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 of Parliament, including a fresco painting of incidents from the life of Alfred the Great. ‘He designed in all materials, in silver, bronze, iron, marble, and for many purposes—for furniture, churches, porcelain, and mantelpieces.’ He was also a painter, though he produced few pictures, owing to his habit of destroying his own work; portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Collman are among those that survive. A portrait of Stevens, painted by himself at the age of fourteen, was in 1891 in the possession of Mr. Alfred Pegler of Southampton. Another portrait of him in later life is prefixed to Hugh Stannus's ‘Memoir.’

[Stannus's Alfred Stevens and his Work, 1891, fol.; Armstrong's Alfred Stevens, a biographical study, 1881; Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed. xxi. 561; Athenæum, 1875, i. 630; Academy, 1875, p. 487; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists; Ward's Men of the Reign; Chambers's Encyclopædia.]  STEVENS, FRANCIS (1781–1823), landscape-painter, was born, probably at Exeter, on 21 Nov. 1781. He was a pupil of [q. v.], and became a skilful painter of landscape and cottage architecture, working chiefly in watercolours. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1804 and 1805, and in the latter year was elected an associate of the newly founded Watercolour Society; he was promoted to full membership in 1809. Stevens was one of the originators of the Sketching Society in 1808. In 1815 he etched and published a series of views of farmhouses and cottages from drawings by Munn, Varley, Prout, and others. Later he settled at Exeter, whence he sent works to the Royal Academy in 1819 and 1822. He died of apoplexy at Exeter in 1823. His ‘Lustleigh Cleeve’ is in the Devon and Exeter Institution.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Roget's Hist. of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Soc.; Pycroft's Devonshire Artists; Exhibition Catalogues.]  STEVENS, GEORGE ALEXANDER (1710–1784), author of ‘A Lecture upon Heads,’ was born in the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, in 1710. His father was a London tradesman, who apprenticed him to a trade; but the occupation soon proved uncongenial to Stevens, who joined a troupe of strolling players. He showed little talent, but his convivial temper made him popular with his fellow-actors, and the stage afforded him a subsistence. In 1750 he was playing at Lincoln. Next year he had a severe attack of illness, and published a dismal rhapsody called ‘Religion, or The Libertine Repentant’ (1751, 8vo). But the libertine was not repentant for long. In 1752 he was playing in Dublin, where he became intimate with a dissolute humorist, known as ‘Lord Chief Joker [Isaac] Sparks.’ With his co-operation he founded a jovial club called ‘Nassau Court,’ where mock trials and other buffooneries were enacted. At the same time he published pseudonymously, ‘Distress upon Distress … A Heroi-Comi-Parodi-Tragedi-Farci-cal Burlesque in two acts …’ by Sir Henry Humm, with notes by Paulus Purgantius Pedasculus, a nonsensical piece; the line ‘And common sense stood trembling at the door’ Churchill thought worthy of transference to his ‘Rosciad.’

In 1754 Stevens arrived in London to fulfil an engagement at Covent Garden Theatre. He had no success as an actor, but he met with some recognition as a wit, began an imitation of the ‘Dunciad’ called ‘The Birthday of Folly’ (1754), and was admitted to several convivial clubs, including ‘The Choice Spirits,’ near Covent Garden, for which he wrote a number of songs. He also wrote songs and benefit speeches for [q. v.] and other performers. Some of his ditties were published in 1754 as ‘The Choice Spirit's Feast.’ There followed a concealed autobiography, ‘The History of Tom Fool’ (1760), and a short-lived periodical (in anticipation of the ‘Review of Reviews’) called ‘The Beauties of all the Magazines Selected,’ of which three volumes appeared (1762–4). Baker credits him with the authorship in 1762 of an interlude entitled ‘Hearts of Oak,’ consisting of ‘little more than a song and dances for sailors,’ but this statement is doubtful. The well-known sea song ‘Hearts of Oak’ (originally ‘Heart of Oak’) was first given in ‘Harlequin's Invasion,’ a Christmas pantomime of 1759, and has generally been attributed to David Garrick. It is quite certain that Stevens would have included it among his ‘Songs’ if he had had any claim to it (cf., Stories of Famous Songs, p. 173). In 1763 he gave to the world ‘The Dramatic History of Master Edward, Miss Anne, and others, the extraordinaries of these times’ (London, 8vo). This volume, which is of some rarity, although it is solely remarkable for its quaint cuts, is a curious libel in the form of a dialogue upon Shuter and Nancy Dawson. Shuter's offence was the refusal of a dramatic sketch upon which Stevens had lavished special pains. The rough draft of this sketch was the germ of Stevens's ‘Lecture on Heads,’ a skit, in the form of a series of