Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/478

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NOTES AND QUERIES, p* s. vn. JUNE 15, 1901.

the Mary and John from Plymouth, together with a company of Somerset and Dorset Tx>lk under the leadership of the Rev. John Ware- ham, M.A., of Oxford. Circumstantial evi- dence goes to show that they were brothers, and that William was born about 1612. I think they may have been descended from one of the junior Haydons of Cadhay, in Devon, of whom several are mentioned in various books on that county's families. I find many mentionings of Haydons in the parish registers of Hinton Blewitt, of Chew- ton, and of Witcombe, in Somerset, during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, as also in the administrations of the Probate Court of Blandford, in Dorset, which I think might afford some infor- mation if they were closely examined, and I am willing to go to some expense for such an examination. But there are also many junior Haydons of the Hertford and Norfolk families from whom these two men may have descended, so I do not know just where to begin. I shall be happy to corre- spond with any of your readers who can help me in this research. N. W. J. HAYDON. Brookline P.O., Mass., U.S.

PAINTED AND ENGRAVED PORTRAITS. (9 th S. vii. 341, 438.)

MR. MASON has pleaded well for the accom- plishment of two important works which are greatly needed. I say two because I think that MR. MASON has not made it sufficiently clear that there must be two distinct cata- loguesone of British painted portraits and another of British engraved portraits. If the two were united there could only be confusion.

I submit that of these two wants that of the catalogue of painted portraits is the more urgent. If we desire to know where a painted portrait is to be found, there is no book from which the information can be obtained. A large number of catalogues of exhibitions and private picture galleries can be consulted, but after all this labour has been gone through fruitlessly the inquirer has no proof that the portrait he is seeking does not exist in some well-known collection. In the parallel case of engraved portraits there are, however, several valuable cata- logues, made for the purpose of giving the information required, which can be consulted. Although some of these are rather out of date, they will help the searcher very consi- derably ; so that in this case we have some-

thing, while in respect to a catalogue o painted portraits we have nothing.

If undertaken with spirit a fairly satisfac- tory catalogue of painted portraits could be compiled from the catalogues of exhibitions and of private collections, which would draw public attention to the subject and would form a good nucleus for a more complete work, as many possessors of portraits would send particulars of omissions which they could supply. This is so evident that doubt- less several persons have made a beginning in the compilation of such a list. I have a card index of some of these catalogues, but I have been prevented from keeping it up to date. The matter has been considered by various local societies, and many attempts have been made to gather information re- specting the portraits of county worthies. The most important action taken for the compilation of an adequate catalogue of painted portraits is that of Mr. Lionel Cust, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, who has drawn up a form for the correct description of portraits on a uniform system. This form has been published by Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode, the King's printers.

A descriptive catalogue from such filled-in forms, with the critical remarks of an expert, would be a work of great value, but it must be many years before it can be produced. In the meantime an index to existing cata- logues and lists would be a great help to the compiler of such a work, and this could be produced within a reasonable period of time. In order to make even this preliminary list of any real value, it would be necessary, when all the printed catalogues had been indexed, to obtain some lists of known collections of which no printed catalogues are forth- coming.

The production of a catalogue of engraved portraits would be a much more serious undertaking than that of an index of painted portraits, because an amalgamation of existing catalogues would not be of much use, and to a great extent the work must be done afresh. A fairly complete catalogue would be a work of great extent. Upon its value if pro- perly carried out it is needless to enlarge, for it is evident to all. It would make this communication too long to enter fully into this subject, but I hope that some further suggestions respecting it may be included in the pages of ' N. & Q.' I may say that some time back I read a paper before the Biblio- graphical Society on portraits in books, and I have undertaken to draw up an index of some portraits in English books to the encj