Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/407

 s. in. MAY 27,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

401

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1899.

CONTENTS. -No. 74.

NC TBS : Ozias Humphry, 401 Ancient Zodiacs, 402 The (ranting of Arms A Deserted Village JSsop, 404 ISouns of Singularity Proverb Charing Cross. 405 C itywayo " Smoak " " These kind of men " " Twilly T )es," 406.

_ SRIES: "Goodyer" 'Moro' Register of Birth in & B jrlin Benjamin Poole Corpus Christi Day " Dibble " Cardboard Models Lady Grange " History repeats it ielf " Bdgett, 407 Cresset-stones Gordon of Lesmoir Martin, a Game Chinese Medicine Lovibond Quarre A:)bey Queen Elizabeth at Horham Hall Dr. A. Gifford Caul, 408 Milestones to Wentworth House Godfrey- Lord Burleigh's Precepts Leprosy of Houses 'Journal oi the Countess Krasinska' St. Helen" Pillars," 409.

BBPLIES : Thackeray's Latin, 409 Pompey's Pillar Earthquake in 1750 Hexham Priory, 410 Order of St. John of Jerusalem King Charles I., 411 Impressions of Seals " Stook "The Golden Gate Eudowing Purse, 412 Mutterd " Mead and Obarni." 413 Society of Dilet- tanti St. Jordan The Real JDneas " Guldize," 414 Johnson's House Hebrews ix. a? Newton Epitaphs, 415 Hereditary Odour Herne t.he Hunter " London " and " Lonnon "Thomas Aske Christian Names. 416 Crom- well and Music Lamb and Banner' The Wise Men of Gotham' Muse Plots Book-plate, 417 Preen, Salop Non jurors Charles I.'s Rings "Hoo" 'Old St. Paul's' Ancient Bee-lore, 418.

.VOTES ON BOOKS : Newman's ' Study of Wagner ' McCarthy's 'Modern England ' Holgate's 'Winchester Long RoUs' Lang's Scott's ' Betrothed ' and 'Talisman'

I Reid's ' Annals of Auchterarder.'

Notices to Correspondents.

iOZIAS HUMPHRY : AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

j THE following interesting biographical

,ccount of this eminent artist, contained in

,n original MS. paper (formerly, for many

ears, in my possession) bearing the water-

iaark date of "1797," arid written either at

! is dictation or from particulars he furnished,

iirobably by his natural son, William Up-

jott, the well-known collector, in the follow-

lig year i. e., soon after the total failure of

ihe artist's eyesight will be welcome to


 * iany, and should be enshrined in the pages

if our old friend ' N. & Q.' It appears not

ily to have been previously inedited, but

so to differ as to the date of his birth and

e Christian name of his father, as well as

some other particulars, from the article in

e ' Dictionary of National Biography ' and

om other printed memoirs of Humphry,

id is, moreover, more explanatory in several

Aspects :

[Copy.]

1 Ozias Humphry was born at Honiton in Devon- re, on September y e 8 th 1743, the eldest surviving me of Geo: and Eliz: Humphry. After having en carefully taught reading, writing, and the ithernatics till his eleventh year, he was re- >v'd by his parents to the Grammar School in at Town, and placed under the tuition of the

Rev d Rich d Lewis M:A: till he had completed his fourteenth year, when he was sent to London to improve himself in drawing, at the Academy of M r W m Shipley first projector of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts &c c. At this School, and the duke of Richmonds in Privy Gardens, he con- tinued to study ab* three years, during w ch period his father died, w ch made it necessary he should return to his mother's House. His desire at this time was to [" have been " erased] be placed with S r Joshua Reynolds, but Circumstances ordered it otherwise, and he was engag'd, w th M r Samuel Collins, an eminent Miniature painter at Bath w th whom he continued two years, when ["M r Collins " erased] he remov'd to Dublin, and [" he " erased] M r Humphry succeeded his Instructor, in his professional Situation at that City. In the year 1764 he was encourag'd, and invited by S r Joshua Reynolds to settle himself in London, near him ; w ch he accordingly resolv'd upon, & accomplish'd;

in habits of the utmost familiarity & Friendship. In 1766 he exhibited a portrait of John Mealing, the old Model of the Royal Academy, w ch was much noticed 1 ', and immediately after, had the honor f" to be commissioned " erased] to paint a large Miniature of her Majesty, w th many other Branches of the Royal Family. He practiced his profession, w th almost unexampled Success, till the year 1772, when a fall from his Horse, gave his Head so violent a Shock, as had nearly fractured his Skull ; and im- pair'd his whole Nervous System so much, that he was unable to pursue Miniature painting, w th the same power that he had hitherto done. He judg'd it prudent therefore, w th the advice of his Friends, to extend the Scale of his practice; and for this purpose in 1773 resolv'd to pass a few years in Italy, not only for the reason just stated, but w th a hope also, of general Improvement in his profession. He left England in March, and pass'd through Paris, by Lyons, to Nice. From this City he sail'd in a Felucca to Genoa, and on by Leghorn, through Pisa, to Florence ; from whence he proceeded to Rome; and in the Palazzo Zucchero, upon the Trinita del Monte, resided four years. 2 In this situation [ 3 ] altho' surrounded by advantages, he had still many difficulties to contend with : for, his time had been so entirely engrossed by Minia- ture painting that he had little or no practice in oyl ; and had therefore the whole process to dis- cover. He avail'd himself for this purpose of the finest colour'd parts of the Fresco's of Raffaelle in the Vatican ; and studied the System of Titian, from his pictures in the Borghese & Colonna palaces; or, wherever they cou'd be seen. 4 At home he compos'd, and made all his studies from Nature ; and had an Evening Academy in his own Apart- ment, w ch was frequented, by some of the ablest living Artists. He did not neglect to study with attention every object that cou'd improve and strengthen his Mind. He traced, (for future Ex- amples) all the parts (within reach) of the pictures

& Angles w th a hope of comprehending the prin- ciples, and catching the fire of those exalted Labours. In the same manner he copied the finest parts of the Fresco's of Rafiaelle, and his Trans- iguration in oyl, at S Pietro Montorio. He visited