DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0416
390
OLD WORLD MASTERS
a regular service of “flying waggons,” always going back and forth
from his warehouses in Broad Street, Bath, to the White Swan at
Holborn Bridge, London. Wiltshire was elected Mayor of Bath in
1772 and gave a great entertainment at the Town Hall to the gentry
and fashionables, giving thereby “much offense to the people in
trade” who were not invited. Some idea of the speed of these “fly-
ing waggons” may be had from Gainsborough’s letter to Garrick
relative to the delivery of the latter’s portrait:
“The picture is to go to London by the Wiltshire fly-waggon on
Wednesday next and I believe will arrive by Saturday morning.”
John Wiltshire, who came of a good old family that had attained
the rank of squires, lived in a fine mansion at Shockerwick near Bath,
which had belonged to his father. This was quite a place of rendez-
vous for the notable personages who visited Bath. “There,” it was
said, “Anstey had a beech tree, Gainsborough an elm, and Quin an
arm-chair, while Fielding, Allen, and their hospitable host, Wiltshire,
enjoyed the shades of its sylvan glades.”
Wiltshire was so devoted to Gainsborough and such an admirer of
his paintings that he would never allow him to pay any bills for
“carrying.” Yet he delivered all of Gainsborough’s finished pictures.
After a time, upon Gainsborough’s insisting, Wiltshire replied: “When
you think I have carried to the value of a little painting, I beg you will
let me have one, sir; and I shall be more than paid.”
By degrees Wiltshire thus acquired his small, but very choice, col-
lection of Gainsboroughs, which was sold at Shockerwick in 1867.
The Harvest Waggon was one of these; and the way the picture
came to be painted was this. On one occasion Gainsborough asked
Wiltshire to lend him a horse for a model. The generous Wiltshire
saddled and bridled one of his horses and sent it to Gainsborough
for a present. Gainsborough painted this horse and made, as Fulcher
says, “a remarkably fine study of this animal.” Gainsborough now
returned the compliment. He painted The Harvest Waggon and sent it
to Wiltshire as a present. Wiltshire was overjoyed, for here was his
own waggon; here were his own horses; and here were the artist’s
own daughters!
OLD WORLD MASTERS
a regular service of “flying waggons,” always going back and forth
from his warehouses in Broad Street, Bath, to the White Swan at
Holborn Bridge, London. Wiltshire was elected Mayor of Bath in
1772 and gave a great entertainment at the Town Hall to the gentry
and fashionables, giving thereby “much offense to the people in
trade” who were not invited. Some idea of the speed of these “fly-
ing waggons” may be had from Gainsborough’s letter to Garrick
relative to the delivery of the latter’s portrait:
“The picture is to go to London by the Wiltshire fly-waggon on
Wednesday next and I believe will arrive by Saturday morning.”
John Wiltshire, who came of a good old family that had attained
the rank of squires, lived in a fine mansion at Shockerwick near Bath,
which had belonged to his father. This was quite a place of rendez-
vous for the notable personages who visited Bath. “There,” it was
said, “Anstey had a beech tree, Gainsborough an elm, and Quin an
arm-chair, while Fielding, Allen, and their hospitable host, Wiltshire,
enjoyed the shades of its sylvan glades.”
Wiltshire was so devoted to Gainsborough and such an admirer of
his paintings that he would never allow him to pay any bills for
“carrying.” Yet he delivered all of Gainsborough’s finished pictures.
After a time, upon Gainsborough’s insisting, Wiltshire replied: “When
you think I have carried to the value of a little painting, I beg you will
let me have one, sir; and I shall be more than paid.”
By degrees Wiltshire thus acquired his small, but very choice, col-
lection of Gainsboroughs, which was sold at Shockerwick in 1867.
The Harvest Waggon was one of these; and the way the picture
came to be painted was this. On one occasion Gainsborough asked
Wiltshire to lend him a horse for a model. The generous Wiltshire
saddled and bridled one of his horses and sent it to Gainsborough
for a present. Gainsborough painted this horse and made, as Fulcher
says, “a remarkably fine study of this animal.” Gainsborough now
returned the compliment. He painted The Harvest Waggon and sent it
to Wiltshire as a present. Wiltshire was overjoyed, for here was his
own waggon; here were his own horses; and here were the artist’s
own daughters!