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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    Majesty, and that a medal should be engraved on the occasion. One each to be presented to the King, another to the Queen, and one each to the Prince of Wales and Princess Royal. The thought of the medal, he said, was Mr. Sewards. The first part of Boswells scheme was similar to that we had adopted, and the address and medal we thought very proper. Perhaps the medal will be attended with too great expence. December 17.—[At a meeting of the Academy on this date it was decided] That silver medals be also struck and presented to the Members of the Royal Academy only, by the President, after which the die shall be sealed up and deposited in the Royal Academy. An estimate was made of the probable expence of adopting this mode of celebration, and the following estimate was prepared to lay before his Majesty with the other paper : Cutting the Die. -£40 4 gold medals. 26 5 65 silver medals. 21 Dinners, &c. 63 150 5 The Committee broke up a little after 12 o’clock. Mr. West on our way home expressed himself strongly in favour of the plan adopted, and said if he could not have a favourable opportunity of speaking to the King in Town he would follow him to Windsor. Sir William Chambers opposing letter had alarmed him, as he knew not where it originated, otherways he had been satisfied by the Kings good disposition to a celebration. December 20.—Went to the Club. Seventeen Members present. Before dinner Mr. West desired Mr. Tyler and Copley and myself to go into another room, where he informed us that on Thursday evening he went to Sir William Chambers, and that after a long conversation he had prevailed on Sir William to agree to the proposed plan for a cele¬ bration. That Sir William and he had been this morning at nine o’clock with his Majesty, when Mr. West delivered the paper of resolutions and inclosed in it the estimate. The King read the first through and then looked over the estimate, and said the Academy should not be disap¬ pointed, and that the estimate of expence was very moderate. In the course of the evening I mentioned to the Members present my wish, and I knew it to be the wish of others, that a uniform dress [the French Academicians wear a green uniform] should be worn by Members of the Royal Academy at all their public meetings, which would give an impressive respectability to them, and in a becoming way distinguish them as a body. Nollekens said he would second my motion, and all appeared disposed to concur in it. I mentioned that formerly such an idea had been held by Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c., and that they