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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    *794 Boswell and His Contemporaries February 23.—Mr. Bidwell, of the Secretary of States Office, says the Duke of Grafton has .£30,000 a year on the [? gaming] table. Cousins [J. R. Cozens, Water Colour Painter] is now confined under the care of Dr. Munro, who has no expectation of his recovery, as it is a total deprivation of nervous faculty. [See later entries.] March 3.—Lady Inchiquin [Sir Joshua Reynolds’ heiress] sent to me to-day to desire I would come to Her to have my opinion on her resolution only to dispose of part only of Sir Joshuas collection of draw¬ ings this Spring. I told Her she must take care to have the public assured that the part reserved were not superior to those brought forward. It must be a division and not a selection. This she saw the propriety of. March 6.—In the evening at the Antiquarian Society. Sir Jos : Banks, S. Lysons, and myself signed Smirkes recommendation to be a fellow. Sir Joseph sets off this evening for Lincolnshire, to meet the gentlemen of the County as High Sheriff, when He will make a proposal for arming certain bodies. March 15.—Went to Dance [R.A.]. Lady Susan Bathurst was sitting for a profile. Lady Tryphena Bathurst and Lady Beaumont, and Lysons were also there. March 16.—Dance is this morning drawing a profile of C. Long of the Treasury. March 18.—[N.] Dance recommended the painting clear skies with Ultramarine and White alone and then to use Ivory Black, with White falsehoods,” and that the sixth letter was “ such a composition of vulgarity and folly as to prove the prudence of Fuseli in not entering into any public controversy with him.” From Mr. John Bromley came the following interesting letter referring to the Rev. Mr. Bromley : Although holding the Rectorship of St. Mildred in the Poultry, where he was buried in the Rector’s vault 16th October, 1806, Bromley had built himself a Chapel in London-street (now Maple-street), Fitzroy square, calling it Fitzroy Chapel, for which his friend, Benjamin West, designed a window, no doubt on the principle that “ one good turn deserves another.” Whatever the merits or demerits of the Rector’s book on Art, there can, I think, be only one opinion on a work, also published in 1793, by his younger brother, Henry Bromley (erroneously described in D.N.B. as Anthony Wilson writing under the pseudonym of Henry Bromley), entitled a “ Dictionary of Engraved British Portraits.” It is of a monumental nature and of the utmost value to lovers of engravings, and I should be greatly interested to know if Farington refers to it or the com¬ piler, Henry Bromley, my great-grandfather. May I add a word of gratitude for the great enjoyment derived from the reading of these extracts.