254 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»'i S. VII. Mar. 26. '59. 



did the ministers sometimes supplicate, some- 

 times tlireaten ; the red-coats and the music car- 

 ried the day. A second meeting was the result. 

 " Were there any means to induce the gentlemen 

 to restrain their Sunday taste for harmony?" 

 " Perhaps, if you allow the players to make their 

 appearance here, and grant them the use of the 

 Guildhall, the thing may be managed." The 

 bitter pill was swallowed : the actors came, and 

 the Sunday music ceased. 



This anecdote was told me when a boy by my 

 father, who was an officer in the regiment at the 

 time. J. M. 



ON ENCAUSTIC PAINTING. 



One of the most legitimate uses of such a jour- 

 nal as yours is the diffusion of useful knowledge, 

 when locked up in the coffers of the wealthy or 

 secreted on the shelves and in the volumes of the 

 learned. Some years since, when a tolerably 

 active member of the Society for the Encourage- 

 ment of Arts, &c. in the Adelphi, I noted in my 

 common-place-book many things connected with 

 the arts of design. 



Amongst others I had been led into an investi- 

 gation of the encaustic or wax painting of the 

 ancients, not only as regards fine art and the du- 

 rability of pictures, but also as regards science in 

 the preservation of ships, wooden jetties, -Sec, 

 against the injurious effects of the sun, sea-water 

 and animalculse. 



Every scholar is acquainted with the "eucausio 

 pingere" the ^^ pictura encaustica" ''^ certs pingere" 

 and ^'picturam inurere" of the elder Pliny: many 

 have read of the more modern observations ^nd 

 experiments of Count Caylus and M. Bachelier, a 

 painter, who were the first of modern times who 

 made experiments on this ancient and useful art, 

 about the year 1749. 



After much investigation and some successful 

 experiments in France the subject dropped ; till 

 an English lady recovered the art in 1785, com- 

 municated her researches, and some specimens of 

 pictures so executed to the Society of Arts, and 

 received a gold palette from the Society. 



This lady was Miss Emma Jane Greenland, 

 afterwards Mi-s. Hooker, of Rottingdean in Sussex, 

 an amateur artist of taste and scientific skill. The 

 account of her proceedings are to be found in the 

 10th volume of the Society's Transactions for 

 1792, a work only given to the members, and con- 

 sequently rare.- Her first communication with 

 some specimens of this mode of painting was made 

 in 1786 before her marriage, and one of her pic- 

 tures is in the Society's museum in the Adelphi. 



For this honourable testimony of the Society's 

 approbation of Mrs. Hooker's endeavours to attain 

 excellence, she therefore, in 1807, made a far- 

 ther communication to the Society of the result of 



no fewer than fifty experiments a day for more 

 than four months ; and to theory Mrs. Hooker 

 added practice, and produced several encaustic 

 paintings of considerable merit. 



One of her communications (o the Society may 

 give an insight into the process of this curious 

 branch of the fine arts, which might, in her hon- 

 our, be called the Hookerian system of encaustic 

 painting : — 



" Method of preparing and applying a composition for 

 painting in imitation of the ancient Grecian manner, as 

 practised by Mrs. Hooker : — 



"Put into a glazed earthen vessel 4^ ounces of gum 

 arable, and 8 ounces, or half a pint wine measure of cold 

 spring water. When the gum is dissolved, stir in 7 

 ounces of gum mastic, previously washed, dried, picked, 

 and beaten fine. Set the vessel and these ingredients 

 over a slow fire, continually stirring and beating them 

 bard with a spoon, in order to dissolve the mastic. When 

 sufficiently boiled it will no longer be transparent, but 

 will become opaque, and stiff like paste. As soon as this 

 is the case, and the gum, water, and mastic are quite 

 boiling, add, without taking them off the fire, 5 ounces of 

 white wax, broken into small pieces, stirring and beating 

 the several ingredients together, till the wax is perfectly 

 melted, and has boiled. Then take the composition off 

 the fire, as boiling it longer than necessary will harden 

 the wax, and prevent it mixing so well afterwards with 

 water. When the composition is taken off the fire, and 

 in the glazed vessel, it is to be beaten hard, and whilst 

 hot (but not boiling) mix with it, by degrees, a pint 

 (wine measure) of 16 ounces more of cold spring water. 

 Then strain the composition, as some dirt will still boil 

 out of the gum mastic, and put it into bottles. The com- 

 position, if properly made, should be like a cream, and 

 ■ the colours when mixed with it as smooth as oil. 



" The method of using it is to mix with the composi- 

 tion upon an earthen palette such colours, in powder, as 

 are used in painting with oil, and such a quantity of the 

 composition to be mixed with the colours as to render 

 them of the usual consistency of oil colours ; then paint 

 with fair water."' [That is, I presume, to dilute the 

 vehicle with water when necessarj'.] 

 . " The colours may then b:i laid on thick or thin, as best 

 suits 3'our subject, on which account this composition is 

 advantageous where transparencj' of colouring is required. 

 In most cases, however, it answers best if the colours be 

 laid on thick, as they require the same use of the brush 

 as if painting with body colours, and the same sort of 

 brushes are used as in oil painting. The colours if grown 

 dry when mixed with the composition, may be thinned 

 by putting some water over them, but it is less trouble to 

 put water when they are beginning to dry. In painting 

 with this composition the colours blend without diificultj' 

 when wet, and even when dry the tints may easily be 

 united by the means of a brush and a small quantity of 

 water. 



" When the painting is finished, put some white wax 

 into a glazed earthen vessel over a slow fire, and when 

 melted, but not boiling, cover the painting with the wax 

 and a hard brush ; and when cold take a moderately hot 

 iron, such as is used for ironing linen, of such a degree of 

 warmth as not to hiss if touched with anything wet, and 

 draw it lightly over the wax. The painting will then 

 appear as if imder a cloud, till the wax and wliatever 

 substance the picture is painted on become cold ; but if 

 in that condition the picture should not be sufficiently 

 clear, it may be held before the fire at such a distance as 

 to melt the wax slowl}', or the wax may be melted by 



