Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/251

 Dayes 

 DAYES, EDWARD (1763–1804), watercolour painter and engraver in mezzotint, was born in 1763. He studied under William Pether, and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1786, sending views of Waltham and Canterbury; in the three following years he exhibited miniatures as well as landscapes. He continued to exhibit there regularly till the year of his death, contributing in all sixty-four works. He also was an exhibitor at the Society of Artists. In 1798 he began to send classic and scriptural subjects, such as 'The Fall of the Angels ' (1798), 'John preaching in the Wilderness' (1799), the 'Triumph of Beauty' (1800), and 'Elisha causing Iron to swim' (1801). Many of his drawings were crowded with figures, which he drew with grace and spirit; among these were two views of the interior of St. Paul's on the occasion of the thanksgiving for the king's recovery in 1789, 'The Trial of Warren Hastings in Westminster Abbey,' and 'Buckingham House, St. James's Park' (1780), now in the South Kensington Museum. All these have been engraved. He drew much from nature in various parts of England, including the lake country and Wales, and his cleverly executed sketches in grey tints show much feeling for nature, and entitle him to a place among the precursors of the English school of water-colour. He was the master of Girtin, and his influence is perceptible in the early drawings of Turner. He was draughtsman to the Duke of York. He died by his own hand at the end of May 1804. In the South Kensington Museum he is represented by a fine view of Ely Cathedral (1792), and views of Windermere and Keswick Lake, all of which are remarkable (having regard to the time at which they were painted) for their luminous skies and aerial perspective.

He engraved at least four plates in mezzotint, one after Morland, another after J. R. Smith, and two humorous scenes called 'Rustic Courtship' and 'Polite Courtship.' He wrote an 'Excursion through Derbyshire and Yorkshire,' 'Essays on Painting; Instructions for Drawing and Colouring Landscapes,' and 'Professional Sketches of Modern Artists.' After his death his works were collected and edited by E. W. Bradley, and published for the benefit of his widow in 1805.

His wife painted miniatures and exhibited four works at the Royal Academy between 1797 and 1800.

 DAYROLLES, SOLOMON (d. 1786), diplomatist, nephew and heir of James Dayrolles, king's resident for some time at Geneva, and from 1717 to 1739 at the Hague, who died on 2 Jan. 1739, was the godson of Lord Chesterfield, the wit and politician, through whose friendship the young official obtained speedy advancement in his profession. He began his diplomatic career under James, first earl of Waldegrave, then ambassador at Vienna, and when that peer was transferred to the same position at Versailles, the active Lord Chesterfield endeavoured to obtain the appointment of secretary to the embassy for his protégé, but in this he was frustrated by superior influence. Dayrolles was sworn as gentleman of the privy chamber to George II on 27 Feb. 1740, and retained his place in the court of George III. With the old king he quickly became a personal favourite, and was duly rewarded for his good qualities by the post of master of the revels (12 April 1744). He was secretary to Lord Chesterfield during that peer's second embassy to the Hague (1745), and when his patron somewhat later in the year entered upon his duties as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Dayrolles accompanied him in the same capacity, and was nominated by him gentleman usher of the black rod (2 Sept. 1745), a sinecure to which he was entitled, as the donor ingeniously said, by the excessive darkness of his complexion. Through the personal liking of the king, and Chesterfield's credit with Pelham, the place of king's resident at the Hague was bestowed on Dayrolles on 12 May 1747. There he continued for four years, when he was promoted to a similar office at Brussels, a position which he held until August 1757. On his uncle's death in 1739 he inherited considerable wealth, and in that year he purchased from Sir Richard Child, earl of Tilney, the estate of Henley Park, in the parish of Ash, near Guildford, which remained his property until 1785. In March 1786 he died, and in the same year his library was sold. Horace Walpole, with his usual spitefulness, said that Dayrolles had 'always been a led-captain to the dukes of Grafton and Richmond, used to be sent to auctions for them, and to walk in the park with their daughters, and once went dry-nurse to Holland with them.' 