Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/35

 publish a novel each year till 1799. Caldwell, writing to Bishop Percy in 1801, says: ‘Charlotte Smith is writing more volumes of “The Solitary Wanderer” for immediate subsistence. … She is a woman full of sorrows. One of her daughters made an imprudent marriage, and the man, after behaving extremely ill and tormenting the family, died. The widow has come to her mother not worth a shilling, and with three young children’ (, Lit. Illustr. viii. 38). In 1804 appeared her ‘Conversations introducing Poetry,’ a book treating chiefly of subjects connected with natural history for the use of children. It contains her versions of the well-known poems ‘The Ladybird’ and ‘The Snail.’ During the latter years of her life Mrs. Smith made many changes of residence, living at London, Brighthelmstone, and Bath. In 1805 she removed to Tilford, near Farnham in Surrey, where she died on 28 Oct. 1806. She was buried in Stoke church, near Guildford; a monument by Bacon marks her resting-place. Of her twelve children, eight survived her. Her youngest son, George Augustus, a lieutenant in the 16th foot, died at Surinam on 16 Sept., five weeks before his mother; another son, Lionel [q. v.], was a distinguished soldier.

If there is nothing great in Mrs. Smith's poems, they are ‘natural and touching’ (cf., Men, Women, and Books, ii. 139). Miss Mitford told Miss Barrett that she never took a spring walk without feeling Charlotte Smith's love of external nature and her power of describing it (cf., Life of M. R. Mitford, iii. 148), and in a letter to Mrs. Hofland declared that ‘she had, with all her faults, the eye and the mind of a landscape poet’ (Letters of M. R. Mitford, ed. Chorley, 2nd ser. i. 29). As a novelist she shows skill in portraying character, but the deficiencies of the plots render her novels tedious. Her English style is good, and it is said that whenever Erskine had a great speech to make, he used to read Charlotte Smith's works in order to catch their grace of composition (, Life of M. R. Mitford, iii. 299).

Her portrait was painted by Opie. A drawing from the picture by G. Clint, A.R.A., was engraved by A. Duncan and by Freeman. There is an engraving by Ridley and Holt of what seems to be another picture, and an unsigned engraving in which Mrs. Smith is represented in a curious dress. Her head in outline appears in ‘Public Characters’ (1800–1).

Other works by Charlotte Smith are: 1. ‘Ethelinde, or the Recluse of the Lake,’ 5 vols. 1790; 2nd edit. 1814. 2. ‘The Banished Man,’ 4 vols. 1794. 3. ‘Montalbert,’ 1795. 4. ‘Marchmont.’ 5. ‘Rural Walks.’ 6. ‘Rambles Farther,’ 1796. 7. ‘Minor Morals interspersed with Sketches,’ 2 vols. 1798; other editions 1799, 1800, 1816, 1825. 8. ‘The Young Philosopher,’ a novel, 1798. 9. ‘The Solitary Wanderer,’ 1799. 10. ‘Beachy Head,’ a poem, 1807.

[Scott's biography, the facts for which were communicated to him by Mrs. Dorset, a sister of Charlotte Smith, in Miscellaneous Prose Works, i. 349–59, is the chief authority; see also Elwood's Literary Ladies, i. 284–309; Mathias's Pursuits of Lit. pp. 56, 58.]

 SMITH, COLVIN (1795–1875), portrait-painter and royal Scottish academician, born at Brechin in Scotland in 1795, was son of John Smith, merchant, manufacturer, and magistrate of Brechin, a descendant of the family of Lindsay, alias Smith, heritable armourers to the bishop of Brechin. His mother was Cecilia, daughter of Richard Gillies of Little Keithock, Forfarshire, and sister of Adam, lord Gillies [q. v.], and John Gillies (1747–1836) [q. v.] When young, Smith went to London and became a student in the schools of the Royal Academy, and also studied under Joseph Nollekens [q. v.] He then travelled abroad, and studied the works of the old masters, making friends at Rome with Sir David Wilkie [q. v.], whose portrait he painted. On his return he settled about 1826 in Edinburgh, where he purchased the studio and gallery in York Place which had been erected by Sir Henry Raeburn [q. v.] His powerful family connections quickly gained him employment at Edinburgh, and many of the most prominent personages in that city sat to him. He first appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, in 1826, 1828, and 1829, but subsequently, along with twelve other artist members of the institution, he transferred his interests to the (Royal) Scottish Academy, where he continued to exhibit during the remainder of his life. Colvin Smith is best known for his portraits of Sir Walter Scott, the first of which was painted in 1828 for Lord-chief-commissioner William Adam [q. v.] This was considered so successful that several of Scott's friends had replicas painted for them, about twenty in all, for some of which Scott gave separate sittings to please his friends. Among other notable people painted by Smith were Lord Jeffrey (considered the best likeness of him), Henry Mackenzie, Sir James Mackintosh, Robert, second viscount Melville, Lord Neaves, John, lord Hope, and others. Smith's portraits were remarkable for correct drawing, simplicity of treatment, and