Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/229

 ii s. x. SEPT. 19, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

223

the Bishop of Winchester's Vicar-General, 10 Sept., 1558, is preserved at the College, with inventory of goods annexed.

89. Dom. William Gye (or Guy ; see L.A., f. 181), 1535.

90. Dom. John Mychell, 1535-37 (or 38). Perhaps Dom. John Mychell, Vicar of " Preston," who witnessed the enthronement of Bishop Whyte (by deputy) in Winchester Cathedral, 21 Sept., 1556 (Bp. Whyte's Reg., f. 3).

91. Dom. Dowle, 1535-42 (and later).

Probably Dom. William Dowle, instituted Rector of Chilbolton, Hants, 8 Dec., 1556 (Bp. Whyte's Reg.).

92. Dom. Lancaster, 1538 (or 37)-42

(and perhaps later). Probably Christopher Lancaster, Scholar, adm. 1529, of Basing- stoke: Lay-Clerk, 1534-37 (or 38).

H. C.

SIR JOHN GILBERT J. F. SMITH, AND 'THE LONDON JOURNAL.'

(See US. vii. 221, 276, 375 ; viii. 121, 142 ; x. 102, 144, 183.)

FOB the benefit of the many readers of 4 N. & Q.' out of England, I think it desir- able to give a few facts and dates about Sir John Gilbert.

He was born 1817, and started life in a City office ; but he was always wasting his time sketching, so that office work was at length given up, it being declared he was quite useless for a city life " notwithstand- ing that he was very good at figures." He tried to get into the best art school there was in his day, that of the Royal Academy of Arts, but, astonishing to relate, he failed in the examination.

He began doing woodcut illustrations in 1838. He drew for The London Journal, 1846-63. He was elected to the Royal Water -Colour Society in 1852, the highest art honour within his reach (except to be made a Royal Academician) ; was President of the R.W.S.,and knighted in 1871 : elected to the Royal Academy, 1872.

About 1885 he bought his own pictures back again, and presented them to various large towns in England. He died in 1897, a bachelor, in the house at Blackheath whore he had lived most of his life.

The abundance of material offered for Consideration on Gilbert's- work has been quite bewildering. Some correspondents apparently think that I intended to write a biography of Gilbert and his contemporary artist illustrators. When I undertook this article I never meant to do more than

make a few jottings, chiefly from my own recollection, but I have been gradually induced by the interest of the subject to enlarge this idea. Little did I imagine the task I was giving myself. I make these observations by way of apology for all my shortcomings. I should like to mention that without the facilities given to me at the National Library, and also at the Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, I could not have written these notes. They have taken me a long time, but I am amply compensated for my trouble by the pleasure I have had in studying the subject about which I have learnt that I knew very little and the contribution I now make towards facilitating the work of future students.

Mr. Walter Sandford* has supplied me with far more hints and suggestions than I am able to use. I am indebted to him for the loan of periodicals, and for allowing me to inspect his collections of illustrations by Gilbert and other artists of his day. He has also assisted or corroborated my attri- bution of prints to Sir John.

It is curious to see the difference between Gilbert's early drawings for example, those to ' Gideon Giles,' most carefully drawn, and those in ' Stanfield Hall ' (Guildhall, p. 58), and, still later, those (Guildhall, p. 1) in ' The Flower of the Flock ' and ' The Poor Girl.' He became more dashing as time went on. There was always plenty of fun and humour in him when he liked, or when he got the opportunity to show it. See, for instance, the illustration ' Mrs. Brown and Lawson's Wife at Tea ' in ' Gideon Giles '(11 Nov., 1 848, vol. viii. p. 1 53 ), and one in ' The Snake in the Grass ' (21 Aug., 1858 (vol. xxvii. p. 401), where Mrs. Taketoll is making her husband scrub the floor. t

spent most of his life in India, contributed a very informing article on 1 Oct., 1904 (10 S. ii. 263), about the Mussuk. He also had a note in The A thence um on the worship of the Virgin Mary by Hindoos. In 1908 he came home for the benefit of his health, but died at the age of 66 on 12 Feb., 1909, in London.
 * His brother John Robert Sandford, who

t The ' D.N.B.,' 1901, says that Gilbert "was never realistic," but this can only refer to his pictures. In The London Journal illustrations he was never anything else unless it might be in that ' Plantation of Dark Firs ' presently to be mentioned. The amusing scene referred to above is imagined, and the details filled in, from the following description : " She [Mrs. Taketoll J slammed the door and descended to her general- utility, who was scrubbing the kitchen floor, to lecture him upon the hardness of her life and what she had to put up with, and how he ought to bless his stars that she made so much of him as she did " (p. 403).