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STRANGE.

THE following anecdote of Sir Robert Strange was related to me by the late Richard Cooper, who had the honour of instructing Queen Charlotte in drawing, and was for some time Drawing-master to Eton School. I shall endeavour to relate it as nearly as possible in his own words. "Robert Strange," said he, "was a countryman of mine, a North Briton, who served his time to my father as an engraver, and was a soldier in the rebel army of 1745. It so happened, when Duke William put them to flight, that Strange, finding a door open, made his way into the house, ascended to the first floor, and entered a room where a young lady was seated. She was at her needle-work and singing. Young Strange implored her protection. The lady, without rising or being the least disconcerted, desired him to get under her hoop.*

folded arms, who declared he would not pull off his hat to any King. His Majesty stopped his curricle, took off his hat, and with a smile said, "I will take off mine to the meanest of my subjects!" which so completely subdued his rude opponent, that he walked away hanging down his head with shame.

* At that time ladies wore immense hoops, as may be seen in all the portraits of the day, particularly in the print of Kitty Clive, in the character of the Fine Lady in Lethe.

He immediately stooped, and the amiable woman covered him up. Shortly after this, the house was searched; the lady continued at her work, singing as before, and the soldiers, upon entering the room, considering Miss Lumsdale alone, respectfully retired.

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Robert, as soon as the search was over, being released from his covering, kissed the hand of his protectress, at which moment, for the first time, he found himself in love. He married the lady; and no persons, beset as they were with early difficulties, lived more happily."

It has already been seen in the Memoir of Nollekens, that this most excellent lady's virtues were equally conspicuous in her married state, and that she did not lose the sweetness of her temper, even under the "chastening hand" of Adversity:

"Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore

With patience many a year she bore;
What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know,

And from her own, she learn'd to melt at others' woe."

Strange afterwards became a loyal man; though for a length of time he sighed to be pardoned by his King, who, however, was graciously pleased to be reconciled to him, and afterwards knighted him. For this information, I am obliged to my worthy friend, Ben

jamin West, Esq. second son of the late venerable President of the Royal Academy.

Lady Strange, who continued her friendship to Mrs. Nollekens, with whom she had been intimate ever since their youthful days, gave her several impressions of the engravings of her husband, who was unquestionably the best engraver England ever produced. Who can look at his most wonderful print of St. Cecilia, from Raffaelle, without astonishment at its brilliancy of effect? His close attention to the texture of each particular article, the sky, the clouds and earth, the linen, silk embroidered and woollen draperies, the metallic and polished surfaces, the hair of the youthful, the manly, and the robust figures, comprising the composition, and the several varieties of flesh, perhaps no one in any part of the world has ever equalled.

No man was more incessant in his application, or fonder of his art, than Sir Robert Strange; nor could any publisher boast of more integrity as to his mode of delivering subscription-impressions. He never took off more proofs than were really bespoken, and every name was put upon the print as it came out of the press, unless it were faulty; and then it was destroyed,* not

* As Etchings and Proof impressions of Strange's plates are considered great rarities, I shall, for the information of

laid aside for future sale, as has been too much the practice with some of our late publishers. Impositions, I regret to say, amounting to fraud, have been recently exercised upon the liberal encouragers of the Art, by sordid publishers, who have taken hundreds of proofs more than were subscribed for, purposely to hoard them up for future profit. Nay, I am shocked, when I declare that some of our late print-publishers have actually had plates touched up after they have been worn out; and have taken the writing out, in order that impressions might be taken off, which they have most barefacedly published and sold as original proof impressions!

Sir Robert Strange was born in 1721, and died in 1792.

collectors, insert a list of those preserved in the British Museum:-The Offspring of Love, Etching and Proof; Fortune, Proof; Venus attired by the Graces, Etching; Cleopatra, Proof; Belisarius, Etchings; King Charles the First with his Horse, Etching and Proof; Queen Henrietta Maria, (its companion) Etching and Proof; Apotheosis of Prince Octavius, Etching and Proof.

VIVARES AND WOOLLETT.

I WELL remember Vivares: he was a little thin man, who usually wore a velvet cap, which was the custom in his time. He lived in Great Newport-street, in the house now No. 12. He was a beautiful etcher of trees, and was often assisted by Chatelain, a spirited picturesque etcher. Woollett was also a little man, and when I first saw him, lived in Green-street, Leicester-fields, in the house now No. 11.

Woollett's plates, particularly his early ones, are mostly engraved by himself; and I will relate an anecdote concerning him, which I received from the late Mr. Alderman Boydell, during the time he visited me, to notice the progress of my work, entitled " Antiquities of Westmin

ster," one of the most anxious and unfortunate tasks of my life.

The Alderman assured me, that when he himself commenced publishing, he etched small plates of landscapes, which he produced in sets of six, and sold for sixpence; and that, as there were very few print-shops at that time in London, he prevailed upon the sellers of children's toys, to allow his little books to be put in their windows. These shops he regularly visited

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