xxxii
LIFE OF VAN DYCK.
gent manner; but though thus hurried, they are never
devoid of that elegance and grace which give a charm
to all his female portraits, nor deficient in that gentle-
manly air and style which is no less attractive in those
of the other sex.
By Maria Ruthven, his wife, he had one daughter,
who was afterwards married to Mr. Stepney, a gentle-
man belonging to a regiment of Horse Guards, then
first established by Charles II.; by this marriage there
was issue one son, who was a merchant grocer, and the
father of George Stepney, the poet, born in 1663. He
was envoy to several courts, and is also known as the
author of a little collection of poems, published among
the works of the minor poets*. Sir John Stepney,
another descendant, died in 1748. Lady Van Dyck,
the widow, was afterwards married to Richard Pryse,
son of Sir John Pryse, of Newton Aberbecham, in
* It is somewhat surprising that Johnson, in his Lives of the
Poets, takes no notice of George Stepney being the great grandson
of Van Dyck. He merely observes that, “ of his father’s condition,
“ I have no account. Having received the first part of his educa-
“ tion at Westminster, where he passed six years in the college, he
“ went at nineteen to Cambridge, where he continued a friendship,
“ began at school, with Mr. Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax ;
“ they came to London together, and are said to have been invited
“ into public life by the Duke of Dorset.”— Vide Johnson’s Lives os
the Poets.
“ It has been conjectured that our poet was son or grandson of
“ Charles, third son of Sir John Stepney, the first baronet of that
“ family.”-—-See Grainger’s History, Vol. II., p. 396, edit. 8, 1775.
Mr. Cole says the poet’s father was a grocer.—Cole’s Manuscripts
in the British Museum.
LIFE OF VAN DYCK.
gent manner; but though thus hurried, they are never
devoid of that elegance and grace which give a charm
to all his female portraits, nor deficient in that gentle-
manly air and style which is no less attractive in those
of the other sex.
By Maria Ruthven, his wife, he had one daughter,
who was afterwards married to Mr. Stepney, a gentle-
man belonging to a regiment of Horse Guards, then
first established by Charles II.; by this marriage there
was issue one son, who was a merchant grocer, and the
father of George Stepney, the poet, born in 1663. He
was envoy to several courts, and is also known as the
author of a little collection of poems, published among
the works of the minor poets*. Sir John Stepney,
another descendant, died in 1748. Lady Van Dyck,
the widow, was afterwards married to Richard Pryse,
son of Sir John Pryse, of Newton Aberbecham, in
* It is somewhat surprising that Johnson, in his Lives of the
Poets, takes no notice of George Stepney being the great grandson
of Van Dyck. He merely observes that, “ of his father’s condition,
“ I have no account. Having received the first part of his educa-
“ tion at Westminster, where he passed six years in the college, he
“ went at nineteen to Cambridge, where he continued a friendship,
“ began at school, with Mr. Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax ;
“ they came to London together, and are said to have been invited
“ into public life by the Duke of Dorset.”— Vide Johnson’s Lives os
the Poets.
“ It has been conjectured that our poet was son or grandson of
“ Charles, third son of Sir John Stepney, the first baronet of that
“ family.”-—-See Grainger’s History, Vol. II., p. 396, edit. 8, 1775.
Mr. Cole says the poet’s father was a grocer.—Cole’s Manuscripts
in the British Museum.