Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/160

  Gainsborough is supposed by some to have painted the poet's likeness, solely because of this entry at p. 87 of the artist's biography by Fulcher: 'It is said that Chatterton also sat to Gainsborough, and that the portrait of the marvellous boy, with his long owing hair and childlike face, is a masterpiece.' Two quite inconsistent descriptions of this picture are given in 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd ser. iii. 492, 6th ser. v. 367.  Francis Wheatley, R.A., is stated to have painted Chatterton's portrait. But the assertion that he did so rests solely on the fading recollections years afterwards of Mrs. Edkins, as jotted down by George Cumberland in appendix A, p. 317, of Dix's untrustworthy 'Life of Chatterton.'  A profile of Chatterton, sculptured in relief by some unknown artist, decorated a rustic monument raised in 1784 in the grounds of the Hermitage, near Lansdowne Crescent, Bath, the residence of Philip Thicknesse (see Gent. Mag. vol. liv. pt. i. p. 231).  Chatterton is said to have drawn a picture of himself in his bluecoat dress, being led by his mother towards the canopied altar-tomb of William Canynge. No such drawing, however, has been anywhere discovered.  An odious fancy sketch, hideously out of drawing and execrably engraved, has for many years passed current among the print-sellers of a portrait of Chatterton.  Prefixed to Dix's 'Life of Chatterton,' in the October of 1837, as its frontispiece, was an exquisite engraving, by 11. Woodman, of what purported to be a portrait of the poet drawn by Nathan Branwhite, from a picture in the possession of George Weare Braikenridge. A letter, however, from an obscure Bristol sugar-baker, named George Burge, written on 23 Nov. 1837, to a private friend, first published in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for December 1838, and twice afterwards in 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd ser. ii. 231, and 2nd ser. iii. 53, declared that this picture was painted by Morris and intended as a portrait of his own son. The portrait was therefore suppressed in a second edition of Dix's book. It is stated, however, in the same place (Notes and Queries, iii. 53), that Chatterton's mother wrote a letter (omitted by Dix) saying that she had had her son painted in a red coat by Morris. This is clearly  Morris's portrait of Chatterton in a red coat—a cabinet picture representing him in profile to the right, as a child of eleven years of age, with grey eyes and auburn hair flowing on his shoulders. This portrait belonged to Sir Henry Taylor. It was presented by Mrs. Newton, Chatterton's sister, to Southey, in return for his kindness in producing an edition of her brother's works for her benefit (, Recollections, i. 271). Miss Fenwick bought it at South^s sale, and gave it to Wordsworth. On Wordsworth's death his widow gave it to Sir Henry Taylor. It is fairly represented by Goodman's engraving from Branwhite.

Chatterton's works, with one exception, appeared posthumously:
 * 1) 'An Elegy on the much lamented Death of William Beckford, Esq.,' 4to, pp. 14, 1770.
 * 2) 'The Execution of Sir Charles Bawdwin' (edited by Thomas Eagles, F.S.A.), 4to, pp. 26, 1772.
 * 3) 'Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley and others, in the Fifteenth Century' (edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt), 8vo, pp. 307, 1777.
 * 4) 'Appendix' (to the 3rd edition of the poems, edited by the same), 8vo, pp. 309-333, 1778.
 * 5) 'Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, by Thomas Chatterton, the supposed author of the Poems published under the names of Rowley, Canning, &c.' (edited by John Broughton), 8vo, pp. 245, 1778.
 * 6) 'Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol in the Fifteenth Century by Thomas Rowley, Priest, &c., [edited] by Jeremiah Milles, D.D., Dean of Exeter,' 4to, pp. 545, 1782.
 * 7) 'A Supplement to the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton,' 8vo, pp. 88, 1784.
 * 8) 'Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and others in the Fifteenth Century' (edited by Lancelot Sharpe), 8vo, pp. xxix, 329, 1794.
 * 9) 'The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton,' Anderson's 'British Poets,' xi. 297-322, 1795.
 * 10) 'The Revenge: a Burletta; with additional Songs, by Thomas Chatterton,' 8vo, pp. 47, 1795.
 * 11) 'The Works of Thomas Chatterton' (edited by Robert Southey and Joseph Cottle), 3 vols. 8yo, 1803.
 * 12) 'The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton' (edited by Charles B. Willcox), 2 vols. 12mo, 1842.
 * 13) 'The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton' (edited by the Rev Walter Skeat, M.A.), Aldine edition, 2 vols. 8vo, 1875.

The principal documents in the Rowleyan and Chattertonian controversy are as follows:  'Letter to the editor of the Miscellanies sect. viii. 8vo, pp. 139-64, 1778.  'The History of English Poetry, by Thomas Warton,' vol. ii. sect. viii. 8vo, pp. 139-64, 1778.  'Remarks upon the Eighth Section of the Second Volume of Mr. Warton's History of English Poetry' (by Henry Dampier),8yo, pp.48, 1778.  'Observations on the Poems of Thomas Rowley, in which the authenticity of those Poems is ascertained, by Jacob Bryant,' 8vo, pp. iv, 597, 1781.  'An Examination of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley and William Canynge, with a Defence of the 