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.

    88/464 (page 48)
    Alderman Boydell is to be refunded the .£200 He advanced to Copley to bear his expence to Hanover. [Copley was decorating the Common Council Room.] April 21 .—Accounts were reed, to-day of the taking of Martinico— and Philip Dundas told Dick that private accts. were yesterday reed, from Lord Hood whch express strong hopes that Bastia [in Corsica] will fall notwithstanding the different description given by General Dundas since his return. The latter is in an awkward situation shd. Bastia be taken. Philip also said it was hoped the great provision convoy from America to France wd. be intercepted. [It was intercepted by Lord Howe in his great victory on June 1st, see later entry. Bastia fell on May 19, Nelson wrote that Hood was “ the best officer, take him alto¬ gether, that England has to boast of.55 Dundas was considered to be the “ most profound tactician in England.”] April 26.—Hoppners portraits this year have a preference. A half length of Mrs. Parkyns & a £ of Lady Charlotte Legge in particular. Sir George Beaumont, Lord Inchiquin, Mr. Campbell, Lord Fife,— Bourgeois, Opie,—Northcote,—Fuseli,—Cosway,—N. Dance,—Louther- burg,—complimented me on my pictures. I think High St. Oxford has the preference. Seward [a well-known man of letters] this afternoon had applied to me for a vote for Dr. Gillies to succeed Mr. Gibbon as professor of ancient history. Boswell spoke violently against the pretentions of Gillies, and in favour of Mr. Mitford.—Cosway afterwards spoke as violently to me in favour of Gillies. [John Gillies was a historian and classical scholar, born in Brechin, Forfarshire, in 1747. He was author of a popular “ History of Greece.”] April 28 .—Boswell called on me on the subject of Mitford & Gillies. He also applied to Sir Wm. Chambers, who was rather for not filling the vacancy. I told Boswell I wd. exert myself for Mitford, as I thought Gillies not a proper man. That should He be elected He might be a member of the Club which would be a strong objection with me. [After this there was a long contest between the partisans of Mitford and Gillies, who spoke of Boswell with great contempt. Boswell charged the latter with holding democratic principles,* a charge which was hotly disputed when they met accidentally at Dilly’s restaurant in the Poultry. Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, thought that Gillies was not a desirable man for the situation, and Boswell said he would resign his Professorship at the Academy if Gillies were elected. Combe (Dr. Syntax) understood that Mitford’s “ History of Greece ” was superior to that of Gillies, who, on the other hand, told Farington that his “ History ” had passed through many editions, whereas Mitford’s had not. This, argued Gillies, “ might * A democrat in those days was regarded with as much dread as a Bolshevik or Sinn Feiner is in our time. Farington himself was suspected of having democratic principles. He records the following : “ Marchant [A.R.A.] called in the evening [of May 29, 1794]. Windham [Pitt’s Secretary for War] told him to-day He saw me in the Gallery of the House of Commons on the Habeas Bill. He supposed I was a Democrat. Mar- chant said He was quite mistaken, for I was a violent Aristocrat.”