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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    i7 93 St. George’s Chapel November 21.—After breakfast I rode out, and passed through Highgate, by Caen Wood, to Hampstead. The ride at a moderate rate is an hour and a half [F. lived in Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-square.] Lord Stormont is making considerable and in respect of architectural effect strange additions to the late Lord Mansfield’s house at Caen Wood. [This note is interesting at the moment in view of the proposed purchase of Ken (Caen) Wood.] Carfax is the piece of antiquity which Lord Harcourt removed from Oxford and placed at Newnham, when a plan of improvement of the streets of Oxford required it should be taken down. November 22.—I went to the Royal Academy Club to tea. A conversation had taken place after dinner, brought on by Mr. Tyler, as to the propriety of commemorating the 25th year of the institution of the Royal Academy. After tea the subject was renewed, and being supported by Mr. West, &c., it concluded with a motion being made by Mr. Tyler and seconded by Mr. Catton* that Mr. West, the President, be desired to call a general meeting of all the Members of the Royal Academy, to meet at the Royal Academy, on Tuesday, December 3rd, to consider whether any commemoration shall be, and if resolved on, in what manner it shall be conducted. November 23.—The improvements and decorations of Windsor Cathedralf [St. George’s Chapel] have cost .£20,000, of which the King * Charles Catton, R.A., was apprenticed to a coach-panel painter, and afterwards studied at the St. Mar- tin’s-lane Academy founded by Hogarth in 1734. It has been claimed for him that he was the first herald painter who designed the supporters of coats of arms with any resemblance to nature. Catton was coach painter to George III., and when Hogarth set up his splendid coach he decorated it with the Cyprian crest that figures at the bottom of the “ Bathos.” Catton exhibited mainly landscapes at the Royal Academy, of which he was a foundation member. t The reparation of St. George’s Chapel as above described was referred to in an article, in yesterday’s Morning Post (January 26th, 1922), entitled “ St. George’s Chapel in Danger.” Considerable alarm has been aroused, says the writer, P.H.D., among the lovers of England’s ecclesias¬ tical architecture by the discovery that one of the masterpieces of Perpendicular art is in danger. St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, ranks with the Chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster, and that of King’s College, Cambridge, as one of the three most superb edifices of the Fifteenth Century in this country. It is the burial-place of Kings and Queens and Princes of the Royal House, of illustrious men of every age, statesmen, divines, soldiers, nobles ; and therein hang the swords, helmets, banners, and mantles of the Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, whose installation ceremonies have been performed within the august choir ever since their