Index to the contents of the Cole manuscripts in the British museum / by George J. Gray ; with a portrait of Cole.

  • George John Gray
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Index to the contents of the Cole manuscripts in the British museum / by George J. Gray ; with a portrait of Cole. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VI enlarged and completed the work of his uncle, the late Professor Eobert Willis. He speaks of the manuscripts thus ; “ They are an invaluable storehouse of information about the Town, County, University, and Colleges of Cambridge . . . Cole took a lively interest in all that was passing around him, and the documents which he copied are interspersed with notes, com- ments, and descriptions, not to mention personal scandal, and political invective. He was fond of heraldry and architecture, and lived on terms of intimacy with Sir James Burrough and Mr. James Essex, who . . . were the architects successively em- ployed during the last [18th] century to transform so many buildings from a medieval to a classical style. Cole watched these changes carefully, and he has left numerous detailed descriptions of buildings, drawn up while they were in progress.” (Vol. I. p. xcvi.) PORTRAITS. 1. Bust, turned and looking to the left, in wig and surplice. Published by W. Richardson, 1805. (Line : 3f x 2| in.) No painter or engraver’s name is given, but it is dated 1768. The plate is in the Rev. James Granger’s Letters, 1805, p. 320; and in J. Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes, Vol. I., 1812, p. 657. In Granger’s Letters (p. 330) is one to him from Cole, dated Milton, 11th December, 1769 : “I am obliged to be at Cambridge to-day on a particular affair, which, as it falls into your way, I will just mention. Mr. Tyson takes my visage, with a design to make an etching of it. When it is done, you may expect to see me in that form at Shiplake. I am not very willing to go to- day, as once before I had sat to him on this account, and thought it very like : however, other people have said the contrary, and he is desirous to take another.” It seems likely that this engraving was made from Tyson’s drawing. 2. Bust, looking to left, in wig and cloak. Published by J. and G. Facius, 1809. Painted by T. Kerrich, engraved by Facius. (Stipple : 9| x 7;^ in.). A copy is in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum as well as of the first mentioned portrait. The original by Kerrich is in the Print Room of the British Museum.