the grave, I am desirous of bespeaking you-will you comeaye or no?" Sheridan could scarcely repress a smile as he made the required promise: the looks of Gainsborough cleared up like one of his own landscapes; throughout the rest of the evening his wit flowed, and his humour ran over, and the minutes, like those of the poet, winged their way with pleasure.-Allan Cunningham.

GAINSBOROUGH'S GENEROSITY.

The painter had a most feeling heart, and strong sympathy with misfortune. Thus, we find him, on being shown a letter from a fallen and forsaken woman, turning back on his way to the theatre, to send the poor supplicant a five pound note. If he selected for painting a child from a cottage, all the inmates generally participated in the profits of the picture; and some of them frequently found in his house a permanent abode. His liberality was not confined to this alone: needy relatives and unsuccessful friends were further incumbrances on a spirit which could not deny. "Scheming Jack" was often supplied with money, and whenever he visited London, Schomberg House was his home.

Money and pictures were alike bestowed inconsiderately. Fulcher relates that he presented twenty drawings to one lady, who was so ignorant of their value that she pasted them on the wall of her dressing-room; and he gave Colonel Hamilton the Boy at the Stile for playing a solo on the violin.

DEATH OF GAINSBOROUGH.

In February, 1788, the trial of Warren Hastings lured Gainsborough from his easel. Sitting in Westminster Hall, with his back to an open window, he suddenly felt something inconceivably cold touch his neck. It was accompanied with stiffness and pain. On his return home, his wife and his niece saw on his neck a mark, about the size of a shilling, hard to the touch, and which, he said, still felt cold. Mrs. Gainsborough became alarmed, and called in Dr. Heberden and Mr. John Hunter. They declared it to be only a swelling in the glands, which the warm weather would remove. Little was thought of the malady, and Gainsborough went, for change of air and scene, to his cottage at Richmond. He grew worse, and returned to town; and suppuration having taken place, Mr. Hunter acknowledged the protuberance to

be a cancer. "If this be a cancer," said Gainsborough to Mrs. Gibbon, who had arrived from Bath, "I am a dead man." Other medical men confirmed Mr. Hunter's opinion; and Gainsborough then, with perfect composure, proceeded to arrange his affairs.

Towards the close of July, Gainsborough rapidly became worse. He now felt there was one whom he had not treated with courtesy-it was Sir Joshua Reynolds; and to him he wrote, desiring to see him once more before he died. "If any little jealousies had subsisted between us," says Reynolds, "they were forgotten in those moments of sincerity; and he turned towards me as one who was engrossed by the same pursuits, and who deserved his good opinion by being sensible of his excellence." The two great Painters were alone in the chamber at Schomberg House: Gainsborough said he did not fear death, but regretted leaving his art, more especially as he now began to see what his deficiencies were. His words began to fail, and the last he uttered to Reynolds were: "We are all going to Heaven-and Vandyke is of the company." A few days after, on August 2, 1788, in the sixty-second year of his age, Gainsborough died.*

Other accounts state that the occasion of Gainsborough's death was a wen in the neck, which grew internally, and so large as to obstruct the passages. After death, the part was opened, the excrescence examined and replaced.

According to Gainsborough's own wish, he was buried in Kew churchyard, on the south side of the church, near the grave of his friend Joshua Kirby. On August 9, Gainsborough's remains were borne from his house in Pall Mall to Kew. His nephew, Mr. Dupont, attended as chief mourner. The pall was borne by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir William Chambers, West, Bartolozzi, Paul Sandby, and Mr. Cotes. Among the mourners were Linley, the musical composer; Meyer, the miniature-painter; Kirby's son-in-law, Mr. Trimmer; and, faithful to his compact, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In the same grave are interred Gainsborough's wife and nephew. The stone has neither arms nor ornament, as the painter expressly desired; but it appears to have been neglected.

* He died in possession of 56 of his pictures and 148 drawings, which were exhibited at Schomberg House, in the year after his death, and subsequently sold. Gainsborough is said never to have put his name to any picture.

When Sir Richard Phillips visited the spot in his Morning's Walk from London to Kew, "Ah! friend," said he to the clerk's assistant who conducted him to the grave, "this is a hallowed spot; here lies one of Britain's favoured sons, whose genius has assisted in exalting her among the nations of the earth." "Perhaps it was so," said the man, "but we know nothing about the people buried, except to keep up their monuments, if the family pay; and perhaps, sir, you belong to the family ; if so, I'll tell you how much is due." "Yes,

truly, friend," said Sir Richard, "I am one of the great family bound to preserve the monument of Gainsborough ; but if you take me for one of his relatives, you are mistaken.” 'Perhaps, sir, you may be of the family, but were not included in the will, therefore are not obligated." Sir Richard adds: "I could not now avoid looking with scorn at the fellow; but, as the spot claimed better feelings, I gave him a trifle for his trouble, and mildly told him I would not detain him.

"The monument being a plain one, and making no palpable appeal to vulgar admiration, was disregarded by these people; for it is in death as in life, if you would excite the notice of the multitude, you must in the grave have a splendid mausoleum, or in walking the streets you must wear fine clothes. It did not fall in the way of the untaught, on this otherwise polite spot, to know that they have among them the remains of the first Painter of our National School, in fancy pictures, and one of the first in the classes of landscape and portrait; a man who recommended himself as much by his superiority as by his genius; as much by the mode in which his genius was developed, as by the perfection of his works; and as much by his amiable private character as by his eminence in the chief of Fancy's Arts. Such a man was Thomas Gainsborough, before whose modest tomb I stood!”

CHARACTERISTICS, RETROSPECTIVE OPINIONS,

AND PERSONAL TRAITS.

CHARACTER OF GAINSBOROUGH, BY REYNOLDS.

WHEN Gainsborough had been lain in the grave about four months, Sir Joshua, in his Fourteenth Discourse, drew attention to the excellencies and defects of the deceased painter, observing: "If ever this nation should produce genius sufficient to acquire to us the honourable distinction of an English School, the name of Gainsborough will be transmitted to posterity, in the history of the Art, among the very first of that rising name.'

Sir Joshua then refers to the customs and habits of Gainsborough, and the causes of his excellence, the love which he had for his art.

He had a habit of continually remarking to those who hap pened to be about him, whatever peculiarity of countenance, whatever accidental combination of figure, or happy effects of light and shadow occurred in prospects, in the sky, in walking the streets, or in company. If in his walks he found a character that he liked, and whose attendance was to be obtained, he ordered him to his house and from the fields he brought into his painting-room stumps of trees, weeds, and animals of various kinds, and designed them, not from memory, but immediately from the objects. He even framed a kind of model of landscapes on his table, composed of broken stones, dried herbs, and pieces of looking-glass, which he magnified and improved into rocks, trees, and water.*

*

Sir Joshua then refers to Gainsborough's custom of painting by night, a practice very advantageous and improving to an artist. "Another practice Gainsborough had, which is worth mentioning, as it is certainly worthy of imitation: I mean his

* He made (says Jackson,) little laymen for human figures, he modelled his horses and cows, and knobs of coal sat for rocks-nay, he carried this so far, that he never chose to paint anything from invention, when he could have the objects themselves. The limbs of trees, which he collected, would have made no inconsiderable wood-rick, and many an ass has been led into his painting-room.

manner of forming all the parts of his picture together, the whole going on at the same time, in the same manner as Nature creates her works. Though this method is not uncommon to those who have been regularly educated, yet probably it was suggested to him by his own natural sagacity.” Reynolds then briefly alludes to his last interview with Gainsborough, and resumes:

"When such a man as Gainsborough arrives to great fame, without the assistance of an academical education, without travelling to Italy, or any of those preparatory studies which have been so often recommended, he is produced as an instance how little such studies are necessary, since so great excellence may be acquired without them. This is an inference not warranted by the success of any individual, and I trust it will not be thought that I wish to make this use of it."

Reynolds then adverts to Gainsborough's method of handling, his habit of scratching.

"All these odd scratches and marks," he observes, "which, on a close examination, are so observable in Gainsborough's pictures, and which, even to experienced painters, appear rather the effect of accident than design; this chaos, this uncouth and shapeless appearance, by a kind of magic, at a certain distance assumes form, and all the parts seem to drop into their proper places; so that we can hardly refuse acknowledging the full effect of diligence, under the appearance of chance and hasty negligence. That Gainsborough himself considered this peculiarity in his manner, and the power it possesses of exciting surprise, as a beauty in his works, I think, may be inferred from the eager desire which we know he always expressed, that his pictures, at the Exhibition, should be seen near as well as at a distance.”

PORTRAITS BY GAINSBOROUGH.

Among the famous portraits of famous men, painted by Gainsborough at Bath, was the first Lord Camden, a kind friend to the artist; Cramer, the metallurgist, the gilt buttons of whose coat are rendered with appropriate truthfulness; and the authors of Pamela and the Sentimental Journey. To Sterne's picture we may apply the words of Tristram Shandy: "Reynolds himself, great and graceful as he was, might have painted it." Richardson's head is a splendid