George Romney

Front matter

By

ARTHUR B. CHAMBERLAIN

WITH 73 PLATES

Part Ii.— The Man And His Methods, . . . 245-279 Appendix I

The Children of John and Ann Romney, .... 381-385 APPENDIX II.—

Honora Sneyd and the ' Serena ' Pictures, .... 386-389

List of Modern Engravings after George Romney (compiled by vii

LIST OF PLATES

Frontispiece — Serena Reading.

Reproduced by permission of Major Thurlow.

FACINO PAGE i. Mrs. George Romney, the Artist's wife, ..... Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Shepherd Brothers.

ii. Richard Cumberland, ....... 5

From the Picture in the National Portrait Gallery.

Reproduced by permission of Lord Llangattock.

iv. William Hayley, ........ 15

Reproduced by permission of Mr. C. Fairfax Murray.

v. The Stafford Family (' Children Dancing in a Ring 1), . . . 24

Reproduced by permission of the Duke of Sutherland, K.G. From a Photograph by Messrs. E. Harrison and Son.

vi. The Marquis of Stafford, ....... 25

Reproduced by permission of the Duke of Sutherland, K.G. From a Photograph by Messrs. E. Harrison and Son.

vrr. The Countess of Carlisle, ....... 34

Reproduced by permission of the Duke of Sutherland, K.G. From a Photograph by Messrs. E. Harrison and Son.

viii. Lady Hamilton with a Dog, or ' Nature,1 . . . .35

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne.

ix. Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante, ...... 44

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne.

Reproduced by permission of Mr. T. L. Burrovves, of Stradone.

xi. George Romney, by himself, ...... 54

From the Picture in the National Portrait Gallery.

xii. Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Russell, and her Son Henry, . . .55

Reproduced by permission of Sir G. A. Charles Russell, Bt. From a Photograph by Mr. Emery Walker.

xin. Mrs. Thomas Raikes, ....... 66

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Charles J. YVertheimer.

xiv. The Ladies Caroline and Elizabeth Spencer (' Beauty and the Arts . 67 Reproduced by permission of Mr. Charles J. YVertheimer.

ix

FACING PAGE xv. The Shipwreck Scene from Shakespeare's ' Tempest," . . .74

Reproduced from the Engraving by Benjamin Smith in vol. i. of Boydell's ' Shakespeare/ from a copy kindly lent by Messrs. Henry Graves and Son, Ltd.

xvi. Mrs. Clements, .....

Reproduced by permission of Colonel Clements.

xvii. Shakespeare nursed by Comedy and Tragedy,

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne.

xviii. Madame de Genlis, .....

Reproduced by permission of Miss Courtenay.

xix. William Cowper, .....

From the Picture in the National Portrait Gallery.

xx. Lady Hamilton as Contemplation,

Reproduced by permission of Lieut. -Col. Sir Audley Neeld, Bt xxi. The Bosanquet Family, ....

Reproduced by permission of Major Bosanquet, Sherwood Foresters. From a Photograph kindly supplied by Mr. Eugene Cremetti.

75 84 85 94 95 104 xxii. Flaxman Modelling the Bust of Hayley, ...... 105

From the Picture in the National Portrait Gallery.

Reproduced by permission of Miss Emily Purvis.

xxiv. Miss Collingwood, ....... 115

Reproduced by permission of Miss Emily Purvis.

xxv. Master Collingwood, . . . . . .124

Reproduced by permission of Miss Emily Purvis.

xxvi. Mrs. Wilbraham Bootle with a Dog, .... 125

Reproduced by permission of the Earl of Lathom. From a Photograph by Mr. Harold Baker.

xxvn. Mrs. George Wilson and her Daughter, .... 134 Reproduced by permission of the Earl of Lathom. From a Photograph by Mr. Harold Baker.

xxvm. Mrs. Wilbraham Bootle, . . . . . .135

Reproduced by permission of the Earl of Lathom. From a Photograph by Mr. Harold Baker.

xxix. Mr. Wilbraham Bootle, ...... 146

Reproduced by permission of the Earl of Lathom. From a Photograph by Mr. Harold Baker.

xxx. Edward Wilbraham Bootle and Randle Bootle, . . .147

Reproduced by permission of the Earl of Lathom. From a Photograph by Mr. Harold Baker.

xxxi. Lady Hanmer, . . . . . . .156

Reproduced by permission of Lord Kenyon, K.C.V.O.

X

LIST OF PLATES

PLATE FACING PAGE

xxxii. Mrs. Jordan, . . . . . . .157

Reproduced by permission of Sir Cuthbert Quilter, Bt.

xxxin. The Countess of Clanricarde, ..... . 164

Reproduced by permission of Sir Hugh P. Lane.

xxxiv. Miss Ramus (afterwards Marquise de Noailles), . . . 165

Reproduced by permission of the Hon. W. F. D. Smith, M.P.

xxxv. Miss Benedetta Ramus (afterwards Lady Day), . . . 174

Reproduced by permission of the Hon. W. F. D. Smith, M.P.

xxxvi. Lady Augusta Murray, . . . . . .175

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Charles J. Wertheimer.

xxxvii. Mrs. Blanshard, ....... 184

Reproduced by permission of Mr. C. S. Pemberton.

xxxvin. George and Katherine Frances Cornewall, .... 185 Reproduced by permission of the late Rev. Sir George Henry Cornewall, Bt.

xxxix. Thomas John and Catherine Mary Clavering, . . .194

Reproduced by permission of the late Rev. J. W. Napier Clavering.

xi.. Master Thomas Wallace, . . . . . .195

Reproduced by permission of Mr. J. Hope Wallace.

xli. Miss Elizabeth Wallace, ...... 204

Reproduced by permission of Mr. J. Hope Wallace.

xlii. The Duchess of Gordon and her Son, the Marquis of Huntly, . 205

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Charles J. Wertheimer.

xliii. Mrs. Stratford Canning and her Daughter, .... 214 Reproduced by permission of Lord Leith of Fyvie. From a Photograph kindly supplied by Messrs. Vicars Brothers, the holders of the copyright.

xuv. Lady Hamilton as a Nun, . . . . . .215

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne.

xlv. Lady Hamilton (Unfinished Study), ..... 226 Reproduced by permission of Mr. F. C. Arkwright.

xlvi. Lady Hamilton as Euphrosyne (Unfinished Study), . . . 227

Reproduced by permission of Mr. G. Harland Peck.

xx.vii. Lady Hamilton 'as a Cliild , (Unfinished Study), . . . 234

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne.

xlviii. Elizabeth, Lady Forbes, ...... 235

Reproduced by permission of Sir Duncan Hay, Bart., of Haystoun.

xlix. Mrs. Robinson (' Perdita'), ...... 244

From the Picture in the Wallace Collection, Hertford House.

xi

PLATE FACING PAOE

l. Lady Katherine Poulett, . . . . . .245

Reproduced by permission of the late Hon. Harold Finch-Hatton.

li. Mrs. Lee Acton (Second Wife of Nathaniel Lee Acton), . . 254

Reproduced by permission of Lord De Saumarez. From a Photograph kindly supplied by Messrs. Colnaghi, Pall Mall East.

Reproduced by permission of Colonel Tremayne.

mi. Mrs. Josiah Wedgwood, ...... 264

Reproduced by permission of Miss Wedgwood.

liv. Mrs. Townley Ward, ....... 265

Reproduced by permission of Lord Aldenham.

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Charles J. Wertheimer.

lvi. The Margravine of Anspach, ..... 275

Reproduced by permission of Lady O'Hagan.

lvii. Sir William Lemon, of Carclew, ..... 284

Reproduced by permission of Colonel Tremayne.

lviii. John Oglander, D.D., ....... 285

Reproduced by permission of the Rev. W. A. Spooner, D.D., Warden of New College, Oxford. From a Photograph by Mr. Harold Baker.

lix. Berkeley and Keppel Craven, ...... 294

Reproduced by permission of Lady O'Hagan.

lx. Thomas Grove, of Feme, ...... 295

Reproduced by permission of Sir Walter Grove, Bart.

Reproduced by permission of the Hon. John Manners Yorke.

lxii. Miss Mary Johnson, ....... 307

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Charles J. Wertheimer.

lxiii. Boys in a Boat, Drifting out to Sea, . . . . . 350

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne.

lxiv. Cupid and Psyche, ....... 351

From the Cartoon in the Liverpool Royal Institution, No. 153. From a Photograph by Messrs. W. A. Mansell and Co.

lxv. Cupid and Psyche, ....... 354

From the Cartoon in the Liverpool Royal Institution, No. 154. From a Photograph by Messrs. W. A. Mansell and Co.

lxvi. Psyche and Venus, ....... 355

From the Cartoon in the Liverpool Royal Institution, No. 158. From a Photograph by Messrs. W. A. Mansell and Co.

LIST OF PLATES

PLATE FACING PAGE

lxvii. Eurydice fleeing from Aristaeus, ..... 358

From the Cartoon in the Liverpool Royal Institution, No. 150. From a Photograph by Messrs. W. A. Mansell and Co.

LXVIII. Orpheus and Eurydice, ...... 359

From the Cartoon in the Liverpool Royal Institution, No. 152. From a Photograph by Messrs. W. A. Mansell and Co.

lxix. Atossa's Dream, ....... 362

From the Cartoon in the Liverpool Royal Institution, No. 161. From a Photograph by Messrs. W. A. Mansell and Co.

lxx. The Infant Shakespeare nursed by Comedy and Tragedy, . . 363

From the Cartoon in the Liverpool Royal Institution, No. 165. From a Photograph by Messrs. W. A. Mansell and Co.

lxxi. Mrs. Thomas Pemberton, ...... 370

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Charles J. Wertheimer.

lxxii. Mrs. Tickell, ........ 371

Reproduced by permission of Mr. Alfred de Rothschild.

Xlll

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, Sir Walter. Article on Romney in the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' Vol. xux. 1897.

Colvin, Sidney, M.A. ' From Rigaud to Reynolds : Characteristics of French and English Painting in the Eighteenth Century. No. xm. George Romney.' The Portfolio, 1873.

Cumberland, Richard. ' Memoirs of Mr. George Romney.' The European Magazine,

Cunningham, Allan. ' The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters.' Revised

edition, 1879, edited by Mrs. Charles Heaton. 3 Vols. 'George Romney' (Vol. n.

Cust, Lionel, F.S.A. 'The Romney Exhibition at the Grafton Gallery.' Magazine of Art, August, 1900, pp. 449-452.

Fuseli, Henry, R.A. Article on Romney in Pilkington's ' Dictionary of Painters.' 1810.

Gamlin, Hilda. 'George Romney and his Art.' 1894.

Gower, Lord Ronald Sutherland. ' Romney and Lawrence.' ('The Great Artists'). 1882.

Gower, Lord Ronald Sutherland. ' George Romney.' 1904. Hayley, William. ' The Life of George Romney, Esq.' 1809.

Maxwell, Sir Herbert. ' George Romney.' (' The Makers of British Art '). 1902.

' Paston, George.' ' George Romney.' (' Little Books on Art.'). 1903. Phillips, Thomas, R.A. Article on Romney in Abraham Rees' ' Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature.' 1819.

Redgrave, Samuel and Richard. 'A Century of Painters of the English School.'

Redgrave, Samuel. ' A Dictionary of Artists of the English School.' 1874.

Roberts, W. Article on Romney in Bryan's ' Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.'

Vol. iv. 1904 Edition.

Romney, Rev. John. 'Memoirs of the Life and Works of George Romney.' 1830.

Ward, Humphry, and Roberts, W. ' Romney : a Biographical and Critical Essay, with

a Catalogue Raisonne of his Works.' 2 Vols. 1904. Wedmore, Frederick. ' George Romney ' in ' Studies in English Art,' Second Series.

xiv

BIBLIOGRAPHY

'Cumberland, Richard, Memoirs of, Written by Himself.' 1806.

Gilchrist, Alexander. ' Life of William Blake.' Second Edition. 2 Vols. 1880.

Jeaffreson, J. Cordy. 'The Queen of Naples and Lord Nelson.' Vol. r.

• Hayley, William, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of, together with Memoirs of Thomas Alphonso Hayley.' 1823.

Horne, Henry P. ' An Illustrated Catalogue of Engraved Portraits and Fancy Subjects painted by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., published between 1760 and 1820, and by George Romney, published between 1770 and 1830.' 1891.

Phillips, Claude. ' Sir Joshua Reynolds.' 1894. (Chap, vi.)

Russell, A. G. B. 'The Letters of William Blake, together with his Life by F. Tatham.' 1906.

'Seward, Anna, Letters of, written between the years 1784 and 1807.' 6 Vols. 1811.

Sichel, Walter. ' Emma, Lady Hamilton.' 1905.

Smith, J. T. ' Nollekens and his Times.' Second Edition. 1829.

Wright, Thomas. ' Life of William Cowper.' 1892.

The Gentleman s Magazine, December 1802 (Obituary Notice of Romney.) Black and White, June 2nd, 1894. (Description of Whitestock Hall and its Contents.) Catalogues of the Romney Exhibition in the Grafton Galleries, 1900 and 1900-1. Illustrated Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Eighteenth Century English Portraits held

in the City of Birmingham Art Gallery in 1900. Illustrated Catalogue of the Loan Collection of English Eighteenth Century Portraits held

in the City of Birmingham Art Gallery in 1903. Illustrated Catalogue of a Loan Collection of Historical Portraits (1714-1837) held at

Oxford, 1906.

XV

PART I: HIS LIFE I

GEORGE ROMNEY, who, from very humble beginnings, succeeded in working his way, with little aid except from his own natural gifts, into the front rank of the painters of his day, has suffered greater fluctuations of reputation from the fickleness of artistic fashion than any other artist of his period. It was not his fate to struggle through life unrecognised, fighting ineffectually against poverty and neglect, to be acclaimed as a genius only when the brush had finally dropped from his fingers ; nor, on the other hand, was he one of those happier beings whose fame remains undiminished long after they themselves have passed away. For some twenty years after his return from Italy in 1775 he divided the patronage of the town with Reynolds and Gainsborough, and, judging by the number of his sitters, was for a time the most popular painter in London, so that, with a scale of prices which appears absurdly low when compared with modern standards, he was yet able to make a large income.

In spite of this very complete recognition during his lifetime, he was forgotten almost as soon as he was dead, and before many years had passed his finest portraits were regarded with indifference, and were often pushed away into corners as of no account, to make room for fresher canvases by far less gifted men who happened to be the fashionable face-painters of a later day. This sudden and almost total eclipse of his reputation was owing, to some extent, to the fact that he never became a member of the Royal Academy, and did not send a single picture to its exhibitions ; and, indeed, never showed his work in public at all, except during the first few years after his removal to London, when his powers had not reached maturity. From this cause his great artistic capabilities were known only to those who went to him for their portraits ; and his sitters were drawn chiefly from the aristocracy and the higher ranks of society, while the pictures themselves were sent from his studio straight to the great country-mansions and houses for which they were intended, where few but the personal friends of the owners had opportunities of seeing them. To the general body of the public, who flocked to the Royal Academy exhibitions year after year, he was but a name, and even his name was soon forgotten.

Another reason for this quick forgetfulness is to be looked for in Romney's own character. He was unsociable in his habits, and very rarely mixed in general society. Unlike Reynolds, he had few intimate friends among men of commanding intellect, and was seldom a visitor at the tables of great people. In the published memoirs and diaries of his contemporaries, and of those of the succeeding generation, there is little mention of his pictures and even less of the man himself, whereas references to Reynolds and his portraits are met with constantly, and to Gainsborough almost as often. It is true that he had a zealous advocate in William Hayley, whose great and quite undeserved reputation as a poet gave him the ear of the public ; but Hay ley's opinions on art and literature, though received with acclamation by those who had no sound knowledge of such matters, were little considered by his more intellectual contemporaries, and after his death remained unread and were quickly forgotten ; so that the mutual admiration society which gathered round his hospitable hearth at Eartham, in which Romney was most at home, did little by its adulation for the future upholding of the painter's fame. Miss Seward was lavish in her praises when he painted her portrait; and more references to him are to be found in her Letters than in any other contemporary publication of the kind. Richard Cumberland, too, did him good service with his pen, and in a more public way, at a time when such recognition was of value to him ; but the only writer of outstanding genius in whose pages Romney's name occurs was William Cowper, who wrote the well-known sonnet, ' To George Romney, Esq.' immediately after sitting to him for his portrait at Hayley 's country house. These lines will live, but to-day Hayley 's fulsome inanities in verse are completely forgotten, except by those who are forced to hurry through them when engaged upon a study of Romney's life and art. Forgotten, too, are Richard Cumberland's laborious lines in his honour, 2

GROWTH OF HIS REPUTATION and Anna Seward's rhyming praises, and the more ponderous attempts of the still smaller poetic fry.

Fifty years after his death the few people who made it their business to write about such things had but faint praise to bestow upon his work. It was very rarely that one of his pictures was seen in public, though between the year 1817 and 1855 some twenty of them were exhibited at the British Institution. After that date examples of his art were shown there in much greater numbers ; as many as eleven were lent in 1862, and twenty-one in 1863, among them being some of his finest achievements. In the National Portrait Exhibitions, held at South Kensington in 1867 and 1868, thirty-six of his pictures were included, and nine had been shown some years previously at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. From the date of the first of the Winter Exhibitions of the Royal Academy, in 1871, Romney may be said to have come into his own kingdom again. In this first year only one of his pictures was on the walls, but it was the beautiful ' Mrs. Russell and Child,' which at once attracted the attention and pleased the fancy of the public ; and since that date full justice has been rendered by the Royal Academy to one who during his lifetime was ignored by most of its members. Since the seventies his reputation has increased by leaps and bounds, until now it stands higher than it did in the days when he was at work in his studio in Cavendish Square ; higher indeed than it deserves, if it is gauged by the extraordinary prices now paid for his finest, and often even for his most indifferent, efforts. The scant, almost contemptuous, consideration of fifty years ago has given place to an extravagant praise and an exaggerated estimation which attempts to accord him a higher place in the ranks of England's greatest painters than he has a right to fill. His pictures are now so eagerly sought after, and such great sums are paid for them in the auction-room, and still greater ones when they change hands by private treaty, that it has become impossible for any but the most wealthy to possess them. No English painter's works have increased so rapidly in value during the ' picture boom ' of recent years as his, and to-day hardly a month goes by without one of them changing ownership at some extraordinary figure.

When, in 1807, a few years after the painter's death, ' the select and reserved collection of portraits of the eminent and very celebrated artist' was put up for sale at Christie's, few connoisseurs, with the exception of one or two artists, showed any desire to make purchases, and most of the more important pictures were bought in, and were not seen again in the auction-room until the sale held after the death of Romney's son in 1834. For sixty years or so examples of his work rarely came under the hammer, and when they did they fetched very small prices. Early in the seventies, however, a keener appreciation began to be shown. In 1875, two pictures of Lady Hamilton as the 'Tragic Muse' and the 'Comic Muse,' from the late Marquis of Hertford's collection, realised 240 and 310 guineas respectively, and in the same year ' Lady Hamilton at the Spinning Wheel ' was acquired by the Earl of Normanton for 770 guineas, and the same lady as a ' Bacchante ' was knocked down for 200 guineas. The so-called ' Parson's Daughter,' now in the National Gallery, was bought at the Anderdon sale in 1879 for 250 guineas, and in the same year the well-known picture of ' Lady Hamilton as Ariadne,' in a sea-cave, only fetched 220 guineas. In 1884, a portrait of Mrs. Jordan, apparently the one now in the collection of Sir Cuthbert Quilter, was bought for £735. Prices had further advanced by 1890, when thirteen Romneys were offered at Christie's from the collection of Mr. Walter J. Long, of Preshaw, great-nephew of the surgeon who was one of Romney's most intimate friends. Among them the well-known full-length of ' Lady Hamilton as Circe ' produced 3850 guineas, and the ' Bashful Child,' 950 guineas. In the same year ' Lady Hamilton as Sensibility,' of which Hayley became the original possessor at a cost of only 100 guineas, was bought for 2900 guineas, and, at the Carwardine sale, 1050 guineas was given for ' Lady Hamilton as Contemplation,' and 1750 guineas for ' Mrs. Butler nee Carwardine.' Two years later 'Lady Augusta Murray, Duchess of Sussex,' a half-length, brought 3800 guineas, and a number of other examples were sold for what were then considered high prices. In 1895 from 1650 to 2000 guineas was no unusual figure for a good specimen, but all such amounts were entirely eclipsed in the following year, when, at one of Messrs. Robinson and Fisher's sales, the final bid for the famous ' Beauty and the Arts,' belonging to Lord Clifden, containing portraits of the owner's great-grandmother and her sister, Lady Clifden and Lady E. Spencer, daughters of the Duke of Marlborough, was the astonishing one of £11,025. In the same year the beautiful picture of the two little daughters of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, now in the Byers collection in America, realised 2550 guineas, and a number of other canvases surpassed that amount. 4

PLATE I

.MRS. GEORGE RO.MNEV

BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. SHE I' HERD BROS.

PLATE II

RICHARD CUMBERLAND

IN THE NATIONAL 1'ORTKAIT GALLERY

Fages jq, JJ2

MARKET PRICES OF HIS WORKS

During the past ten years these prices have often been more than doubled at auctions, and trebled and even quadrupled in more private transactions, whenever collectors with long purses are determined to have a fine set of fair women from Romney's brush regardless of all considerations of cost. At the Duke of Cambridge's sale in 1904, the half-length of ' H. R. H. Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester,' which, painted in 1791, was left on the artist's hands unpaid for, and some years later sold by John Romney to Sir William Beechey for 20 guineas, was purchased for £4305. There is no need to multiply instances ; more than enough of them have been given to show with what extraordinary rapidity Romney's portraits have risen again in public favour, and to what great lengths rival collectors will go, so that to-day it causes no surprise when an exceptionally fine example reaches a sum of five figures before the eager amateur of his works is able to possess himself of it. Under these conditions it is small wonder that many owners of Romney's pictures have not hesitated to imitate Charles Surface in knocking down their ancestors to the highest bidder. Such a temptation must often prove to be irresistible ; and so from more than one old country-house the family portraits have discreetly vanished to find a second home in one of the more modern mansions of the aristocracy of wealth. However much one may regret this gradual breaking up of many of the private collections of England, and the spiriting away of masterpieces to America, such a course on the part of those who possess works so eagerly sought after, and so extravagantly valued, is not surprising, for the inducement held out is, undoubtedly, one of the strongest nature.

In this way Romney, who, while he lived, was one of the most popular portrait-painters of his day, and, for years after his death one of the least considered, has been placed in recent years on so high a pinnacle, that the great and outstanding abilities upon which his claim to a place in the ranks of great painters must rest are in danger of again suffering total or at least partial eclipse ; for the lovers of good painting, exasperated by the exaggerated reputation he holds in the markets, and irritated by injudicious and uncritical praise, and this fierce fight for the possession of rows of pretty faces, show an inclination to go to the other extreme. Already a tendency to over-emphasise the painter's faults at the expense of the many fine qualities which are to be found in his work, shows itself in their criticisms ; and in this way the pendulum may swing again, and just as violently, in the opposite direction. It should be the business, then, of the earnest student to make an attempt to find Romney's true and permanent position both with regard to his contemporaries and to his successors, without, on the one hand, too careful a consideration of his present value in the money market, or too easy a surrender of the judgment before the extraordinary charm and captivating sweetness of his sympathetic renderings of womanly beauty and youthful grace ; and on the other hand, without being influenced unduly by the pronouncements of those who would relegate him to a quite minor position in the school of English painting, as one whose work lacks many of the higher qualities of art, and only pleases by the dexterity of its handling, and its power of expressing a delightful though superficial convention of prettiness, devoid of any real insight into character, and clothed in only an empty elegance.

II

GEORGE ROMNEY'S great-grandfather was a 'statesman,' or yeoman proprietor, in the village of Colby, near Appleby, and his small estate was inherited by his son George, the artist's grandfather. The latter left W estmorland at an early age, owing to the disturbed condition of that district during the years of the Civil War, and, after a short period spent in Lancaster, moved across the sandy estuary of Morecambe Bay, and settled down for life in the peninsula known as Furness. He came of a good, sturdy stock, and had reached the ripe age of sixty before he married, but lived to rear a family of twelve and to see his own grandchildren before dying at ninety-six. His younger brother, William, venturing further from home, went with the army of King William into Ireland, where he fought at the battle of the Boyne, eventually settling near Cork, as steward to Lord Inchiquin. Either he or one of his descendants married a member of the Inchiquin family, and Romneys may still be encountered in that part of the world. Other branches of the family remained in Westmorland, and the name is to day not uncommon in that county, and the adjacent ones of Cumberland and Lancashire. The customary spelling of it was Rumney, and the artist himself was the first to alter it permanently to Romney. In signing the indenture which apprenticed him to Christopher Steele in 1755 he still used the older form, and in 1763, the year in which he first exhibited in London, with the Free Society of Artists, his name is given in the catalogue as Rumney.

Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his book on the artist, adopts the theory of Mr. A. W. Rumney, of Millfell, in Watermillock, Cumberland, that the name is derived from ' Romany,' and that all the Romneys or Rumneys are descended from gipsies, who flourished in the border counties in the old days, attracted thither, among other reasons, by the facilities the district offered of escaping from justice, which was pitiless where vagrants and ' Egyptians ' were concerned, by the simple device of striking tents and slipping into Scotland or back into England as occasion necessitated. Some of these gipsies would settle down in course of time to more reputable pursuits as ordinary villagers or small landowners, and would at first be known to their neighbours as Romanys, until in the end it became their recognised surname. There may be some truth in this theory. Certainly the name is far from uncommon on the border, and in more than one case can be traced back through several centuries. The ancestors of Mr. Rumney, who suggests this derivation, have owned the Millfell estate for more than three hundred years, but are in no way connected with the family of the artist.

On the other hand, the painter's great-grandson, Mr. Lawrence Romney, has little faith in the ' gipsy ' theory, though undoubtedly many members of the family have possessed the wandering, restless spirit of that race. The name lias always been pronounced as though spelt with the ' u,' in contradistinction to the ' o ' sound in ' Romany.' A certain number of people of Celtic origin have always existed in that part of England, and it is, therefore, more likely that the Romney family, more than one member of which has been, while others still are, decidedly Celtic in appearance and disposition, is of such descent. But however this may be, the family must be regarded as one of only comparatively lowly origin. Dwellers in the south have little knowledge of how fine a class as a whole is that of the Westmorland 4 statesman,' and the Romneys were no exception to the rule ; indeed, it is only necessary to examine the existing portraits of the painter's brothers, and to read such of their letters as remain in the possession of their descendants, to see that they came of a family of more than ordinary gifts.

The painter's father, John Romney, a native of Dalton-in-Furness, was by trade a carpenter, joiner and cabinetmaker, who by his own exertions had built up by degrees a business of some importance. He was a man of unusual ability, with considerable practical knowledge of architecture and' engineering, and a taste for drawing ; so that he not only designed and made furniture, but on occasion acted as architect, and carried out the internal decoration in some of the more important houses in the district. He had, too, some skill in mechanics, and constructed all the engines which were used for pumping out the water which from time to time flooded the neighbouring iron mines. Like Gainsborough's brother John, he was a born 'schemer,' with the difference that his inventions were of real service, whereas John Gainsborough's devices resulted in little else but the wasting of money. Some at least of John Romney's inventions were of practical use, so 8