The life of David Roberts, R.A. : compiled from his journals and other sources

Prefatory Note

In an invaluable manuscript volume left by Mr. Roberts, which contains pen-and-ink sketches of almost all his pic¬ tures, he says:—

‘ I have jotted down from time to time the chief incidents connected with my career as an artist, thinking it might be interesting to my dear daughter Christine, and instructive to her children, to know something of the difficulties I have had to encounter and overcome. Should she and her husband, Henry Bicknell, in whose judgment 1 have the most implicit confidence, think that these jottings may be in any way useful to young artists who may be similarly situated with me, they are wel¬ come to publish such portions as may seem best adapted to servo such a purpose.’

These ‘ jottings,’ together with many other memoranda, journals, and letters, having been put into my hands, and feeling sure that they will be instructive and interesting to all who can appreciate sterling worth and genius, I have throughout, as far as possible, given the story of his life in the words of the artist, convinced that its simplicity and power would have been marred by any attempt at in¬ terpolation or digression.

PREFATORY NOTE.

viii

I have gratefully to acknowledge the loan of many im¬ portant letters addressed by Roberts to his early and much-attached friend D. R. Hay, who, by a singular coincidence, died while these sheets were passing through the press. I am also indebted to Messrs. Dawson, Macniven, Nasmyth, and Hunter for similar contributions ; and to E. W. Cooke, R.A., for the drawing of the house in which Roberts was born.

JAMES BALLANTINE.

DAVID ROBERTS was elected—

Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy (founded 1826), February 27, 1829. Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, November 5, 1838.

Member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, September 26, 1841.

Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Antwerp, September 6, 1853.

Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Amsterdam, February 14, 1855.

Honorary Member of the Society of Belgian Artists, Brussels, July 1, 1862.

Honorary Member of the Academy of Philadelphia, U.S., March 9, 1863.

One of the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

He received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh, September 21, 1858.

Chapter I. 1796-1821

Parentage—Boyhood—Schooling—Early love of Drawing—Apprenticeship— First Framed Picture—Engaged Foreman House-decorator—First Attempts at Scene-painting—Engagement with a Company of Strolling Players; Carlisle ; Newcastle ; York—Returns to House-painting—Engaged as Scene-

painter at Edinburgh Pantheon; Theatre Royal, Glasgow—Marriage_

Engagement with Mr. Murray, Theatre Royal, Edinburgh—First Oil-painting exhibited .....

Page

1-20

Chapter II. 1822-1832

First efforts in Cobourg Theatre, London—Engagement at Drury Lane— Admitted Member of Suffolk Street Gallery—First Pictures exhibited in London—Visits Dieppe, Rouen, and Havre de Grace—First Commission from Lord Northwick—Engagement at Covent Garden—Royal Scottish Academy —Numerous Pictures, among others the ‘ Israelites leaving Egypt ’—Elected President of the Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street—Becomes Member of the Garrick Club—Etchings of Monastic Antiquities of Scotland . 21-41

Chapter III. 1832-1833

Tour in Spain : Bordeaux—Madrid—Cordova—Granada—Seville—Gibraltar—

Malaga—Tangiers—Paints two large Pictures : ‘ Interior of Seville Cathedral, with the Ceremony of Corpus Christi,’ and the * Giralda,’ a Moorish Tower 42-68

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. 1834-1838

Paoe

Exhibitions at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and Suffolk Street Gallery—Drawings for Book Illustrations—Designs for Scott Monument— Numerous Paintings of French and Spanish Subjects—Drawings for Land¬ scape Annual of 1836—Retires from Suffolk Street Society—Large Picture of ‘ Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella at Granada ’—Visit to the Old Abbeys and Monasteries of England—Publication of Picturesque Views in Spain—

Pictures of ‘ St. Paul’s,’ the ‘ Alhambra,’ and others .... 69-79

Chapter X. 1843-1852

Visit to Brittany and Normandy—St. Malo—Dinan—St. Lo—Mount St. Michael —Granville—Bayeux—Caen.—Completion of Drawings for the Holy Land —Death of his Mother—Visit to Belgium—Pictures of the ‘ Temple of Karnak ’ and ‘ Jerusalem from the South-east,’ and numerous others— Drawings from his Sketches in Egypt and Syria, and for Scotland Delineated —Large Picture of ‘ Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus ’—Completion of Egypt and Syria, 1849—Tour through Italy, 1851—Crystal Palace Picture —Picture of ‘ Cathedral of St. Stephen's, Vienna’.155-174

Chapter XI. 1853-1857

Large Picture of ‘ Venice’—Tour to Rome—Picture of ‘ Interior of St. Peter’s ’—

Returns to London—Various Pictures—Presentation of Large Picture of ‘ Rome ’ to the Scottish Academy—Pictures of ‘ Tyre ’ and ‘ Sidon ’ Ap¬ pointed a Member of Committee to decide on the Designs for the War and Foreign Offices in London—Residence at Isle of Wight .... 175-190

Chapter XII. 1858-1859

Visit to Scotland with Mr. Stanfield—Freedom of the City conferred by Town- Council of Edinburgh—Stanfield and Roberts entertained at Dinner by the Royal Scottish Academy—At a Meeting of the Royal Academy carried a Resolution that the Pensions to Academicians, Associates, and others, be taken into consideration, with a view to their being increased—Numerous Important Paintings—Interest in Roslin Chapel

d

191-202 xii CONTENTS.

Chapter XIII. 1860-1864

Pack

Conclusion—Series of Pictures of ‘ London from the Thames,’ etc. etc.—Visit to Belgium—Art Congress at Antwerp—Visits to Scotland and Isle of Wight—Death, 25th November 1864 ....... 203-229

Appendix

Historical and Descriptive Jottings in connection with Etchings . . .241-246

List of Pictures painted by Roberts; where and when they were exhibited; and Prices at which they were sold

247-255

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Portrait of David Roberts, R.A.

After Picture by Sir John Watson Gordon, R.A., P.R.S.A., engraved by Thomas Oldham Barlow.

Roberts’ Birthplace . Page 1

From a Drawing by E. W. Cooke, R.A.

ETCHINGS.

Falkland Palace.

Ruins of St. Andrew’s Cathedral.

Ruins of the Monastery of Black Friars, St. Andrews.

Chancel of the Cathedral, Iona.

Near the Great Altar, St. Mary’s Church, Iona.

Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfriesshire.

Sweetheart Abbey, Dumfriesshire.

Melrose Abbey.

Leuchars Church.

FACSIMILES OF ROUGH PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES OF PICTURES

FROM MR. ROBERTS’ JOURNAL.

'AGE

First Pictures, 1821 (three Sketches) New Abbey, and Melrose

XIV

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

taoe

Antwerp Cathedral.41

Court of the Lions, Alhambra.72

Old Houses, Granada.72

Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella, Granada.75

Portico of the Great Temple at Baalbec.143

Portico of the Great Temple at Dendera.144

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives . . . . . . . 144

Interior of the Chapel of St. Helena.147

Ruins of the Temple of Kom Ombo.147

Descent to the Crypt, Roslin Chapel.154

Cathedral of St. Stephen, Vienna.174

Venice.175

Rome, from the Convent of St. Onofrio.182

Ruins of PzESTUM (two Sketches).184

Tyre.188

Sidon.189

Venice.190

Edinburgh from the Calton Hill.191

Interior of the Church of St. Mark at Venice.199

Fete-Day at St. Peter’s.203

St. Paul’s from Waterloo Bridge.208

The Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Bridge . . . . 208

Temple of the Sun, Baalbec.209

These facsimiles are printed from blocks produced by Mr. Ramage of Edinburgh, through a photo¬ graphic process discovered by him, and are more perfect counterparts of the originals than could have been procured by any other method.

House at Stockbridoe, Edinburgh, where David Roberts was born 24th Out. 1796.

Chapter I

Y parents moved in a very humble sphere of life, but by unwearied industry and frugality maintained and educated their family. My father, who was the second son of a small farmer near Forfar, and by trade a shoemaker, married and settled in the village of Stoekbridge, near Edinburgh, where I was born, the first of five children, on the 24th October 1796. Three of these children, a sister and two brothers, died when very young, and within a short time of each other, and the heavy expenses at¬ tending their illness and death caused my dear father to work with a heavy heart almost unceasingly day and night. My mother also was very industrious; and although we were very poor, my beloved parents never asked or received eleemosynary assistance.

The villagers were almost all equally poor. There were three or four shops kept by old women, and the men generally were engaged

E

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

in out-door occupations, such as masons, carpenters, quarrymen, and carters—a somewhat primitive, and, as my poor mother used to say, * a godless race.’ My parents, 011 the contrary, were strictly religious, and on the Sabbath-days our family turned out regularly to church, tidily and well dressed. My schooling cost but little, some threepence or fourpence a-week being paid to an old dame in the village, more to keep me out of the way of being run over by carts or drowned in the Water of Leith, than for anything she could or would teach me. At eight years of age I was sent to a school in Edinburgh, where, like other boys at that period, I was very cruelly treated, often getting the skin flayed off my legs and fingers. This gave me a dislike to the school, and on expressing my determination to leave, it was resolved that I should be apprenticed to a trade. Long previous to this, how¬ ever, I had acquired an intense love of pictures, although those which came in my way were of the humblest description, consisting of half¬ penny picture-books, such as ‘ The Life and Death of Cock Robin,’

‘ Little Red Riding Hood,’ and similar productions. Panoramas and collections of wild beasts were frequently exhibited on the Earthen Mound, the site of the Royal Scottish Academy’s Exhibition; and the outsides of the wooden structures and caravans were generally decorated with representations of their contents, painted on cloth. These were sources of great attraction to me, and 1 was wont, on going home, to attempt to give my mother an idea of what they were by scratches on the whitewashed kitchen-wall, made with the end of a burned stick and a bit of keel,* which representations she obliterated by whitewash whenever her curiosity had been satisfied.!

My aptitude for copying whatever attracted my attention in¬ creased, and I began to imitate such pictures or engravings as I could

* A kind of red chalk.

t In connection with this description, and as an illustration of its graphic fidelity,

I give the following anecdote, related to me by an octogenarian still alive :—

This gentleman employed Roberts’ father to make and mend his shoes, and 011 calling one day he found the side of the wall covered with representations of lions, tigers, etc., done with red keel and charcoal on the wall, so boldly and truly delineated, that his attention and admiration were both excited, and he inquired of Mrs. Roberts who was the artist. 1 Hoot!’ said the honest woman, ‘it’s our laddie Davie; he’s

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

procure. A lady, whom I recollect with profound respect and gratitude, took a deep interest in me, and gave me drawings to copy, after which she showed my productions to Grahame, then the Master of the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, with a view to my becoming an artist-pupil there. Grahame, however, took the correct view of the case, and gave judicious advice, saying, that as the parents of the boy were poor, he had best be apprenticed to a house-painter, where he might still practise drawing, and learn an art by which he could earn his living. ‘ When his apprenticeship is completed,’ Mr. Grahame added, * he can attend the Academy, and if his love of art and his acquirements warrant him, he can then endeavour to support himself as an artist/ This advice was followed, and I was apprenticed for seven years to Mr. Gavin Beugo. At first my apprentice-master was very kind to me, allowing me occasionally a little time to practise drawing; but he was passionate, fitful, and tyrannical, and as he kept more apprentices than men, the newest comer was always the favourite ; and when a younger apprentice came to the shop I lost his favour, and any opportunity I had previously enjoyed of improving myself in my favourite pursuit. My remunera¬ tion was two shillings weekly during the first year, with a rise of six¬ pence weekly every succeeding year. During the first year I had to go to my master’s house for the key of the shop every morning at five o’clock. I often knocked loud and long before I could rouse him, and had to take care and keep behind the outer railing when he opened his bed-room window, from whence he threw the large key in my direction, as if he meant to hit me, making it whistle over my head. His house was distant about a mile from the shop, which, during

been up at the Mound seeing a wild beast show, and he’s caulked them there to let me see them.’ ‘ And what are you going to do with the boy 1 ?’ inquired my friend.

‘ I fancy,’ said Mi’s. Roberts, ‘ he’ll just need to sit doun on the stool aside his father there, and learn to mak and mend shoon.’ ‘ That will never do,’ said my friend,

* Nature has made him an artist; he must be a painter.’ I may here add, that the result of this and similar efforts on the part of the boy was, that he was apprenticed to Beugo, a celebrated ornamental house-painter, and it is a curious coincidence, and evinces the kindness of the artist to his early friends, that in the last years of his life the daughter of his apprentice-master, and the person who communicated this story, were both partakers of his bounty.—J. B.

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

eight months in the year, 1 was obliged to have open before six o’clock. The smell of this dungeon, after being shut all night, was very nauseous, and often made me ill; but here I had to grind colours all day long till eight at night, excepting an hour each for breakfast and dinner, during which I had to run to and from my father’s house, which was above a mile distant. In the winter months, however, the hours were from nine till four, so that I could devote my evenings to drawing and reading. So closely did I apply myself, that I felt quite unhappy in the morning if I could not see something I had done on the previous evening. As my poor father worked at night, he kept a well-trimmed lamp, which served us both, and a chest which stood close by was used by me for a drawing-desk. Here was I to be found at work night after night, and my father’s customers, when they came in, were wont to examine my draw¬ ings and exclaim, ‘ Hoo has the callant learnt it?’ I cannot say that my father ever encouraged me much, but my mother did, and was very proud of her ‘ Davie.’*

My reading was very desultory, and consisted of such books as could be had at a small village library, and were paid for by the penny which my father allowed me to buy a roll with at midday. Arnot’s * History of Edinburgh’ and Scott’s ‘ Border Ballads’ inspired me with a love of antiquities, and the ‘ Life and Adventures of Captain Boyle,’

‘ Blackboard the Pirate,’ ‘ Gil Bias,’ and * Don Quixote,’ with a love of adventure and a desire to visit foreign countries. Among other books I had read one on fortune-telling and the indication of moles; and as 1 had a mole on my leg, the book said it indicated that I was destined to be a great traveller. This pleased me much, and after the wandering life I have led I have sometimes thought that mole might have had

* The following anecdote, told me by an old lady still alive whose parents resided in the same tenement, or, in Scotch parlance, were ‘ next-door neighbours wi’ the Robertses,’ may be introduced here :—One day when Mrs. Roberts was ‘ redding up’ the house, her ‘ next-door neighbour’ called, and, as the old lady was very proud of her artistic son’s productions, she opened the rude portfolio in which his drawings were kept, to show some of them to her neighbour, when, to her amazement, a one-pound note appeared. She felt alarmed lest such a sum of money should have come into her son’s possession in any improper way; but, without mentioning the circum¬ stance to her husband, she followed the advice of her neighbour, and resolved to

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

something to do with it. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain whence the young mind derives the impressions that guide it through life.

Years passed on, and though severely treated by my master, I got little sympathy at home. Sometimes, after having told how I had been kicked and cuffed, the only response I got to my complaint was, ‘ Respect and obey your master.’ This would have rendered my situation un¬ bearable, had it not been that several of my fellow-apprentices were fond of drawing, and as some of them were my seniors, I derived con¬ siderable benefit from seeing their productions. By far the best artist among them was my late friend William Kidd, who afterwards painted many excellent pictures, embodying the humour and pathos of Scottish life in a most delightful manner. He had for some time previously been with Howe, a celebrated animal painter of the day, and was of course looked up to by us as an authority in art. Another of my neighbour apprentices was named William Mitchell, and he had a half-brother called John Dick, who used to paint such subjects as Mary Queen of Scots escaping from Lochleven Castle, but was chiefly employed repair¬ ing and copying pictures for a dealer called Anderson, then considered the Woodburn of Edinburgh. Mitchell occasionally ground Dick’s colours and set his palette, which invested him in our eyes with great dignity; and he used at the breakfast-hour to gather round him half-a-dozen of us, and excite our admiration and astonishment by taking out of his pocket and exhibiting little pictures in oil which he had painted over night. Mitchell was considerably my senior, and I looked up to him with grateful admiration. His mother, a widow, occupied a low flat in Picardy Place, and in her house we drew and painted together, he direct¬ ing my progress, and giving me the benefit of his experience. He had a brother a picture-frame maker, who agreed to make a frame for my first picture for 2s. 6d., to be paid in instalments of 6d. weekly. I remember, as vividly as if it had occurred yesterday, the supreme liap-

‘ speir at the callant when he cam hame hoo and whan he had gotten the siller.’ Davie, on being asked, hurst out into a loud guffaw, and told his mother that, on the previous evening, Beugo had given him a one-pound note to pay to a merchant whose shop was shut, and that, as the figures on it had excited his admiration, and he had to keep it all night, he had made a copy, which he was proud had been so like as to deceive his mother.—J. B.

'C

LIFE OF DAVID KOBE RTS.

[i8 is.

piness I experienced in seeing that picture framed. To have painted it was a great achievement, but to have it actually placed in a gilt frame was a glory of which I had scarcely dared to dream.

Mitchell’s mother afterwards removed to an old-fashioned house in Mary King’s Close, immediately under the Royal Exchange buildings. The entrance was by a flight of steps leading from the close, and the house was dark, but the apartments large and commodious. The only light was from windows that faced the north, and looked out into a backgreen. The rooms at the back of the house were beneath the Exchange Court, and were quite dark during the day. One of these rooms at night, however, under the joint direction of Mitchell and Kidd, was con¬ verted into a Life Academy, and became most attractive to a host of their young artistic aspiring friends. The first model we had was a donkey, which being kept in this dark cell at night alarmed and annoyed the neighbours by its braying ; but as certain houses in the neighbour¬ hood were said to have been haunted, the unearthly sounds which issued from this subterranean den were but what might have been expected in a locality associated with such gloomy superstitions. I remember well the dread with which I descended the staircase, totally dark even at mid-day, leading to this mysterious close. A number of huge heavy doors there were said to have been shut ever since the great plague. They were choked up with rubbish, covered with cobwebs, and rusty iron bolts were drawn across them, fastened with large antique padlocks. It was generally believed that any one daring enough to peep through some of the keyholes might have seen num¬ berless uncofflned and unburied skeletons. In spite of all these horrors, even in the darkest and wildest winter nights we enthusiastic students made our way to our self-instituted Life Academy, where, in addition to the donkey, we alternately stood as models, and derived much benefit therefrom, instructing and encouraging each other. The progress we made was so great, that we ventured on opening an exhibition of ora' pictures. Kidd and Mitchell took the lead, and I produced a large picture of the Battle of Trafalgar. For this I was dubbed by my chums ‘The Young Vanderveldt,’ and my neighbour artists were com pared to artists equally famous in their respective departments of art.

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

These exhibitions were repeated during three or four successive years, the number and quality of our contributors and contributions yearly increasing.

At length, having completed my seven years’ apprenticeship, I left my old master without regret, and, to the grief of my parents, went to Perth, where I was engaged as foreman by Mr. Conway, a house-decorator, who had come from London to paint Scoon Palace. This was in the summer of 1815, and I remained there till the spring of the following year, when I returned to Edinburgh.

At this time, in addition to the Theatre Royal, there was a Circus opened in North College Street. The entertainments here were origin¬ ally confined to feats of equestrianism, gymnastics, and the usual ring performances, and the establishment was conducted in a highly respect¬ able manner by a very gentlemanly person of the name of Bannister. He had during several winters been very successful in his visits to Edinburgh, and had now resolved to add to the attractions of his house a stage and a company of pantomimists. Of course scenery was re¬ quired, and as I was at that time unemployed, a friend who had con¬ fidence in my artistic powers proposed to me that I should attempt to paint the scenes. I thought that it would be presumptuous on my part to make such an attempt, but my friend insisted on my meeting Mr. Bannister and showing him my drawings. I shall never forget the tremor I felt, or the faintness that came over me, when I ascended to the second floor of a house, No. 5 Nicholson Street, and after much hesitati6n at length mustered courage to pull the door-bell. I was very kindly received by Mr. Bannister; my drawings were approved, and I was engaged to paint a set of wings for a palace. Canvas was bought, and laid down on the dining-room floor; and after having ground the colours I completed the painting.

This was the commencement of my career as a scene-painter—at that time the highest object of my ambition; for my knowledge of art was chiefly derived from the scenery of the Edinburgh Theatre Royal, as seen from the shilling gallery. I knew little of the ancient and still less of the modern masters. The scenery of Aladdin and the Forty Thieves had irresistible charms for me. Bagdad, with its countless minarets,

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

was quite familiar to me, and scarcely a night passed on my return from the theatre without my having made sketches of what I had seen. When I got the palace-wings finished my employer was very much pleased with my work, and treated me with great kindness. At the close of the circus for the season, I was engaged as a regular member of the company, to go with them to England, at a salary of 25s. a-week, my travelling expenses to be paid by the manager. The following is a copy of the terms of my engagement:—

‘ Edinburgh, 10 th Apr il 181(3.

‘ 1 hereby agree to give David Roberts the sum of one pound five shillings sterling per week for the space of twelve months from the above date; for the which sum lie, David Roberts, does oblige himself to paint all scenery, etc., that may be required for J. Bannisters Circus, and also to make himself useful therein; his travelling conveyance to be found him. £ Jas. Bannister.

I entered upon this agreement much against the wishes of my dear parents, but it was an opening for which I had long wished. To travel in company with strolling players and equestrian performers might not be very respectable, but it gave me an opportunity of seeing England, and of painting pictures on a large scale. The same month 1 left Edin¬ burgh along with a part of the company—viz. the members of the band and their wives—in a caravan, for Carlisle, and the treatment we met with on the road soon opened my eyes to the low place we held in public estimation. On our arrival at the village of Middleton, about fourteen miles from Edinburgh, we were refused upputting; but as the nio-ht was wet, and we were very weary, the landlady consented to allow us to sit by the fire. After some conversation, during which she learned my history, she expressed a deep interest in me, and said she was astonished to find me in such company. She urged me most strenu¬ ously to return to my poor old mother, and afterwards provided me with a good supper and bed. The following morning she got quit of the * vagabonds ,’ as she termed my companions; and partly in ac¬ cordance with her injunctions, and partly from the disgust with which

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

I had witnessed the conduct of my fellow-travellers, I started at day¬ break by myself, and reached Hawick in the evening.

At Carlisle I painted my first series of scenes in the Town-Hall, which had been hired for the occasion. This hall was where the unfor¬ tunate followers of Prince Charles had been tried and condemned; close by was the castle where they suffered; and this kept me in a continual state of excitement. The scenes I painted here were chiefly after the sketches I had made, and the recollections I had of those in the Edin¬ burgh theatre, and I am afraid they must have been very indifferent. They were painted during the six weeks we were at Carlisle to enable Mr. Bannister to open the circus in Newcastle with a stage as well as a ring company. About midsummer he opened a new building called the Forth with a comic pantomime ; and here, in accordance with my agreement to make myself generally useful, I first appeared as an actor. My part was a barber, who was to have shaved, but is shaved by, the clown. I liked the fun, and, on the whole, I believe gave general satis¬ faction, rather overdoing than underdoing that and other similar parts with which I was entrusted.

At this time the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, was under the manage¬ ment of Macready, father to the eminent tragedian of that name, and he in courtesy allowed all the members of the £ Forth’ company free entry to his theatre. The scenery was painted by Dixon, many years scene-painter at Drury Lane, who was, with the exception of old Phillips of Covent Garden, unquestionably the best painter in England of architectural scenery. I visited the theatre often, and studied Dixon’s works with great care. The chop-scene was a copy of the celebrated one in Covent Garden called the Shakspeare Gallery, and represented a hall leading to a domed chamber by a flight of steps, on which stood the great dramatist, surrounded by the muses, and supported by leadingdramatic authors. The original scene at Covent Garden was designed by Smirke, and a great portion of it painted by Dixon. Many years afterwards, when I belonged to that establishment, that scene—certainly one of the most chaste and elegant in design and execution that ever was produced—was brought to me to paint out; this I refused to do.

I made a literal copy of the Newcastle chop, which was afterwards D

LIFE OF DAVID ROBERTS.

18 16.

produced at Hull when we went there. Indeed, it was only by literally copying what I saw in Dixon’s scenes that I could produce what was re¬ quired ; for at that time I was entirely ignorant of perspective, and did not know what was meant by the point of vision.

While we remained in Newcastle a new piece was produced every week, the scenery for which kept me continually employed. We then went to Hull, to which I sailed in a collier along with a poor player who had been discharged, and who had a wife and child to provide for. I paid their passage-money, gave up my berth to the mother and child, stood godfather to the baby, which was only three days old, and interceded successfully with the manager, who again gave the poor fellow employment. We were now pretty well provided with scenery, and I had many opportunities of visiting the surrounding country, which, although not what a painter would call picturesque, is rich and luxuriant. The clean, cheerful villages, with which that portion of England is so thickly studded, pleased me much, and I was charmed with Beverley Minster ; the rich and florid style of its architecture ex¬ cited my admiration, and it remains still as fresh in my memory as when I first saw it.