Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/76

 56 of the three attractive modern languages, French, Italian and Spanish." Warner went to Paris in 1790 to attend, in the position of domestic chaplain, lord Gower, afterwards the marquis of Stafford, who was then the english ambassador at Paris. He had been recommended for the post by his old friends and patrons lord Carlisle and George Selwyn and some of the wits afterwards insinuated that this was a manoeuvre of the opposition. Romney, too, may have taken part in the recom- mendation, for lord Gower's father had been very friendly with the artist and he had painted for the ambassador him- self " that wonderful picture of his dancing children" which formed the chief glory of the art-treasures at Trentham. Warner pressed upon his friends his eagerness to see them in the French capital. Three of them, Romney, Hayley and the rev. Thomas Carwardine, met at Eartham in July 1790. They crossed from Brighton to Dieppe and arrived by slow stages at Paris on the 31st of that month. But they did not go by themselves for the parson was the only member of the trio " unaccompanied by a fair but unwedded companion." Their friend received them most cheerfully in the rooms in the Hotel de Modene which he had provided for their accom- modation. They stayed for three weeks and Romney through the kindness of Madame Sillery, afterwards Madame de Genlis, was gratified by seeing the famous pictures of the duke of Orleans, in the Palais Royal, in which establishment she held the position of governess. They visited the studios of David and Greuze and in their turn entertained those artists at dinner. David also took them to the Luxem- bourg to study the Marie de Medicis series of Rubens. Carwardine's friends included Romney, Hayley, Cowper, Opie and Richard Cumberland. His tastes were for art and his sister Penelope, Mrs. Butler, was famous for her minia- tures, but on the advice of Thurlow he was ordained in the