Volume 1

The Farington diary / edited by James Greig.

  • Joseph Farington
Date:
[1922?-1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Farington diary / edited by James Greig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    120/464 (page 76)
    Farrier, charged 2 guineas a day for attendance, and when He went to Brighton that Sum & 14 guineas for expenses. Mr. Frazer is employed by the Board of Agriculture in Surveying the Counties. Mr Pitt was not inclined to the establishment of the board on acct. of the expence. About £3000 a year is now allowed for all expences which Mr F. says is too little. The King is favourable to the scheme. Mrs Cosway, is returned from Italy, in company with young Bartlozzi [sic], and Flaxman, the sculptor. Flaxmans drawings and sculpture are highly spoken of. [He afterwards became an R.A.] November 24.—Rev Mr Este called. He has been in Ireland for 7 weeks. He says the Irish hold Lord Westmorland [Lord Lieutenant] in great contempt. . . . Republican principles prevail in Ireland. They seem to have no partiality for any set of rules. In a company of 50 He has heard a toast given “ His Highness & his brave followers,” allud¬ ing to the Duke of York & the French. November 29.—Mrs. Bates (late Miss Harrop) to sit to him [George Dance]. On the loss of £10,000 which she had saved & which her husband engaged in the scheme of the Albion Mills which were burned [in 1791], Lord Thurlow obtained for her a pension from the King of £500 a year. Lord Thurlow is very fond of musick, and Mr Sc Mrs Bates are frequently with him. [On December 16 Farington made the following entry], Wm. Dance introduced Haydn, the Composer of Music [The “ Creation ”] last night to Mr Sc Mrs Bates* at their house in John Rd., Bedford Row.—Mrs Bates sung some of Haydn’s songs, in so admirable a manner as drew from him the warmest eulogiums.—He had never heard them sung so well.—Mrs Bates is about 40 years of age,—Dance thinks her a very sensible woman. Captain Hale [eldest son of General Hale] spoke of Mr Robinson, the present Lord Rokeby, as a very singular man, who allows his beard to grow, eats only raw meat with some slight preparation by himself. December 3.—Westhall [sic] . . . had heard that his and Law¬ rence’s [Diploma] pictures when first put in were very slight. They had their pictures back to reconsider them. Lawrence made no alteration. Westhall changed the effect of his. The Boys head was first in shade, relieved from a light back ground. He has now made the head light and the back ground dark. December 6.—Craig [Farington’s pupil] was at Mr Fawkes’s in Yorkshire, 12 miles from Leeds, when Hodges [R.A.] was there to make * Joah Bates (1741-1799) was born at Halifax. He was a graduate of King’s College, Cambridge. He got up and conducted a performance of the “ Messiah ” in his native town ; no oratorio had been previously performed north of the Trent. It may also be noted that Herschel, the astronomer, played first violin in Bates’s Orchestra. Through the influence of Lord Sandwich he obtained preferment in the Government services, and in 1776 became conductor to the Concerts of Ancient Music. He wrote a “ Treatise on Music,” and was responsible for the Handel Commemoration in Westminster in May and June, 1784. In 1780 he married Miss Sarah Harrop [1741-1811], the famous singer, who was born in Lancashire of humble parents. Inspired by her success the factory girls of the North of England set themselves seriously to the cultivation of music.