Mytems, but Horace Walpole is of opinion that it was painted by Paul Vansomer, a native of Antwerp, who came into this country in the reign of James the First, and who was deservedly esteemed as a very superior artist: he was accustomed to paint his whole-length figures on a mat. Mytems generally used a carpet, a distinction by which the respective works of these artists are presumed to be generally known. In my memorandums, made on a visit to Chatsworth some years ago, a notice occurs of a picture containing wholelength portraits of Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth, by Holbein, which I then thought a very masterly performance. It appeared to have been painted in distemper, in black and white, the hands and face heightened with a slight tinge of colour, like some of Edridge's pencil-portraits: the effect was powerful, and the natural ease and manly dignity of Henry the Eighth conveyed an excellent idea of that haughty and overbearing monarch. This painting has been removed to enrich the Duke of Devonshire's collection at Chiswick.-I have likewise noticed with a mark of approbation a full-length portrait of the first Duke of Rutland; which I have not observed on my late excursions to Chatsworth: it was painted by Closterman, a native of Osnaburgh, an artist who was liberally patronized by several noble families in the reign of Queen Anne. The large picture at Blenheim, in which the Duke of Marlborough on horseback is a conspicuous figure, is by this artist, who is reported to have had many disputes with the Duchess during its progress: one day the Duke observed to him, “It has given me more trouble to reconcile my wife and you than to fight a battle." Closterman was very successful in his profession, and might have lived in affluence, but for a foolish fondness for a young woman who kept his house; she, however, robbed him of a great part of his property, and fled the kingdom. The loss of his money and his mistress preyed upon his spirits, and soon brought him to the grave. He died at the age of fifty-seven. Sir James Thornhill, whose taste was evidently influenced by the works of Verrio and Laguerre, found ample employment for his pencil at Chatsworth: in the back staircase he has exhibited the Fall of Phaeton, and in the painted antichamber adjoining, he has represented on the ceiling, the Assembly of the Gods, in which he has successfully imitated the style and manner of his masters: his large picture of the Rape of the Sabine Women nearly covers one side of the M same apartment. By what fatality of blundering Sir James was directed when he composed and painted this picture, it is difficult to determine: how he, in so early a period of the history of Rome, found his dome-crowned palaces, rich-porticoed temples, and splendid amphitheatres, one can hardly imagine. This is a species of anachronism in which painters should not indulge; it distracts the mind between one period of time and another, gives a false feature to the interesting events of earlier ages, and destroys the locality of history. But Sir James was not at all times very nice in his ideas of propriety; he appears not to have hesitated long between what was admissible in historical composition and what incongruous; he decided in haste, and therefore he occasionally decided wrong. When he painted the large picture in Greenwich Hospital, which represents King William and Queen Mary, surrounded by the proper officers and personages of their court, he contrived to introduce himself, clad in a rich embroidered suit, and ornamented with a deep flowing periwig, like one of Sir Godfrey Kneller's portraits; where he occupies an important station in the groupe. In the architectural part of his picture of the Rape of the Sabine Women, there is some good painting, but the figures are indifferently drawn, and the tone of colouring is not pleasing. Perseus and Andromeda, a large painting which occupies a place in the anti-chamber to the Duke's dressing-room, is another of Sir James Thornhill's unsuccessful efforts: if in the figure of Andromeda he has embodied his idea of female beauty, but few artists, not even Rubens or Fuseli, less understood in what it consisted. game - the fish says, Chatsworth abounds with a great variety of exquisite carving in wood; the dead the flowers the shells and the minor ornaments by which they are accompanied have all the charm of excellence about them: the feathery appearance of the birds is inimitable. What Horace Walpole has observed, every man feels as he contemplates these beautiful productions. "There is no instance,” he "of a man before Gibbons who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with a free disorder, natural to each species." This is a high compliment, but those who visit this noble mansion will not regard it as overstrained. Davies, in his "View of Derbyshire," published about 1810, says that this eminent artist met his death by a fall from the scaffold, when employed in the chapel here: the accuracy of this ac GIBBONS. WATSON. 163 count is very doubtful. According to Walpole, whose authority is but rarely disputable, he died, August 3. 1721, at his house in Bow-Street, Covent-Garden, twelve or fourteen years after the principal part of the chapel at Chatsworth was finished, and I have understood that his finest work, and the most superb monument of his skill, which is at Petworth, in Sussex, was executed subsequently to the carving at Chatsworth. That the life of Gibbons was a life of industry, is evident from the many works he left behind him; some of which, said to be of great excellence, were unfortunately destroyed by fire at Chiswick. The foliage in the choir of St. Paul's the font in St. James's church- the chimneypieces, door-cases, and many of the picture-frames at Burleigh, are the work of Gibbons: in what he did at Chatsworth he was greatly assisted by others, and particularly by a native of Derbyshire, whom it would be injustice not to mention here. Mr. Samuel Watson, the grandfather of the present Mr. White Watson, of Bakewell, had no inconsiderable share both in the exterior and interior decorations of this noble mansion; and it is highly probable that many parts of that beautiful carving, which has excited the admiration of Horace Walpole, and all who have beheld it, were executed by this unremembered artist. The urns the medallions the coats of arms the wreaths and the roses that ornament the four fronts of Chatsworth — the military trophies in the court -and some of those exquisite specimens of carving in wood, which have hitherto been attributed solely to Gibbons, are either wholly, or in part, the workmanship of Watson. Studying under Gibbons, whose works were the constant object of his imitation, he attained great excellence in his profession, and was highly esteemed both for his integrity and talents. He was the friend and associate of Sir James Thornhill, who painted his portrait, which is now at Bakewell, and who regarded him as worthy of a regular correspondence when they were many miles apart. The very liberal prices he received for his works sufficiently evince the estimation in which he was held. In his papers, with a perusal of which I have been favoured, amongst many items of a similar nature, I noted the following: Carving in wood in the upper story of the west front, and in the lower dining-room in stone, Carving in stone in the stair-case £. s. d. 67 8 9 12 17 6 Work done in the altar-piece of the chapel - Bill for carving on the north side of Chatsworth Another bill for sundry carving, chiefly in wood, dated Bill, dated 1707, carving north front windows, medal- 69 12 0 Many other memorandums might be quoted from these papers, all tending to shew how liberally Mr. Samuel Watson was employed at Chatsworth, and how largely he contributed, by the exercise of his professional talents, to its decorations. He died at Heanor, in Derbyshire, of which he was a native, and was buried in the chancel of the church, where there is a richly-ornamented monument to his memory, which contains an inscription that refers to his works at Chatsworth: "Watson is gone, whose skilful art display'd, "View but his wond'rous works in Chatsworth hall, Another artist who contributed to embellish this residence of the Dukes of Devonshire, was Cibber, who, besides the altar in the chapel, executed the four marble statutes on the bridge -the two sphinxes on the pedestals in the front of the house -and a figure of Neptune that was formerly in the garden, but which I have not lately noticed. This work is said to have been a very fine production, and but little if any inferior to his celebrated figures of Melancholy and Madness before the front of Bedlam Hospital. Several door-cases at Chatsworth are by the same hand: they are made of the alabaster of the Peak of Derbyshire, and are richly ornamented with foliage and flowers, beautifully disposed and finely executed. This artist was a native of the duchy of Holstein, and the father of Colley Cibber, once poet-laureate, whose name is identified with the history of the English stage. SECTION XII. Reflections on leaving Chatsworth. - Projected Improvement of FREQUENTLY as I have visited Chatsworth-house, I have never left it without regret; yet it contains but few of those exquisite productions of the pencil which the mind naturally associates with such a mansion. The works of art that adorn the houses of the wealthy and the great are the best ornaments they possess; and though they cannot be regarded as exhibiting an equitable criterion, either of the riches or the taste of their possessors, they are honourable testimonies in their favour; they throw round their persons an additional lustre they give them a more exalted place in the estimation of society and invest their mansions with a higher character than that of mere dwellings. So enriched, they are the depositories of the works of genius-the honoured receptacles of the labour of ages that have passed away; and he who reverences the arts, has an abiding interest in the treasures they contain; he visits them with a chastened feeling, and treads even their precincts with veneration, for genius has hallowed the place that he proaches: contemplating their stores, he lives in other times he holds communion with those who were becomes an inmate of their minds - participates the sublime conceptions of Raphael, Titian, Poussin, Rubens, Salvator, and Claude, and he traces in their works the nature and the character of those energetic feelings by which they were embodied and produced. So precious is the deposit they contain ! ap Yet with all my enthusiasm for the productions of these men-however I may venerate their names—and with whatever portion of elevated feeling I may dwell on those periods in the history of the arts when they were produced, I cannot but regret that the works of British artists should so rarely |