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.

    54/464 (page 18)
    has paid £13,000. For some years 50 pounds a year has been paid from the income of each of the Canons towards carrying on these improve¬ ments. Forrester, who is now executing the stained glass, since Jervais declined doing it, has an annuity for life of £200, settled on him by the King. Remarks are made at Windsor that the President [Benjamin West, R.A.] does not go there as usual. He says it is to prevent that envy which arose from seeing him there so often and so noticed. Wyatt* designed the decorations at Frogmore for the entertainments given by the Queen. He was paid by the Queen : but the King was so well pleased with the effect of his designs that His Majesty presented Wyatt with a watch as a mark of his Royal approbation. November 24.—The average price of Men of War cannot be estimated as formerly at £1,000 a gun, which when fitted out completely for sea was supposed to have been the expence. If any ships cannot be supposed to come near it 74 gun ships do. The advanced price of stores of every kind has raised considerably the expence of building and fitting out ships. The Hull of a 74 gun Man of War costs about £30,000, the standing rigging about £16,000, more including masts. Hulls of ships of 100 guns are calculated at about £50,000. Hulls of Frigates of 36 guns at about £9,000. Common shipwrights now in the merchants5 yards get from 10 to 16 shillings a day, owing to the great demand for workmen ; so many East and West Indiamen Frigates, &c., are now building and repairing. By the end of January next it is supposed this great demand will cease. There are about 500 shipwrights in Hartford Yard. George Steevens [“ the Asp,55 as Macaulay called him], Editor of Shakespeare, is now making a collection of portraits of all persons who have been connected with the works of Shakespeare—by painting sub¬ jects taken from his works, or by having served in a literary capacity to illustrate or explain passages in any of his plays. November 25.—Opie has bought a three-quarter picture painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, for which he gave to the Proprietors of the Poly¬ graphic Manufactory 60 guineas. The subject a girl resting on her first celebration on St. George’s Day, 1349. It is a monument of the history of England, a gem of architec¬ tural achievement, beloved by every patriotic heart, closely associated with all the joys and sorrows of the Royal Family. The Chapel was in a sorry state in the reign of George III., who at his own expense undertook its repara¬ tion, which was somewhat marred by the bad taste prevalent at the time. Again, during the reign of Queen Victoria, the Dean and Chapter did much towards the restoration of the chapel and cloisters, removing many disfigurements which the debased taste of previous restorers had accumulated. And now necessity compels the stupendous task of saving this priceless monument from ruin and decay. St. George’s Chapel must be preserved at all hazards. It is a national memorial of England’s greatness, and the British public will not fail in supporting the Dean and Chapter in their arduous and laudable undertaking of rescuing the sacred building of which they are the custodians, and handing it down to future generations with all its glories of Gothic art whole and intact. But a sum of £15,000 is needed to realize this noble project. * James Wyatt, we are told, was perhaps the most fashionable architect of the Eighteenth Century. He built the old Pantheon in Oxford-street, the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and Fonthill Abbey, and was Surveyor-General, in which capacity he was employed at Frogmore, Windsor Castle and elsewhere. He filled the office of President of the Royal Academy during the temporary resignation of Benjamin West owing to a disagreement between him and the members. Wyatt’s election was never approved by the King ; therefore his name does not appear in the official list of Presidents.