And what about the copper of Tam o' Shanter, and Stothard's head of "Tam"? Where are they, and was From a Pencil Sketch by T. H. Cromek, the Water-colour Artist. any use ever made of them? The author of the Cromek Memoirs cannot help us greatly. He says: "There are several portions of this letter which require elucidation. I regret I can throw but little light upon them. In the first place, I have never been able to ascertain the precise object my father had in view when he engaged Mr Stothard to make all these drawings for him. I can only imagine that he contemplated the publication of a very complete series of illustrations to Burns's works, but which, from reasons unknown to me, was never brought out. From his allusion to the one plate of Tam o' Shanter, it is evident that the set of twelve illustrations, published at a later period, was then in progress." In a letter from Cromek to Bewick, dated December 20th, 1809, alluding to Stothard, he says: "He remained nine weeks in Scotland, and I was there thirteen." Stothard arrived in Scotland on July 7th, and in the letter postmarked London, August 7th, we have seen how much he accomplished in something less than a month. This suggests a proportion sum: if he did so much (specified) in a month, how much more (not specified) must he have done in nine weeks? From an incidental reference in a letter from Cromek to Davies, his publisher, which, though not noted in the Life of Cromek, is included in the Earnock MSS., we gather that their itinerary included the Highlands. Coming back to our Cromek volume, we are all ears to the Wakefield artist when he tells us : 66 "Now with regard to the portraits: I had very frequent opportunities of seeing them almost daily, in the years 1833-34. They were all very highly finished pencil drawings, the heads being about 2 inches long; and at these periods they were in the possession of a very near relative of my father's, between whom and my mother an estrangement of many years had existed. I These drawings, and various other things, once belonging to my father, were withdrawn from his widow; and thus I had been deprived, most unjustly, of what was mine by inheritance. will only add, that through my persuasion, based solely on selfish grounds on my part, a reconciliation took place, and by dint of clever manœuvring, I managed to obtain from my relative many interesting and valuable articles which had formerly been in my father's possession. The Portraits alluded to above I never could persuade her to give me ; where they are now, after her death and that of her husband, I know not, neither have I at present any means of ascertaining." Obviously the "very near relative was Cromek's sister Ann. Fortunately for our hopes of following this master-clue, Ann did not marry a "nobody." Her husband was John Black, editor of The Morning Chronicle, who retired in 1843, sold his books in 1844, and died at Snodland, near Maidstone, on June 15th, 1855. Ann was ten years older than Black, and probably pre-deceased him. The Stothard drawings do not figure in Black's Book Sale Catalogue, and the question is, Were they in Black's possession-and if so, what happened to them when he died in the cottage of his benefactor, Walter Coulson? Black was a friend of James Gray of the Edinburgh High School, a friend of the Poet, who taught his children in Dumfries. Two long letters from Gray to Cromek figure in the Memoir. One vital quotation must suffice. Cromek wrote confidently: "As for Jean, I do not doubt of her." But in a letter dated 19th March, 1810, Gray writes: "I saw Gilbert Burns a few days ago. sorry to learn that Jean had refused to sit to Stothard. He said he thought she owed this to Cadell & Davies; and had he suspected it, he would have written to her on the subject." He was Though the writer of the Cromek Memoir says he could not ascertain why his father engaged Stothard to make these drawings, surely the fact that Gilbert Burns thought that Bonnie Jean owed it to Cadell & Davies to sit to Stothard is a sufficient indication that the publishers were behind Cromek's scheme, and to some extent, if not altogether, responsible for the ambitious tour; but why the illustrations actually used were restricted to twelve, and why the sketches of the Burns folk, including that "most delicate sample of Human Nature," the Poet's mother, never emerged at all, is a mystery which needs elucidation. Further on in the MS. there is a letter from Roscoe to Cromek, dated 24th October, 1811, one sentence of which strengthens the idea that the "key" lies in the archives of Cadell & Davies, and implies that even at that date, the precise use to be made of the sketches, and the scope and extent of the projected publication, had not yet been defined. Roscoe queries: "Have you yet adjusted your plans with Cadell & Davies for the Illustrations of the Bard.'"? Possibly the fact that Cromek died soon after, in March, 1812 (at forty years of age-not forty-five as given in the Burns Calendar), nearly two years before the issue of the volume of illustrations, may have some bearing on the mystery. Cromek may have magnified his mission, or Cadell & Davies may have "lost notion," and whittled down the "grand object" of the tour, the engraver's demise and preceding ill-health being factors, facilitating the emasculation of "the undertaking." So far the sketches have not eventuated. DAVIDSON COOK. By courtesy of "The Bookman," to whom we are also indebted for the blocks illustrating the article. |