without his running the risk of a prosecution for high treason. That Mrs. Strange would not accept letters of half liberty is indicated in the following extract from one of her characteristic epistles:

"London, May 17, 1773.

"MY DEAR ANDREW- It is very flattering to us to be took notice of by great folks at a time when Virtue is so little in fation, for indeed we have nothing else to recommend us to them. Your sweet obligeon disposition will soon convince them that they have made a proper, if not a valuable choice. . . . . I have not yet heard of your letter of liberty. Col. Masterton says it is lying in Lord North's office, and he is sure you will be safe to come here. But I say we must have better security than that. Whatever I learn you shall know without loss of time. ... When will you write me of a pregnancy: on that I depend; it's my last stake! Thank God, we are all well, only now and then I take low spirits. As my good friend Lady Clackmanan says, 'O! my dear, send me something to raise my spirits in these bad times.' Remember me to the good Principle [Gordon], and all our honest friends.

"I ever am, my dear Andrew, your afft. sister,

"Honest friends,'

says Mr. Dennistoun in his Life," "in Mrs. Strange's vocabulary were of course true Jacobites, and the 'pregnancy for which she longed was that of Charles Edward's consort."

Andrew Lumisden was not made "safe" to live in England till 1778; and then his full pardon is said to have been obtained as a reward for his zeal and judgment in executing a commission entrusted to him through Lord Hillsborough, to purchase for George the Third some rare books at a great sale in Paris. Strange himself pursued his art with enthusiasm, though he was often absent from home, as of old. His lady wrote on one occasion to him: "We are again in want of an upper maid; the one we had said the place did not suit her, so in three weeks she trotted off; in four days after she came she gave warning. Curse them all!"

Strange is said to have incurred the displeasure of George the Third, by declining to engrave a portrait of George the Second. Another version is that he declined to engrave one of the new sovereign by Allan Ramsay. Whichever it was, politics had nothing to do with it. The engraver's excuse was that the original painting was so bad no engraving from it could be creditably executed, and George the Third himself is reported to have agreed with Strange. Be all this as it may, Strange, in 1787, when at the head of his profession, made his peace with the Court by engraving West's picture of the apotheosis of the King's children, Octavius and Alfred. Mrs. Strange herself can best tell the story and the consequences of her husband's work. It is narrated in a letter to her son Robert.

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"Jan. 13, 1787.

Your dear father has been employed in engraving a most beautiful picture painted by Mr. West, which he liked so much that he was desirous to make a print from it. The picture was painted for his Majesty: it represented two of the royal children who died. The composition is an angel in the clouds; the first child sitting by the angel, and the other, a most sweet youth, looking up; there are two cherubs in the top, and a view of Windsor at the bottom. This print was lately finished, and Friday the 5th currt. was appointed for your father's presenting some proofs of it to his Majesty. He went with them to the Queen's house, and had a most gracious reception. His Majesty was very much pleased. After saying many most flattering things, [he] said, 'Mr. Strange, I have another favor to ask of you.' Your father was attentive, and his Majesty, It is that you will attend the levee on Wednesday or Friday, that I may confer on you the honour of knighthood.' His Majesty left the room, but coming quickly back, said, 'I'm going immediately to St. James's, if you'll follow me I will do it now; the sooner the better; so calling one of the pages, gave him orders to conduct Mr. Strange to St. James's, where, kneeling down, he rose up SIR ROBERT STRANGE. This honour to our family I hope is a very good omen. I hope it will be a spur to our children, and show them to what virtue and industry may bring them. My dear Bob, I hope you will equally share in our virtues as you do our honours; honours and virtue ought never to part. Few familys have ever had a more sure or credetable foundation than ours: may laurels flourish on all your heads!"

In some of the biographical dictionaries we read that Strange, after he had taken a few copies of the apotheosis, destroyed the plate by cutting out the principal figure, which, after being gilt, was presented to his Majesty.

It will be interesting to know what Strange thought of himself. This may be learnt, and also some idea of the honour in which he was held abroad, by referring to the most celebrated of his publications, A Collection of Historical Prints engraved from Pictures by the most Celebrated Painters of the Roman, Florentine, Lombard, Venetian, and other Schools; with descriptive Remarks on the same; by Sir Robert Strange, Member of the Royal Academy of Painting at Paris, of the Academies of Rome, Florence and Bologna, and Professor of the Royal Academy at Parma.' In the dedication to the King, we get again into an autobiographical sketch. "Sire," says the new Knight,

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some of the earlier essays of the following work were published under the patronage of your august mother, H.R.H. the late Princess of Wales. It has been continued under that of your Majesty, whose auspicious encouragement has been so long experienced in every department. To that progress of the Fine Arts which has distinguished your Majesty's reign, the Author presumes to flatter himself that he has contributed his share, and now enjoys proportionate happiness, at being permitted to lay at your Majesty's feet such monument as he has been able to raise of his labours."

Then the old Jacobite who had fought at Culloden and offered to

make bank notes to support an insurrection against the House of Hanover, adds:

"That Heaven may preserve a life so justly dear to all your people, allowing you to remain long an Arbiter of Taste, and exalted patron of every liberal Art, is, in common with millions, the sincere and ardent prayer of, Sire,

"Your Majesty's most dutiful and devoted subject and servant, "ROBERT STRANGE."

A scrap of the autobiographical detail, conveying information of how the author worked and of his ways in general, is to be found in the 'Introduction,' in which he tells us that the artist whose works the collection comprehends

"commenced the study of his profession at a period when the Art of Historical Engraving had in this country made so little progress, that he even flatters himself with being the father of it. .. His labours from time

to time [he says] had some share, he hopes, in contributing to form the growing taste of the nation, and in exciting among his countrymen an emulation unknown before in this important branch of the Arts. The advantages he had received in the earlier part of his education laid the foundation, and perhaps qualified him, for that enlarged pursuit of his profession which he had laid down to himself.

"The merit of the engraver principally consists in preserving the character of his original." [After praising bygone engravers of various nations, he says:] "What he has peculiarly endeavoured is to preserve the character of the painter after whom he engraved; nor has he, in that variety of which engraving is susceptible, failed in some sort to distinguish the different objects which he had to represent, whether the human flesh, sky, linen, silk, gauze, velvet, or other accessories,-an improvement in the Art to which engravers in general have but little attended. This variety throughout his works the Author attributes in a great measure to his knowledge of an instrument commonly called the dry needle, which, if not peculiar to himself, he may at least assume the merit of possessing in a degree superior to any of his contemporaries. To his late ingenious friend Le Bas, by whom it was introduced in France, he owes his first knowledge of it; but for the degree of perfection that it has attained in his hands he is indebted to his own exertions. . . . . The whole publication consists but of about fourscore copies of choice and selected impressions of each print, forming so many volumes, which the Author had carefully preserved of all he had engraved, and which have, from length of time, acquired a peculiar beauty, mellowness, and brilliancy that is easier seen than described. From his earliest establishment in life he preserved such a series, with a view of giving them to the public, at a period when length of years should disable him from adding to their number. That period being now arrived, the publication of these prints. . . . terminates his labours; nor can he be charged with vanity, if in the eve of a life, consumed in the study of the Arts, he indulges the pride to think that he may, by this monument of his works, secure to his name, while engraving shall last, the praise of having contributed to its credit and advancement."

Some of the plates thus collected for publication enable us to follow the engraver's change of residence in London. On his 'Magdalen,'

from Guido, we read: "Sold by the author, next door to Parliament Street Coffee House, Westminster, London, according to Act of Parliament. 1753." On the Sappho,' from Carlo Dolci, is inscribed "Robt. Strange, Florentinæ, del 1764, atque anno 1787 ære incidit, Londini." Of the 'St. John in the Desart' (sic) from Murillo, Strange says: "This is the last work to which I put my hand as an artist. I confess it in some measure inspired me, and I leave it, with its companions, among the most successful examples here given of treating in a proper manner what belongs to the human form." These engravings have been sold at very high prices, but modern science has enabled them to be reproduced at very reasonable prices, and this has been effected in a folio volume lately published by Richard Bentley and Son, which is one of the most remarkable productions of the season. This splendid volume has for title, 'Masterpieces of Sir Robert Strange: a Selection of Twenty of his most important Engravings, reproduced in permanent Photography. With a Memoir of Sir Robert Strange, including portions of his Autobiography, by Francis Woodward.' In this selection from the masterpieces, which are so eagerly collected by connoisseurs, the effects of the painters are admirably preserved, and every line of Strange's engraving is as admirably reproduced. Among them is the medallion portrait of Strange, from Greuze, and the group from Vandyke of the three children of Charles the First-the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Princess Mary-which is the last plate announced as "sold at the Golden Head, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, A.D. 1787."

Thus, in the year in which Strange was created a knight, he showed the world how worthy he was of the honour. The world soon lost him. He died in 1791; his widow survived till 1806. Mr. Dennistoun tells us, on the authority of Dr. Munro, of the contemptuous energy with which the old Jacobite Lady Strange, with a licence of language then indulged by Scottish gentlewomen in moments of excitement, reproved some one who in her presence applied to Charles Edward the term in which he was usually designated by all except his "friends"-" Pretender! and be d-d to you!"

When Robert Strange was only six years old, that is to say, in the year 1727, there died an engraver whose epitaph, in the churchyard of Northenden, Cheshire, runs thus: "Here lieth the body of Henry Hough, of Etchells, in Northenden parish, famous throughout the kingdom for his skill in the art of engraving, in which he has not left his equal. He lived admired and died lamented, upon the 30th of December, Anno Dom. 1727, ætatis suæ, 55." This now unknown engraver died when George Vertue, who is better remembered, was employed on his first great work, published in 1730, "Twelve Heads of Poets," prized by collectors. John Boydell (1719-1804), not successful as an engraver, yet became a lord mayor. It was

Dalton who brought Bartolozzi to England, where the latter completed his beautiful engravings from Guercino. This Florentine, seven years younger than Strange, was noted for his graceful designs of opera tickets for the benefit of the leading Italian singers. Strange rashly said he could do nothing else; and Bartolozzi thereupon produced his Clytie' and Virgin and Child,' from Carlo Dolci; but he lost ground by adopting the red dotted or chalk style, introduced by Ryland. Ryland (1732-82) was a clever engraver, but not equal to Bartolozzi, and he was still farther from Strange and Woollett.

The dignity of artist was not loftily held by some of the craft, who made appeals to the public that were in very bad taste. For example, Ryland, who was not only an engraver but a miniature painter of a certain repute, was jealous of the better fortune of perhaps better endowed artists. Accordingly he advertised in 1775 that he "paints likenesses for bracelets or rings, one guinea," and he added: "As a proof of a good picture, Mr. Ryland desires his company to bring their fine ten guinea pictures with them, and compare before they take them away." If it be said that Ryland was not an eminent painter, the same remark does not apply to a modest and suffering gentleman who probably never did anything with more pathos, humour, and picturesqueness than in an advertisement of this year, 1775, in which he intimated that "an artist of note" wanted the loan of five or six guineas, "to extricate him out of some difficulty. Address B. C., facing the Burying-ground, at a broker's shop, Drury Lane." It is like a bit out of Smollett; and other samples might be quoted; as, for instance, in the case of another artist of this time, Van Drazower, who, announcing himself as "artist in the most polite art of engraving," proposes to teach the nobility and gentry, "not to engrave, but to paint the most beautiful colours in the brightest colours on silks," &c. Colour on colour is bad heraldry, and the advertiser does not appear to have been fortunate. Artists of wayward humours had a tendency to desert the path in which they might have excelled. If Ryland had stuck to legitimate engraving he would not have been hanged for forgery.

Long before the time when Van Drazower offered to teach the nobility and gentry one branch of painting, an attempt had been made to stimulate them to artistic exertion by means of rewards. As early as 1767, the Society of Arts, "to encourage art among the nobility," offered gold and silver medals for the best original drawings executed by young gentlemen or ladies, under twenty years of age, and who were the sons and daughters of peers and peeresses in their own right. For young or noble scions under eighteen there were less valuable prizes; and general candidates were offered such medals as persons of their degree, showing ability above it, could expect. It