Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/469

 n s. i. JUNE 11, 1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

461

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1910.

CONTENTS.-No. 24.

.NOTES : B. B. Haydon and Shelley, 461 King's ' Classical Quotations,' 463 -John Wilson MSS., 464 Dennis, the ' Barnaby Rudge ' Hangman Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty Signs of Old London " Piggins "= Joists Miss Cornelia Knight, 465 English Kings buried in France- Jeremy Taylor and Politian, 466.

QUERIES : " Teart "Richard II. near Calais' Jonathan Sharp,' 466 Lord Strathnairn " Make " or " Mar " in Goldsmith George Colman's ' Man of the People ' Thundering Dawn in Kipling and Francis Thompson. 467 ' Manners and Customs of the French ' ' Lovers' Vows ' Authors Wanted Venice and its Patron Saint The Ravensbourne T. Carkesse G. Fairborne A. Farley Sweeny Todd Anticipated " Barn " in Place- Names- Woe Waters of Langton, 468 Collet at Leyden Richard Coope D'Eresby Lyford Family Moses and Pharaoh's Daughter Grey Family, 469

REPLIES: Sir Anthony Standen : the Armada, 469 "The Cock Tavern "Easter twice in One Year, 472 Shakespeare Illustrators Hornbook temp. Elizabeth, 474 Rumbelow " Broche," 475 "The Peter Boat and Doublet "Books and Engravings Large-Paper Copies of Books Richard Martin " Tatting "Queen Mary II., 476 Strettell - Utterson Giffard = Mill " Touching Piece" Duke's Place, Aldgate, 477 Kempesfeld, 478.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Manor Houses of England' Reviews and Magazines' Printers' Pie.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

B. R. HAYDON AND SHELLEY.

TO-DAY Haydon is remembered rather as a lecturer and writer on art than as a painter. He seems to have been the first to recognize the supreme value of the Elgin Marbles ; and it was chiefly through his exertions that these relics of the Parthenon were ultimately purchased by the nation. His friendship with Keats is historical ; but his acquaint- ance with Shelley never ripened into friend- ship. This is not surprising : the man who wrote in the year before his death (1846), " The moment I touch a great canvas I think I see my creator smiling on all my efforts,"' could have little in common with Alastor.

In F. W. Haydon's edition (1876) of his

father's ' Correspondence and Table-Talk,'

i. Ill, the painter's first meeting (1816) with

[ the poet is described. It was at a dinner


 * one of the last he attended at Leigh Hunt's.

Haydon arrived late, and took his place at


 * the table. Opposite to him sat a hectic,

spare, intellectual-looking creature, carving a piece of broccoli on his plate as if it were the substantial wing of a chicken. Suddenly, in the most feminine and gentle voice, Shelley, for it was he, said : " As to that detestable religion, the Christian '* Haydon looked up, but says he in his diary :

" On casting a glance round the table, I easily saw by Leigh Hunt's expression of ecstasy and the simper of the women, I was to be set at that evening 'vi et armis.' I felt exactly like a stag at bay, and I resolved to gore without mercy."

The result was a heated and passionate argument, and the resolution on Haydon's part to subject himself no more to the chance of these discussions. On p. 318, in the fragment of a reply, in 1817, to John Scott, Haydon writes :

" Voltaire, Gibbon, Hume, and Shelley have a certain range of capacity, not of the highest order. They have talent enough to torture truth, and sophisticate for falsehood, but not candour enough to make allowance for any want, if its allowance should be against them."

In vol. ii. p. 72 n. the editor relates that Shelley's ' Adonais * reached Haydon from Pisa in the course of 1821, and he was much pleased with it ; quotes it in a letter to Miss Mitford ; and details how he first met Shelley at dinner at Horace Smith's (sic). The following letter is in my mother's possession :

Painting room Aug 3rd 1822.

'saj\[ MY DEAR MAYOR

I was very much gratified by your letter, and envy both you and Chatfield's sensations when you heard Rubens so enthusiastically welcomed. No man of common feeling but must be excited by his works: and I hope both you and Chatfield will go to his tomb, fall down on your knees, and pray with all your might, that his spirit may for the rest of your lives, make you paint your backgrounds clear and distant, your foregrounds, distinct & advancing ; your shadows thin and pure, your lights fresh & embodied ; your compositions, massy and not crowded, your expressions true without grimace & actions powerful without exaggeration. If my brushes were not better than my pens I should have had hopes of my next exhibition. I sent your account of the pine (?) to the Examiner. As I find Mr. Hunt this morning has put in Mr. Smith of Gt. Marlborough St. as purchaser I take it for granted he is known. Shelley was drowned off Leghorn on the 8th. poor Shelley ! he knows by this time if there be a God, which he always doubted. The first time I ever saw him was at dinner. I could not conceive who that little delicate shrivelled man was opposite eating only cabbage, when I was roused by his saying in a voice as Shakespeare says that had the " mannish crack " of sixteen, " as to that detestable religion the Christian religion ! ! " He had a kind heart for his friends, & will be regretted.