racter of this extraordinary woman, that while she was engaged in these various, and often laborious, occupations, she would have appeared, to a common ob server, to be absorbed in the enjoyment of the gay and brilliant pleasures of that distinguished circle, of which she was herself the brightest ornament." Anecdotes of David Wilkie and his 66 Blind Fiddler." TOWARDS the end of 1806 Mr. Wilkie was in London, very short of money, and sent some of his paintings to Andrews, a picture-frame maker at Charing Cross, to sell. One of them, the original Blind Fiddler, stood long in the window. At last, Mr. Stuart, (of the Morning Post newspaper,) who had often stopped and admired it, being seen doing so by an old acquaintance, who recommended him to purchase it, as a work of merit, went into the shop and asked the price-five guineas. He directed Andrews to put it into a frame, and he left it with him for several weeks. There was another picture on sale by Wilkie, but being disfigured in varnishing, Mr. Stuart did not purchase it; he has since heard who did. In the spring of 1807, some friends being at dinner with Mr. Stuart, Mr. Wordsworth the poet mentioned a new artist of unusual and singular merit, who had made his appearance, and described Wilkie's picture, then making a great noise, the picture which was first exhibited at the Royal Academy. On showing Mr. Stuart's purchase of Andrews, Wordsworth expressed his firm belief that it was by the same artist, Wilkie. Mr. Stuart's curiosity thus excited, he attended the opening of the doors on the first day of the exhibition at the Royal Academy, where about 300 persons were assembled, and a rush was made at entering, like those which take place at the theatres. On examining Mr. Wilkie's picture, Mr. Stuart had no doubt it was by the same hand, and, guided by the catalogue, he went directly to Mr. Wilkie, then residing in Upper Norton Street, whom he found painting the same subject over again, "the Blind Fiddler,' "but something different in the background, and with two other figures introduced, and rather larger in size. He proposed that Wilkie should paint a picture for him, but he declined, saying he was deeply engaged to paint for Lord Mulgrave, and that, at present at least, his design was to paint for fame, not for money. He added, that the picture Mr. Stuart was possessed of was one of his latest productions, and he was glad it had fallen into such good hands. Several years afterwards, Mr. Stuart being at dinner with Sir George Beaumont in Grosvenor Square, Sir George said to him, So, Mr. Stuart, I find you have the original of my picture, 'the Blind Fiddler.'" About seven years ago Mr. Stuart met Sir David Wilkie in company at Mr. Rennie's, in Chesham Place, and entered into conversation with him re specting this picture. He recollected all the circumstances, and added that Andrews knew well who he was, and where to find him, though he had told Mr. Stuart the contrary, when Mr. Stuart expressed a wish to have another picture by the same artist. A few years ago Sir D. Wilkie called on Mr. Stuart, and reviewed his picture, the original Blind Fiddler, now in Mr. Stuart's possession, and held a pleasant conversation with Mr. Stuart on the arts. He gave an anecdote respecting Rubens' great picture, the Descent from the Cross, which Mr. Stuart could not find in any of the English books; a very entertaining one. MR. URBAN, M-H-Yorkshire, month, p. 597, is a communication That several individuals of the name of "Mawde ing of Ilkley, in Craven, and presented were patrons of the livto it, from 1554 till 1640, I well knew; but that they were ancestors of Mr. Maude of Wensleydale, as Mr. W. M. M. states, I very much doubt: similarity of name is no proof of consanguinity. It seems a little curious that neither of your correspondents, viz. Mr. W. M. M. of Knowsthorpe, nor (Miss?) E. M. of Moor-house, can point out the place of Mr. Maude's birth-the first says in Downing Street, Westminster, in May, 1718; the other at Harewood, in 1717; they cannot both be right. The following is a copy of the inscription on Mr. Maude's Tombstone in Wensley churchyard: "Sacred to the memory of THOMAS MAUDE, esq. of Burley, in the Westriding of this county, who departed this life Dec. 23rd, 1798, in the 81st year of his age." Below are the well-known lines in A youth of labour, with an age of ease; In Mr. Maude's Wensleydale, under How music charms-why spreads the heavenly Along the Milky Way the tube-sought star; explain Each distant wonder of Urania's reign." "A gentleman residing at Leyburn, whose abilities in mathematics, astronomy, and their dependencies, are well known, far beyond the limits of this vale." Of this gentleman, Mr. George Gargrave, who formerly communicated several valuable articles to the Gentleman's Magazine, I should like, with Mr. Urban's permission, to say a few words, as I am now, perhaps, one of the very few persons living who are old enough to recollect him. towards astronomy, and he was generally considered one of the best practical astronomers at that time in the North of England. was About the year 1745 he became associated with Mr. Joseph Randall, in the once highly famed academy at Heath, near Wakefield, in this county. This establishment, however, upon too liberal and too expensive a scale for the time, and the speculation failed in 1754. Mr. Randall went to the neighbourhood of York, where he became an experimental agriculturist: he died at York, in 1789, at an advanced age. Mr. Gargrave removed to Wakefield, and commenced a mathematical school there, in which he was highly successful, so much so, that in 1768 he was enabled to retire to Leyburn, his native place, upon a handsome competency. He died in 1785, and was buried in the church yard at Wensley, where he has a head-stone with the following inscription : "To the memory of GEORGE GARGRAVE, of Leyburn, who departed this life Dec. 7th, 1785, aged 75." The following tribute to his memory week after his death: it was always appeared in a York newspaper the understood to have been written by his friend Mr. Maude : "On Wednesday last died Mr. George Gargrave, of Leyburn, a gentleman well known to the rising generation of this age, and equally remembered by them with gratitude and respect, for the instructions which he so ably imparted to his pupils in the capacity of a teacher of mathematics, formerly at Heath, near Wakefield, afterwards at Wakefield and at Leeds, and since, in a more retired sphere, at Leyburn, the place of his birth. His attainments reached the higher branches of analysis, and in astronomy he was deeply and practically skilled. He possessed the quality of infusing into the minds of his pupils whatever he taught, He was born at Leyburn in 1710; was educated by his uncle, Mr. John Crow, who, I have been told, conducted a large and respectable school at that place under this able teacher Mr. Gargrave acquired a considerable knowledge of the classics, and a pretty air acquaintance with the mathematics f that period. His taste lay chiefly Are lost, and vanish in the blaze of day." in the most mild and successful manner. As a member of society his demeanour beloved, and he died lamented by a numewas courteous and gentlemanly-he lived rous circle of friends-indeed his suavity of manners was such that he had no enemies. : "He knew indulgence was to frailty due, Mr. Gargrave was the author of the following articles in the Gentleman's Magazine: 1. A Translation of Dr. Halley's Dissertation on the Transit of Venus. Gent. Mag. June, 1760, signed G. G. and dated Wakefield, Jan. 1760. 2. Observations on the Transit of Venus over the Sun, made at Wakefield, by G. G. June 6th, 1761. Gent. Mag. 1761, pp. 251 and 296. 3. Observations on the Transit of Venus, made at Leyburn, by G. G. June 3rd, 1769, and on the solar eclipse the day following dated Leyburn, June 8th, 1769, Gent. Mag. p. 278. 4. Observations on an Eclipse of the Moon, made at Leyburn, by G. G. July 30th, 1776. Gent. Mag. August, p. 357. 5. Memoirs of Mr. Abraham Sharp, of Little Horton, near Bradford, in Yorkshire, a very eminent mathematician, mechanic, and astronomer, by G. G. dated Leyburn, Sept. 4th, 1781. Gent. Mag. Oct. pp. 461, 2, 3. These memoirs have frequently been copied by various writers, particularly by that egregious book-maker the late Dr. Hutton, in his Mathematical Dictionary; by the Rev. Mark Noble, in his continuation of Granger; and even by yourself, Mr. Urban, in your Magazine for 1807, p. 1143; but I believe it was never before publicly known who was the author. In addition to his mathematical ac quirements Mr. Gargrave was skilled in music, and he was a very superior penman; I have seen specimens of his writing, in the early part of his life, which were exquisitely beautiful, and I possess a pretty large 4to. manuscript, on the 'Doctrine of the Sphere," written by him between 1754 and 1760, which would do credit to any of the eminent calligraphers of that day, yes, even to Champion himself; the constructions and diagrams are very far superior to anything of the kind I ever saw; they are, indeed, remarkably elegant. Mr. Gargrave possessed a good library, and a valuable collection of mathematical, philosophical, and musical instruments, which were all dispersed soon after his death; some of them fell into my possession, particularly a very curious brass armillary sphere, 12 inches diameter, with the date 1597, which had formerly belonged to Ralph Thoresby, the Leeds antiquary, and which is particularly mentioned in the catalogue of his museum. In Whitaker's edition this very instrument is expressly stated to have been sold to George Gargrave in 1764. Yours, &c. L. R. We are informed by the Ven. Mr. Archdeacon Wrangham, that Mr. Maude's "Reaper," was uncompleted at the time of his death, in one somewhat thick 12mo. volume. Mr. Blanchard, the printer of the York Chronicle, and of the book in question, informed Mr. W. that on the decease of the author the family directed the whole of the impression to be destroyed, which was done with the exception of two copies, one as an heirloom for the family, the other for himself. The latter Mr. Blanchard gave to the Archdeacon; who has a very similar volume of some essays which Mr. James Montgomery had inserted in successive numbers of the Sheffield Iris, and afterwards collected in a small 12mo. which, for some reason, was rigidly suppressed. Edit. MR. URBAN, IN the notice of Mr. Jesse's Windsor in your last number, I think your reviewer has been as desirous to exhibit his own talent as to give an account of the author's. As a goodnatured banter it is very well, but I should have liked a more detailed mention of the merits of what appears an useful volume. It is not, however, for that point that I write, but to say, that in one instance,-that, I mean, relating to the "garters,"I think your reviewer has justly found fault with Mr. Jesse's want of gallantry. Does that gentleman not know that Venus, when she went to a dance, was attired by the Graces? and are we not informed from high authority that to every part of the female dress a guardian sylph is attached? This leads me to mention a circumstance in connection with the present subject. I have long possessed a few lines which I found in an old edition of Pope that I bought of the late Mr. Faulder, and which were written on a small scrap of paper, apparently the back of a letter, and were inserted among the leaves in the second canto of the Rape of the Lock; whether they were rejected lines by Pope, or whether by Swift or Gay, it would be difficult to say; but I give them to you exactly as they stand, and they are certainly appropriate to the subject under discussion: SCHOOLHOUSE AT GARSINGTON, CO. OXFORD. MR. URBAN, Oxford, June 24. AS you presented your readers, in a former number, with an account of the College School House at Garsington, illustrated by an engraving, I trust they will not be displeased with another view of it, more in perspective, and exhibiting an agreeable land It is a small cubic block of freestone; three sides of which were intended as a sun dial, though the gnomon is gone. The fourth side, facing the north, has the following inscription; which, I conclude, records the scientific donor of the sun dial: THOMAS Such are the records of science :such the vicissitudes to which these ancient memorials of our christian forefathers are subject. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, published a small work significantly entitled "No Cross, no Crown;" and the popular ferment of his day had been directed with equal and combined hostility to both. At length it was found necessary to substitute the terror of the law for the "naked gospel;" but the cross was ill supplied by the sun dial, the stocks, and the constable. Adjoining this cross are the stocks, probably repaired when the constable gave the sun dial: a convenient appendage, because the culprit imprisoned there was either to be taken before a magistrate within the space of six hours, or released. Let us hope that better days may succeed, and better manners, under the influence of a national system of education, based on religion; which it is the object of such parochial foundations as the present to promote. May the schoolmaster, whether abroad or at home, never forget the motto of William of Wykeham, the most liberal and efficient of all patrons and promoters of sound education: "Manners makyth man." Yours, &c. J. I. |