Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/69

 s. v. JAN. 23, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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topic of talk : Canova was officially coming to thank the Prince Regent; and on this important visit rested our only hopes ! In November, 1815, Canova arrived, and was at Burnet's Hotel. Wilkie saw him first, and, not understanding him, came to the Student, and declared he did not think highly of the Marbles : the Student hurried away to the Foreign Office, where Hamilton was Under-Secre- tary, and they went toCanova's immediately. After the ceremonies of introduction were over, he asked him, * What do you think of the Marbles ? ' He replied they were the finest things on earth, and he would have walked barefoot from Rome to have seen them. He added the union of life and idea was perfect, and that they would overturn the whole system of form in high art. Hamilton took him the first time he went to the Marbles : the Student went with him the second time, and he (Canova) said he always believed the genuine works of the Greeks had even more of every-day nature than we saw in the other ancient works. Backed as all admirers were thus by Canova, the Govern- ment began to melt, for the ministers saw they must become the ridicule of Europe if they obsti- nately persisted in their indifference, and in the following year, 181G, a Committee was granted."

In the same volume, on p. 292, is the follow- ing interesting letter :

Translation of a Letter from the Caviller Canova to the Earl of Elgin.

London, 10th November, 1815.

MY LORD, Permit me to express the sense of the great gratification which I have received from having seen in London the valuable antique Marbles which you have brought hither from Greece. I think that I can never see them often enough, and although my stay in this great capital must be extremely short, I dedicate every moment that I can spare to the contemplation of these cele- brated remains of ancient art. I admire in them the truth of nature, united to the choice of the finest forms. Everything here breathes life, with a veracity, with an exquisite knowledge of art, but without the least ostentation or parade of it, which is concealed by consummate and masterly skill. The naked is perfect flesh, and most beautiful in its kind. I think myself happy in having been able to see with my own eyes these distinguished works ; and I should feel perfectly satisfied if 1 had come to London only to view them. Upon which account the admirers of art, and the artists, will owe to your lordship a lasting debt of gratitude for having brought amongst us these noble and magnificent pieces of sculpture ; and for my own part I beg leave to return you my own most cordial acknow- ledgments ; and

I have the honour to be, c.,

CANOVA.

In 'The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Esq., M.A.R. A.,' vol. i. p. 313 (published 1831), is a reference to Canova :

"Canova visited England in the summer of 1816, and was then very much struck with the pictures, as well as pleased with Fuseli's society. This eminent sculptor remarked that he not only showed the brilliancy of genius in his conversation, but that he spoke Italian with the purity of a well- educated native of Rome."

In the life of Roubiliac by Allan Cunning-

ham are the following remarks by Canova upon the statue of Eloquence by Roubiliac- on the monument to the memory of the Duke of Argyle in Poets' Corner, West- minster Abbey :

"He [Canova] was so struck with its beauty, he stood before it full ten minutes, muttered his- surprise in his native language passed on, and returning in a few minutes said, * This is one of the= noblest statues I have seen in England.' " Canova was very friendly with Sir Francis Chantrey, and greatly appreciated his work, and when he returned to Italy he sent Sir Francis Chantrey a colossal bust of himself. This bust, after Chantrey's decease, was purchased by my master, Edwin Smith, sculptor, and is now in the Museum, Weston Park, Sheffield. I believe Canova exhibited his statue of Terpsichore in the Royal Academy at the same time as Sir Francis Chantrey exhibited his beautiful group of 'The Sleeping Children.'

In Flaxman's lectures on sculpture there is an interesting address on the death of Canova. CHARLES GREEN.

18, Shrewsbury Road, Sheffield.

ROLL OF CARLAVEROCK (10 th S. iv. 529). There are at least two English translations of this. The most recent is that published, with notes, by T. Wright, 1864; but the earlier edition of the Anglo-Norman verse, with an English translation by Sir Harris Nicolas, 1828, is valuable for the biographical notices of the personages mentioned by the poet. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

The Antiquarian Repertory (1779), vol. ii. pp. 107, &c., gives a version from the Cotton- ian MS. (Caligula A. xviii.).

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

[MR. F. G. HALEY and MR. R. 0. HESLOP also- thanked for replies.]

TWIZZLE-TWIGS (10 th S. iv. 507). This name for the jointed rush is known in the ^Mid- lands generally, I should say. Small branches twisted on trees are " twizzled " together, and other things in a state of con- fusion are 4t twizzled" or " ravelled."

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

There is a Yorkshire hamlet called Wig- twizzle, ten miles north-west of Sheffield. The name has been variously spelt since the time of Edward I. The following are samples: Wygestwysell (1280), Wytwisle (1329), Wiggetwisell (1638), Twigtwizell (in Brad field parish register, 1707), Wihtwizzle (Ordnance Survey, 1891). Is it possible that the name is in any way connected with the