Punch (86.1884)

January 26, 1884,]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI

“ill, Mister!” “Well, what is it?” “I say, are you going to give us a Pantomine this Year or not? It

WER]J MAIN GOOD LAST YEAR ! ”

“Pantomime! What do you mean?” “Mean? Why, don’t you belong to the Circus Chaps as is just gone on
ahead there ?” [ The Circus has preceded him on the road.

“ENGLISH AS SHE IS WROTE"

In Bond Street.

Should anyone find himself, on one of these gloomy January
afternoons, wandering in rather low spirits among the excellent col-
lection of the great Sir Joshua’s Works now on view at the Grosvenor
Gallery, let him take heart, and turn to the Catalogue. Whether it
is that Mr. F. G. Stephens, the accomplished Gentleman who has
contributed the historical and ‘ ‘ illustrative ” Notes to that publication,
has either had a special eye to brightening up a melancholy half-
hour or so, or has been in a great hurry over the correction of his
proofs, it is difficult to say ; but the fact remains, that in the letter-
press for which he is responsible he has provided some very subtle
conundrums. In his commentary on No. 5, a three-quarter length
portrait of Sir Joshua himself in his Academic dress, he insinu-
ates that there is something so speaking about the likeness of
the President, that the very attire in which he is arrayed, is posi-
tively communicative. “The Fed Gown,” he says, alluding to Sir
Joshua’s trappings, “ refers to Reynolds’s costume of D.C.L.,”
though he does not explain in what terms the official robe expresses

It is to be hoped, however, it conveys its meaning a little more
lucidly than does Mr. Stephens himself, continuing his allusion to
the picture, a few lines further on. Sic.

“ A version, in a similar costume, of this picture are in the Florence
Gallery of celebrated painters’ portraits, presented by Sir Joshua to be placed
in the great collection of portraits there, on his admission to the Academy
there. The Duke of Rutland has a third picture in a similar costume.

“ This portrait was exhibited at the British Institution in 1813, when the
governors of that society formed their first collection of pictures by old and
deceased modern masters, and inaugurated the series with a body of the works
: of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 143 in all, which, until the present exhibition was
formed, was the most numerous aggregate of the kind. It was not included
W the next considerable collection of Reynoldses, that which was made at
the British Institution in 1823. It was in the same place in 1843.”

Passing by “ old and deceased modern masters,” who, by the way,
must have been a rather ghastly set of celebrities, Mr. Stephens
scores again over No. 42, described as u A Negro, said to be Frank
Barber, Dr. Johnson’s black servantthus:—

“ It was he who received Miss Morris, who sat for ‘ Hope nursing Love,'
by Reynolds, when she called on the Doctor, and, finding him on the point
of death, heard his last words when he turned his face to the wall, saying,
‘ God bless you, my dear ! ’ ”

This is very quaintly confusing, though perhaps less so than
another reference to the Doctor, made under picture 119 further on,
which runs as follows :—

‘i In Boswell’s account of his tour with Dr. Johnson in the Hebrides,
1773, i's, with much other matter concerning the Earl, an interesting notice
of a visit to Slains Castle, Aberdeen, and the reception of his friends by the
Earl of Erroll and his Countess (Isabella, bora Carr of Etal,
Northumberland) in that ancient feudal residence, with particular reference
to this painting, which hung in the drawing-room when the pair went there
to take coffee after dinner.”

Here Mr. Stephens is almost at his best. How can “ 1773, with
much other matter concerning the Earl,” be an interesting notice of
a visit to Slains Castle ? This is a regular poser. Who, too, are
“ the pair ” F The Earl of Enroll and his Countess Isabella ? or
the Earl and one of his anonymous friends ? or the ancient feudal
residence and the painting ? But, then—“ Coffee after dinner ” F It
is really a most pleasing enigma !

But lack of space prevents a further quotation from this excellent
and playful Catalogue. Those, however, who desire to see a speci-
men of artistic English, “as she can be wrote”—should lose no
time in purchasing a copy ; for, as the words “ Under Revision ” are
printed on the cover, and Mr. F. G. Stephens’s name is followed by
the encouraging legend, “In Progress,” it is reasonable to assume
that a revised edition is already on its way.

To Turtle-Mockers.

Ardent reformers who speak disrespectfully of the Lord Mayor,
and say rude things concerning the Corporation, talk somewhat
rashly of “ making a clean sweep” of all the fine old Civic institu-
tions. “ Making a clean sweep ” is somewhat analogous to washin
a blackamoor white—a proverbially difficult operation, and notorious!
unsatisfactory when accomplished.

A Starring Socialist.—The Georgium Siaus,