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1825.]

Paintings, &c. at Hampton Court, Herefordshire.

Five large old paintings of Hampton Court.

The Battle of Aghrim in Ireland, fought when Ear! Coningsby was Lord Justice of Ireland.

An original portrait of Henry VII.
Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV.
and wife of Henry VII.
Henry IV. of France.
Queen Elizabeth.
Lady Jane Grey.

Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord
Deputy of Ireland, Preceptor to Mary
Queen of Scots, and father to Phillipa
wife of Sir Thos. Coningsby (ob. 1599).

Anne (dau. of Sir William, and sister to Sir Henry Sidney, knt.), wife to Sir William Fitzwilliam, represented with her right hand on a scull, covered with an inscription in very small characters, probably some moral reflections; her left caressing a favourite cat. A scull, said to be the original of the painted one, is preserved and exhibited, and also what is called the helmet of Henry the Fourth, founder of the seat, but from the style of its ornaments, evidently of the later period of James I. The helmet is of polished steel, inlayed with gold orna

ments.

Barbara, daughter of Ferdinando Gorges, of Eye, co. Hereford, esq. first wife of Lord Coningsby, from whom he was divorced. (Of the Gorges, there are some very curious particulars in Lord Coningsby's Case of the Five Hundreds, &c.;_folio.)

Sir Thomas Southwell, bart. (ob. 1720) who married Meliora, eldest daughter of Earl Coningsby by his first wife; half length.

Meliora, Lady Southwell (ob. 1735-6); half-length.

A small coloured figure of Thomas Coningsby, esq. son of Earl C. by his first wife, modelled in his lifetime by his own order, and preserved in a case. This Thomas is reported to have been deficient in his intellects. His Lordship had six children by his first Lady.

Lady Frances Jones, daughter and co-heiress of Richard, Earl of Ranelagh, and second wife to Earl Coningsby (ob. 1714-15); whole length.

The same lady, by Kneller, at the age of 21.

Richard Earl of Cork, great-grandfather to both Lord and Lady Coningsby (ob. 1643).

The Viscountess Ranelagh, daughter of Richard Earl of Cork, and grand

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mother to Lady Coningsby (ob. 1691).

Earl Coningsby in his park, with Greyhounds, and view of his mansion in the distance. Kneller.

Sir Charles Porter, joint Commissioner with Earl Coningsby in Ireland, during 1690, and the two following years. Copy from Kneller.

Sir William Robinson, knt. Deputy to Earl Coningsby when Vice Treasurer of Ireland. By Kneller.

Mr. Lowndes, Secretary of the Treasury.

Thomas Williams, a pleasant Fool, belonging to his Lordship, who died an. 1687.

Elizabeth Norbury, cousin-german to Earl Coningsby.

Mrs. Harford, cousin; by her father.

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, K. B. (ob. 1759); half length.

Frances Countess of Essex, mother to the present Earl, daughter of Sir Charles H. Williams and Lady Frances Coningsby (ob. 1759); half length.

In a passage window are three coats of arms of the Coningsby's in stained glass, dated 1614, 1613, 1614, marked T. R.

In the Library is shewn a bloody handkerchief, which Collins in his Peerage thus notices :

"Thomas Coningsby, esq. (afterwards created Earl) being at the battle of the Boyne in Ireland, was so near his Majesty King William the Third, that when the bullet rising aslant on the King's right shoulder took out a piece of his coat, and tore the skin and flesh, Mr. Coningsby immediately had the presence of mind to clap his handkerchief on the place."

Visitors are likewise shewn a handsome fowling-piece, which Earl Coningsby caused to be made from the blades of swords taken from the Rebels at the same battle; on the barrel of which the following is inscribed:

In seventeen hundred and twenty one
I in the Tower became a Gun;
Earl Coningsby, a prisoner there,
Bespoke and took me to his care,
And fit I am for Loyal Lords,
Made of the blades of rebels' swords;
Fit for the noble Earl whose crime
Was speaking Truth in South-sea time.
Traitors, beware, when I'm enlarged,
When he or I shall be discharg'd-
For this my first and true report
Pray use me well at Hampton Court.
A description of the seat I think

unnecessary,

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Paintings, &c. at Hampton Court, Herefordshire.

unnecessary, as it has already been frequently described; but was induced to send you the above lines in consequence of their having been erroneously copied in some Topographical Works.

The singular speech, so profuse in eaths and ungentlemanlike expressions, mentioned by your correspondent J. A. is preserved in Cole's MSS. (Brit. Mus. vol. xli.); and another curious affair respecting a Coningsby, preserved in a letter in vol. xxi. of the saine collection.

A CONSTANT SUBSCRIBER.

In addition to the List here concluded, we annex an account of some paintings which may have escaped our Constant Reader's observations, but were preserved in the curious mansion of Hampton Court, as appears from a list taken by Mr. F. Harris of Leominster, about twenty-five years ago, with which we have been favoured by Our correspondent J. A. As the Hampton Court estate in Herefordshire has passed by purchase from the present Earl of Essex (George Capel Coningsby) to Richard Arkwright, esq. great changes may have taken place in the disposal of the pictures, and the notice of the following paintings is therefore given, as they were originally placed there, not as they may be now. Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. Vandyke.

The Earl of Essex. Lawrence. The Countess of Essex. Lawrence. Major Basset, father of the present Countess of Essex.

The Countess of Kildare, eldest daughter to the Earl of Ranelagh, and sister to the Lady Coningsby.

Edward IV.

William III. 1700; three quarter length, Kneller.

William III.; whole length. Kneller.

Queen Mary, wife of William III. Kneller.

Fitzwilliam Coningsby, grandfather to Earl Coningsby.

Cecilia Neville, daughter to Henry Lord Abergavenny, by Lady Mary Sackville, wife to Fitzwilliam Coningsby; whole length.

Lady Lisburne, second wife of Lord Lisburne, brother to Earl Coningsby's mother; three quarter length. Kneller.

Sir Arthur Loftus, grandfather to Earl Coningsby by his inother's side; three quarter length.

[July,

Earl Coningsby, 1709; whole length. Kneller.

Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, cousin-german to Earl Coningsby, by his mother; three quarter length.

Anne Sidney, Lady Fitzwilliam. Lady Margaret Cecil, daughter to the Earl of Salisbury, second wife to Earl Ranelagh (said to have been the handsomest woman in England, of her time); whole length,

Elizabeth Countess of Ranelagh, daughter to Lord Willoughby, and mother to Lady Coningsby.

Richard Earl of Ranelagh, father to the second wife of Earl Coningsby. Lady Margaret Cecil; half length.

Lady Coningsby, and Lady Catherine Jones, twin daughters of Richard Earl of Ranelagh by his first wife; whole length; with a black boy kneeling and presenting a basket of flowers.

Lady Margaret Coningsby, eldest daughter of Earl Coningsby, 1750; half length. Ramsay.

Lady Frances Coningsby, youngest daughter of Earl Coningsby.

Lady Coningsby, first wife of Earl Coningsby.

Duke of Marlborough, ætat. 60; three quarters length. Kneller.

General Gwinkle, Earl of Athlone, commanding in Ireland when Earl Coningsby was there; three quarter length.

Two daughters of Earl Coningsby, by his first wife.

Lady Elizabeth Felton, wife of Sir Thomas Felton, daughter to the Earl of Suffolk. Kneller.

James II.

Richard Talbot, Lord Tyrconnel. An Old Man, æt. 87, 1704. Henry IV. on horseback; a very large picture.

Old Paintings of Wolf and Poultry -Peacock and Fowls Fruit and Flowers Bear Hunting-Wolf Hunting-Old unknown Family Portraits, originals and several copies in crayons, &c,

As we consider accurate accounts of old family Pictures, connected with noble houses, interesting matter for our pages of record, we should be glad to receive a list of the curious pictures for many years preserved in the ancient. sea tof the Scudamores, at Home Lacy, Herefordshire, now in the possession of very distant branches of the family.

1625.]

Painted Glass at Bardwell Church, Suffolk.

Since the death of the late Charles Duke of Norfolk, who married into the Scudamore's house, without issue, the paintings, as we have been informed, are dispersed. EDIT.

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MR. P. Sydney has, I think, sug

gested the right answer to my query (pt. i. p. 482), respecting the coat of arms in a window of Bardwell Church, Suffolk, and this opinion is strengthened by the fact that the cross Tau was not borne by all the branches of the Drury family.

The figure in question is not that of Sir William de Berdewell, nor has any part of it been repaired except the head, which was lost, and has been replaced by a modern one. It represents a man kneeling, his hands joined in the attitude of prayer; he is habited in a guipon adorned with the armorial bearings as stated before, and richly diapered; his arms are covered by sleeves of chain mail with black cuffs studded with yellow, and plate gauntlets upon his hands. The original form of the helmet was conical, as appeared by its profile remaining in the antient lead-work of the window. A short sword or dagger, with a curiouslyformed hilt, is suspended before him from a broad ornamented belt passing round his hips. The other parts of the armour are similar to that hereafter described, but without any gilding; his white spurs are buckled on in the modern fashion. A triangular shield of the arms before described is placed over his head. This shield is painted upon a single piece of glass, and therefore no confusion of colours can have arisen from the ignorance or carelessness of workmen. In the opposite light of the window is the figure of a lady kneeling, dressed in a short kind of jacket, with a train of dark purple, and a very richly-ornamented white and yellow under-garment; her headdress consists of a coif or veil of white with a yellow border. Above her head is a helmet supported by a ragged staff mantled Orand Ermine, and bearing for a crest a mullet of six points Or. These two figures are set in a very rich ground-work of yellow and blue.

The effigy of Sir William de Berdewell still remains in another window in a very tolerable state of preservation, but some small parts having been lost, are now supplied from the mutilated

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remains of other figures of the same kind, with which the windows of this church were once richly ornamented. He is represented kneeling upon a stool; his head bare, and surrounded by a chaplet of small circular orna, ments; he wears a long beard and

mustachoes; his guipon is ornamented

with circles inclosing cinquefoils coloured yellow, and its skirt is deeply indented in the form of leaves. His limbs are completely cased in plate armour, except at the bend of the elbows and knees, the heel, and lower part of the foot, which parts are defended by mail only; the elbow and knee-caps are of very simple construction, fluted and gilt; his spurs, which are yellow, have the shank beat at an abrupt curve, and inserted into two staples or rings fixed to each heel; his left hand is elevated and open, whilst his right supports a spear. A small triangular shield hangs from his neck by a narrow strap, bearing, Gules, a goat salient Arg. armed and unguled Or. A very long and broad sword depends from a highly-ornamented girdle; and his helmet, the greater part of which is now lost, appears at his side. Above this figure is a shield of the arms of Berdewell as before, surmounted by the helmet and crest, viz. on a wreath a goat's head couped Ar. armed Or; opposite to which, in the other light of the window, is a similar shield, helmet and crest of Pakenham, quartering, Or and Gules, in the first an eagle displayed Argent, [it should be Vert, another instance of the omission of that colour.] Sir William married Isabel de Pakenham, whose effigy probably completed the paintings in the window I am now describing, but of which no trace remains.

All the figures here described were originally ornamented by small pieces of glass, of various colours and forms, cemented to the surface of the plain glass; but the cement used has not been able to preserve them to the present time. Upon a careful examination of the two defective shields, it is very evident they were never so ornamented; and the only supposition that remains is, that the artist who executed these pictures was incapable of producing a green.

A coloured print of Sir William's figure was published in 1805, by William Fowler, of Winterton, Lincolnshire.

The

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Mr. URBAN,

J. B.

July 10.

[July,

letter notoriety, every sweet and scarce
phenomenon-in short, that at any
time appears in the mighty waters of
our public auctions, in the preserves
and lakes of private repositories, in the
ponds and wells of bookish individuals,
or in the Billingsgate market of our
grand trade-sales-all, all, Mr. Urban,
Hoat under the notice of Mr. T.'s cog-
nitive eye, and the feel of his masterly
hand, and sooner or later get struck by
his harpoons, inclosed in his nets, and
towed off in triumph by his boats.
Ecce signum! Sir, as Falstaff
says.
The moment I had read over the choice
lucubration in your book, page 424,

SI have amused myself for up- AN UNFLEDGED BibliomaAwards of thirty years in spending signed snatched up my wig, hat,

time and money at Book Auctions, it cannot be doubtful to your reflecting readers whether I may not have enjoyed many a delightiul opportunity 66 to see and to be seen," to run up and to run down an article of rare or of common occurrence, and to experience in all its glory the pride, pomp, and

circumstance of occasional resolute

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gloves, and cane, and purse, and started away for Bedford-street. "As sure as T. knows all about these female cua gun," I mentally ejaculated, "Mr. Mr. T.'s Catalogue for 1820, No. 7919, riosities." And I was right, Sir. In lay sly and snug one of the resplendent charmers, yclept "La Nef des Folles posés selon l'Evangille de Monseigneur selon les cinq Sens de Nature, comSaint Mathieu des cinq vierges qui ne prindent point d'uylle avecques eulx pour mettre en leurs lampus." Alas! title was there, sure enough; but the and alack-a-day! friend Sylvanus, the prize was sold for something under ten pounds principal money! Still, oh!

brave!

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Primo ablato, non defuit alter

Aureus."

competition. Aye, Sir, "When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of Of course I cannot but have noticed for the last twelve years the Buonapartean rapidity of progress made by Mr. Thorpe, now of Bedford-street, Covent Garden, whose bibliomaniacal prowess is recorded in terms of deserved eulogy in your excellent publication for May, pp. 423, 424. With your shrewd correspondent NEPOS 1 willingly join in bearing witness to Mr. T.'s ardour of research, patience The Nef was sack'd and gone : of pursuit, skill of examination, and Still brilliant on the shelf Jodocus Badius liberality of purchase. By these arts men live and thrive, batten and fatten, on the spolia opima of recondite literature. In the year of our Lord 1814, Mr. T. was slim and slender; in the year 1825, behold the hero of Waterloo sales sleek, stout, and solid; classical language, Hor. Sat. 11. 7. 1. 86. "Fortis, et in seipso totus teres atque rotundus ;' i. e. saus phrase, in our plain vernacular idiom, round and sound.

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The hard-earned renown ensures the general success of Mr. T. The feather which adorns supports his flight; and bold indeed must be the champion who shall contend with this veteran Archaiopolist, when he throws down the gauntlet in act to buy or barter. Hence comes it that every admired article of literary vertù, every loose fish of black

shone!"

Yes, my dear Urban, yes! In this very right hand, wherewith I now adtickle, and sport with that beautiful dress you, did I hold, and fondle, and little golden fish of matchless fame, feræ Naviculæ, seu Scapha Fatuarum styled Mulierum, circa sensus quinque exteriores fraude navigantium. Αι length, impatient to pessess the lovely paragon of "daintie device," I looked up wistfully into Mr. T.'s smiling physiognomy, and with gentle mien and accent bland asked the good man a certain requisite question, preliminary to rapturous purchase and undisputed possession. The work contains twentyfour leaves, somewhat broader and handsomer than the soft Sibylline effusions in which Dr. Eady's merits

"Jodoci Badii Ascensii Stulti

are

1825.]

Pedagogic Liberality.-Fly Leaves.

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July 20. HE curious epistle, which I here present to you for insertion in your respectable Miscellany, was actually and seriously written to a friend in town, by the master of an Academy about eight miles from London. As a notable specimen of pedagogic liberality, I think it worth preserving; though I forbear to mention the writer's

name.

I likewise, for a very obvious reason, forbear to sign my own, which, however, as well as my hand-writing, is sufficiently known to you.

"Mr. **** presents his compliments to Mr. ****. He should consider it as a great favour, if he could help him to a person perfectly conversant in the Greek language, who could come to **** for three hours either upon the Thursday or Saturday afternoon, to teach a young Gentleman to read Demosthenes, Thucydides, and Herodotus, so as he may obtain, not only a perfect knowledge of those Authors, but also a critical knowledge of that language. Mr. **** will have no objection to the giving a person, well qualified, six shillings each time, his dinner, and tea, provided he can come exactly at two o'clock, and give three clear hours for study after."

Here, Mr. Urban, is liberality with a witness! " The well-qualified" scholar, possessing a perfect knowledge" of the principal Greek authors,

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and "a critical knowledge" of their
language, is to be generously remune-
rated with about four pence half-penny
a mile of a tiresome walk; coaching
being wholly out of the question, and
the additional "three clear hours" of
study being given into the bargain-
gratuitously given-unless we admit
the dinner and tea to be an equivalent!
From such liberality good Lord deliver
Yours, &c. A. B.
P. S. Lest conjecture should apply
these remarks to a wrong person, I
think it proper to observe, that the
letter was written several years since;

us!

23

and I do not know whether the writer
be now alive.
A. B.

Mr. URBAN, West Square, July 6. N" Pepys's Memoirs" lately pub.

of Charles the Second's queen, who is stated to have used, to the king, the coarse vulgar phrase, “You lie."

Now, to any Englishman who has not resided many years in France, and been in habits of constant and familiar intercourse with the natives, such an expression would very probably appear an unpardonable instance of vulgarity and rudeness: whereas a person practically acquainted with the phraseology of familiar French conversation, will readily acquit her Majesty of the disgraceful imputation, as he can hardly be ignorant, that, in such conversation, the phrase, "Vous mentez (accompanied with the appropriate tone and look) is occasionally used, to signify neither more nor less than, simply,

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You are joking" and I have myself (during a residence of several years in France) often heard it used in that sense. The queen, therefore, (who is represented as understanding little very English) may well be excused for her unlucky literal translation of "Vous mentez," where no offence was intended, and none was taken.

I would not, however, be understood to assert, that “ Vous mentez” is not, in general, equally offensive as the English phrase. I only mean that it is sometimes inoffensive in particular

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J. CAREY.

FLY LEAVES. No. XXVII. [From a Correspondent.] HERE is literally an article which

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should have a place among your

Fly Leaves;" for it is actually a portion of some interesting manuscript which a ruthless bookbinder has converted to that purpose, or rather used to line the inside of the covers of "Howel's Instructions for Forreine Travell, 1642."

The late Mr. Gilchrist, in his Memoir of Bishop Corbet prefixed to his Poems, has guessed, from the omission of the name of his beloved wife Alicia in the prelate's will, that he outlived her, but had no other means of ascerThis fragment puts taining the fact. it out of doubt.

Dignis

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