Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/269

 oftener than those of any other owner. But it was as a patron of art that he was chiefly remarkable. He was a vice-president of the British Institution and one of the most cultivated amateurs of his day. One of the first to appreciate Turner, he was attracted towards him personally by that combination of artistic perception and extreme simplicity which was the keynote of the characters of both. At Petworth Turner had a studio assigned to him, which even Egremont was not allowed to enter without giving a peculiar knock agreed upon between them. There Turner painted his ‘Apuleia and Apuleius,’ and his ‘Derby Morning,’ with a view of Petworth, which was exhibited in 1810. Charles Robert Leslie [q. v.] was invited to Petworth, with his wife and children, every year after 1826. Leslie was at Petworth just before his patron's death, and, together with Turner, Phillips, Carew, and Clint, attended his funeral. He painted for Egremont ‘Sancho and the Duchess,’ as well as three other pictures, and relates many anecdotes of him. In 1834 Constable was entertained by Egremont, and during his stay at Petworth he filled a large book with pencil sketches and watercolours. John Edward Carew [q. v.], the sculptor, was almost exclusively employed by Egremont from 1823 onwards. After his patron's death he claimed the sum of 50,000l. for work done, but, having brought an action at law, was non-suited. It was by Carew's good offices that Benjamin Robert Haydon [q. v.], then in great distress, was introduced to Egremont. He was then at work upon his ‘Alexander taming Bucephalus,’ and Egremont, after making inquiries as to the causes of his misfortunes, called and ordered for himself the picture. Egremont thought Haydon's style too bold for English tastes, but expressed himself as personally quite satisfied, and in 1827 gave him a commission for ‘Eucles.’ Egremont employed John Flaxman [q. v.] on his group of the ‘Archangel Michael piercing Satan,’ and on the beautiful figure of the pastoral Apollo. Both are now in the gallery of sculpture at Petworth, to which Joseph Nollekens [q. v.] and John Charles Felix Rossi [q. v.] also contributed. Egremont had a strong personal preference for Raffaelle and Hogarth, and he expressed to Leslie great contempt for Parmegiano's ‘Vision of St. Jerome,’ now in the National Gallery. The fine collection at Petworth was begun at Rome by the second earl, but owes many of its treasures to the third. It is especially notable for its Van Dycks and Holbeins, besides the Turners and Woollett's Claude. Jonathan Ritson was employed by the third earl to complete Gibbons's wood carvings (which Walpole saw in 1749) in the carved dining-room. Gavin Hamilton (1730–1797) [q. v.] collected the antique sculptures. The allied sovereigns visited Petworth in 1814, and were painted there by Thomas Phillips (1770–1845) [q. v.]

Egremont erected a market cross at Petworth in 1793, and built schools there in 1816. The road to Horsham was made under his directions. In 1827 he restored the parish church, in which just before his death he raised to his Percy predecessors a monument inscribed ‘Mortuis moriturus.’ He made a generous use of his great wealth, and is said to have spent 20,000l. annually for a period of sixty years in charity. Charles Greville was present in May 1834 at the annual fête which he gave to the poor (six thousand of whom were present), and declared it to be one of the gayest and most beautiful spectacles he had ever seen. Not the least impressive part of the entertainment was the keen pleasure shown by the host himself, to whom he thought applicable Burke's panegyric on the Indian kings (‘Delighting to reign in the dispensation of happiness,’ &c.).

Writing of a previous visit (in December 1832), Greville describes Egremont at the age of eighty-one as still healthy, with faculties and memory unimpaired, living with an abundant, though not very refined, hospitality. Haydon, in his account of his visit to Petworth in 1826, describes the character of his entertainment, which resembled that of a great inn. Egremont would leave his guests from breakfast till dinner, when he himself carved every dish and ate heartily. His motto was ‘Live and let live.’ Every one and everything seemed to share his hospitality. Many anecdotes of his hatred of ceremony are told by Haydon and Leslie. Greville described Egremont as a man blunt without rudeness and caustic without bitterness; shrewd, eccentric, and benevolent.

Egremont died unmarried at Petworth on 11 Nov. 1837. There are several portraits of him in the collection there. That by Phillips was engraved by Agar, Reynolds, Cook, and Roberts, and engravings were executed by Lupton after Clint, by Meyer after Beechey, and by Turner of a three-quarter length with dogs by Derby (cf. Cat. Third Loan Exhib. No. 283). A fine engraving by Scriven, from a bust by Carew, is prefixed to vol. ii. of Horsfield's ‘Sussex.’ Egremont was succeeded as fourth earl by his nephew, George Francis Wyndham (1785–1845), on whose death the peerage became extinct. Petworth passed to a kinsman, George Wyndham (1789–1869),