Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/287

 us. iv. OCT. 7, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

281

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1911.

CONTENTS. No. 98.

NOTES : The Halletts of Canons, 281 Thackeray : Thackery: Wray Bewickiana, 283 Napoleon Relic in India, 284 Pronunciation of " Ch " in Early English- Statues in London Learned Horses, 285 The Bells of Bosham Church closed on Vicar's Death The Cassi- terides and Lyonesse, 286 Wymondley Tradition and Julius Csesar ' Caesar's Dialogue,' 1601 "As dark as a stack of black cats," 287.

QUERIES: "I am paid regular wages," 287 "Jerusa- lem-Garters" 'The Velvet Cushion ' Jane Austen's ' Persuasion ' 28th Regiment at Cape St. Vincent 75th Regiment at Delhi Annie Keary's ' Last Day of Flowers' St. Frideswide of Oxford, 288 Napoleon's " Guard "" As sure as God made little apples" B. D. Wyatt " Old Clem " Chelvey Church, Somerset Wood Engraving and Process Block Spurring Book-plate F. Knibbel, Artist Lightfoot of Birmingham Axford Family Eighteenth-Century School-Book, 289 Ether- ington Family Kilbo British Royal Arms in Milan Spanish Motto Heine and Byron ' Maitre Gue"riu' " Aspinshaw, Leather Lane" T. Oliver of Bond Street- Grand Khaibar Diatoric Teeth Arno Surname Purvis Surname" Walm" as a Street-Name, 290.

REPLIES : Bristol M.P.'s, 291 Queen Elizabeth's Por- traits at Hampton Court Printers' Errors in ' Pickwick Papers,' 292 Theophile Gautier Paris Barriers, 293 " J'y suis, j'y reste " " All my eye and Betty Martin," 294 Daniel Horry Authors Wanted Military Executions Stonehenge Charles Waterton's Pamphlets Frank Buckland, 295 Noble Families in Shakespeare Rev. Thomas and Joseph Delafield Army Bandmasters, 296 Trees growing from Graves Stockings, Black and Coloured, 297 Henry Etough St. Hugh and " the Holy Nut" First Perforated Postage Stamps, 298 Grinling Gibbons and Rogers Twins and Second Sight A labaster Boxes of Love, 299.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Educational Charters and Docu- ments '-De Quincey ' The Cornhill.'

Notices to Correspondents.

THE HALLETTS OF CANONS : GAINSBOROUGH'S 'MORNING WALK.'

I SUPPOSE it is an experience common to others as well as myself to find how very little is known of the biographies of many of those whose features are familiar to us in famous portraits. In compiling catalogues of portraits by Romney and Hoppner it was always my object to obtain some biographi- cal details of each subject, for these details are as much part and parcel of the picture as its provenance or its history. Messrs. Graves and Cronin did the same for Sir Joshua Reynolds ; and the late Alfred Whitman and Mr. Gordon Goodwin, follow- ing the example of Chaloner Smith, did the same for the portraits engraved by such masters as fell to their lot to catalogue.

Sir Walter Armstrong in his big book on Gainsborough gives a fairly full list of

portraits by that artist, but little or nothing in the shape of biography ; and this list, which is probably referred to 99 times out of every hundred that the book is consulted, is relegated to an Appendix, instead of forming a chief feature of the book. Criti- cism of all kinds is fleeting and individual, the conclusions of to-day may cause derision to-morrow ; but a carefully compiled cata- logue raisonne must always have a certain amount of permanent value.

I am led to make these few remarks be- cause, having to furnish a few biographical details concerning one of Gainsborough's most beautiful pictures Sir Walter Arm- strong goes so far as to describe it as " the finest picture painted in the eighteenth century " I found I had undertaken a task which, instead of occupying, as I had anti- cipated, a few minutes, necessitated two or three days' labour. The picture to which I allude is the well-known group of Mr. and Mrs. Hallett, popularly known under its engraved title of ' The Morning Walk,' the property of Lord Rothschild.

Who were Mr. and Mrs. Hallett ? Not a single line is to be found in any book on Gainsborough there is an abundance of praise and criticism, but not a single bio- graphical fact. The picture was exhibited by the present owner at the Old Masters in 1885, No. 95, and catalogued as ' Portraits of Squire Hilliard [sic] and his Wife ' ; but nothing of a biographical nature was revealed. It is obvious that Squire Hallett and his wife were important people in their day, but that day was before Burke took the " landed gentry " under his genea- logical wing. I have therefore had to " burrow " for my own facts, and in doing this I have gone through The Gentleman's Magazine for over a century. My somewhat voluminous notes may be useful to future students, and I think they are worthy of permanent record in the pages of ' N. & Q.'

Gainsborough's picture represents William Hallett of Canons, Middlesex, and his wife (nee Stephen). There were three William Halletts of Canons, and Gainsborough's picture is of the third of these and his wife.

1. The first William Hallett, who died 17 December, 1781, was at one time an eminent cabinet-maker in St. Martin's Lane. He bought at the sale in 1747 the estate of Canons, in the parish of Whitchurch, near Edgware, where the Duke of Chandos, who had accumulated a vast fortune as Paymaster to the Army in the reign of Queen Anne, had, as is well known, erected a magnificent residence, and where the Duke lived in