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.

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    been in a great degree the cause. He has by his conduct encouraged our enemies and discouraged our friends. January 10.—Dance, I called on. Chalie, the wine merchant, some time ago told him that Mr. Pitts Major Domo said that He was weary of denying creditors, that Mr. Pitts Hatters Bill was (600. [After Pitt’s death on January 23, 1806, £40,000 was voted to pay his debts.] January 14.—Smirke called. Hickey* the sculptor died yesterday after an illness of 3 or 4 days owing to having lain in a damp bed. Rossi [R.A.] is desirous of obtaining the commission to execute Garricks monu¬ ment which Burke had procured for Hickey.—Smirke thought Mr. Windham might be applied to for his interest with Burke, but I said it was reported Burkes health is such as to make it unlikely that an appli¬ cation cd. be made to him. January 16.—G. Steevens [the writer] told me at the Shakespeare Gallery that Mr Garrick has nothing to do with the monument ordered from Hickey. An old friend of Garricks [Albany Wallis] proposed to be at the sole expence which was proposed as He understood to be abt. £600, and Hickey was recommended by Burke as one well qualified and wd. do it on very reasonable terms. January 20.—J. Taylor [dramatic critic and former editor of the Morning Post] called on me.—Heriot has purchased his poetic com¬ positions and is now printing them.—He gives Taylor 40 guineas for them.—In the poem called the Stage is the character of Kemble as an Actor. Taylor read it to him, & Kemble said He only wished He merited such a description. January 22.—Prince of Orange,f landed on Tuesday at Harwich, slept that night at Colchester, and came to London yesterday at noon.— With him came the Princess his daughter and his second son. He came in a Bye Boat [perhaps a fishing vessel], and before He got on board his situation was critical, from the disaffection shewn by people.— The Princess of Orange landed at Yarmouth on Monday. She was accompanied by the Hereditary Princess and her young child. They arrived in town last night.—They escaped with difficulty from Holland. —The Zuyder-Zee was frozen over the night before they embarked, which made their escape more difficult. [On the 25th the Rev. Mr. Este called on Farington and said] The Prince of Orange gets drunk * John Hickey (1756-1795) was the son of a Dublin confectioner. He studied under Richard Cranfield, and in 1777 came to London. In the following year he won the Academy Gold Medal for a bas-relief, “ The Slaughter of the Innocents.” Patronised by Burke, of whom he made two busts, Hickey was appointed sculptor to the Prince of Wales, and important works came from his hands. A great future was in store for him, but intemperate habits intervened, and he died in his lodgings in Oxford-street on July 13—Farington says, on the 12th—according to Mr. Strickland in his “ Dictionary of Irish Artists.” In a letter to Albany Wallis, Burke wrote : “ If poor Hickey had been spared to us, I should not have preferred any sculptor living to him. But he has gone, and I do not know anyone more fitted to fall in with your views than Mr. Banks.” f The Prince of Orange, who commanded the Dutch forces at the decisive battle of Fleurus, some nine miles to the north of Charleroi, attacked at early dawn, and the French (at first driven back), in a counter offensive defeated the Prince, and he, without orders, retired from the battlefield, leaving his helpless troops to surrender. Moreover, a small number of French hussars crossed the frozen Texel and captured the Dutch Fleet. After the defeat of the Austrians and their Allies, including the English, the Netherlands were evacuated. This was the last great victory of the Revolutionary Party before the coming of Napoleon.