Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

proved, from internal evidence, that the tapestry was co-eval with the period immediately succeeding the conquest, to which tradition had assigned it; satisfactorily refuting the assertions of the Abbé de la Rue. This little treatise was printed in the Archæologia. On the 2nd of July, Mr. Stothard was elected a fellow of the society of antiquaries, without one dissentient vote. In the autumn of the same year he made a series of exquisitely finished drawings for the society, from the paintings then lately discovered on the walls of the painted chamber.* Fearlessly ardent in his pursuit he took his stand on the highest and most dangerous parts of the scaffold, erected for the repairs, and, on one occasion there, narrowly escaped the sad fate which afterwards befel him.

He was preparing, just before his death, the materials for a paper addressed to the society of antiquaries, concerning the age of these curious decorations. In September, 1820, he made a tour to the Netherlands, for the benefit of Mrs. C. Stothard's health, and illustrated her yet unpublished account of that journey with some of the finest drawings of local scenery and architecture that his pencil had produced. About two months since, he published No. 9 of his Monumental Effigies, with splendid vignette illustrations, heraldic and architectural. He prepared No. 10 for publication, and finished a large plate of the royal effigies at Fontevraud, coloured after the original monuments, and another, of Geoffrey

He

Plantagenet, coloured as a facsimile of the enamelled tablet before mentioned; these, from the great expense incurred in the colouring, were to be published for collectors, separately from his work. Being solicited by Mr. Daniel Lysons to make some drawings for the continuation of his brother's account of Devonshire, collected for the Magna Britannia, on the 16th of May last, he quitted his affectionate and pregnant wife, at her father's house, where they resided, never to meet her more, on this side that bourn "whence no traveller returns." He traversed a considerable part of Devonshire on foot, exploring the churches in his way, and making sketches of the country, according to his practice, as he proceeded. arrived at Bere Ferrers, and on Sunday, the 27th of May, after attending divine service, addressed the vicar of that place, the Rev. Henry Hobart, for permission to draw the stained glass in the east window of the church for Mr. Daniel Lysons. Prepossessed, as Mr. Hobart says he was in favor of Mr. Stothard, by his manner, he received him with marked attention, and insisted that, during his stay at Bere, he should partake of the hospitalities of his house and table. On the following Monday, the 28th of May, Mr. Stothard began,by means of a ladder, to make tracings from the fragments of stained glass remaining in the window; among these was a portrait of the founder of the church. Elevated on the north side of the altar, just above

* In these drawings he exhibited his ingenious recovery of the long-lost art of raising gold, as embossed, on the surface of the material; a mode which contributes so much to the rich splendour of the illuminated MSS.

the

the tables containing the creed and the decalogue, the step of the ladder-dreadful to relate-gave way! He fell, and in the effort to save himself, probably turned round; his head, as is conjectured, came in contact with the monument of a knight in the chancel, and he was, in all probability, killed on the spot, by a concussion of the brain. The time of his fall is not precisely known, as he was alone in the church; but, from the state of the drawing on which he was engaged, it is imagined to have occurred between three and four o'clock. It is not true, as reported, that his watch stopped at the moment from the shock. Singular to observe, he received his deathblow from one of those very effigies that had so long been the subject of his pencil. The most humane and respectful attention was paid to his remains by the

worthy Mr. Hobart. His aged father who had lost, many years before, his eldest son by an accident equally terrible and sudden, repaired to the spot, accompanied by a friend, and on the 4th of June, followed, for the second time, the pride of his heart and of his hopes to a premature grave. Thus perished, in the vigour of life and health-amid the brightest prospects of worldly success and honours-in the most uninterrupted state of conjugal happiness, this excellent young man, and zealous antiquary. The eminence of his talents was only exceeded by his virtues. The pen which compiles this hasty memoir, is paralyzed as it inscribes this tale of accumulated woe; it can add no more than the humble tribute which, with a strict adherence to truth, and a profound love and veneration for his memory, it has contributed to his tomb.

Sacred to the memory

(Dear to every friend who knew him)

Of CHARLES ALFRED STOTHARD,

Historical Draughtsman, and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; Eldest surviving son of Thomas Stothard, Esq. R. A.

While pursuing his professional researches in the adjoining church,
he was unfortunately killed by a fall, on the 28th of May, in the
year of our Lord, 1821, in the 34th year of his age.
As a laborious investigator of the Ancient Sepulchral Monuments,
and other Historical Vestiges of this Kingdom, which he
illustrated by his faithful and elegant pencil,
He was pre-eminent;

As a man, though gifted with the most solid ability,
He was humble, modest, unostentatious;
An example of benevolence and simplicity of heart;
A Christian by Faith,

As he proved by that essential demonstration,
His works.

Thus awfully bereft of such a partner,

What words shall describe the deep, the bitter sorrow
Of his widow,

Who stood not by to pay him the last sad offices;

But while he perished thus untimely,
Expected his return,

And shortly to bless him with a first child.
She with her brother, Alfred John Kempe,
(His bosom friend)

Have erected this poor monument to his memory;
A living one exists in their hearts;
In the hearts of his and their aged parents,
Of his relatives and friends.

Reader, profit by this sad, but doubtless,
In the wisdom of God,

Salutary and merciful lesson;

For it is better that the virtuous should be thus suddenly
Cut off than the wicked.

"Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh; at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning;

"Lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping."

Mark, 13 chap. 35 and 36 verses.

2.-Memoirs of the Life of the
Right Hon. William Pitt, by
George Tomline, D. D. F. R. Š.
Lord Bishop of Winchester.

The extraordinary individual who is the subject of these memoirs, our readers need not be informed wielded, under providence, the destinies of this country during one of the most eventful eras in its history, and in that of mankind. His life, however imperfectly executed, must necessarily furnish ample materials for the future historian, and prove eminently gratifying to readers of every political class and bias. The confidential and uninterrupted friendship of the episcopal biographer with Mr. Pitt, and the possession of his papers, as an executor, after his decease, peculiarly qualify the writer in this instance for his great task; although, per

haps, the chief characteristic of the work is, that of a grateful and panegyrical record of the late illustrious minister of George the Third. We give a few extracts.

Mr. Pitt's early years. Although Mr. Pitt was little more than fourteen years of age when he went to reside at the university, and had laboured under the disadvantage of frequent illhealth, the knowledge which he then possessed, was very considerable; and in particular, his proficiency in the learned languages, was probably greater than ever was acquired by any other person in such early youth. In Latin authors he seldom met with difficulty; and it was no uncommon thing for him to read into English, six or seven pages of Thucydides, which he had not previously seen, without more

It was by lord Chatham's particular desire, that Thucydides was the first Greek book which Mr. Pitt read after he came to college. The only other wish ever expressed by his lordship, relative to Mr. Pitt's studies, was, that I would read Polybius with him.

than

than two or three mistakes, and sometimes without even one. He had such an exactness in discriminating the sense of words, and so peculiar a penetration in seizing at once the meaning of a writer, that, as was justly observed by Mr. Wilson, he never seemed to learn, but only to recollect. Whenever he did err in rendering a sentence, it was owing to the want of a correct knowledge of grammar, without which no language can be perfectly understood. This defect, too common in a private education, it was my immediate endeavour to supply; and he was not only soon master of all the ordinary rules of grammar, but taking great pleasure in the philological disquisitions of critics and commentators, he became deeply versed in the niceties of construction and peculiarities of idiom, both in the Latin and Greek languages. He had also read the first six books of Euclid's Elements, Plane Trigonometry, the elementary parts of Algebra, and the two quarto volumes of Rutherford's Natural Philosophy, a work in some degree of repute while Mr. Wilson was a student at Cambridge, but afterwards laid aside.

Nor was it in the learning only, that Mr. Pitt was so much superior to persons of his age. Though a boy in years and appearance, his manners were formed, and his behaviour manly. He mixed in conversation with unaffected viva

city; and delivered his sentiments with perfect ease, equally free from shyness and flippancy, and always with strict attention to propriety and decorum. Lord Chatham, who could not but be aware of the powers of his son's mind and understanding, had encouraged him to talk without reserve upon every subject, which frequently afforded opportunity for conveying useful information, and just notions of persons and things. When his lordship's health would permit, he never suffered a day to pass without giving instructions of some sort to his children, and seldom without reading a chapter of the bible with them. He must indeed be considered as having contributed largely to that fund of knowledge, and to those other advantages, with which Mr. Pitt entered upon his academical life.

[ocr errors]

Towards the latter end of the year 1776, Mr. Pitt began to mix with other young men of his own age and station in life, then resident at Cambridge; and no one was ever more admired and beloved by his acquaintance and friends. He was always the most lively person in company, abounding in playful wit and quick repartee; but never known to excite pain, or to give just ground of offence. Even those, who, from difference in political sentiment, or from any other cause, were not disposed to do him more than justice, could not but allow, that

I had frequent opportunities of observing Mr. Pitt's accurate knowledge of the bible; and I may I trust, be allowed to mention the following anecdote: In the year 1797, I was reading with him, in manuscript, my Exposition of the First of the Thirty-nine Articles, which I afterwards published in the Elements of Christian Theology. There were several quotations from scripture, all of which he remembered and made no observation upon them. At last, we came to a quotation, at which he stopped, and said, "I do not recollect that passage in the bible, and it does not sound like scripture." It was a quotation from the apocrypha, which he had not read.

as

as a companion he was unrivalled. Though his society was universally sought, and from the age of seventeen or eighteen, he constantly passed his evenings in company, he steadily avoided every species of irregularity; and he continued to pursue his studies with ardent zeal and unremitted diligence, during his whole residence in the university, which was protracted to the unusual length of nearly seven years, but with considerable intervals of absence. In the course of this time, I never knew him spend an idle day, nor did he ever fail to attend me at the appointed hour. At this early period there was the same firmness of principle, and rectitude of conduct, which marked his character in the more advanced stages of life.

Letters of the First Lord Chatham.--In May, 1778, Mr. Pitt lost his great and excellent father, at a period when his advice and assistance would have been of the highest importance to him. I am happy to have it in my power to insert the following letters, which strongly mark the affectionate heart and amiable character of one of the ablest and most disinterested statesmen the world ever produced; and at the same time shew the opinion he entertained, and the expectations he had formed, of the subject of these memoirs.

The first of these letters was written by lord Chatham to Mr. Pitt, upon his going to the university in 1773.

Burton Pynsent Oct. 9th. 1773. "Thursday's post brought us no letter from the dear traveller: we trust this day will prove more satisfactory; it is the happy day

that gave us your brother, and will not be less in favour with all here, if it should give us about four o'clock, an epistle from my dear William. By that hour I reckon, we shall be warm in our cups, and shall not fail to pour forth, with renewed joy, grateful libations over the much-wished tidings of your prosperous progress towards your destination. We compute, that yesterday brought you to the venerable aspect of alma mater; and that you are invested to-day with the toga virilis. Your race of manly virtue and useful knowledge is now begun, and may the favour of heaven smile upon the noble career!

[blocks in formation]

I

and all the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up, and say, This is a man.' now take leave for to-day, not meaning this for what James calls a regular letter, but a flying thought, that wings itself towards my absent William. Horses are ready, and all is birth-day.

"Bradshaw has shone this auspicious morning, in a very fine speech of congratulation, but I foresee, his sun sets weeping in the lowly west;' that is, a fatal bowl of punch will, before night, quench this luminary of oratory. Adieu again, and again, sweet

boy;

« ПредишнаНапред »