Page:Catalogue of a collection of early drawings and pictures of London, with some contemporary furniture (1920).djvu/38



In fact, the Square dates only from 1825; as late as 1820 its site was a large nursery garden, and a group of farm buildings occupied ground on which the London and North Western Railway now stands. Trevithic, "father of the locomotive engine," the main facts of whose remarkable career are recorded in "Dict. Nat. Biog.," must have hired the ground in order to test and exhibit his invention.

In the distance is Primrose Hill, with Hampstead beyond. Attractive design and colour give charm to a subject not easy of treatment.

Rowlandson, trained in Paris and at the Academy schools, was an accomplished artist, capable of something much more refined than his clever caricatures, which most people know by coarse reproductions of them.

By, 1809 (1756-1827).

Lent by Mr. H. C. Levis.

46 SALE OF PICTURES BY AUCTION AT CHRISTIE'S.

Watercolour. 11-1/4 by 8-1/4 in.

The firm owes its origin to a notable man, James Christie, who issued his first catalogue in 1766. A portrait of him, painted by his friend Gainsborough, originally a good advertisement of the skill of the artist, was long hanging in the "great auction rooms" on the south side of Pall Mall, where Christie took up his quarters, next to Schomberg House. It was afterwards at the present address, No. 8 King Street, St. James's, to which the firm moved in 1824. They now only have an engraving of it. Rowlandson drew another caricature of an auction sale at Christie's.

By (1756-1827).

Lent by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods.

47 OLD CHEESE-CAKE HOUSE, HYDE PARK, 1797.

Watercolour. 21-1/2 by 12 in.

The building, close to the Serpentine, is thus mentioned in Howard's "English Monsieur" (1674): "Nay, 'tis no London female; she's a thing that never saw a cheesecake, a tart, or a syllabub at the Lodge in Hyde Park." Swift writes to Stella that