiny
as a sculptor may be said at that moment to have
depended. The Eev. James Wilkinson, the vene
rated vicar of Sheffield, occasionally spent some
time at his family mansion at Boroughbridge, and

DEATH OF REV. J. WILKINSON. 189
there he died on Friday, the 18th January, 1805,
in the 75th year of his age. The late Hall Over-
end, surgeon, a zealous friend of Chantrey's, being
in the neighbourhood at the time, went directly to
Boroughbridge, sought and obtained permission for
the young artist to take a cast of the face of the
deceased. On reaching Sheffield, and communi
cating this intelligence to Chantrey, he immedi
ately borrowed a horse, and early on the Sunday
morning was on his way northward, notwithstand
ing the heavy snow that was falling at the time.
He happily accomplished his object, at the expense
of a ninety miles' ride, at the worst season of the
year — a feat of horsemanship which few of the
gentle devotees of the pencil or the chisel would
be very willing to imitate, either on speculation or
" commission." Mr. Wilkinson was highly respected, as he
deserved to be, by his parishioners ; and the
sagacity and activity of the Sculptor, will appear to

190 PROPOSED MONUMENT.
be at least justified by the fact, that the lapse of a
few days, not only produced the announcement of
public mourning, but of a mezzotinto print of the
late vicar, by J. E. Smith, Chantrey's master in
crayons, from a painting by Needham, now in the
Cutlers' Hall ; a medal, by Westwood, father of the
present celebrated entomologist of that name, who
was working as a die-sinker at Sheffield. This bust,
along with those of Dr. Younge and Mr. Hunt,
formed Chantrey's earliest contribution of models
to the exhibition of the Eoyal Academy. They
were much admired in London, and one of them
was destined to a still more distinguished celebrity.
On the 5th of August, 1805, a highly respectable
party met at the Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield, to cele
brate the late vicar's birth-day, their main object
being to " collect the sense of the gentlemen
assembled on the propriety of erecting a monument,
by public subscription, to the memory of. a man
who, for half a century, had dedicated his talents

DEATH OF NKLSON — NAVAL PILLAR. 19J
almost exclusively to the service of the town
and neighbourhood." The project was warmly
taken up, a committee formed, at the head of which
was Dr. Brown — a name ever to be mentioned with
honour, as one of the most zealous patrons of our
" General Infirmary" — and, presently, the names
of more than one hundred subscribers were an
nounced. Before, however, any final decision had been
come to by the monument committee as to the
artist to be employed, the arrival of news of the
death of Nelson and the victory of Trafalgar threw
the whole country into a paroxysm of loyalty, in
which the "town trustees" of Sheffield so deeply
participated, that they advised the inhabitants " to
forbear illuminating their houses on that occasion,"
as the corporate bodies of the town had it in con
templation to raise a subscription for erecting in
honour of the fallen hero " a naval pillar." This
patriotic project, although not eventually carried

192 LETTER OF WILLIAM CAREY.
out, was enthusiastically advocated by Mr. William
Carey, a well-known connoiseur in art, who was at
that time, as already mentioned, on a visit at Shef
field as a picture-dealer. In a long letter which
was published in the Iris, Nov. 21, 1805, he says
of the good people of Hallamshire : — " Fortunately
they possess in Eoche Abbey quarries a hard and
durable stone,* and in Mr. Chantrey a sculptor,
every way capable of fulfilling their intentions, and
of reflecting credit on their choice. This young
artist, whose modesty and zeal for improvement
are equal to his talents, was born so immediately
in the vicinity of Sheffield, that its townsmen will
probably, at no distant period, be proud to claim
him as a native of their town. The power of his
hand in executing what he sees, and the readiness
* It is worthy of remark, that the stone mentioned by Mr.
Carey as so suitable for carving is almost identical, in source and
quality, with that selected nearly half a century later for the
erection of the new Houses of Parliament.

CAREY'S RECOMMENDATION OF CHANTREY. 193
of his eye in catching a likeness, are exemplified in
his admirable busts of the Eev. J. Wilkinson, the
late vicar, and of Dr. Younge. There is a cold and
timorous caution which can behold a man of genius
struggling in obscurity, without daring to bear
testimony to his merits. It requires a purer taste,
an independent understanding, and something of a
kindred spirit to discover the powers of a young
artist in his first attempts. Chantrey had the good
fortune, in Dr. Younge, to meet with an amateur
whom nature and education, the classic acquire
ments of travel, and a judicious survey of the
treasures of art in Italy, have qualified to appre
ciate his talents, and to bring forward his abilities
to the public eye. It may not be improper to
observe, that Chantrey has not fallen into the habit
of servilely copying the forms of nature. His
good taste and accurate reflections early enabled
him to observe that a sculptor must take a certain
license, owing to his being confined to a single cold
2c

194 PREDICTION OF THE SCULPTOR'S FAME.
colour and to hard materials, which are too apt to
fall into acute angles and unpleasant lines. Hence
this young artist appears, by the light of his own
mind, to have adopted a large and liberal outline
and a fulness of contour, after the manner of the
best sculptors, who most successfully imitated
nature by going a little beyond her. It is this
which gives to the bust of Dr. Younge, and to the
other busts of this zealous artist, something of an
historical dignity and a character of the antique, of
which he is so passionate an admirer." Mr. Carey
recommended that a column, surmounted with a
colossal statue, should be erected on the site of the
old Town Hall, at the church gates ; adding — " In
executing the statue, Mr. Chantrey would possess
a noble opportunity of signalizing his talents ; and
should he be chosen to execute the monument, the
spirit of prophecy, at this moment, involuntarily
cries aloud that the work will equally commemorate
the taste and spirit of Sheffield, the talents of the

CHARACTER OF SHEFFIELD. 195
artist, with the victories and death of the immortal
hero of Aboukir, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar."
This high, but discriminating, and, as it now
appears, almost prophetic panegyric, is the first
notice of any of Chantrey's works which found its
way into print. It was alike honourable to the
youthful artist and to his veteran friend ; and I feel
additional pleasure in transcribing such a testimony
when I recollect that it was written and published
in Sheffield, where, as the writer in the Atlas justly
remarked, Chantrey's " eminent merits, then but
dawning on the world, were discerned by the few
individuals who were lovers of art ; and the people
of that sociable and friendly town vied with each
other in giving encouragement, as well as they were
able, to one whose merits they could appreciate,
though they might not be able to discern the
eminence he was destined to attain."
But while the noisy game of political cross-
purposes, which occurred on the death of Pitt and
2 c 2

196 NELSON MONUMENTS.
Fox in the ensuing year, and other local causes,
closed the questions of limestone, or gritstone — of
colossal or life-size in the statue — of the height
and situation of the column — by abolishing the
scheme of the Nelson monument altogether, the
style of the busts above adverted to, and the tone
of Carey's letter, were not without immediate effect.
In after-life, the attention of the Sculptor was more
than once turned to the subject of Nelson monu
ments. To a mere pillar, he appears decidedly to
have objected, on the ground that "no one knows
until he is told" whose memory it is intended to
honour : this objection does not seem conclusive.
Chantrey himself is said to have proposed as a
monument to the naval hero to be erected at Yar
mouth, a statue of Nelson of so large a size, that it
might serve as a light-house, the star on the breast
to be the point of illumination ! In a letter written
in 1815 to Mr. Alexander, then a young architect,
who had consulted him about a monument, he

NATURAL AND CLASSICAL STYLE. 197
replied — " If you place a statue of Lord Nelson on
your column, it should be large and of substantial
materials, not of thin plates of metal ; and it should
be the principal ornament of the column — magnifi
cently grand." Then referring to basso relievos on
the plinth, he adds, " make the ornaments few in
number, but let them be English — intelligible to
the meanest capacity — you have nothing to fear
from classical dunces." We seem to have in the
foregoing opinions something like a key to the
secret of his own success. He goes further, and
contends that the hero should be represented " in
the garb in which he won his renown, marking
distinctly the period and the nation to which he
belonged. It may be said this will not be classical ;
I say it will be classical, if it be elegantly natural!'*
Very good : common sense must, and genius ought,
to concur in the sentiment. It may be asked —
"Would Chantrey, then, have consented to raise a
* Gent's. Mag. August, 1846.

198 TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD IN COSTUME.
pillar, or to carve a cocked hat in marble ?" The
Nelson monument, erected soon after the Sculptor's
death, in Trafalgar Square, exhibits both, in bronze :
and why should it not ? But do the Sculptor's
remarks, as above quoted, go to the length of
representing a mere civilian in the dress of the
times in which he lived? I apprehend not; and
yet, why should we tolerate and admire false
hood, when chiselled in marble, or painted on can
vass, any more than when said or sung ? The
prevailing taste for busts and statues, modelled as
if they were mainly blocks for the display of what
the artist considers "drapery" — i.e., such a sheet
like wrapper as he would be ashamed himself to
wear in his studio, may prove that a carver in
marble often exercises vastly more influence over
the taste of his sitter than a preacher could do over
his conscience; but it surely belies at once the
honesty and the progression of an art which seeks
to substitute for the appropriate, because actual,

INDIVIDUALITY IN STATUES. 199
costume of every current age, the everlastingly
monotonous formula of Greek and Eoman folds !
Why a plain English gentleman, who chooses to
give a hundred guineas for a bust, should consent
to be habited in any other way in marble than that
in which he really appeared in fife — even if it were
" the coat and waistcoat style" — would be difficult
to imagine, did we not know how convenient it is
for the sculptor to generalize his labour, and for
the patron to resign his individuality, under the
vague spell of classicality . What is it but this
that renders the subject, so almost universally less,
and the artist more interesting in statuary than in
painting ?
Good taste has almost entirely laughed shep
herds and shepherdesses out of family pictures;
and why are not the heroes and demigods of the
Pantheon driven from our portrait sculpture ? The
conventional uniformity of Greek and Eoman
costume, may have simplicity to recommend it ;

200 FIGURES OF CANNING AND SLOANE.
but it is at once a palpable violation of historical
truth, and a sacrifice of individual verisimilitude.
Let us only imagine that, by any accident, Chan
trey's fine statue of Canning should get decapitated,
would there be anything in the rest of the figure to
preserve its identity ? — or even to indicate certainly
either the age, the profession, or the country of the
original ? Nay more ; are there not a thousand
illustrious individuals named in the contemporary
annals of an equal number of years, whose heads
might be successively affixed to the modern torso
without producing the slightest incongruity of
effect ? This could hardly be affirmed — for ex
ample — of the fine statue of Sir Hans Sloane, by
Eysbrac, in the gardens of the Apothecaries' Com
pany, at Chelsea. I am aware how surely anything
that can be called admiration of such prolix costume
will expose me to the charge of rusticity; but it will
not be so easy to convince me that the British
baronet-physician of the reign of George the

FICTITIOUS DRESS OBJECTIONABLE. 20 L
Second, would have been either more agreeably or
more artistically represented in a dress of the style
and age of Esculapius ! Nor let me be made
responsible for imputed absurdities or exaggerations
even in the direction of my own views. I may,
perhaps, be permitted to argue that a statue of Sir
Eoger de Coverley ought to represent him in the
costume of an " old English gentleman ;" and to
submit that a figure of William Penn would appear
out of character in a Eoman toga, without forget
ting that Sir Joshua Eeynolds protested against the
garb of the Duke of Cumberland in Cavendish
Square, or being supposed to be an apologist for
the monumental perriwig of Sir Cloudsley Shovel
in Westminster Abbey. I simply contend that to
dress men of all ages, all countries, all professions
in the monotonous formality of ancient art, is a
fiction, as unwisely allowed to the modern sculptor,
as it is justly denied to the painter and the poet.
If "the ancients" sought to embody nature and
2 D

202 WILKINSON S BUST MODELLED.
truth in art, why should not we do the same ? To
resume. It was resolved that to Chantrey should
be entrusted the execution of Mr. Wilkinson's
monument, and that a marble bust of the deceased,
should form part of the work. The original model
was, as already mentioned, executed in the old
Cutlers' Hall,* where the artist had before him the
portrait of " Justice Wilkinson," as the vicar was
generally called, from his attention to magisterial
duties, painted by Needham, as well as his own
materials for the likeness.
* In 1833, this ancient building gave way to one of far
greater convenience, as well as of acknowledged external beauty.
Chantrey not only took considerable interest in the erection of
the new Cutlers' Hall, but made the architect, Mr. Worth, his
secret agent for the transmission of several sums of money to a
mutual friend whose circumstances had rendered such donations
necessary. The Sculptor likewise evinced his local attachment
by the present of those casts of four of his finest busts, which
now, among others, adorn the vestibule, viz. Watt, Scott,
Canning, and Playfair. Having, in a previous page, mentioned

Wilkinson's bust modelled. 203
At this time — the autumn of 1806 — Chantrey
had a work-room in the premises of Mr. Todd,
printer, in New Market-street ; and there he pro
ceeded to copy, in marble, the portrait of the
venerable clergyman, which he had already so
happily embodied in plaster of Paris. As it was
not only the first bead which the Sculptor had ever
chiselled, but the first which, at that period, had
ever been so executed in Sheffield, the curiosity,
the expectation, and the wonder of the public were
largely excited during the important process of
carving. The result was entirely successful. The
that the old Cutlers' Hall, in Chantrey's early life, only contained
middling portraits of Wilkinson and Athorpe, to which was
afterwards added a copy of one of Thomas Hanbey, founder of
the Charity called by his name — I may add here that its noble
saloon can at present boast capital full-length pictures of Hugh
Parker, Esq., Lord Whamcliffe, the Duke of Wellington, Rev.
Dr. Sutton, the Duke of Norfolk, Dr. Younge, and Earl Fitz-
william : to these it is in contemplation presently to add that
of Joseph Hunter, the Historian of the District.
2 D 2

204 POETICAL COMPLIMENTS.
monument, which, in the month of December,
1806, was placed in the chancel of the Parish
Church of Sheffield, was "much and deservedly
admired, not only as a faithful and affecting resem
blance of a venerable and lamented character,
whose virtues will consecrate the marble which
records them — but also as a chaste and exquisite
specimen of the talents of a young artist, whose
genius we are firmly of opinion is destined hereafter
not only to confer celebrity on the little village of
Norton, the place of his birth, but to reflect glory
on his native country itself." This was the testi
mony of the poet Montgomery, who, by the publi
cation of his " Wanderer of Switzerland" that very
year, had excited in the minds of his townspeople
and others, an almost exactly corresponding tone
of happy prediction. Nor was the accomplishment
of the Sculptor's task ungreeted with rhyme r —
" 'Tis thine, 0 Chantrey ! thus with matchless skill,
To mould our passions at thy plastic will ;

POETICAL COMPLIMENTS. 205
And as the marble grows beneath thy hand,
Our charmed feelings rise at thy command ;
Blest is the hand that gives the mourner rest,
That pours the 'joy of grief into his breast :
Dear is the power that soothes the tender heart ;
Sweet are the consolations of thy art :
Oh ! wondrous art — which thus the face can save,
Which fond affection follows to the grave !
Pursue the path you now so greatly tread,
And save from ' dumb forgetfulness' the honoured dead."
These lines are part of a poem which appeared in
the "Iris" of January 20, 1807; and I once
thought they were written by the lady whose por
trait (No. 14) is mentioned on a preceding page:
she certainly often stood beside the Sculptor while
he was at work — not as an unconcerned spectator —
and an addiction to versifying was no secret among
her friends : but the panegyrist was, in this case, Mrs.
Sterndale. In the Doncaster Gazette of December
9, 1808, appeared anonymously some lines, by
Mrs. Hoole — afterwards better known as Mrs.

206 ME. AND MRS. HOFLAND.
Hofland — on a cast of the bust of Wilkinson, in
the possession of Mr. Inchbald : —
" Hail ! to the artist who, from mouldering earth,
Snatch'd the fine semblance of departed worth ;
From death's dread empire, won each living grace,
And breathed perfection o'er the plastic face ;
Chantrey, be thine the undivided aim,
To seize the Sculptor's rare and glorious fame,
From Attic honours pluck unfading bays,
And rival Athens in her proudest days."
I gladly quote these lines here, because their
introduction affords the only opportunity I shall
have of mentioning in these pages the name of a
lady who was not only esteemed by Chantrey for
her genius and her worth, but by the inhabitants
of Hallamshire, as one who has conferred honour
on the solum natale. Her husband, the painter,
who was as fond of angling as Chantrey himself,
dedicated to the Sculptor a pleasant book on
fisher-craft.

MONTGOMERY'S EULOGY OF CHANTREY. 207
Sixteen years afterwards, when Chantrey had
even then more than realized the foregoing predic
tions, Montgomery — whose poetical reputation had
equally advanced — thus spoke of his artist-friend,
while eulogizing the worthies of Hallamshire, at a
public meeting held for establishing " The Sheffield
Literary and Philosophical Society :" — " Chantrey
was not indeed a native of this town, but having
been born within the limits of this corporation, he
belongs to us, and is one of us. Whatever previous
circumstances very early in life may have taught
his eye to look at forms as subjects for his thought,
his pencil, or his hand, it was in Sheffield, — after
he had been called hither from the honourable
occupation of husbandry, which 'kings and the
awful fathers of mankind' of old did not disdain to
follow, — it was in Sheffield that his genius first
began to exercise its plastic powers, both in painting
and in sculpture. It was in Sheffield that the
glorious alternative was presented to him, either to

208 MONTGOMERY'S EULOGY OF CHANTREY.
be one among the greatest painters of the age, or to
be one alone as the greatest of its sculptors. It was
in Sheffield, likewise, after he had made the wiser
choice, that he produced his first work in marble ;
and Sheffield possesses that work, and I trust will
possess it till the hand of time, atom by atom, shall
have crumbled it to dust." The execution of Mr.
Wilkinson's monument, proceeded the speaker, was
assuredly " the most interesting crisis of the artist's
life — the turning point that should decide the bias
of his future course. Having employed a marble-
mason to rough-hew the whole, he commenced his
task. With a hand trembling yet determined, an
eye keenly looking after the effect of every stroke,
and a mind flushed with anticipation, yet fluctuating
often between hope and fear, doubt, agony, and
rapture — perplexities that always accompany con
scious but untried power in the effort to do some
great thing — he pursued his solitary toil, day by
day, and night after night, till, the form being

MONTGOMERY S EULOGY OF CHANTREY. 209
slowly developed, at length the countenance came
out of the stone, and looked its parent in the face !
To know his joy, a man must have been such a
parent. The throes and anguish, however, of that
first birth of his genius in marble, enabled that
genius thenceforward, with comparative ease, to
give being and body to its mightiest conceptions.
Were I a rich man, who could purchase the costly
labours of such a master, I almost think that I
could forego the pride of possessing the most
successful effort of his later hand, for the nobler
pleasure of calling my own the precious bust in
yonder church. Works of genius and of taste are
not to be valued solely according to their abstract
excellence as such, but they may become inestima
bly more dear to the heart, as well as interesting to
the eye, in proportion as they awaken thought,
feeling, recollection, sympathy — whether in alliance
with the. subject itself, the circumstances under
which it was undertaken, or the conflict and
2 E

210 BUST OF BIGLAND.
triumph of the artist in achieving his design. In
all these points the plain but admirable monument
before us transcends every other that has come or
can come from the same hand, since the experienced
and renowned proficient can never again be placed
on a trial so severe, with an issue so momentous, as
the youthful aspirant, unknown and unpractised,
had to endure in this first essay of his skill on the
block that might eternize his name, or crush his
hopes for ever. This, I believe, is the true history
of the outset of Mr. Chantrey, who was destined
thenceforward, at his pleasure, to give to marble
all but fife, for  ' What fine chisel

Could ever yet cut breath ?' "
Shakespear's Winter's Tale.
Three of the busts above-mentioned were ex
hibited in the Eoyal Academy, in 1805; and, in
the following season, the bust of Bigland, the
Essayist, which was executed at Doncaster. In

COLOSSAL HEAD OF SATAN. 21 1
1808, he startled the good people of Sheffield by
the exhibition of a gigantic head of Satan, modelled
in the attic occupied by him in No. 24, Curzon-
street, May-Fair, London. Chantrey's figure was
not, of course, the vulgar hobgoblin of the crowd,
but the fallen spirit, whose
 " form had yet not lost

All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscured ;"
as he is represented addressing the sun, in that
famous passage of the Fourth Book of " Paradise
Lost," beginning —
" 0 thou, that with surpassing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the God
Of this new world," &c.
I well recollect that local critics, in their remarks
on this bold attempt to embody Milton's sublime
conception of the great enemy of mankind, were
divided into three classes — those who, like Lord
2e 2

212 MONTGOMERY'S LECTURES ON POETRY.
Egremont, appeared solicitous that the Sculptor
should set himself to make a capital " statue of the
Devil;" those who objected to the somewhat
Orestes-like fashion of coiling a snake with the
hair, as a trick of vulgar horror ; and, lastly, those
who deprecated, on moral grounds, the realization
in marble — thus combining with so pure a material,
the highest effect of art — of any idea of the old
arch-fiend ! I am not certain what opinion Mont
gomery entertained on these particular points, but
he repeatedly suggested to Chantrey another sub
ject, not only wholly unobjectionable in itself, but
even as a companion-statue — equally adapted to
draw forth all the powers of the artist, as well in
the expression of mental emotion as in the develope-
ment of muscular energy, viz. : — Samson, as he is
pourtrayed in Milton's exquisite tragedy of " Sam
son Agonistes."
In after years, Montgomery embodied in his
Lectures on Poetry, a striking passage relative to

MILTON'S " SATAN " AND " SAMSON." 2 1 3
the two grand Miltonic creations above alluded to :
it has never appeared in print before ; and I am
kindly permitted to copy from the author's MS. : —
" Satan's Address to the Sun, in the Fourth
Book of Paradise Lost, is deservedly one of the
most admired passages in the poem. There, the
arch-fiend, broken loose from hell, and for the first
time eyeing the new-created light of another world,
is miserably reminded of the high state of bliss
from which he had been cast down by pride, and
worse — ambition. In the opening of Milton's
tragedy, Samson is brought out of the dungeon,
and laid on a bank to enjoy the warmth of day, and
the freshness of the breeze. On his way, he speaks
first to his attendant, and then to himself, on his
departed glory, his degrading bondage, and his
lamentable darkness. Satan and Samson thus
present most striking spectacles of man and angel
fallen by transgression from the highest eminence
which either could reach. The contrast is both

214 MILTON'S " SATAN" AND " SAMSON,"
sublime and affecting. The fiend, racked with
doubt and horror on the threshold of his new
attempt to cope with the Almighty, not in the open
field by violence, but, covertly, by fraud — that fiend
carrying the hell that stirs within himself into the
bosom of Paradise, looks up to the sun with rage
and agony, and calls him by his name to tell him
how he hates his beams, and recoils from his
splendour, as that which most annoys his sense of
guilt and aggravates his fixed despair. Samson,
on the other hand, blind and bound, and captive to
the Philistines, having a breathing-space from
prison-labour — equally reminded of lost bliss, and
present pain, and future hopelessness — outstretches
his arms and lifts his face, as the blind are wont to
do, towards the light, and longs to see and bless
the sun, and tell him how he loves his beams. The
arch-angel in eclipse, is scarcely a more magnificent
being than Samson, the ruin of himself, thus cast
upon the earth, and lamenting all his woes — but,

AS SUBJECTS FOR SCULPTURE. 215
most of all, his loss of sight !" Montgomery then,
after some remarks on the versification of " Samson
Agonistes," quotes at length from the pathetic
monologue, beginning —
" A little onward lend thy leading hand
To these dark steps," <fec. -
Chantrey, at first, highly approved of the sug
gestion of the Sheffield poet, but he never carried
it out, nor did he ever venture in earnest to give
form to Milton's sublime conception ; indeed, the
" satanic " temptation into which Chantrey fell,
through the unconditional order of that munificent
patron of art, the Earl of Egremont, was destined
to tease him, more or less, as long as he lived.
He knew that expectation had been raised, and
he felt at once the difficulties of the task, and the
peril — or, rather, the certainty of failure. Those
persons who have heard the Sculptor speak out on
this — one of the few professional oversights of his

216 ROYAL NAVAL ASYLUM.
fortunate career — will not soon forget the tone and
the terms in which he declared the impossibility
of realizing the image of Milton's satan in marble.
The bulk of the arch-fiend which, when " extended
long and large, lay floating many a rood;" — his
"van-broad pennons" — his "ponderous shield" —
his " spear," compared with " tallest pine, hewn on
Norwegian hills" — and, more than all, the attempt
to represent in solid stone a being whose form, as
he held, cast no shadow ! On these, and other
difficulties, he sometimes dilated in strong terms ;
but, although he never modelled the full figure,
it is worthy of remark that the colossal head of
satan above alluded to, and which, after it had been
exhibited in London in 1808, remained in the
Sculptor's studio to the end of his life, became
incidentally one of the main-springs of the artist's
first great opportunity of distinguishing himself in
his profession ; for when the Naval Asylum at
Greenwich was built in 1808, Mr. Alexander,

THE FOUR ADMIRALS. 217
the architect, applied to his friend Flaxman to
recommend him a young artist to model busts
of the four British admirals — Howe, St. Vincent,
Duncan, and Nelson — to place in the hall there,
the veteran sculptor, as if prescient of the future
celebrity of the new aspirant to distinction in his
own art, replied — " There is a young man who has
a colossal bust of satan this year in our exhibition ;
go and see it. He'd do them well, and thank you :
he has much talent." Mr. Montgomery, the poet,
when dining about the same time at the house of
Dr. Olinthus Gregory, found himself vis a vis to
the Greenwich architect, when the latter took occa
sion to ask about Chantrey, thus affording the
young sculptor's Sheffield friend an opportunity
of doing a service to one who ultimately more than
justified the prophetic eulogium of the poet. An
interview soon took place, Chantrey undertaking
the commission with the remark, " that he should
be satisfied with any money remuneration, as the
2 r

218 TARDINESS OF PATRONAGE.
execution of works for such an institution would
introduce him to notice, and consequent remunera
tion." Ten pounds each was the stipulated price
of the busts ; and there they stand, an honourable
testimony to the judgment of all the parties con
cerned. But I am wandering to the metropolis.
It is worthy of remark that, notwithstanding the
artist had produced so many heads in plaster, and
transferred one of them to marble, as part of a
monument, for which, as we have seen, more than
one hundred guineas was subscribed, and executed
at least one other marble bust, for which he was
well paid, a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine
(March, 1842,) states, that he heard Chantrey say
in the Assize Court at Lewes, when giving evidence
on a trial in 1840 — "I came to London in 1802,
and then I began to labour at sculpture. I never
worked for any other sculptors ; and, what is more,
I never had an hour's instruction from any sculptor
in my life. For the next eight years I never made

BUSTS OF SMITH AND SYLVESTER. 219
£6 in my profession." This statement, said to be
given in the Sculptor's " own words, exactly as he
delivered them in court," is both loose and incorrect.
Another bust which Chantrey modelled in Shef
field — I am uncertain in what year — remained in
his study, among the most admired works of its
class, as long as he lived : I allude to the head of
his old preceptor in crayon- drawing — J. E. Smith.
This ingenious individual was somewhat deaf; and,
while the likeness is generally admirable, the
adjunctive peculiarity of listening is conveyed with
unmistakeable precision. This excellent work has
been multiplied by casts.
I am equally unable to fix the precise year in
which the well-known bust of another of Chantrey's
friends — Charles Sylvester — was modelled; but
there are numerous copies of it in Sheffield, of
which town he was a native, and where he first
made those trials of the malleability of zinc, and
the practicability of heating large buildings by a
2 F 2

220 DEATH OF DR. BROWNE.
single fire, which have long since ceased to be
novelties. He was, at the time of Chantrey's visit
to Sheffield, in 1804, delivering a course of public
lectures on galvanism, the principles and experi
ments illustrative of which were, at that period,
matters of greater novelty, even to individuals
otherwise intelligent, than can easily be imagined
by the same class of persons in our day.
On the 10th January, 1810, died John Browne,
M.D., a man perhaps as well known and as highly
esteemed, as a public character in Sheffield, as the
late vicar himself : he is now also known to have
been, in more than one sense, the founder, as he
was always an active supporter of the General
Infirmary in that place, to which noble charity he
left, by will, ^500. The idea of a public monu
ment immediately presented itself to all parties in
the town of Sheffield ; while many persons believed
they saw in the movement a fair opportunity for
obtaining some striking composition from the

PROPOSED MONUMENT. 221
hand of Chantrey, who, as will be seen from the
following letters, was really anxious to co-operate
in the design : —
"May 2nd, 1810.
" My Dear Ward, — I am informed there is to be
a meeting on Monday next, in Sheffield, to consider
what is most proper to be done in commemoration
of Dr. Browne. Knowing this, I should blame
myself if I did not ask you to attend, and do and
say what you think most proper in my behalf,
should there be occasion. If there is a probability
of any one else being applied to, perhaps it would
be well for me to visit you immediately ? If not,
I would much rather wait till I am sent for.
Inform me of the proceedings of the meeting.
Friend Ehodes has kindly offered me his assistance,
and I hope you will freely give me yours. A bust
is all the reward I can offer you. If you see
occasion, you may, with truth, say that I should
pay more attention — and do more work for the

222 LETTERS FROM CHANTREY.
money — than any other artist. My general know
ledge of Dr. Browne will enable me to do it. My
bust of the King is not finished : he will be
honoured with another visit from me. Eespects
to your father, mother, and sister.
" Believe me, Dear Ward,
" Truly yours,
" F. L. Chantrey."
" T. A. Ward, Esq!'
On the following day he wrote again : —
"My Dear Ward, — I am extremely thankful
for your kind letter : nothing could have astonished
me more than what it contained. Laycock, [a
marble-worker, in Sheffield,] wrote to me, desiring
I would give him a few designs for monuments, as
Dr. Browne was dead, and he had an order to
execute one, to be placed in the new church, by his
family. Accordingly, I did so ; and answered the
questions he proposed — certainly in a way very
unfit to be shewn to Mr. B. or any one else. It is

MEDIOCRITY IN ART. 223
past, and I trust I shall profit by the experience.
Have taken the liberty of enclosing a letter for Mr.
Ehodes ; if you see anything improper in mention
ing your name and repeating what is past — burn it.
Indeed, Ward, I think you judge right, when you
say — nothing great will be done. * * * Your
observation, as to a picture, is just : middling
works of art are worse than 'middling poetry.'
Something greater than a picture or a bust should
be done. Eepresent the doctor between Benevo
lence and Charity, or relieving the sick ; then the
art might be of use by stimulating others to follow
his great example, and not squander the money by
fifties and hundreds, on a mere portrait, which will
always most interest those who knew him, and
must soon be consigned to oblivion.
" I remain, Dear Ward,
" Your very obliged, and sincere friend,
" F. L. Chantrey."
The foregoing remarks are such as might be

224 CARVED AND PAINTED PICTURES.
expected from an enthusiastic devotee to the most
difficult of the fine arts ; and it is with extreme
diffidence that I venture to interpose a qualifying
opinion. But is the effective — the exemplary
benefit — to say nothing of general impression —
of a tablet, or other composition, with figures
merely in relief, in one word, a picture in marble,
really superior to a painting on canvass represent
ing the same idea, the execution of each being by
artists of similar merit ? Apart from the abstract
notion of the value of statuary in its higher achieve
ments, and the obvious advantages of works
wrought by the chisel over those of the pencil,
on the score of durability and adaptation as monu
ments, in certain situations, the real inferiority
of the latter art is much more frequently asserted
than demonstrated, by eminent as well as " mid
dling" practitioners. I hesitatingly venture a few
more words on this subject. That " middling
works of art are worse than middling poetry," must

"MIDDLING" WORKS OF ART. 225
be admitted; but are not both often more elo
quently than wisely denounced ? To apply the
trite moral axiom of " middling things are best," to
productions of art, would justly be deemed aesthetic
heresy, as, according to the Horatian canon —
"  Mediocribus esse poetis

Non dii, non homines, non concessere columnse."
But while it is right and desirable that poet, painter,
and sculptor should be admonished, encouraged,
and stimulated to attain eminence in their respec
tive departments, it is neither true nor just to assert,
in every instance, the demerit or the uselessness
of inferior grades of attainment. There are a
thousand poems, pictures, and even statues — and I
wish the number of the latter, aiming at the truthful
in every sense, was still greater — of which, perhaps,
the highest praise must be mediocria firma — in
the enjoyment of which the world has been no
loser, and by the annihilation of which it would be
2 G

226 " MIDDLING" BETTER THAN NONE.
no gainer. To say nothing of the bigotry of
denouncing to a man any indulgence in artistic
gratification at all, because he cannot either appre
ciate or purchase pre-eminent excellence, who does
not know that at least the moral effect, whatever
it may be, of the pen, the pencil, and even the
chisel, is by no means necessarily correllative to the
genius displayed in their use ? Indeed, in relation
to the art which has more immediately suggested
these observations, it will hardly be denied that
of the more palpable absurdities perpetrated in
marble, those assignable to the misdirected aims
of ambitious talent, are fifty to one as compared
with the diffident short-comings of mediocre ability.
The following letter to Ehodes refers to the same
subject : — " Eccleston-street, May ith, 1810.
" My Dear Sir, — I have this moment received
a letter from friend Ward, who informs me that
Laycock has shown one of my foolish letters, which

LETTER TO RHODES. 227
I wrote in answer to his foolish questions, to Mr.
m
Bennet. * * * * I feel most surprised that
I should have been so foolish as to write a friendly
letter to so ignorant a man : I am willing to believe
he intended to serve me. How necessary is experi
ence ! I now think I can be sorry for ministers —
at least, I am sorry that I appear so much like
them. I thought, in justice to you, I ought to
acquaint you, lest at the meeting on Monday —
should you be there — your zeal to serve me might
meet a rebuff. As things now stand, I have
only to make you acquainted with my sentiments.
Bather than advance one step under such circum
stances, I will let it [the work] pass into whatever'
channel may, by the committee, be deemed most
deserving. Should I have the honour to be em
ployed, my price for a marble bust is one hundred
guineas. I have one more observation, and then
I will dismiss this subject and talk of something
else : — should a picture of Dr. Browne be thought
" 2g2

228 LETTER TO RHODES.
of, I wish to inform you that I have totally resigned
the pencil. Beechey, or Owen, are the most likely
men to do honour to his memory, [on canvass,]
and reflect credit on the directors. Their prices
are — for a three-quarters, fifty guineas; kitcat,
seventy guineas ; a short half-length, one hundred
guineas ; large ditto, one hundred and fifty guineas ;
whole length, two hundred guineas. I have only
seen Mr. Champion once, but expect him to dine
with me before he leaves London. I must see him,
if possible, for I very imprudently left him to pay
the reckoning at the Three Pigeons without any
ceremony. My respects to Mrs. Ehodes and
family, and " Believe me, Dear Sir,
" Very truly yours,
" F. L. Chantrey."
" E. Rhodes, Esq., Sheffield."
Ehodes, and other Sheffield friends of the Sculp
tor, took up the idea of a monument ; and in a note

BUST OF DR. BROWNE. 229
of May 11th, Chantrey says to the former — " I am
very much disappointed at not having received the
cast you mention from Laycock. I am extremely
obliged to you for your kindness in taking so much
trouble upon yourself. Would not this design, or
something like it, be suitable to perpetuate the
memory of Dr. Browne ?" Appended is a slight
pen-and-ink sketch of a tablet, with figures in
basso-relievo. At a public meeting held in May, it was resolved
to raise one hundred guineas, by subscription, for a
bust of the philanthropist, to be placed in the
Infirmary. The commission was at once given to
Chantrey, who so promptly seconded the design
that, before the close of the same year which ter
minated Dr. Browne's personal solicitude for the
institution above mentioned, his fife-like image in
marble occupied its place in that board-room which,
, to adopt the words inscribed on the pedestal, had
been " the great scene of his active benevolence."

230 ILLNESS OF THE SCULPTOR.
It may be added, that the original model of this
bust was sold in Sheffield, for six guineas, among
the effects of th^ late Dr. Ernest, in the very month
of Chantrey's death.
In the beginning of 1814, Chantrey had a long
and severe illness. A letter addressed to Mr.
Ehodes — post-mark 19th of March — contains the
following passages : — " You will not expect to hear
that I have been confined to my room seven weeks
this day. I have had a terrible bout, but am now
mending as fast as the very bad weather will let me;
I beg of you not to make any talk of this, lest it
should reach my mother's ears; she supposes I
have had a trifling cold.
"You remember there were six monuments
voted, and seventy-six models given in. I only
made five sketches, and have succeeded in getting
two out of the number, viz., Colonel Cadogan's and
General Brooke's. Poor Eossi — ^none !
" That Derbyshire scribbler has pestered) me to

SITWELL MONUMENT. 231
death with letters : he informs me he is quite
satisfied with the manner in which the payment for
Sitwell's monument* has been settled, and offers to
make me a present of his two guinea book and a
guinea's worth of fossils. I shall be much obliged
if you will settle with him for me."
About 1816, Mr. Daniel Brammall built for
himself a new and commodious residence, called
from its proximity to the river — Sheaf-House, one
of those pleasant villas which environ the town of
Sheffield, and attest at once the moderate compe
tence and suburban taste of many of the industrious
citizens of the modern capital of Hallamshire.
Inside and out, this house presented mementoes
of the artist-friend of the owner. Upon the book
cases stood four small life-size busts, representing
Homer, Spencer, and, I think, Shakspeare and
* The monument, I presume, of Sir Sitwell Sitwell, Bart.,
of Renishaw Hall, in the chancel of Eckington Church, which
was executed by White Watson, of Bakewell.

232 SHEAF-HOUSE, SHEFFIELD.
Milton. These, although reputed to have been
produced by Chantrey, were, I believe, only bronzed,
or at most cast by him from common models while
he was with Eamsay. The ceiling of the drawing
room was fancifully painted by him ; while over the
principal entrance door outside, and modelled and
carved in Eoche Abbey stone by the same hand,
was a somewhat elegant composition in mezzo-
relievo, representing " Plenty" — if we may judge
from the outpouring abundance of the cornucopia
under the arm of the recumbent figure — or " Com
merce," to adopt the popular interpretation of the
bale and cask, the latter marked with the letters
" F. C." This stone was removed some years since,
when George Younge, Esq., the present owner of
Sheaf-House, added a porch to the building ; and
while it is natural to wish so precious a relic had
found a place over one of the mantlepieces within
that house, it is, at least, satisfactory to know
that it is neither less carefully placed, nor less justly

BUSTS OF SHORE AND MAKENZIE. 233
prized as an ornament, in the library of William
Younge, Esq., of Endcliffe ; it is about two feet
high by four feet wide.
Chantrey executed a head, in marble, of Samuel
Shore, Esq., who died November 16, 1828, at the
great age of 91. This admirable specimen of the
Sculptor's skill embodies, with equal taste and
fidelity, a striking likeness of his venerable friend
and neighbour. This head is now (1850) at
Meersbrook House ; it cost — like the bust of Dr.
Browne — one hundred guineas, that being Chan
trey's price so early as 1814 : ten years afterwards,
he had raised it to two hundred guineas.
Sheffield possesses two mural monuments from
the hand of Chantrey, both of which have been
pronounced to be worthy of his fame. The earliest
was erected in St. Paul's Church, in memory of one
of the ministers — the Eev. Alexander Makenzie —
who died October 30, 1816. It consists of a plain
square plinth, an entablature with sacerdotal
2h

234 HARRISON MONUMENT.
emblems, and between these, three slabs, that in the
middle containing the inscription, the lateral ones
figures, in low relief, of Faith with a cross, and
Mourning with hands on the face,* the whole
surmounted by a marble bust, in which the Sculptor
has done justice to the fine head and face of the
deceased. The other monument — which stands within a few
yards of Chantrey's first production in marble in
the Parish Church, at Sheffield — was erected to the
memory of Mr. Thomas Harrison and Elizabeth his
wife, who died respectively in 1818 and 1823. The
principal features of this composition are — a fife-
size seated figure, in high relief, the face covered
with the hands; beside which, are two inscribed
urns, and, below them, two medallions of the indi
viduals commemorated.
I know not how the district comprised in these
* Is not the multiplied adoption of this trite artifice of the
ancient painter to avoid delineating sorrow of countenance, a taoit
acknowledgment of want of invention in the modern Sculptor P

GENERAL MURRAY. 235
notices missed possession of another bust in marble
from the latter hand of Chantrey — Lieut. -General
Murray, who built the present mansion of Banner-
Cross, and died in 1818. The following letter was
addressed to the general's sister, who was deeply
solicitous on the subject : —
"Belgrave Place, lith March, 1819.
Madam, — I have been honoured with your letter
of the 9 th instant, and beg to assure you, that I
will give every attention to the subject you have
been pleased to order to be sent to me ; and it may
not be unsatisfactory for you to know that I shall
undertake it with some degree of confidence, having
seen the materials, which I considered very good :
but I must request you will desire Mr. Wilson to
send me the original mask, as well as his model.
" I have the honour to be,
"Madam,
" Your very respectful Servant,
"F. L. Chantrey."
" Mrs. Bagshaw, Banner Cross."

236 CHANTREY AND SHEFFIELD.
Thus it appears that post-mortem casts were pre
pared (indeed, I believe a head was actually modelled
by Mr. Wilson, of Sheffield), and transmitted to
the Sculptor, who certainly commenced the work in
clay ; but among many other busts which gave way
to designs of greater magnitude, or more pressing
urgency, that of the gentleman here mentioned
seems to have been one.
I cannot omit this opportunity of adverting to a
remark which was often made during the heyday of
Chantrey's fame, and repeated with emphasis at the
time of his death, viz. — that the Sculptor had not
complimented the town of Sheffield — to which he
was in early life somewhat indebted — with any very
conspicuous monument of his exalted genius. If this
be the fact, who is to blame — the artist or the
inhabitants ? I think both parties did what they
could in the matter. It must have been quite
apparent to the reader of these pages, that the
former embraced every opportunity of testifying his

HALLAMSHIRE SCULPTORS. 237
readiness to undertake a large work ; while the latter
were only deterred from co-operating by the want
of sufficient means for such a purpose.
Of late years Hallamshire has possessed — I might
say, produced — several clever modellers of busts,
and three of whom, at least, have " lifted chisel on
marble," each of them having too, I believe, derived
encouragement, more or less direct, from their illus
trious local exemplar. The partners — Bacon and
Morton — I know, were in communication with
Eccleston Place, and a good bust of Dr. Younge was
executed by them in marble. The late Edward Law,
whose genius was directly stimulated by Chantrey,
died young, but not before he had achieved the
earnest of celebrity as a carver in marble. His fine
bust of the late Thomas Waterhouse, surgeon, in
the Medical Hall ; the bust and tablet of the late
Mr. Holy, in Carver-street Chapel ; and, especially,
the mural monument, surmounted with a bust of
the late Thomas Watson, Esq., which suffer nothing

238 HALLAMSHIRE SCULPTORS.
from comparison with those of the " great master,"
beside which they are placed in our Parish Church,
sufficiently attest the merits of the artist. Of
Edwin Smith, who was born and lives among us,
and who has been entrusted to execute in marble
the subscription busts of William Jeffcock, Esq.,
the first Mayor of Sheffield, and James Montgomery,
" the Christian poet," both in the Cutlers' Hall, I
need only repeat the words of the gentleman last-
named, viz. — that Mr. Smith " has already given
proof of talents far above the average standard, and
capable of indefinite improvement, being, in this
case, no unworthy representative of Sir Francis
Chantrey himself."
I cannot close this brief and imperfect glance at
sculptural art in Hallamshire without adding, that
whatever difficulties might beset the early path of
Chantrey and his emulators in this locality — and
the encountering of such difficulties is, I appre
hend, an important, not to say essential element in

SCHOOL OF DESIGN. 239
the discipline of genius — the absence of perfect
models, expense of proper instruction, or the lack
of due encouragement to develope latent or foster
rising talent, can never be again complained of, so
long as Sheffield maintains in its efficiency, " The
Government School of Design."

PAET V

2i

LONDON LIFE AND WOEKS.

" It was worth something to steal out of the din and hubbub
of crowded streets into those large, still, cathedral-like rooms of
Chantrey's, populous with phantom-like statues, or groups of
statues as large or larger than life ; some tinted with dust and
time, others of spectral whiteness, but all silent and solemn, — to
roam about among these, hearing nothing but the distant murmur
of rolling carriages, and, now and then, the clink of the workman's
chisel in some of the yards or workshops." — Bernard Barton.
The striking passage just quoted as a motto from
one of the letters of the amiable Quaker poet is,
of course, mainly applicable to Chantrey's rooms as
they appeared towards the close of his brilliant
professional career, when what may be termed the
2i2

244 chantrey's SCULPTURE GALLERY.
original autographs of those numerous figures in
marble, which are distributed over different quarters
of the world, were assembled in one collection.
These objects must now be mentioned somewhat in
detail ; for while, as elsewhere stated, it is no part
of the design of the author of these pages to assume
the office of Chantrey's biographer, nor to indulge
in elaborate descriptions of those admirable and
celebrated works which were mostly produced by
him in the metropolis, and upon which his fame, as
an artist, chiefly depends, it does, nevertheless, seem
desirable to present, in this place, a brief, though
imperfect summary of labours which are scarcely
less remarkable for their number than their excel
lence. Besides, trite as most of the following
particulars may appear to persons acquainted with
the annals of modern art, and derived as they must
be from familiar and, perhaps, not always trust
worthy sources, they will connect, in some degree,
the otherwise distant bearings of the preceding and

EARLY LONDON EMPLOYMENT. 245
following pages — even if they do not convey, at
least to many Hallamshire readers, the only clear
evidence they may ever possess of the mature
fruitage of a genius so early and fondly nurtured
among them.
About J 808, Chantrey ceased to pay those pro
fessional visits to Sheffield, which had alternated
with his seasons of study and his struggles for
distinction in London during the previous half-
dozen years. What portion of that time he spent
at the Eoyal Academy, and how much, or whether
any employment as a mere workman for others,
ministered to his livelihood, remains to be satisfac
torily ascertained. Without going into details, it
may be proper to remark that, in speaking of the
period in question, the notion of his working for
masters in London, has been exaggerated, and the
frequency and duration of his visits to Sheffield too
much lost sight of. It is remarkable that while he
never alludes to the former circumstance in his

246 MR. ROGERS' CARVED TABLE.
letters, he is said to have declared explicitly, that
he "never worked for any other sculptor; and,
what is more, never had an hour's instruction from
any sculptor in his life."*
It has been stated in general terms, that Mr.
Hope possessed carvings executed by the industrious
artist at this period; and we are still more distinctly
told that in the house of the venerable poet of
" Memory," there is " a table, with the ornaments
by Chantrey, which was recognised, the story goes,
by the great Sculptor when dining one day with
Mr. Eogers. ' Who made that table ?' said
Chantrey. The poet named the maker. 'No, no!'
said Chantrey ; ' he did not make it, but I did ; I
was in his employment — I wrought those orna
ments.' Mr. Eogers directs the visitor's attention
to the table in the MS. catalogue of his curiosities."
I am enabled, through the kindness of a gentleman,
to whom I owe obligations on other grounds, to
* Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1842, p. 259.

CHANTREY S SCULPTURE GALLERY. 247
verify the material statement. It appears that the
article in question, which is an ornamental stand
for an urn, was, when Eogers was furnishing the
house in which he now resides, obtained from
Bogaart, a German carver, by whom Chantrey was
employed awhile in 1803, at the rate of five shillings
a day.* Every stranger who visits London goes to look
at the monuments in Westminster Abbey and St.
Paul's Cathedral; to these sources of gratification,
* It might have been expected that several articles of a class
similar to that mentioned in the text, wonld be traceable to
Chantrey in Hallamshire; but Mr. Eadon, an ingenious orna
mental carver of great experience, who knew both Ramsay and
his apprentice, assures me that he is not aware of the existence
of any specimen of his art from the hand of the latter in Shef
field. A clever little figure of a horse, which I recollect to have
seen many years ago standing in a druggist- shop window, to
indicate the sale of veterinary medicines, is, I find, at present in
the Musuem at Scarbrough, duly labelled with the name of
Chantrey.

248 chantrey's sculpture gallery.
persons from Hallamshire were wont, during Chan
trey's life-time, to add the more definite interest of
a call at the gallery in Eccleston-street. The
compliment of an interview, however brief, with the
great Sculptor himself, was what all could appreciate,
and knowing this, he was always unwilling to dis
appoint, though often unable, especially in later
life, to see his country visitors : others enjoyed
hardly less the pleasure of being permitted to finger
in those celebrated " image chambers," which were
peopled with embodied creations of the artist's
genius. To individuals of more cultivated taste
and deeper feeling, the effect was proportionately
elevated and refined. I have heard the poet Mont
gomery describe his emotions on being left, on one
occasion in the twilight, sole companion of this
pageantry of breathless forms, each and altogether so
still, so cold, so white, and so silent, that they felt
to him as the actual presence of so many spirits !
And this impression was heightened in the case

OPINIONS OF MONTGOMERY. 249
alluded to, by the known preference of the artist
for idealizing quiescent postures. It is in obvious
allusion to this fact that Montgomery, in his " Lec
tures on Poetry," says — " Sculpture is the noblest
but the most limited of the manual fine arts; it
produces the fewest, but the greatest effects ; it
approaches nearest to nature, and yet can present
little beside models of her living forms, and these
principally in repose. Plausible reasons are
assigned for the latter spontaneous restriction of
their art, with which practitioners in general are
satisfied, from the extreme difficulty and, with most
of them, the absolute impossibility of expressing
living action or vehement passion, otherwise than
in their beginnings and their results. This is not
the place . to discuss the question ; yet I know not
how it can be doubted that sculpture might legiti
mately essay, and victoriously achieve, the most
daring innovations in this almost forbidden field,
into which few besides Michael Angelo and
2 K

250 POETRY AND SCULPTURE.
Eoubilliac, among the moderns, have set a foot
without trembling hesitation or ignorant presump
tion, either of which have ensured miscarriage.
The Laocoon and the friezes of the Parthenon are
trophies of ancient prowess in this perilous depart
ment." And on one occasion, when lecturing before
a Liverpool audience on the poetry of Milton, and
after shewing that the contrasted poems of
"L' Allegro," the cheerful, and "II Penseroso,"
the thoughtful man, are unrivalled in their kind,
and as perfect as counterpart descriptions can be
of natural scenery, artificial structures, and human
feelings under different circumstances, he broke
out — " The images, allegorical as well as real, are
so picturesque — or rather so fitted for the chisel, I
would say, than for the pencil — that were it the
taste of those who build stately mansions in our
days to adorn them with ' cornice or frieze, with
bossy sculpture graven,' as temples and palaces
were of old, the series of figures and groups in each

POETRY AND SCULPTURE. 251
of these poems, would furnish subjects which would
want only the hand of a Canova, or a Chantrey,
or that of your own Gibson — inspired by the
'Euphrosyne' of the bard himself, in the one case,
and the ' pensive Nun, devout and pure,' of the
other, to put the poetry of Milton into marble, and
give the marble more than life, by making it rival
the poetry in endurance, as well as in beauty and
sublimity." I have given the foregoing passages, not merely
because they are important in themselves, but
because I happen to know that their purport was
embodied in a long letter addressed by the poet to
the Sculptor, at the period when both were
approaching the zenith of their fame.
In 1809, Chantrey's English reputation as a
sculptor may, perhaps, be said, really to have com
menced ; for in that year he had, as already men
tioned, the good fortune to attain an important
vantage position, through the notice of the late
2 K 2

25.2 THE "FOUR ADMIRALS."
D. A. Alexander, Esq., an architect who combined
with high professional talent a cultivated taste for
the arts correlative to his own. To this gentleman,
as we have seen, our artist was indebted for a
commission to execute " the four Admirals," for
" Inigo Jones's Hall " in the Naval Asylum at
Greenwich. There are yet living in Sheffield
persons who remember seeing the enthusiastic artist
at work upon studies for these busts, in the little
sanctum which he then occupied on the premises of
his friend, Mrs. D'Oyley, in May-Fair. The
Admirals were also executed in duplicate for the
Trinity House ; they not only satisfied the expecta
tions of all parties at the time, but are still admired ;
while the intimacy thus commenced between the
architect* and the Sculptor continued through life.
* Chantrey's intercourse with Mr. Alexander brought him also
into contact with the amiable Dr. Olinthus Gregory, whose por
trait, and that of Daniel Parken, Esq., barrister, and editor of the
"Eclectic Review," were among the latest achievements of his

ESTABLISHMENT IN ECCLESTON-STREET. 253
Chantrey soon afterwards married, and erected those
premises in Eccleston-street, Pimlico, from which
he never afterwards removed — "thus commenced
at once his happiness and his fame."
But while the four public busts above-named, and
others of less conspicuous celebrity, gave sufficient
earnest of success in that department of his art in
which he was destined to surpass all competitors,
neither the ambition of the Sculptor, nor the expec
tation of his friends, was thus limited, as will appear
from the following letter addressed to Mr. Inchbald,
relative to a proposed public monument, at Leeds,
in memory of two officers, natives of that town, who
fell in the battle of Talavera, on the 28th of July,
1809 :— "London, Sept. 18th, 1809.
" My dear Inchbald, — I had not heard a word
hand, when laying down the pencil for the chisel. I have been
informed of the existence of these likenesses since the foregoing
pages were printed off.

254 LETTER TO INCHBALD.
of the monument in question, and am, therefore,
entirely indebted to you for the information. I
should rejoice at such an opportunity of leaving the
smoke of London once more to visit my old friends
on so respectable an errand. If I should be so
fortunate as to be chosen, I shall feel a pleasure,
and reap a benefit hitherto unknown to me. Though
it may not be profitable, you well know where the
advantage rests. What do you consider a proper
recommendation ? Can I have a better than yours ?
I am not acquainted with any person in Leeds to
whom I can apply. Soon as convenient, inform
me who are the leading men, with any other infor
mation you can collect. In the meantime have the
goodness to write to your friends ; if you can influ
ence them in my favour, you will do a service that
will ever be remembered by
" Your sincere friend,
"F. L. Chantrey."
" P. S. Use the following information as you

MONUMENT AT LEEDS. 255
think proper: — I am chosen (by the Committee
for erecting Public Monuments) one of the five
candidates for the monument to be erected to the
memory of the late Sir John Moore, in the Cathe
dral Church of St. Paul — to be determined next
March, &c."*
" Rev. P. Inchbald, Doncaster."
In pursuance of the foregoing intimation, some
interest appears to have been made by Chantrey's
Yorkshire friends to obtain the employment of the
young Sculptor, but they were too late. " I wrote
to Mr. Blaydes on the subject," says Inchbald; "but
the committee had already decided upon the artist —
this was unfortunate." This monument, which
was erected in the parish church of Leeds in memory
of Captain Samuel Walker, of the 3rd Guards, and
Capt. Eichard Beckett, of the Coldstream regiment,
* In this letter, Chantrey has obviously imitated the hand
writing of Inchbald, which was remarkably square and solid —
the Very reverse of his own at this period.

256 LETTER TO INCHBALD.
is not by Bacon, as Chantrey states in his letter,
but by Flaxman, whose name is engraved on the
marble. To the unsuccessful result of this negotia
tion, the artist alludes in the first paragraph of the
following letter : — "December 23rd, 1809.
"My dear Fellow, — In the first place, I must
return you my most sincere thanks for your kind
attention to my interest, respecting the monument
intended to be erected at Leeds, although it was not
successful. In the second place, I have to inform
you that I live at No. 13, Eccleston- street, Pimlico,
in my own house, purchased for 99 years, and, I
hope, with my own wife, where we have both room
and a hearty welcome for a sincere friend — though
he should be a Yorkshireman. Now, to your letter.
You inform me that your friend — who has this
evening called upon me — 'would take charge of,
and pay me for, the Laresce.' My dear fellow, I
am not a sixpenny acquaintance ! I have not

BUST OF GEORGE III. 257
withheld it on account of the money ; and, now I
find you are seriously determined to spend your
cash foolishly, like a good friend I will lend you
my assistance. I admire your spirit : you shall
have the Laresce, and soon, with two or three other
small pictures. I shall also beg your acceptance
of a pair of my pencil sketches, which I hope will
be thought worthy of a place in your collection, and
where I hope to see them, when I have the pleasure
to visit Doncaster. I cannot guess which of your
friends is dying for my acquaintance — a female, I
suppose. I am engaged to execute a bust of the
King, and am going to Windsor on Thursday next
for the purpose of modelling it.
" Good night ! twelve o'clock.
" I am truly and sincerely yours,
"F. L. Chantrey."
"Rev. P. Inchbald, Esq." (sic. J
Inchbald, writing to a friend, under date of Jan.
7th, 1810, says of Chantrey — "He mentions the
2 l

258 LETTER FROM INCHBALD.
circumstance of being at present engaged in exe
cuting a bust of his Majesty, without a single
epithet of self-gratulation or exultation. I verily
am persuaded that our apathetical friend is the Only
artist in London who would have communicated so
proud a circumstance without some such phrase as —
'What think you ?' or — 'Am I not a lucky dog !'
Instead of this, he writes — ' I am engaged to exe
cute a bust of the King, and am going to Windsor
on Thursday for the purpose of modelling it.' How
very shortly he states this common event ! Should
this prove the last bust of his Majesty that will be
modelled, which is almost more than probable, it
will, for Chantrey, be a most fortunate circum
stance." It was the last bust for which George the
Third sat ; and we shall presently find the artist
was not only "fortunate" enough to get the com
mission to execute a statue of his Majesty, but that
he communicated the tidings of his success in
jubilant terms befitting the occasion.

EXHIBITION OF BUSTS. 259
Besides the bust of Dr Browne already-mentioned,
Chantrey, in 1810, executed a posthumous bust of
Mr. Pitt for the Trinity House. But in the year
] 811, he had six busts in the exhibition : — 1, Horne
Tooke; 2, Sir Francis Burdett ; 3, J.E.Smith;
4, Benjamin West, P. E. A; 5, Admiral Duck
worth; 6, William Baker, Esq. Those of Horne
Tooke and Eaphael Smith are thought, by many
persons, to be among the best of his busts. With
the Tooke, which Chantrey said obtained for him
^12,000 of commissions,* Nollekens expressed his
great delight. He lifted it from the floor — set it
before him — moved his head to and fro, and having
satisfied himself of its excellence, turned round to
* And yet this famous bust was more faithful than pleasing
as a likeness, for it represented the philologist " as an old man,
wasted by sickness, with a night-cap on his head, totally unlike
his former self, but fearfully like him at the present moment,"
I. e., fourteen months before his death. — Stephens' Life of
Tooke, ii. 411.
2 L 2

260 OPINION OF NOLLEKENS.
those who were arranging the works for exhibition,
and said, " There's a fine, a very fine busto ; let the
man who made it be known — remove one of my
busts, and put this one in its place, for it well
deserves it." Often afterwards, when desired to
model a bust, the same excellent judge would say,
in his most persuasive manner, " Go to Chantrey,
he's the man for a bust — he'll make a good bust of
you : I always recommend him." He did so ;
justifying the preference by sitting to him for his
own bust.
In the same year, considerable excitement pre
vailed among artists who were induced to become com
petitors, for the execution of a statue of George III.
for the city of London. Chantrey was the success
ful candidate; but had nearly failed, by what Allan
Cunningham — to whom we owe the anecdote — calls
" a curious circumstance ;" for when the design had
been approved of by the Common Council, a mem
ber observed that the successful artist was a painter,

STATUE OF GEORGE III. 261
and therefore incapable of executing the work of a
sculptor. " You hear this, young man," said Sir
William Curtis ; " what say you — are you a painter
or a sculptor ?" "I live by sculpture," was the reply :
and the statue now in Guildhall was entrusted to his
hands; and it is allowed to be at once easy and dig
nified. The decision in his favour was made known
on the 4th of April : under that date, and before
leaving the Guildhall, he addressed the following
note to his friend at Doncaster : —
" My dear Inchbald, — Tell Mr. Smith that I
am appointed to execute the statue of his Majesty
for the Council Chamber, Guildhall. It has been
decided within this half hour. There were fifteen
models against me. Excuse haste. " Truly yours,
" Chantrey."
" P. S. A fortunate day for me — I can now
afford to drink your health in a bottle of wine —
which I will do to-night."*
* At the same time, and nearly in the same terms, he wrote

262 chantrey's early industry.
His hands were now more than full, and the
ordinary working hours of the day too short ; but
he had health, energy, and talent; and at this period,
as well as in later years, he was engaged early and
late. In summer he often rose before the sun ; and
at other seasons he has often been seen with a
candle fixed in the front of his hat, and a chisel in
his hand, employed at midnight, and even far into
the morning, finishing some important work.
to Rhodes, adding — " Pray let my mother know of this my good
fortune." The instant, therefore, after Rhodes had read the
letter, he went to Norton, and made the communication to Mrs.
Hall, who, on hearing it, literally wept for joy. Not so "Aunt
Leggitt," who was present, and is said very coolly to have taken
her share of credit in the result through the rudimentary instruc
tions which she had given her nephew in childhood, in making
and baking figures in pastry ! In Mr. Rhodes's amusing recitals
of this story, originated those grave statements relative to Chan
trey's very early taste for modelling, which have been repeated
with so many variations, but which have no foundation in fact
and the bearing of which the Sculptor himself always repudiated.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. 263
It was about this time that Mr. Allan Cunning
ham, who had just come up to London from Scot
land to seek his fortune, in the double cap'acity of a
stone-cutter and a man of literature, entered into
the employment of Chantrey, in the first place as a
" pointer," or rough hewer of statuary. The con
nection was mutually agreeable and advantageous,
the author being thereby brought into a favourable
position for the indulgence of his tastes as well as
the maintainance of his family ; while the Sculptor
found in him not only a faithful and intelligent
foreman, secretary, and confidential adviser, but one
who zealously, and in various ways, maintained
the reputation of the studio and workshops at
Belgrave Place by his pen and his presence.
Chantrey, who had always treated Cunningham
confidentially, and generously, during his life-time,
made a grateful acknowledgment of his services in
his will ; but barely twelve months elapsed between
their deaths respectively.*
* Cunningham died October 29, 1842, aged 56.

264 QUAKEE1SM AND FINE ART.
The difficulties Quakerism had to overcome in
reference to the profession of painting, have been
described in the lives of West. I am not aware that
the principles of "Friends" were ever exposed to a
similar conflict with a taste and talent for sculpture;
but the admiration indulged by the late Bernard
Barton for the productions of both these arts,
frequently exposed him to admonitions from his
fellow members of that " Society." The interest
which he felt in visiting Chantrey's establishment,
is recorded in a passage already quoted ; but along
with his admiration of the statuary, he enjoyed —
and what intelligent country visitor did not ? —
" the low, deliberate, often amusing, and always
interesting talk of honest Allan, in broad Scotch."
He adds — "The greatest luxury London had to
give, is gone with my poor old friend, Allan
Cunningham."* Chantrey was mainly indebted for his favourable
» " Poems and Letters" of Bernard Barton, 61.

CHANTREY IN EDINBURGH. 265
introduction to the northern metropolis to Alex
ander Maconochie, Esq., now Lord Meadowbank,
who being chairman of the committee for erecting a
statue of his father-in-law, the Lord President Blair,
and happening to be in London in 1812, was so
struck with the bust of Horne Tooke, that he
sought an interview with the artist, who consented
to go down to Edinburgh and meet the committee,
on condition of having his expenses paid. He
accordingly went down to the north in the autumn,
when his friend had the gratification of entrusting
to him, not only the execution of the statue of
President Blair, but also that of Lord Melville.
Scotland, as yet, possessed no work from his hand ;
but he requested and obtained permission to model
a bust of the late Lord Meadowbank, which was
transferred to marble, and is, as the present worthy
owner of the title is good enough to inform me, not
inferior to the best bust he ever executed. In the
followingyear, Chantrey was a visitor at Meadowbank,
2 M

266 LORD MEADOWBANK.
when he modelled a bust of Mrs. Maconochie, the
wife of his friend and patron, who was at that time
Solicitor- General. It is in allusion to this— the first
bust of a lady which Chantrey ever executed — which
was afterwards transferred to marble, and exhibited
in Somerset House, where it equally excited admira
tion as a likeness and as a work of art, — that the
author of an early memoir of the Sculptor says—
" Nature furnished him with a beautiful form, and
his art reflects back nature."* I may as well men
tion here, as a circumstance equally honourable to
both parties, that Sir Francis subsequently, and at
his own request, modelled an excellent bust of Lord
Meadowbank : this he transferred in duplicate to
* European Magazine, 1822, p. 5. — I am indebted to Mr.
Steele, Sculptor, Edinburgh, for the identification, which is cor
roborated by Lord Meadowbank himself. The memoir-writer is
not quite accurate in describing his beautiful countrywoman as
" the lady of a Scottish judge," that situation not having been
filled by her husband until several years afterwards.

MONUMENT OF " THE TWO CHILDREN." 267
marble, retaining one copy for himself, and present
ing the other to his friend in the most flattering
terms. The reciprocal esteem of Chantrey and
Lord Meadowbank may be further illustrated by the
fact that the latter was chairman to the committees
for the erection of the statues of George IV.,
William Pitt, and Lord Chief Baron Dundas.
In 181 2, Chantrey exhibited busts of Johnes of
Hafod, of Curran, of Stothard, and of Northcote.
In 1813, a bust of Cline, for the Eoyal College of
Surgeons, and six others, including Granville Sharp.
In 1814, busts of the King, of Professor Playfair,
and a colossal head of the Duke of Wellington. In
1815, a bust of James Watt. In 1816, busts of the
Marquis of Anglesey, Sir Everard Home, and Sir
Joseph Banks. In 1817, (then newly made an
associate of the Eoyal Academy,) "The Sleeping
Children," (the monument now in Lichfield Cathe
dral,) and busts of Nollekens, Sir James Clarke,
Bone the enamelist, Bird the painter, and Hook-
ham Frere. 2 m 2

268 EFFECT OF BEAUTIFUL SCULPTURE.
Montgomery — whose opinions I quote the more
freely, not merely because he has himself looked
upon sculpture with a poet's eye, but also because
he oft endeavoured to excite a similar taste in his
gifted friend — says, " Nothing in sculpture is truly
excellent but that which is pre-eminently so, because
nothing less than the most successful strokes of the
happiest chisel can powerfully affect the spectator,
fix him in dumb astonishment, touch his heart
strings with tender emotion, stir thought from its
depths into ardent and earnest exercise. I appeal
to all who hear me, whether, among a hundred of
the monuments in our cathedrals, and the statues in
our public places, they ever met with more than
one or two that laid hold of their imagination, so as
to haunt it both in retirement and in society ?" —
" Such are the Apollo Belvidere, the Venus de
Medici, and other inestimable relics of antiquity ;
such the Moses and David of Michael Angel o ; and
such — (to give an English example worthy to be

THE LICHFIELD MONUMENT. 269
named with these, judging solely by the power
which it exercises over the purest and most universal
of human sympathies, — sympathies which can no
more be bribed by artifice than they can help yield
ing to the impulse of nature) — such, I say, is the
simple memorial by our own Chantrey, in Lichfield
Cathedral, of two children that were ' lovely in their
lives, and in death are undivided.' Of these speci
mens, it may be affirmed, that they have shown how
the narrow bonds of vulgar precedent may be left
as far behind as a star in the heavens leaves a
meteor in the air."* There is not, indeed, a more
exquisite group in the whole range of modern
sculpture than Chantrey's " Two Children " in
marble. The sisters lie asleep in each others arms
in the most unconstrained and graceful repose.
The snowdrops which the youngest had plucked
are undropped from her hand, and both are images
of artless beauty, and innocent and unaffected
* " Lectures on Poetry," p. 20.

270 FIGURES OF CHILDREN.
grace. Such was the press to see these children in
the London Exhibition, that there was no getting
near them : mothers, with tears in their eyes,
lingered, and went away, and returned ; while
Canova's now far-famed figures of Hebe and
Terpsichore stood almost unnoticed by their side.
Chantrey modelled two other figures of this class,
viz., a " Sleeping Child," the daughter of Sir Thos.
Dyke Acland ; and a " Eeposing Infant," for Mr.
Boswell, of Auchinleck.
" Envy doth merit as its shade pursue," says the
poet; and that the brilliant career of Chantrey
should form no exception to the bearing of this
trite and truthful axiom, his claim to the merit
of the " Sleeping Children," in Lichfield Cathedral,
has been repeatedly attacked. Before the death
of the Sculptor, a report (on what ground originat
ing will presently be shown) was circulated, attri
buting the design of the monument to Stothard.
This notion was so expressly repudiated by Mr.

INJURIOUS MISREPRESENTATIONS. 271
Ehodes, who was present with Chantrey at Ash
bourne, when he made the first rude pencil sketch
of the figures, that I had thought the question had
been finally set at rest. While, however, this
work is passing through the press, an individual
named in a preceding page comes forward in print,
and says : — " The Italian artist died some few years
since, Who told me, as he had told numbers of other
persons, that the composition, the model, and the
work in marble, were all three his doing. The
manner in which Sir F. Chantrey behaved to him,
his want of liberality in not confessing whence he
had the design, and the daring to call the work his
own, affected this poor helping sculptor deeply."
This was too much ; and a reclamation of credit
for the original mistake, was made by Mr. Peter
Cunningham, who, while denying the claim of, or
on behalf of the late Mr. F. A. Lege to anything
more than having carved the monument, as a
workman, adds — " The sketch from which Chantrey

272 FALSE REPORTS REPELLED.
wrought was given to me by my father a few months
before his death, and is now suspended on the wall
of the room in which I write. It is a pencil sketch,
shaded with Indian ink, and is very Stothard-like
and beautiful. It wants, however, a certain sculp
tural grace, which Chantrey gave with a master
feeling ; and it wants the snow-drops in the hand
of the younger sister — a touch of poetic beauty
suggested by my father." Had the matter rested
here, the full and fair claims of the Sculptor to the
merit of one of his most celebrated works would
have been rendered apocryphal ; but, happily, the
very same page of the periodical* which contains
* Notes and Queries, ii. July, 1850, p. 94. — Mr. Hawkins
says : — " Dining one day alone with Chantrey in January, 1833,
our conversation accidentally turned upon some of his monu
ments, and amongst other things he told me the circumstances
connected with the monument at Lichfield to the two children
of Mrs. Robinson, As I was leaving Chantrey, I asked if I might
write down what he had told me; his reply was — 'Certainly;
indeed, I rather wish you would.' Before I went to bed, I wrote

STATEMENT OF MR. HAWKINS. 273
Mr. Peter Cunningham's statement, presents one
also from Mr. Edward Hawkins, which so explicitly
and satisfactorily establishes Chantrey's credit as
the original designer of the " Sleeping Children,"
that it may be hoped the question can never be
revived again. At all events, Mr. Hawkins states
down what I now send you ; I afterwards showed it to Chantrey,
who acknowledged it to be correct. — Nicholson, the drawing
master, taught Mrs. Robinson and her two children. Not long
after the death of Mr. Robinson, the eldest child was burnt to
death; and a very short time afterwards the other child sickened
and died. Nicholson called on Chantrey, and desired him to
take a cast of the child's face, as the mother wished to have some
monument of it. Chantrey immediately repaired to the house,
made his cast, and had a most affecting interview with the
unhappy mother. She was desirous of having a monument to be
placed in Lichfield Cathedral, and wished to know whether the
cast just taken would enable Chantrey to make a tolerable likeness
of her lost treasure ? After reminding her how uncertain all
works of art were in that respect, he assured her he hoped to be
able to accomplish her wishes. She then conversed with him
upon the subject of the monument, of her distressed feelings at
2 N

274 MISREPRESENTATION CORRECTED.
the case as I ever understood it ;. and as this far-
famed monument, which is so intimately, and it may
be said, universally identified with the name and
fame of Chantrey, has been so repeatedly made the
theme of flagrant misrepresentation — not in all
cases, it is to be feared, solely on the ground
the accumulated losses of her husband and her two only children
in so short a space of time ; expatiated upon their characters, and
her great affection; and dwelt much upon her feelings when,
before she retired to bed, she had usually contemplated them
when she hung over them locked in each other's arms asleep.
While she dwelt upon these recollections it occurred to Chantrey
that the representation of this scene would be the most appro
priate monument ; and, as soon as he arrived at home, he made
a small model of the two children, nearly as they were afterwards
executed, and as they were universally admired. As Mrs. Robin
son wished to see a drawing of the design, Chantrey called upon
Stothard, and employed him to make the requisite drawing from
the small model. This was done ; and, from this circumstance,
originated the story from those envious of Chantrey's rising fame,
that he was indebted to Stothard for all the merit of the original

CHANTREY ELECTED R. A. 275
of honest " historic doubt," — I should have felt my
self guilty of something very like injustice to the
memory of the Sculptor, if I had neglected this
opportunity of rescuing it from unmerited reproach.
To return. The Eoyal Academy at length admitted
him of their number; and, in 1818, Chantrey was
an Esquire and an E.A.
Orders now crowded in upon him as they were
never known to crowd before upon a British
sculptor. To busts and portrait statues, more than
he could well execute, were added orders for poetic
figures, left to his own selection, from the Prince
Eegent, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Devon
shire, Lord Egremont, Lord Yarborough, Lord
Dartmouth, and Jesse Watts Eussell. But he still
adhered to busts and portrait statues, and left poetic
figures to hours of leisure, longed for, perhaps, but
never, alas ! to come to him.
In 181 8, he exhibited a bust of John Eennie, the
engineer, one of his most admirable heads, and that
2n2

276 BUSTS AND STATUES.
exquisite little statue at Woburn of Lady Louisa
Eussell, the present Marchioness of Abercorn.
The child stands on tiptoe, with a face of the most
exquisite and arch expression, proud with delight
of the dove which she fondles in her bosom. All
who have been at Woburn will recollect this little
figure ; but the trays of the Italian boys have given
it a wider, and only its deserved celebrity.
In 1819, Chantrey exhibited the sitting figure
of Dr. Anderson, for Madras, which has been pro
nounced " the very best of his statues,"* and a bust
of Mr. Canning for Mr. Bolton, of Liverpool. The
same year, as already mentioned, he visited Italy.
Eome, Venice, and Florence were the chief points
of attraction : some of his letters and journals,
relative to the works of art in these and other
places, have been published.
* I have seen a large lithographic print of this fine work
of art, on which the Sculptor, who presented it to a lady, has
f
written — " Statue of Francis Chantrey, aged seventy."

BUST OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 277
On his return from the continent he modelled
four of his finest busts, viz., those of Lord Castle-
reagh, Mr. Phillips the painter, Mr. Wordsworth,
and Sir Walter Scott; the Wordsworth for Sir
George Beaumont, the Sir Walter Scott for his own
gratification, and from sincere respect for the worth
and genius of Sir Walter. Chantrey never excelled
this bust — it is his very best. The history of this
admirable head (which has been thought superior to
anything in ancient or modern art) is contained in
the following letter, which, although it has been
repeatedly printed, is too interesting to be omitted
in this place : —
" TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART.
" Belgrave Place, Jan. 26, 1838.
" Dear Sir Eobert, — I have much pleasure in
complying with your request to note down such facts
as remain on my memory concerning the bust of
Sir Walter Scott, which you have done me the honour
to place in your collection at Drayton Manor.

278 letter to sir r. peel.
" My admiration of Scott, as a poet and a man,
induced me, in the year 1820, to ask him to sit to
me for his bust, the only time I ever recollect
having asked a similar favour from any one. He
agreed, and I stipulated that he should breakfast
with me always before his sittings, and never come
alone, nor bring more than three friends at once,
and that they should all be good talkers. That he
fulfilled the latter condition you may guess, when I
tell you that on one occasion he came with Mr.
Croker, Mr. Heber, and the late Lord Lyttelton.
The marble bust produced from these sittings was
moulded, and about forty-five casts were disposed
of among the poet's most ardent admirers. This
was all I had to do with the plaster casts. The
bust was pirated by Italians; and England and
Scotland, and even the colonies, were supplied
with unpermitted and bad casts to the extent
of thousands, in spite of the terror of an act of
parliament.

COPIES OF BUST OF SCOTT. 279
" I made a copy in marble from this bust for the
Duke of Wellington ; it was sent to Apsley House
in 1827, and it is the only duplicate of my bust
of Sir Walter Scott that I ever executed in marble,
"I now come to your bust of Scott. In the
year 1828 I proposed to the poet to present the
original marble as an heirloom to Abbotsford, on
condition that he would allow me sittings sufficient
to finish another marble from the life for my own
studio. To this proposal he acceeded, and the bust
was sent to Abbotsford accordingly, with the follow
ing words inscribed on the back : — ' This bust of
Sir Walter Scott was made in 1820 by Francis
Chantrey, and presented by the Sculptor to the
Poet, as a token of esteem, in 1828.'
" In the months of May and June in the same
year (1828) Sir Walter fulfilled his promise, and I
finished from his face, the marble bust now at
Drayton Manor — a better sanctuary than my studio,
else I had not parted with it. The expression is

280 DEATH OF SIR R. PEEL.
more serious than in the two former busts, and the
marks of age more than eight years deeper.
" I have now, I think, stated all that is worthy
of remembering about the bust, except that there
need be no fear of piracy, for it has never been
moulded. " I have the honour to be,
" Dear Sir,
" Your very sincere and faithful servant,
"F. Chantrey."*
Although Chantrey can hardly be said ever to
* Alas I in the brief interval between the transcription of the
above letter and the placing of it here in type, a sudden and fatal
accident has deprived the country of a most accomplished, non-
factious, and noble-minded senator, and the fine arts of an
equally intelligent and munificent patron. Sir Robert Peel died
July 3, 1850, in consequence of injuries received when thrown
from his horse two or three days before ; and the intelligence
of his death was probably received through the country with a
more general and spontaneous expression of sorrow, than was
ever caused by any similar event.

CHANTREY AND THE POETS. 281
have touched the poetic in marble, he not only
cherished an early, and probably a life-long love of
poetry, but at one time or other, in some way came
into friendly contact with every one of the cele
brated men in "Britain's living choir." In the
month of September, 1818, Mr. and Mrs. Chantrey,
along with Collins the landscape painter, were
paying a pleasant visit to South ey, at Keswick, on
their way to Scotland. Whether or not the head
of the worthy Poet Laureate was less adapted for
representation by the modeller than by the painter,
I do not take upon me to say ; but it appears that
the portrait by Lawrence was considered more
successful than the bust by Chantrey. Alluding to
this matter, the son and biographer of Southey
says that, on visits to Sir Francis, " their mutual
friend, Mr. Bedford, always accompanied him : and
there, too, was Allan Cunningham; so that the
moulding went on merrily, for Chantrey loved a
good story, and the reader need not be told that
2 o

282 MR. BEDFORD — ROBERT SOUTHEV.
Mr. Bedford would both give and take a joke.*
The Sculptor, however, was not so successful as
the painter, [Sir T. Lawrence,] and, though he
made several attempts to improve the likeness by
after-touches, he never regarded his task as satis
factorily accpmplished, though many persons were
well satisfied with it ; indeed, although he promised
my father a marble copy of it, he would never fulfil
• As an illustration of Chantrey's fondness for a joke, and
of the " free and easy" manner in which he could avail himself
of his friend's hospitality, it may be mentioned that, on one
occasion, when Mr. Read, after being out most of the day,
returned home to Norton House, he was startled by the appari
tion of two uninvited gentlemen, evidently enjoying dinner at
the table to which he was looking with a similar object. His
surprise was very brief — the self-bidden guests turned out to be
Chantrey and his companion, Grosvenor Bedford, Esq. (to whom
so many of Sonthey's letters were addressed,) who being on their
way northward, and not finding Mr. Read within, nor being sure
of his early return, were thus availing themselves of a welcome
way-side meal.

MONUMENT OF D. P. WATTS, ESQ. 283
his promise, always purposing to amend his work.
After his death, I believe it was purchased by Sir
E. Peel."*
To this period belongs the execution of the
celebrated monument — one of the largest of its
class in England — of David Pike Watts, Esq., now
in a chapel erected for its reception in the church
adjoining Ham Hall, near Dovedale. In this fine
work of art, the venerable man is represented " on
his bed of death, from which he has raised himself
by a final effort of expiring nature, to perform the
last solemn act of a long and virtuous life : his
only daughter — [Mrs. Watts Eussell] — and her
children, all that were dearest to him in life,
surround his couch, and bend at his side, as they
receive from his lips the benedictions of a dying
parent, when the last half-uttered farewell falters
upon them." * " Life and Correspondence of Southey," v. 327.
2 O 2

284 author's VISIT TO ilam.
"  How did that sculptured group command
Our wonder, which hath ravish'd thousand eyes :
The kneeling mother, and the soft surprise
Of the three little ones that near her stand :
Than this — thy genius, Chantrey ! scarce could rise
Higher, with trophies fresh from Nature won ;
Art, how transcendent, when such power is given,
To fix expression in the Parian stone,
Which turns rapt thought towards holiness and heaven !"
The interest of my visit to the mausoleum con
taining this affecting piece of sculpture, was con
siderably enhanced by the appearance of a most
exquisite stone cross, which had just been erected
in the adjacent village, by the benevolent proprietor
of Ilam, in memory of his wife, the lady above-
mentioned, one or two of whose children, with their
father, the clergyman of the place, and Mr. Derrick,
of Oxford, the architect, were at the moment
inspecting the newly-finished work. This out
door incident formed a touching commentary on
the monument in the church ! I have always

GEORGE IV. — EARL OF MALMSBURY. 285
understood that the elegant residence of Jesse
Watts Eussell, Esq., owes something of its archi
tectural beauty to the taste of Chantrey, who
certainly designed the Parsonage House adjacent.
In J 822, Chantrey exhibited his admirable bust
of George IV., now in the Eoyal College of Phy
sicians; and in the following year — 1823 — the
impressive cumbent figure of John, the first Earl
of Malmsbury, deeply thoughtful, with a book in
his hand, now in Salisbury Cathedral. Dr. Carus,
who accompanied the King of Saxony on his visit
to this country, in 1844, says — "The image of a
noble, intelligent man, who, in the midst of bodily
sufferings, still continues to apply himself to the
higher objects of mental developement, is here so
admirably delineated, that I must pronounce this
work, which is also beautifully treated in marble,
in a statuary point of view, one of the most peculiar
and remarkable of modern times."*
* King of Saxony's Journey, p. 193.

286 WELLINGTON — WATT — JACKSON.
In 1824 appeared his second bust of the Duke
of Wellington, and his first statue of Watt, now in
Handsworth Church, near Birmingham : it is not
less striking in depth of expression, while I think
the costume of the great engineer is more appro
priate, than that of the far-famed figure in West
minster Abbey.* To the same year belongs the
statue of Dr. Cyril Jackson, erected at Oxford.
* Besides other artistic advantages of what the Spectator
calls " everlasting drapery," the classical robe usually affords a
convenient opportunity for disposing of the hand; for while of
Chantrey's full-size statues of men, I do not recollect one that is
without the conventional wrapper, it is in at least a dozen
instances supported by the hand of the figure. In some cases,
the stiff legal or ecclesiastical wig, contrasts curiously with the
flowing stole. Nollekens and Roubiliac, as well as Chantrey, are,
however, understood to have had as great a dislike to modelling
a professional wig as Lord Brougham had to wearing it ; and
Allan Cunningham, an authority not to be lightly set aside in
these matters — even for the judgment of Dr. Johnson — agreed
with his gifted master : hence he tells us that " two Archbishops

DIGBY — BOULTON — WASHINGTON. 287
To 1825 belongs the figure of Mrs. Digby, in
marble, seated on a couch, in Worcester Cathedral ;
and a similar one of Mrs. Boulton, in the church
of Great Tew, Oxfordshire.
An appropriate trophy of Chantrey's genius was
now to afford evidence of his claim to admiration
in America, whither, through the intervention of
his friend Allston * the historical painter, and
others, his reputation had long since extended : I
allude to the exhibition, in 1826, of his statue
of Washington, executed for the city of Boston,
of Canterbury, and a Bishop of Durham, who was bald, and could
ill spare such a covering, were standing in Chantrey's gallery
without their wigs, to the astonishment of many a sound
divine." * The poet-painter, writing to his friend Collins, the artist,
from Boston, April 16, 1819, says :— " Tell Chantrey that I made
my request, and showed his letter to the Committee of Directors
for the statue of Washington, in this town, and they were highly
gratified to learn that he had engaged to execute it." — Life
of Collins, i. 42.

288 STATUES — BUSTS — POET FIGURES.
U. S. To the same year belongs the statue of
Grattan, for Dublin.
The year 1827 witnessed the production of the
statue of Sir Joseph Banks, now in the British
Musuem ; ] 828, the striking bust of Sir William
Curtis; and 1829, the statue of Sir Edward Hyde
East, for Calcutta; the bust of the Marquis of
Stafford, now in the British Institution, and the
pair of poetical reliefs in marble — the parting of
Hector and Andromache, and Penelope with the
bow of Ulysses, now at Woburn.
Sir John Soane, from whose design Chantrey's
own gallery was built, became, in 1830, the subject
of a bust, which is now in the Soane Museum ; and
in the same year he exhibited that elegant and
affecting composition representing Bishop Heber in
the act of blessing two Hindoo children, which is
now at Madras.
In 1831 appeared his excellent busts of the royal
brothers — William IV. and the Duke of Sussex : in

FOUR BRITISH SOVEREIGNS. 289
1832, his statue of Canning,* for the Town Hall,
Liverpool : in 1833, his statue of Mountstuart
Elphinstone, for Bombay: in 1837, his statues
of Sir John Malcolm, for Westminster Abbey ; and
of Dr. Dalton, for Manchester : his busts of
Southey, the Poet-Laureate, for John Murray ; of
Mrs. Somerville, for the Eoyal Society, and of
Professor Wilson, (of Oxford,) for Calcutta.
In 1840, he executed a bust of Queen Victoria,
her Majesty being the fourth British Sovereign
whose likeness he had modelled from the life, and
perpetuated in marble — a distinction which no other
English sculptor could ever boast. The busts of
* In the Churchyard, at Kensington, there is a headstone, by
Chantrey, in memory of a son of Canning's. The Sculptor
appears to have been somewhat dissatisfied with the proceedings
of his professional brethren in reference to the public momorials
of Canning. "I have," says he, in a letter to a friend, "refused
the London monument, and accepted the one for Liverpool :
many honourable men have daubed their fingers with the London
job; mine, thank God, are clean, for I have not touched it."
2P

290 BUSTS AND STATUES.
George III., George IV., and William IV., are in
Goldsmiths' Hall. To this year are referred his
bust of Sir Charles Clarke ; his statue of Eoscoe,
for Liverpool ; and of Northcote, for Exeter In
1841 — the last year of his life — he exhibited his
beautiful statues of the Bishop of Norwich, and the
Bishop of Lichfield, for their respective cathedrals.
The foregoing is — to adopt the words of the
writer of an article in the Morning Post, to which
I am indebted for some of the dates — " a very
incomplete list of Chantrey's marble progeny :" to
it must be added the statues of Francis Horner,
James Watt, Sir Stamford Baffles, and George
Canning, in Westminster Abbey ; of General
Gillespie and Bishop Heber,* in St. Paul's ; of
Spencer Perceval, at Northampton ; of Marianne
Johnes, at Hafod ; of Mr. Wildman, at Chillingham
Castle, near Canterbury ; of Lady Bradford, in
* In the church, at Hodnet, there is a mural tablet, with n
medallion of Heber, by Chantrey.

BUSTS AND STATUES. 291
Storington Church, Sussex ; Lady Frederica Stan
hope and Infant, in Chievely Church, Berks ;
Mrs. Vernon and two Children, at Hanbury Hall,
near Droitwich, Worcestershire ; Sir Ealph Wood
ford, at Trinidad ; Sir Hugh Inglis, Bart. ; Bishop
Barrington, in Durham Cathedral ; Lady St. Vin
cent; Viscount Downe; Stephen Babington, at
Bombay; Theodosia Louisa, Countess of Liver
pool ; Lord Dundas ; Marquis of Hertford; Thomas
Coutts, Esq. ; William Hey, Esq , of Leeds ;
H. E. H. the Duchess of York ; President Blair
and Lord Melville, already named, in Edinburgh;
Mrs. Jordan, for William IV. ; and Sir William
Forbes, for Bombay.
To the preceding ample list, must be added the
following busts, the dates of which I have not
ascertained, with the exception of the first-named,
viz., of Lord Melbourne, for the Queen, and which
was the last the artist lived to execute : Sir Bobert
Peel, Mr. Justice Burton, Lord Spencer, Sir H.
2p2

292 busts.
Englefield, Professor Porson, Colonel Hemes, Sir
Thomas Munro, B. West, P.B.A.; Eev. T. Mudge,
W. Sharpe, the engraver; Earl of Egremont;
Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh ; Dr. Ireland, Dean
of Westminster ; Dr. Sutton, Archbishop of Can
terbury; Eev. Dr. Mill, Sir J. Nichol, Eev. W.
Vernon Harcourt, Sir J. Wyatville, Marquis if
Camden, Duke of Sutherland, Duke of Sussex,
Marquis of Westminster, Marquis of Abercorn,
Lord Farnborough, Sir W. Blizard, Sir C. Clarke,
Mr. Abernethy, Sir Matthew Tierney, Dr. Wollas-
ton, Sir H. Halford, Dr. John Hunter, Mr. Cowper,
Princess Louisa of Saxe Weimar, Mr. Nield, M.P.,
Admiral Sir E. Codrington, Admiral Duckworth,
Professor H. H. Wilson, of Oxford; Jesse Watts
Eussell, Sir John Eennie, Mr. Murdoch, Baron
Hume, Hon. Otway Cave ; Dr. Howley, Archbishop
of Canterbury ; Dr. King, Bishop of Bochester; T.
Hatchett, Esq., Mr. Warp ; Mr. Perkins, the
brewer ; Mr. Strutt, of Derby ; Lord Melville,

BUSTS  MONUMENTS. 298
John Fuller, M.P. ; Mr. Tompkins, writing master ;
Sir B. Hobhouse, General Pack, Colonel Bathurst,
Miss Mundy, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Colebrook, Mr.
Dunlop, Mr. Morrison, Mr. Egerton. Casts of all
these are in the Chantrey Collection at Oxford. In
the preceding list, although much more ample than
any hitherto published of the more important pro
ductions of the great Sculptor, I can hardly hope to
have included every bust and statue, much less to
have avoided incidental mistakes of sequence and
description. Besides the works above enumerated, Chantrey
executed several monumental compositions in
marble, mostly containing figures in basso or alto-
relief. Two of these, in Sheffield, have been
already mentioned : there are two others at no great
distance, namely, one for the late Sir Eichard
Arkwright, in the church at Cromford ; the other
in the little church of Owston, near Doncaster : it
was placed there in memory of " Mrs. Cooke, a lady

294 monuments.
whose, mortal remains were committed to their last
resting place in the midst of the most undissembled
sorrow, for she had conciliated the kind regards of
the opulent by a behaviour always affable yet
dignified, and the affectionate attachment of the
poor by every act of benevolent attachment. It is
a kneeling figure of Veneration, of white marble,
placed in the centre of the chancel, opposite to the
altar."* His gallery contained several beautiful
designs of this class, which, I believe, were never
transferred to marble.
It is impossible to record, even thus cursorily
and imperfectly, these evidences of the Sculptor's
genius, without a feeling of surprise at the amount
of mere manual labour required for their develope-
ment. Of course, it scarcely need be mentioned,
that few, if any, of these figures were actually and
wholly chisselled by Chantrey, propriis manibus :
he employed several first-rate assistants, and it may
* Hunter's " South Yorkshire," ii. 480.

PROCESS OF BUST-MAKING. 295
be interesting to give a brief sketch of the method
of producing a bust. In Chantrey's large establish
ment, which was in fact an art manufactory, where
the powers of one master-mind, and the skill of
many dexterous hands were exquisitely combined,
the usual course of proceeding, with reference to a
likeness, was as follows : — He took, by means of
the camera lucida, three outlines of the head of the
sitter, viz., with profile, three-quarter, and front
face. These drawings were at once handed to a
workman, who, guided by them, " built up," in clay,
the first rude figure of the bust. This was carried
into Chantrey's room ; and now, with his sitter
before him, commenced the all-important applica
tion of his art, not only to catch and animate the
likeness, but to give those graces of expression and
effect which genius alone can communicate. When
thus finished in model, the work was transferred to
an Italian to be cast in plaster of Paris; from
whom it was transferred to the pointing shop,

296 DIVISION OF LABOUR.
terms indicative of an operation, probably less
generally understood than any others which are
used in the Sculptor's workshop. The operation
consists in placing over the plaster bust a frame,
and a similar frame over a block of marble ; the
former to measure the depth, and the latter to direct
the action of a drill, or boring tool, by means
of which, along with mallet and chisel, a workman
first developes, in rough angular outline, the form
of the intended bust. It is then handed over to
the carver, properly so called, who, with the model
beside him, and with appropriate tools, works out
every part into that perfect resemblance which
ultimately gives to the marble the merit of exact
identity with the original composition from the
hand of the master, who, of course, frequently
inspects, perhaps retouches, and finally decides on
the accuracy of the work.
I am not able to mention exactly the date of the
erection of Chantrey's establishment for bronze

BRONZE FOUNDRY. 297
casting; but it was probably soon after 1831, in
which year a German artist, who visited England,
found a number of French workmen engaged in
casting one of the Sculptor's groups, at the Wool
wich foundry.* If, in addition to distance, expense,
and other obvious inconveniences, Chantrey had,
as the tourist intimates, to put up with " impurity
of the metal, and clumsiness of the joints," in his
bronze figures, it is not surprising that he should
have built, as he happily had the means of doing, a
proper foundry in a convenient situation near his
other premises in Pimlico. It might at first appear
somewhat anomalous to find the worker in marble
addressing himself also to the mysteries of the
casting shop ; but this has generally been done by
modern as well as by medieval artists : although
kings and nobles no longer interest themselves in
the preparation of the moulds, and the melting
or running of the metal, these processes are in
* Passavant's Tour, ii. 285.
2Q

298 OPERATIONS OF CASTING.
themselves highly interesting. Allan Cunningham
has justly remarked in his memoir of Bacon, that
before, and, indeed, long after his time, " an air
of secrecy and mystery was observed concerning
the art of casting in metal ; and a process, at once
easy and simple, was taught to be regarded as
something magical. Of the materials which com
posed the external and internal mould — the mode
of rendering them safe for receiving the liquid
burning metal — the melting of the copper — the
quantities of alloy, and the proper degree of heat,
the working artists spoke a mysterious language,
resembling in no small degree those conversations
on alchemy, so happily ridiculed by Ben Johnson.
"  Let me see —
How is the moon now ? eight, nine, ten days' hence
He will be silver potata ; then three days
Before he citronize ; some fifteen days —
The magisterium will be perfected,
And then we've finish'd.

FORMATION OF BRONZE FIGURES. 299
"That Bacon maintained the secrets of the profes
sion there can be little doubt, since the men who
wrought his marble were not permitted to acquaint
themselves with the arrangements of the foundry.
His practice was to cast the figure in many pieces,
and then unite them into an entire whole by the
process of burning or fusing* the parts together.
This plan had its advantages ; it required small
moulds, which were easily dried and readily
handled — small meltings too of metal — nor was
failure attended with the destruction of the entire
mould by the fire. But it had this disadvantage —
by the fusing together of many small pieces, the
just proportions of the whole were apt to be injured,
and the figure liable to display an imperfect sym
metry compared to a statue cast in one or two
• This is not quite intelligible : the pieces are not " fused,"
i.e. melted; but, as a workman would say, brazed or soldered
together, i. e. united by a metal which, on exposure to heat, melts
at a lower heat than the mass, and acts as a cement.
2 Q 2

300 THE FOUNDRY IN PIMLICO.
parts. The veil has been raised a little of late
from the mystery of bronze casting. In the
splendid foundries of Chantrey and Westmacott,
colossal statues twelve feet high are cast at a couple
of heats ; and the whole process is exhibited to any
one whom curiosity or chance may happen to
conduct to the artist's studio when the moulds are
ready and the metal melted." Well acquainted as I
was with the operations of casting in the iron and
brass foundries of Sheffield, I was not the less
gratified with witnessing the application of such
familiar processes in the production of objects
invested with the highest attributes of art. On
first entering the yard of the foundry in Pimlico, I
was particularly struck with the appearance of a
pile of brass cannon in almost the last spot where
they might have been expected ; but it was with no
feelings of regret that I anticipated the metamor
phosis of these ponderous pieces of " devilish
enginery," into harmless and instructive ornaments

BRONZE STATUES. 301
of the land — if not actually into trophies of peace !
I recollect very well that the particular object which
had just been taken out of the mould at the period
of my visit, was a splendid cast of the head of
George the Fourth. Chantrey not only fitted up
his establishment most perfectly for the purpose
of founding large compositions in bronze, but he
entered so zealously into the theory and practice
of casting, as to produce, if I recollect rightly,
numerous imitations of curled leaves, and even
insects, such exact fac-similies of the originals, that
they remained unsurpassed for beauty and fidelity
until the very recent invention of enveloping the
actual specimens themselves with a metallic incrus
tation by electro-agency.
Of his statutes or groups in bronze, may be
mentioned figures of George IV. at Brighton and
in Edinburgh ; and of Pitt in Edinburgh and in
Hanover Square ;* of Sir Thomas Munro, on
* Of this statue, which cost .£7,000, and was set up amidst

302 THE WELLINGTON STATUE.
horseback, at Madras. The fine equestrian statue
of George IV. in Trafalgar Square,* has a rival in
that of the Duke of Wellington, voted by the city
of London, and which, although not finished at
the time of the artist's death, was so far advanced,
the political excitement of 1831, Mr. Peter Cunningham tells the
following anecdote : — " 1 was present at its erection with Sir
Francis Chantrey and my father, who was Chantrey's assistant.
The statue was placed on its pedestal between seven and eight
in the morning, and while the workmen were at their breakfast, a
rope was thrown round the neck of the figure, and a vigorous
attempt made by several sturdy reformers to pull it down. When
word of what they were about was brought to my father, he
exclaimed with a smile upon his face, ' the cramps are leaded,
and they may pull till doomsday.' " — Handbook of London.
* This composition was originally designed to have been
placed on the marble arch in front of Buckingham Palace, having
been undertaken at the express order of the King himself in 1829,
for 9,000 guineas. Of this sum, one-third remained unpaid at
Chantrey's death, the statue being in his possession. The money
was paid by the Lords of the Treasury in 1843, and the statue
placed in its present situation,

CHANTREY'S LAST WORKS. 303
that he had considered himself entitled to ask for a
second instalment of £3,000 in part payment : it
has since been finished, and placed in front of the
Eoyal Exchange. He had on hand at the time
of his death several works which were considered to
be too partially developed to justify their execution
as his. Among these have been mentioned a statue
of Dr. Goodall, for Eton ; one of the Marquis of
Wellesley, for the India House ; and, what would
have proved a deeply interesting group — those two
noble brothers, endowed alike by genius, fortune,
and worth — Lords Eldon and Stowell, who were to
have been represented as seated on one bench. He
had, however, made little or no actual progress in
the execution of this work, beyond some studies on
paper; but a gentleman told me that in the last
interview he had with Chantrey not long before his
death, and when he was so strongly impressed by
the altered appearance of the Sculptor, that he
urged upon him the necessity of giving up his

304 CLOSE OF HIS ARTISTIC LABOURS.
professional labours ; — the latter listened and
approved — but there were a few great designs —
including, especially, this contemplated group of
Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell — which he was very
anxious to execute before he laid down the art. So
difficult is it to attain artistic pre-eminence : so
impossible voluntarily to surrender powers and
obligations thereby created !

2 R

PART VI.

2 r2

MORTUARY MEMORIALS.

" Sound principles, a more general intelligence of the mean
ings and resources and limits of his art, and careful workman
ship, are spreading among the rising classes of our Sculptors;
and these the gifts to Chantrey of his native good sense, are his
most valuable bequest to posterity." — Atheneewm.
Beside the matter strictly appropriate to the
foregoing title, I shall introduce into the subse
quent pages some miscellaneous particulars. " In
J 811, Chantrey married his cousin, Miss Wale;
with the lady he received £10,000," &c. So says
Mr. Jones, in his book, which, dedicated to, and
distributed by Lady Chantrey, ought to be good

310 CHANTREY'S MARRIAGE.
authority, at least, on these points. It will be seen,
however, from the subjoined certified extract from
the parish church register at Twickenham, that the
above date of the marriage is wrong by two
years: — "Francis Chantrey, bachelor, of the parish
of St. George, Hanover Square, Middlesex, and Mary
Ann Wale, of this parish, spinster, were married in
this church, by licence, this twenty-third day
of November, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and nine, by me, Henry Fletcher," — " in
the presence of us — Danl. Wale. Elizabeth
Wale." With respect to the alleged nuptial dower,
many persons have expressed doubts on the accu
racy of the foregoing statement, in the plain meaning
of the terms. My conviction always was, and is,
that Chantrey received a thousand guineas with his
wife on their wedding-day ; but I have lately been
assured on competent authority that, whether the
bride received a present of £3000 from her friend
Mrs. D'Oyley, and £7000 from her own father, as

DEATH OF MR. HALL. 311
was once said, or not, the whole amount which
ultimately passed into the hands of the Sculptor
from the parents and relatives of his wife, was
considerably more than the sum named by Mr. Jones.
Mr. Hall died at Jordanthorpe, in September, 1804,
after making a will, by which he leaves £20 to be
paid to his sister, Sarah, wife of Eobert Nadin, of
Bullwell, county Notts, after the death of his widow;
the rest to his " son-in-law, Francis Chantrey."
It is a gratifying fact that Chantrey's mother
lived to see her son attain the full enjoyment of
his celebrity; occupying the first place in rank
among the sculptors of his native country, and, of
course, continuing to share, as she had long done,
whatever comforts his ample pecuniary means could
place within her reach. Chantrey was not only
anxious that his mother should enjoy every comfort
which his abundant means and filial respect pro
vided for her, but he wished her also to show such
decent hospitality as became her station, to the old

312 FILIAL AFFECTION.
friends and neighbours of the family." His letters
to her uniformly advise the arrival of some " good
things" at Jordanthorpe; but more interesting to
me than his description of the contents of hampers
and the halves of bank-notes, and even Lady
Chantrey's order of Norton "oatcakes" for her
husband, are such expressions as the following : —
" I trust, when you get the wine, you will drink
it : you must know that you are not now young,
and that you require a good deal more comfort than
you used to do ; and you do know very well that
you can have plenty."

The anxious discharge of his filial duties led, in
one particular, to an act which hundreds of persons
have sadly regretted — the almost entire reconstruc
tion of the house at Jordanthorpe, — including,
especially, the room in which the great artist first

COTTAGE AT JORDANTHORPE. 313
saw the fight; so that visitors from a distance
generally receive a momentary shock of disappoint
ment at finding, instead of an ancient thatched
cottage — fit companion of the ruin of a veteran oak
that still stands weathering all storms, where it has
probably stood for centuries — a very convenient
little farm-house, evidently built only a few years
since. It is pleasing to add, that the late Samuel
Shore, Esq., the owner of Jordanthorpe, always
sympathised with these unavailing regrets ; but still
more gratified am I to find that Miss Shore, as
if prescient of the future interest of everything
relating to Chantrey, made a slight but faithful
sketch of the original cottage, with an engraving
from which she kindly permits me to adorn my
title-page. With Mrs. Hall resided for several years her
elder maiden sister, Miss Leggit, who died Dec.
13, 1819, aged 78. She had formerly been
housekeeper for the too-celebrated Marchioness
2 s

314 MRS. HALL'S VISIT TO LONDON.
of Hertford. This aunt, as she certainly possessed
skill in moulding paste, butter, and sugar into
ornaments for the dinner table, has also, as we have
seen, had her share of credit in giving the first
turn to her nephew's taste for the plastic art. The
chief difficulty in the way of this tradition, is the
necessity of conceiving the old lady's pie-crust
lessons to have produced their alleged effect on her
nephew when he was actually a student in the Eoyal
Academy ! About two years before her death, Mrs.
Hall paid a visit to London, accompanied by her
kind friend, Miss Jenkins, now Mrs. Bunting,
of Norton; and we may imagine the emotions
of the venerable mother on her first introduction to
the sumptuous saloons and striking "image cham
bers" of her celebrated son at Eccleston Place.
These she had also an opportunity of comparing
with still surpassing grandeur in the residence of
royalty itself ; for one of her sisters having married
M. Pasquier, formerly one of the pages of the Prince

DEATH OF CHANTREY'S MOTHER. 315
of Wales, afterwards George the Fourth, she and
her companion from Norton, were shown through
Carlton Palace by Mr. George Pasquier.
Mrs. Hall died at Jordanthorpe, October 29th,
1826, at the advanced age of eighty-one years, and
was buried in the church-yard at Norton. Chantrey
did not go down to the funeral ; and as his friend,
John Eead, Esq., of Norton House, was from home
at the time, Mr. Stokes, from London, attended to
take charge of the interment : this gentleman, and
Mrs. Bunting above-mentioned, appeared as chief
mourners. Sir Francis, among other and more substantial
favours of fortune, received several honorary titles:
Knighted by William IV., and elected a member
of the Academy of St. Luke's, at Eome ; he was
alsoaE.A. andD.C.L. Oxford; M.A.Cambridge;
F.E. S. London and Edinburgh; F. S. A. and
M. G. S. Some persons have been exceedingly
surprised to find that the man to whose name such
2 s 2

316 HONORARY TITLES.
titles of learning were affixed — two of them from the
English Universities, — had, in early life, so very
trifling an amount of school education ; while it is
no less remarkable that his intelligence, when
conversing with individuals of the most richly
cultivated minds, and his frank and gentlemanly
demeanour when brought into professional or social
contact with persons of the highest rank, were felt
and acknowledged on grounds confessedly inde-
pendendent of his abilities as a Sculptor. The fact
is, with undoubted genius — however the term be
defined — Chantrey possessed great natural "saga
city," and, what is more uncommon, the invaluable
concomitant of an excellent understanding, which
at once prevented him from rashly venturing upon
any design beyond his powers, or failing in what he
actually undertook : and this, the secret of his
professional success, was, in no small degree also,
the source of his general knowledge. When he
came into contact with Horne Tooke in 1810, and

HORNE TOOKE S ADVICE. 317
when fortune was beginning to smile on him, he
asked that celebrated individual how he might at
that time best remedy the felt deficiency of his early
education ? Tooke advised the ardent young man
not to trouble himself about Greek and Latin, but
to read the best translations of the ancient classics,
and such other works in English as were pointed
out; and, at the same time, to attend, as far as
practicable, the lectures which were given in London
on almost every subject. I know this was the
preceptor's advice : how advantageously it was
followed by the pupil the world has long known ;
indeed, the extent and accuracy of Chantrey's
information, even on matters that form the staple
of academic teaching, were very remarkable. It is
not surprising that in the perusal of such poets as
Homer, Virgil, and Milton, his early enthusiasm
led him to dwell with most delight on such passages
as suggested to himself the most sculpturesque
imagery. Among the sciences it will not be

318 ANGLING AND GEOLOGY.
surprising that he paid particular attention to that
which was not unconnected with his own profession;
hence, he was at one period hardly more fond of
fishing than of geologising — his native Derbyshire
affording a fine field for the indulgence of both
pursuits. On his frequent visits, whether friendly
or professional, to Buxton, Matlock, Dovedale,
Bakewell, or Derwent Hall, his " geological ham
mer" was almost as constant a companion as his
" fishing tackle." I recollect hearing him, on one
occasion, make some remarks on a "pebble" which
might have done credit to Dr. Mantel himself : his
object was to show his companion that a little
boulder-stone had been derived from a certain
stratified rock, and owed its form to water-rolling,
because it exhibited transverse parallel zones of
colour instead of concentric layers, such as indicate
a nodular origin.
The learned friend above-named, gave Chantrey
another piece of advice equally judicious, viz., to

FASHIONABLE STYLE OF LIVING. 319
avoid ail party politics ;— it is to be feared that the
negative influence supposed to have been excited in
the same quarter, relative to a profession of religion,
was not so cautiously guarded by the exhibition
of " party" perils !
The style and fashion of London housekeeping,
of which "Belgravia" has almost become the
synonyme, were nowise disparaged by the elegant
hospitality of Eccleston Place. "Hence," applying
to Chantrey the language in which Plumer Ward
speaks of one of his characters; " as his fortune
permitted it, he did not suffer either the number
or the recherche of his dinners to stagnate, and his
repasts included among those who partook of them
the most celebrated characters of the time, for
present or former consequence in fashion, literature,
or political reputation : in these meetings too, his
age, for the most part, did not prevent his shining
in conversation with the advantage which his cheer
fulness and recollections of the eminent people he

320 INTERCOURSE WITH EMINENT MEN.
had lived with always gave him." It is, indeed,
probable that not one of his contemporaries, of
whatever rank or repute, enjoyed the gratification
of persona] intercourse with a greater number of
the most eminent individuals in art, science, litera
ture, or office, than Sir Francis Chantrey. Nor
was this distinction wholly due to his professional
celebrity, the elegance of his hospitality, or the
influence of his wealth — however these might aid
the prestige of his name — the Sculptor himself was
more or less conversant with the nature and progress
of modern attainment in most of the higher branches
of human knowledge,
Chantrey was fond of the indulgence of out
door recreations, especially shooting and fishing;
though I suspect his proficiency with both the rod
and the gun have been over-rated. The brace of
woodcocks which he killed by a single shot at
Holkham, where a marble tablet bearing a repre
sentation of the two dead birds from his gifted hand

FISHING AND STUDY. 321
may still be seen, has often been celebrated.
" Some of my friends," said he to a gentleman on
one occasion, "take occasion to rate me on what they
term my waste of time in fishing : they little know
how rarely I am idle when thus engaged — indeed,
some of my most successful works have been com
posed or completed at the river side." As he grew
older, however, there can be little doubt that he
indulged in the recreation of angling less for the
convenience of uninterrupted study than for the
sake of bodily health and mental quietude. It has
been stated that when one whose dulcet notes still
linger in the ears of all who ever heard her, Madam
Malibran, visited the studio of Sir Francis, she
complimented the great Sculptor on the happiness
which he could not but feel in being surrounded by
a marble offspring of his own creation, by so many
fine figures that seemed to possess everything but
that "Promethean touch" which art can only
represent, not give. "I had rather," said the
2 T

322 ATTACHMENT TO DERBYSHIRE.
artist, with a shrug and a pinch of snuff, "I'd rather
be a fishing." Sir Francis was a second Sir Joshua
in his love for snuff. The large silver box which
he constantly used, and which had been a present
to him from his friend Mr. Hatchett, the chemist,
was, after the death of her husband, given by Lady
Chantrey to John Bead, Esq., as a memento of
long cherished friendship.
Chantrey always retained a strong feeling of
attachment to his native county, and especially to
the place of his birth ; and while it is pleasant to
hear of his oft-repeated wish to chisel some one of
the mighty gritstone " tors" of Derbyshire into a
statue on its mountain base, or still more, to look
at those sweet delineations of " Peak Scenery,"
actually produced by his pencil, it is gratifying to
see him in the climax of fame, fortune, and fashion,
stealing away from those scenes of metropolitan
splendour and excitement, to the charm of which
he was by no means indifferent, to prepare his grave

MAKES HIS GRAVE AT NORTON. 323
in the remote and humble church-yard at Norton.
Good taste, and good feeling, undoubtedly con
curred in this judicious selection. Chantrey often
said that, if he had his choice, he should prefer a
grave in the quiet church-yard at Norton, to one in
St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey ; and
this feeling was encouraged by his old friend,
John Bead, Esq., who pressed him to fix upon a
spot, and make a vault. The first question was the
precise spot which he would like. An open space,
between the graves of Job Hall and his own father,
was pointed out : to this the objection was, that the
stone of the former would be on the right hand
side of his own ! On one occasion — as the Eev.
W. Pearson told me — when he and Chantrey were
examining the burial ground with reference to this
design, the grave-digger, with his mattock on his
shoulder, approached them. The Sculptor said, "I
am looking out a place for a grave, but I do not
mean you to dig it." " I hope I shall," replied the
2 t 2

324 LAST GROUSE-SHOOTING VISIT.
functionary with great simplicity ! In the summer
of this year, the Sculptor paid his last visit to his
old friend, John Eead, Esq., who was then residing
at Derwent Hall, his object being to enjoy the sport
of grouse-shooting on " The Moors," the season for
which commences on the 12th of August. Eager
as he was in the pursuit of the birds, he soon found
that he could no longer keep up with his dog
among the heather ; he, therefore, consented to
mount a tractable pony, observing to his host —
" You have taught me to believe that I am a more
infirm man than I thought myself to be."
Whether he had anything like what has been
termed a "presentiment" of approaching dissolu
tion, when he last saw the place of his nativity in
1840 — may, perhaps, be doubted — he certainly
looked altered ; and this circumstance, with a
knowledge of what was then the main object of his
errand into Derbyshire, forced upon certain parties
not only a misgiving as to the Sculptor's present

ANTICIPATED LONGEVITY. 325
health, but the question, — how far, or whether at
all, the constant preparation of costly monumental
tributes of affection to the memory of others, had a
tendency to call up serious reflections on the uncer
tainty of life in the mind of the artist himself ?
In the preceding year he anticipated longevity in
very confident terms. Writing to Mr. Ehodes,
under date of February 1, 1839, he desires him to
order from " Friend Eogers," nine dozen of " honest
silver-handled table knives ;" adding, " the cases to
be plain as possible, strong, and fit for hard work !
as I intend to use them every day for the next fifty
years !" He had not fifty, nor bis correspondent
fifteen months to live. His last note to Ehodes
was perhaps more significant than the writer
intended it should be : —
"London, 28th August [1839].
" My Dear Sir, — I am not dead yet, nor can I
say that I am ill, for I sleep well, and have a
troublesomely good appetite. My disease is that

326 PREMONITORY INDISPOSITION.
of too much health. To avoid being drowned in
my own blood, I abstain from wine altogether —
eat as little as my appetite and want of resolution
will allow — take as much exercise as my engage
ments will allow — and, with the help now and then
of cupping, with salts and senna frequently, I
manage to live at increased speed, corresponding
with the increased rate of rail-road travelling. I
shall turn my face northward early in September,
and may perhaps reach Sheffield about October, in
which case I shall hunt up the old man in Victoria-
street, in the hope of finding you better than you
report yourself to be.
" Very truly yours,
" F. Chantrey."
" Lady C. is quite well, and desires to be kindly
remembered to you."
In the autumn Chantrey visited Sheffield, when
he not only did " call upon the old man in Victoria-
street," but took him with him to Matlock. Alas !

LAST INTERVIEW WITH RHODES. 327
that beautiful " Peak Scenery " which had in past
years inspired the artist's pencil and the tourist's
pen, proved ineffectual to divert the progress of
disease, or mitigate the infirmity of age. The
friends parted — perhaps with forebodings : it was
their last interview! Ehodes died December 16,
1839, aged 77.
As Chantrey has been charged with a want of
gratitude to his earlier Sheffield friends, I am bound
to say that I have not met with a single credible
instance of unrequited obligation. Every one must
be aware how exceedingly difficult it is to judge
dispassionately in cases of this nature ; but it will
hardly be denied by persons best acquainted with
the early and after history of the Sculptor and his
companions, that had the mere fact of so many
of the latter falling, as old Bochas says of princes,
" from their estates through the mutabilitie of for
tune," entitled them to become pensioners on their
old friend, his own circumstances might, in the

328 PECUNIARY AID TO OLD FRIENDS.
issue, have more nearly resembled theirs. Mr.
Jones mentions some striking instances of Chan
trey's liberality: I have already adverted to one
such case; and truth impels me to add in this
place, that when Mr. Ehodes fell into pecuniary
distress toward the close of life, among other of his
old associates, who substantially befriended him
according to their means, was the Sculptor himself,
who transmitted quarterly — though under a pledge
of secrecy — a payment equal to the annual usufruct
of a thousand pounds placed out at common interest,
I mention this matter the more freely, because I
happen to know that Mr. Ehodes himself, on his
death-bed, expressed a wish that this evidence of
the continued friendship and kindness of his highly-
gifted companion during so many mountain ram
bles, should be made public. An opposite feeling
has not only deprived Chantrey of the credit of
similar, not to say greater, acts of generosity in
other quarters, but exposed him to the undeserved

DEATH OF CHANTREY. 329
imputation of an indifference to the wants of some
whose fortunes were the reverse of his own.
Sir Francis Chantrey died very suddenly at his
residence in Eccleston-street, Pimlico, London, on
the 25th November, 1841, aged sixty years. Ee-
ferring to the solemn sight his body presented in
its winding-sheet on the night of the inquest, a
journalist says: — "In an exquisite little gallery,
built for him by Sir John Soane, who always was
good when his limits were cramped, lay the body
of the great Sculptor — his eyes closed, his face
calm, but with an expression serene and solemn
even in death. Above were wax-lights burning
clearly, and all around a collection of the finest
casts from the antique. The Laocoon was at his
head, the Venus and the Apollo on his right and
left, and around the room the Ilissus and the
Theseus, and other of the glories of Greece, with
one or two of Canova's own casts.'' The affecting
spectacle recalled the poetical description of the
2 u

330 LYING IN STATE.
" lying in state" of the body of Eafaelle before his
great picture of The Transfiguration : —
"  And when aU beheld

Him, where he lay, how changed from yesterday,
Him in that hour cut off; and at his head
His last great work; when, entering in, they looked
Now on the dead, then on that master-piece,
Now on his face, lifeless and colourless,
Then on those forms divine that lived and breathed,
And would live on for ages — all were moved."
Rogers's " Italy."
His remains, after lying in state amidst those
creations of his genius, industry, and fame, which
had so recently formed the charm of his living
presence, were removed to Norton for interment,
conformably with his will. The undertaker left
London with the body on Wednesday December 1,
and reached Chesterfield on Sunday morning, where
he halted for the next night. It was naturally
expected that the approaching ceremony would

ORDER OF FUNERAL. 331
draw a considerable number of persons from Shef
field. Such was the case, notwithstanding the
uncomfortable state of the weather : the rain, with
the exception of a short interval from nine to ten
o'clock, falling heavily on Monday morning. On
reaching Norton, I found the ponderous stone
covering of the vault, and an under slab likewise
very massy, and simply inscribed — " The vault of
Sir F. C. 1840," had been removed, and the crypt
itself, a plain white-washed apartment, capable of
containing two large coffins on the floor, already
opened. This spot, selected and prepared by the
deceased as his last resting place, is at the south
west angle of the church, near the base of the
tower, and adjacent to the private door to the
shrubbery of Norton Hall, which is close at
hand. A few yards from the grave, stand two
usual church-yard objects — a noble yew tree and a
pyramid of steps, with the broken shaft of an
ancient cross : the venerable ivy-covered front of
2 u 2

332 INTERMENT AT NORTON.
Norton House, rising at the distance of a few score
yards; and, still nearer, the quiet respectable
parsonage. At about twenty minutes to eleven,
the hearse and one mourning coach, each drawn by
four horses, and preceeded by four persons on
horseback, entered Norton by the road from Ches
terfield, and proceeded to the Oaks, the residence
of W. J. Bagshawe, Esq., who had provided break
fast for those gentlemen who had been invited to
attend, or had announced their intention of attend
ing the funeral, and who were here provided with
hat-bands, as were also the drivers of carriages,
the latter also proceeding to the Oaks. About
half-past twelve o'clock, the cavalcade started from
the Oaks in the following order — the muffled bells
of the church "knolling" solemnly during the
progress- of the procession : — Twelve gentlemen on
foot, two a-breast ; next two mutes on horseback —
then a plume-bearer — and afterwards the hearse.
Three mourning coaches — Messrs. Stokes, Turner,

FUNERAL PROCESSION. 333
Bagshawe, and Shore, in the first ; in the second,
Messrs. J. Parker, M.P. for Sheffield, and J. Eead,
of Derwent Hall, with the Eev. Henry Pearson,
vicar of Norton, and the Eev. William Pearson,
curate ; and in the third, the Eev. E. Bagshawe, the
Eev. Henry Hunt Piper, Mr. Jones, of London,
and Mr. Brown, the solicitor of Sir Francis. Then
followed the Master Cutler and the Members of the
Company, the Town Trustees, and a Deputation
from the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Sheffield, in four carriages. Next came three
more private carriages ; whilst a few miscellaneous
vehicles from Sheffield and other places closed the
procession, amounting in all to about twenty.
When the hearse reached the church-yard, the rain
was falling heavily, and scores of individuals of
both sexes, especially those who were unlucky
enough to be unprovided with umbrellas, were
crowded under the noble yew above-mentioned, and
under two others, which stood on each side of the

334 CHURCHYARD SCENE.
"lich gate," by which the cortege entered the
consecrated enclosure. At this moment the scene
was not only picturesque but affecting. As the
massive and ornamental coffin was borne along
that pathway on which so many other but less
attractive funerals have passed, preceded by the
sable " plume," and followed by such a retinue
of gentry, it was impossible not to contrast the
condition in which Chantrey, the unnoticed " vil
lage boy," was once accustomed to gambol over the
gravestones, with the state in which, after an
interval of fifty years, he was thus honourably
borne to the grave. Nor was it possible to notice
the several lads, let loose on the occasion, from the
very school in which Chantrey was once a scholar,
without reflecting that amidst all the mysterious
destinies which awaited the youngsters in the future
of life, how little likely it was that even one of them
would attain, in any department of science, that
eminence which had distinguished the deceased.

INTERMENT AT NORTON. 335
Nor was it easy to repel some more solemn con
siderations, when it was recollected how recently
and jocosely he had prepared that "narrow house"
whither he was borne. The corpse was met at the
church door by the Eevs. Henry Pearson, the
vicar, and William Pearson, his son and curate,
with scarves over their surplices, the latter gentle
man reading the service, which included the chant
ing of a solemn psalm by the choir. The ceremony
terminated with the service read at the grave by the
venerable vicar himself, at half-past one o'clock.
The coffin was covered with black cloth, and
ornamented with a profusion of brass work. On
the lid was a large brass plate, containing the
following inscription : —
Sir F. Chantrey,
Knt. E.A.
Died Nov. 25, 1841,
Aged 60 Years.
I noticed a branch of laurel on the coffin as it lay

336 h. p. parker's picture.
in the vault, though how, when, or by whom
placed there, did not appear. Before the mourners
(for some of the followers of the coffin evidently
were really such) had left the grave, the pressure
of the crowd to look into the vault was very great ;
and, after all, such was the miry condition of the
ground, and the haste with which the vault was
closed, that many persons who had gone some
miles to the spot, and stood some hours in the
rain, were not gratified at the last.
At my suggestion, Mr. H. P. Parker painted
a picture of the burial-scene, with its adjuncts,
the church, the hall, the trees, and the spectators :
it was exhibited in London, in the course of the
following year.
The grave, as already intimated, is of ample
size, most firmly built about with heavy masonry,
and covered with a ponderous slab of gritstone,
measuring 18 feet by 8 feet, ten inches in thick
ness, and now inclosed by iron railing. This stone,

inscription on the gravestone. 337
otherwise quite plain, bears the following inscrip
tion : — M.
francis chantrey,
died -mvcclxvi. aged lvi.
FRANCIS CHANTREY,
died mvccxciii. aged xxxxv.
SARAH, HIS WIFE,
DIED MVCCCXXVI. AGED LXXXI.
SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY,
SCULPTOR,
R. A. — F. R. S.
BORN IN THIS PARISH
VII. APRIL,
MVC CLXXXI.
DIED IN LONDON
NOV. XXV.
MVCCCXXXXI.
I now come to mention that which — in his own
native place at least — will be the most enduring
memorial of the name of Chantrey — though it
2x

338 PRESERVATION OF THE TOMB.
might take a thousand years entirely to disintegrate
his gravestone, through the agency of time alone —
his posthumous charities. These, so far as Norton
is concerned, are inseparably connected with the
preservation of the vault. Four times repeated, in
his will occur words to the effect that the operation
of the bequest, year by year, on the first of Decem
ber, shall continue " so long as my tomb in the
church-yard of the said parish of Norton, con
structed by me, according to such instruction as I
shall leave for that purpose, shall last; and ex
pressly with the view of having my said tomb pre
served from destruction," &c. Instead of citing
clauses from the will of Sir Francis, which was
dated Dec. 31, 1840, and may be read at length in
the Gentleman's Magazine, for March, 1842, — I
shall give them as embodied in a funeral sermon,
preached by the Eev. Henry Pearson, vicar of
Norton, in the church of that village, on Sunday,
December 12, 1841. "We are called," said the

FUNERAL SERMON. 339
venerable clergyman, after some general remarks
on the text — Isaiah, Ixiv. 6 — " by Divine Provi
dence to pay the last tribute of respect to a dis
tinguished character. Though born in this com
paratively little spot, his fame was not confined to
the hamlets around him, but- was extensively
spread; and, I may say, that he was more known
in the first city of the world, than by many in the
place of his birth. Pre-eminent among the sculp
tors for his excellence in copying nature — by his
unrivalled application of the chisel, the cold marble
appeared to be animated, and the figures, as with
Promethean touch, to start into life. His works
adorn the mansions of the opulent, the halls of
nobles, and the palace of royalty. By his death the
nation has lost one of its brightest ornaments, and
art one of her most celebrated sons. In early life
he experienced many years of harrassing trials and
discouragements ; but his genius alone supported
him, and he lived to enjoy the triumphs of
2x2

340 CHARACTER OF THE DECEASED.
prosperous designs, and applauded exertion. In
the example of this distinguished artist, we see to
what eminence superior talent can raise its possessor.
Without the aid of fortune or of birth, he overcame
every difficulty that opposed his advancement in his
profession ; and in his own particular line, in busts
and portrait statues, he outstripped every com
petitor. If, then, there be one youth before me
this morning on whom God has bestowed any
useful and shining endowment, let him diligently
cultivate that endowment. It may lead him to
opulence and fame. It will forward his progress
in life, and his career will be ' as a shining light,
which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.'
But, here the Christian believer may ask, ' What is
the intrinsic value of a mere earthly name, to the
heir of immortality ? or, what the real profit in the
acquisition of gold and silver, dross which perisheth
in the using ?' I will refer him to the words of the
preacher, who declares that ' a good name is better

UNASSUMING MANNERS. 341
than precious ointment,' and that ' money answereth
all things.' For, if expended for the good of man,
for the glory of God, and for aiding the means of
salvation, it is a God-like gift. It answers the
great end for which it is bestowed. By the blessing
of the bountiful giver, ' the fruit will be unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life.' Thus
dispersed and employed, does it not answer all
things: for it answers the most important of 'all
things.' In tracing individual character, I may
remark here, that the knowledge of this eminent
man was very general. His conversation was
animating and attractive ; he was admired for his
affable learning, and for his simple manners.
These, though he associated with the high born
of the land, and with royalty itself, underwent no
apparent change. Prosperity did not exalt him
above measure, nor did pride puff him up unseemly.
But though thus highly successful in1 life, his
deportment was unassuming; he was courteous

342 CHARITABLE BEQUESTS.
towards all. I may also observe that he was much
attached to the place of his birth. Prevented by
numerous demands on his time, and pressing
avocations from making frequent visits to it, he
delighted not only to talk of it, but he had it in
his heart. Of the regard which he expressed for
it in life, he has given substantial proof in his
death. It will be heard with grateful feelings by
the poor partakers of his charity, that among other
bequests he has left, after the demise of his widow,
fifty pounds a year, so long as his tomb endures, to
be paid to a schoolmaster, under the direction of
the vicar or resident clergyman, to instruct ten
poor boys of the parish of Norton, without expense
to their parents ; ten pounds a year to each of five
poor men and five poor women, to comfort them
under the infirmities of sickness and age ; and I
trust, when they taste the bread which he has given
them to eat, and possess the garments which he
hath enabled them to provide to screen them from

GENIUS  EMULATION  FAME. 343
the cold, they will not forget to bless that merciful
Being, who alone can bestow the 'Bread of Life,'
and ' clothe with the garment of salvation,' and
from whom ' all holy desires and good works do
proceed,' who hath put in the heart of the earthly
giver this benevolent remembrance.* I have men
tioned that he has bequeathed fifty pounds a year
for the teaching of ten poor boys ; and, my friends,
who knows but that the provision thus left for their
education may be the means of kindling in some
* Only one regret mingles with the gratifying record of these
Norton benefactions — viz., that while wishing long life to Lady
Chantrey, the few aged colleagues and companions (who are also
survivors) of her late husband, feel they are thereby resigning
the hope of personal participation in a charily which may only
overtake those who never saw the author of it. This remark
applies emphatically to the fifty pounds a year left to the poor.
It must, however, be added, that seasonable donations and
special aid in cases of casual distress, are, or ought to be, fre
quent suggestives of gratitude on the part of the villagers to the
Sculptor's widow.

344 REFLECTIONS OF THE PREACHER.
of them a spark of native genius, which poverty
and want of instruction might for ever have ex
tinguished; and that by his bounty and their
talents, their statues may be placed in a niche
of the Temple of Fame, and their names enrolled
among the benefactors of their country's weal ! I
may mention, also, that he has left to the minister
of the parish fifty pounds a year to keep his tomb
in repair. Eemoved at so great a distance from
him, I cannot be supposed to know much of the
general habits of his life. I leave this and other
interesting details to the more suitable pen of his
future biographer. Indeed individual character,
except when particular circumstances or the in
terests of charity require it, should not be the
prominent topic of our discourses in ' the house
of God;' a more sacred subject demands our undi
vided attention. Necessity is laid upon us 'to
preach the Gospel, and woe unto us if we preach it
not! But, as the eminent artist to whom I have

REFLECTIONS OF THE PREACHER. 845
drawn your attention was born, and by his own
express desire was buried in the cemetery of this
village, I hope that the observations which I have
made on the traits of his general character will not
on this occasion be deemed out of place. I only
add, that his tomb has been opened to our view ;
we have seen the crowning laurel and the mournful
yew dropped into it by the hand of friendship. I
have mentioned some of his charitable bequests.
There can be no mistake here. ' Though dead,' in
these ' he yet speaketh,' and we hear from the grave
the voice of benevolence. Death, who cares
nothing for posterity, has taken him from us. His
body is gone to the dust, and his ' spirit to Him
who gave it.' "
It may, perhaps, be said to be an act of imper
tinence to pry into the religious character of an
individual who never obtrudes the subject upon
others; but, if such be the dictate of worldly
caution, it is little in harmony with the spirit of the
2 Y

346 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.
Gospel. Besides, there exists a somewhat widely
prevalent popular notion to the effect that the
embodiment of a grand or tender religious senti
ment in marble, as well as its enunciation in verse,
or its enforcement in a sermon, — especially where
the moral is pointed by death, — pre-supposes a
conviction of the reality and importance of such
sentiment on the part of the artist,* the poet, and
the preacher. It is gratifying to be able to name
at least one striking exemplification of evangelical
faith and conduct in an eminent member of Chan
trey's own profession. Bacon, the sculptor, not
only attended to the duties of religion, as ordi
narily observed by men "professing and calling
themselves Christians," but he braved even . the
* " Chantrey believed that the mind and the morals are im
proved by the contemplation of beautiful objects: he valued
everything for its intrinsic and rational importance, and almost
underrated mere embellishment : simplicity was the characteristic
of the man and of his work." — Jones's Recollections.

CHANTREY AND BACON. 347
opprobrium of being considered a "Methodist;" and
a biographer, who is evidently inclined to speak
with more respect of his professional abilities than
of his " prayers for the sick," records, not without a
sneer, that neither the genius nor the income of the
man who executed the celebrated statues of Dr.
Johnson and John Howard, now in St. Paul's
Cathedral, suffered from his avowed evangelical
character. The least obligation which any profession of
religion imposes, is that of attending some place
of worship on the Sunday. In a Memoir of Bacon,
inscribed to Chantrey by Allan Cunningham, in
1830, we are told that Bacon's " desire to keep the
Sabbath holy was always strong : on that day he
allowed nothing like the resemblance of work to go
on in his household. ' On those days,' says Cecil,
hjg clerical biographer, ' if any persons particularly
insisted upon seeing him, they were admitted ; but,
commonly, they went away, whatever their rank in
2 y 2

348 SUNDAY AMONG ARTISTS.
life, in a short time, finding the only business they
could transact with him was to obtain part of a
sermon.' " To no such unfashionable rule of
religious observance does the general conduct of
Chantrey appear to have been amenable : his bio
grapher will probably not feel called upon to con
struct and work out a specious hypothesis of
" niggardliness" at home, as a set-off against the
danger of inferring piety from punctual " attend
ance at church or meeting-house," — for in neither
church nor meeting-house, does the last-named
Sculptor ever appear in the " Eecollections" of Mr.
Jones. By him, however, and others, we are
admitted to the penetralia of Chantrey's hospitable
mansion on the Sabbath-day — " Sundays he gener
ally passed at home ; members of the Eoyal
Academy and other intimate friends dined with
him. Mr. Stokes was a constant guest, and it was
a common occurrence to meet men distinguished by
science or literature ; and, perhaps, no hospitality

SUNDAY RECREATIONS. 349
short of Lord Essex's, Lord Spencer's, and Lord
Holland's, could compete with Chantrey's. In
the evening, the specimens of his minerals and
fossils were examined, and the instructive allure
ments of the microscope filled every moment with
gratification," &c. Again — " On Sundays, accom
panied by Lady Chantrey and some friend, he often
passed an hour or two in the [Zoological] gardens ;
and his sagacious remarks on the habits and con
struction of the animals were always instructive
and amusing." Mr. Jones adds, — " Chantrey's
letters are generally so serious, or so jocose, that it
is not easy to select them for the public." It were
to be wished we had been favoured with a specimen
of the "serious" epistles; and, still more, that
certain expressions, of which "jocose" is hardly
the proper description, had been omitted.* The
* As I have repeatedly introduced the name of Mr. Jones into
these pages, I should be sorry to leave the slightest ground for
a suspicion, that I intend anything like personal disrespect

350 INFLUENCE OF PIETV ON ART.
lamentable fact was, that the great artist's vigorous
and otherwise sensible conversation with familiar
friends was, throughout his later life, sadly larded
with profane expletives.
I quote the following passage, with a painful
sense of its accuracy in a moral point of view : —
" Chantrey's mind wanted better early culture. He
had very small literature, and looked upon art itself
too much in the light of a profession. He took
towards a gentleman with whom, in fact, I never exchanged a
line or a word : while, therefore, I have dealt with the mistakes in
the " Recollections of Chantrey" with all frankness as matters of
literary interest, I am bound to repeat that, for the better part of
the volume, as an authentic contribution to the biography of the
greatest of English Sculptors, I am thankful to the author. To
this praise alone my own work aspires; and, let me add, that
apart from our casual occupation of common ground in this
instance, I am glad of the opportunity of acknowledging a per
sonal — why should I not say a Hallamshire ? — obligation to the
artist who designed the elegant and appropriate graphic illustra
tions of the " Poetical Works of Montgomery."

RELIGIOUS FEELING IN SCULPTURE. 351
the gainful, and he got rich by it : yet art presents
to its genuine worshippers far nobler objects and
far higher rewards. His early acquaintance with
Tooke did not improve the devotional taste so
necessary to him who would excel in the branch
of his own peculiar art for which his powers were
most frequently called into exercise — monumental
sculpture. He seems, indeed, never to have had
the Christian and religious feeling which above all
things should be preserved by those who aspire to
give us memorials of the pious dead in the edifices
consecrated to devotion. Look at his monuments
in the Abbey. They are works of sculpture only,
not, like the effigies of Queen Eleanor, an exquisite
work of sculpture, and, at the same time, a touching
appeal to the nicest sensibilities of our nature — a
work by which, if it is not our own fault, we may
be improved and advanced in the Divine life.
Chantrey knew and felt nothing of this. As to
his religious education, such as it was, he had

352 CHANTREY S. ULTIMATE FAME.
been brought up in the School of Free Enquiry
while he was Eamsay's apprentice. He was thus
prepared for the influences of the corrupting
intimacy with Tooke ; and hence it is that his
taste in monumental sculpture was so debased.
But here even his entablatures show how little of
originality there was in him — how near our greatest
Sculptor in portrait approaches to the veriest maker
of monuments in a country town. An artist, to be
eminently great, should have his mind stored with
the eloquence and the poetry of the world ; and
if he is called to the work of commemorating the
dead, he should be conscious to the full glow of
religious sentiment."
It would ill become me even to attempt to assign
Chantrey's ultimate position in the rank of British
Sculptors ; nor is my competency to the task I have
undertaken at all affected by my diffidence in that
matter. Ministering, as he did during life, a
benign gratification to the ordinary feelings of our

THE SCULPTOR AND HIS PATRONS. 353
common humanity, he was, perhaps, rated above
his real value as an intellectual artificer : on the
other hand, since his death, and measured by a
standard of abstract or imaginary excellence, he
has, I think, been often placed below his proper
level. " There is," says an elegant writer,* " a sphere
in which the statuary may walk in rivalry, perhaps
in superiority, to the painter. The features of the
wise man and the figure of the warrior cannot be
too determinate, and though more imaginary sub
jects fail him, the English sculptor cannot want
matter for his skill till the line of English heroes
and English sages is extinct." It has been alleged
that the subjects of Chantrey's chisel were, for the
most part, " common-place characters." This
opinion is surely the reverse of the fact ; but, had
it been true, the artist ought hardly to be blamed
• Milman : Oxford Prize Essay on " Sculpture and Paint
ing," 1816.
2Z

354 POWER OF EXPRESSION IN MARBLE.
for the fault of his age. That the merit of the
poet, the historian, the painter, or the sculptor,
should be rated according to the absolute greatness
of their patrons, may be a convenient apology for
disappointment or failure on the one hand, and for
envy and detraction on the other ; but true criticism
will ever distinguish between what genius confers
on, and what it gains from, adventitious claims.
It has never been denied that in force and truth
of character, fleshy manner of treatment, and general
harmony of expression, the busts of Chantrey are
unequalled, even by those of Nollekens, whose
claim, previous to our Sculptor's time, to all these
excellencies, was universally acknowledged. In
the busts of Scott, already mentioned, these merits
are not only at once seen but felt by individuals
of the most cultivated taste ; and by those who have
no taste at all. In the region of the mouth especi
ally, the marble seems kindling into Promethean
life — the lips appear to quiver in act to speak — the

TRUTHFULNESS AND TASTE. 355
" fine chisel" has all but " cut breath !" Some
trace of this " highest style of art" is observable
even in the most common and oft-transmitted copies
of one of these busts, with which everybody is
familiar. To a comparison with the fierce and fiery
poetic spirit of Byron, the plastic genius of Chantrey
had no claim ; but the quiet, deep simplicity of
Wordsworth in verse, may be said to have been
emulated by the Sculptor in marble : in other
words, if to acquire perfection in portrait sculpture
be not a vain and inglorious achievement, then does
Chantrey deserve the high praise of having done
better than any other aspirant in an art where every
one strives to do his best. If his sound judgment,
or — if any one will have it so — his want of power,
prevented him from emulating the bold, almost
superhuman, but surely sometimes vicious crea
tions of the chisel of Michael Angelo, his innate
good taste never allowed him to indulge in the
operose puerilities of Bernini. " To nature and to
2z 2

356 HIS WORKS APPEAL TO THE HEART.
natural sentiment alone — not in any of her separate
forms, generalized and idealized, and crowned a
goddess — but to the illustration of her individual
doings and the expression of her true sentiments, he
devoted his powers." This passage from the Athe
naeum, and another which I have placed at the head
of this chapter, appear to me to exhibit a just and
generous appreciation of the actual character and
the prospective influence of Chantrey's genius ;
and hence, higher art will never wholly supersede
in interest those life-like busts, nor criticism
much diminish in value those truth-speaking
groups, which appeal at once to our sympathies —
to our hearts.
I may add, that Allan Cunningham — who has
shown us in his " Life of Wilkie," and not less
eloquently in some of his smaller " Memoirs of
Artists," how ably he might have appreciated the
abilities of his illustrious master and friend had he
been spared to become his biographer — thus

ENGLISH IN HIS FEELINGS. 357
illustrates what may be called the national idiosyn-
cracies of the Sculptor : — " The art of Chantrey
is a pure, unmixed emanation of English genius ; a
style without transcript or imitation, resembling the
ancients no more than the wild romantic dramas of
Shakespere resemble the plays of Euripedes, or the
heroes of Sir Walter Scott's chivalry, the heroes of
heathen song — it seeks to personify the strength
and the beauty of the 'mighty island.'" The
patriotic feeling indicated in the preceding quota
tion is further illustrated by clauses defining a main
purpose of Chantrey's noble bequest to the Eoyal
Academy, namely — " The purchase of works of
Fine Art of the highest merit in Painting and
Sculpture ;" but only such as " shall have been
entirely executed within the shores of Great Bri
tain:" the "wish and intention" of the artist being,
" that the works of art so purchased shall be col
lected for the purpose of forming and establishing
a Public National Collection of British Art in

358 BEQUEST TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
Painting and Sculpture." The bequest and direc
tions of Chantrey's will here adverted to, had not,
of course, any reference to the tools and treasures
of art in his own establishment; and the instruc
tion which he leaves to his executors " to destroy
such drawings, models, and casts as they may in
their uncontrolled judgment consider not worthy of
being preserved," he had himself acted upon in at
least one memorable instance, on a large scale, three
or four years before his death.
It is gratifying to be able to add, in conclusion,
that the assemblage of precious objects which
formed for so many years the attraction of the
Sculptor's rooms during his life-time, has been
preserved for the perpetual instruction of future
ages. To the University Galleries, at Oxford,*
* These Galleries were erected partly from a legacy of Dr.
Randolph, but mainly from the funds of the University. They
contain the Pomfret statues, and numerous other works of art,
including paintings and original drawings of Michael Angelo and

THE CHANTREY GALLERY. 359
Lady Chantrey laudibly presented, in 1842, the
originals of her late husband's monumental figures,
busts, and copies of the antique, on condition that
they should be placed all together in a saloon, to be
called " The Chantrey Gallery."
During the Sculptor's last visit to the place and
neighbourhood of his nativity in 1840, he called
one day upon John Bodgers, Esq., the head of
the most celebrated cutlery establishment in Shef
field, and asked him to walk out with him a short
distance. On reaching High-street, Chantrey took
his friend up a court,* and pointing out the room
Raphael. A neat volume, containing " Sixty Etched Reminiscences"
of the Chantrey Models, was lately published at Oxford, by Mr.
Fisher. * Ramsay's front shop was, at that time, where Rimington
and Younge's Bank was afterwards built; subsequently he occu
pied one higher up on the opposite side of High-street; while the
little chamber which Chantrey privately rented, and used as a
studio during his apprenticeship, was at the top of the narrow
yard (now Hutton's), opposite the end of George-street. For

360 LAST VISIT TO SHEFFIELD.
in which, nearly half a century ago, he had worked
while with Eamsay, remarked — "Mr. Eodgers,
Providence has shaped out for both you and me a
destiny, and favoured us respectively with a degree
of prosperity in our pursuits, very different from
what either of us could have anticipated in boy
hood." The parties met but once afterwards. Mr.
Eodgers was at Windsor, when Chantrey, who. had
been out fishing, recognised his Sheffield friend, and
notwithstanding his business at the Castle was un
finished, he got upon the step of the omnibus, and
stood there in conversation till the vehicle reached
the railway station at Slough ; and the next day he
transmitted a somewhat characteristic memento of
the interview, in the form of a " Thames trout,"
weighing five pounds.
many years after the young artist left it, the walls presented
outlines of various objects, sketched with black chalk, as Boswell
tells us he and Mickle found the whitewashed interior of Gold
smith's room, in Edgeware Road, scrawled over with memoranda
of Natural History, in pencil.

ANECDOTE. 361
The Sculptor — generally willing enough to give
or take a joke — -was, in one instance, during this
visit, somewhat startled by a recognition of his
" frosted locks and foretop bare," for having occa
sion to call at a shop in the town, he was intro
duced by Mr. Ward to the principal, who, struck by
the contrast between the venerable appearance of the
artist at that time and his remembered looks more
than thirty years before, at once, with characteristic
straightforwardness, addressed Sir Francis in the
words of the well-known song :¦. —
"  When first we were aquenr,
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bonnie brow was brent :
But now your brow is bald, John,
Your locks are like the snaw. — "
When Chantrey, as already intimated, prepared
his own vault at Norton, in 1840, he removed three
old family gravestones, placing them, face down
ward, to serve as a flooring. As the inscriptions
3 A

362 GRAVESTONE INSCRIPTIONS.
thus buried will probably never again be seen by
human eyes, I venture to insert copies of them as
taken at the time by my friend Mr. Swift : —
1. — " Here lieth ye Body of Francis Chantrey, who died October
ye 23rd, 1766, aged 56 years.
Here also lieth the Body of Anne, his daughter, who died
July ye 19th, 1767, aged 29 years.
Here also lieth the Body of Mary, his wife, who died April
the 3rd, 1770, aged 63 years.
Here also lieth the Body of George Chantrey, their son,
who died July 28th, 1776, aged 35 years.
Here also lieth the Body of Sarah, their daughter, who died
January the 5th, 1779, aged 42 years."
2. — " In Memory of Martin Legget, late of Okeover ; he departed
this life January 11th, 1788, aged 88 years."
3. — " In Memory of Francis Chantrey, who departed this life
March 21st, 1793, aged 45 years.
Also Thomas, son of Francis and Sarah Chantrey : he died
in his infancy."
In addition to the tomb prepared by Sir Francis
himself in the church-yard at Norton, and in
which, as already described, his mortal remains
are deposited, a small neat marble tablet has

TABLET IN NORTON CHURCH. 363
been placed inside the chancel : it bears no orna
ment, with the exception of a medallion likeness,
carved by Mr. Heffernan, in the centre of the cor
nice, and is thus inscribed : —
Sir Francis Chantrey, E. A.
Sculptor,
h.d.c.l. — f.r.s. — M.A.
Born Apl.vn. mdcclxxxi. DiedNov. xxv. mdcccxli.
Many persons anticipated the erection of a more
sumptuous monument in this spot — or at least the
placing of a marble bust : neither would have been
quite compatible with the known taste of the
Sculptor. The fine portrait in crayons, by Eddis,
which was exhibited only about a year before Chan
trey's death, is in the possession of John Brown,
Esq., of Endcliffe. It is hardly possible to conceive
of a more pleasing face, or of a more exquisitely
artistic management of the chalk : the countenance
exhibits a well-conditioned but placid benignity,
strongly resembling that of the well-known portrait
3 a2

364 LIKENESSES OF CHANTREY.
of Eobert Eaikes, the founder of Sunday Schools —
rather than of the old print of Shakspeare, which
has also been considered so good a likeness of
Chantrey. I have elsewhere mentioned two or three
other original portraits in Hallamshire ; among the
more accessible mementoes of this class may be
enumerated — 1. Turner's fine quarto mezzotint.
2. The engraved sketch from a side-face by Mr.
Weeks. 3. The clever print after Baeburn's admi
rable likeness, in the European Magazine. 4. An
exquisite miniature in wax, by Mr. Earle ; and 5.
A fine expressive full-size head, modelled by the
late Mr. Smith, of London, and representing Chan
trey in the prime of life.

THE END.

SHEFFIELD: PRINTED BY J. PEABCE, JUN., HIGH-STREET.

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