442 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2>id S. NO 75., June 6. '57. 



day to see I did not move any goods, notwithstanding I 

 had given my Honor : Suppose these things — then in- 

 deed my Moral Character might be impeached, then in- 

 deed I had no right of admission, then indeed 1 was justly 

 kept out and ought always to be so. But my dear friend, 

 as I will defy any Man to say he advanced me a sixpence 

 on a picture, who did not get it : I will defy any man. 

 Woman, or Child, to bring forward an Act of dishonor, 

 fraud, injustice, or cruelty. Let every Academician come 

 forward, and undergo, as I did, his trial before 150 Cre- 

 ditors as a Jury, and see if he come off as I did, without 

 one daring to say a syllable. Did I receive thousands a 

 year ? I was 1 6' years without a commission ! my debts 

 were not debts of luxury or debauchery, I sent the first 

 Elgin Casts to Rome, I sent the first to Russia — I edu- 

 cated Pupils, helped them with money, and am this mo- 

 ment liable to pay 100/. for Bewick to his Landlord tor 

 which I gave my name to enable him to finish his Pic- 

 ture! I got into debt from grand notions of my duty to 

 Art — from splendid promises of support from the No- 

 bility — I did my duty. 1 was not supported, and I fall 

 simply because I had no income, no support, no encou- 

 ragement — and this makes an immoral Character, unfit 

 to be one of a Bodj% one of whom has rewarded his Patron 

 by seducing his Wife, and whose President was notorious 

 for being indifierent to most of the Moral obligations of 

 Man, in money matters. Dirt}', mean, unworthy excuse, 

 for fear, envy, and base hatred of superiority — this is the 

 Truth. However, I leave my Character, my Talents 

 (such as they are) to a generation who will judge without 

 personal spite and personal Enmity. I can't be forgotten. 

 Wordsworth's sonnet will save my name if mj' pencil has 

 not the power. And what will be the Judgment.? Why 

 this ! that the painter of the figure of Dentatus — the sleep- 

 ing Duncan — the good and wicked Mothers in Solomon — 

 The Penitent Girl — the dead Boy in Pharaoh — the Satanic 

 power of the Abandoned Hero of the Mock Election — the 

 Humour of High Sheriff in the Chairing — the Bucephalus 

 in Alexander — the Sleeping Girl in Punch — Ariadne's 

 smile in Siienus, and the whole of Euclis was Entitled to the 

 Honors of His Country, and that he was deprived of them 

 because he saw further- and knew more than those who 

 had the power to bestow them ; and because he had not 

 patience to bear their kicks when he was entitled to their 

 Kindness; and because he told Nobility and Painters 

 what should be the objects of both if they wanted to 

 make their respective Institutions answer the ends for 

 which the}' were both exclusively founded. These are 

 my convictions, and Time will prove their truth. Keep 

 this letter for my sake — judge it mercifully, and believe 

 me Ever to be 



« Faithfully your obt., 



(Sd.) «B. R. Haydon. 

 « E. Dubois, Esq., January 21, 1830. 

 Peek's Coffee House." 



THE rOKGED SHAKSPEARE VORTIGERN. 



I was present at the representation of Vortigern 

 and Rowena at Drury Lane Theatre. A seat in 

 the boxes was out of the question, and I took my 

 stand, several hours before the doors opened, for 

 the pit. Upon the opening the first rush was tre- 

 mendous, and the immediate cry was " full." The 

 pit was filled by private admission. I rushed off 

 for the two shilling gallery, and ran up stairs, and 

 to my surprise obtained a sitting on the second 

 row ; but the rush, roar, and confusion behind me 



was astounding, and by the time I had settled my- 

 self the whole gallery was filled, and I felt con- 

 vinced that few indeed had paid for admission. 

 The representation at first went on calmly ; but 

 upon the recital of some passage in the play, a 

 critic in the pit muttered rather loudly, " Henry 

 the Vlth ; " at which a slight titter arose, and it 

 seemed the signal for repetition, for continually 

 afterwards supposed Imitated passages were re- 

 ferred to in the same manner, and with like 

 laughter ; and it appeared clearly that the critics 

 had condemned the play. At last John Kemble 

 (who, I understood, always denied the originality) 

 brought the question to its climax ; for in a pas- 

 sage which (as I best recollect) described the 

 progress of death upon the human frame, he ex- 

 claimed, " then catch him by the throat," and 

 grasping his own throat with a rather ludicrous 

 action, and pausing, a slight laugh arose, and he 

 himself appeared to be struggling with convulsive 

 laughter, and then burst out a roar of genuine 

 mirth from the i)it, which was taken up by the 

 whole house. From that moment the condemna- 

 tion was complete, and the termination was accom- 

 panied by the same roars of laughter as attend 

 the broadest farce ever exhibited upon the Eng- 

 lish stage. Fit. Wh h. 



DESTBUCTION OF PERSON At PROPERTY ON THE 

 DEATH OF A GYPST. 



I send the following particulars relative to the 

 death and burial of a gypsy, which were commu- 

 nicated to me by a trustworthy informant, who 

 had been an eye-witness of some of the incidents. 

 The man, who was an ordinary member of the 

 tribe, was ill of pleurisy. A surgeon was called 

 in from the nearest town, who bled him, after 

 much persuasion, the gypsies being much averse 

 to blood-letting (so said my informant). The 

 man became worse, and the surgeon's assistant 

 came to see him, and proposed to bleed him again ; 

 upon which the assistant was forthwith sent about 

 his business, and the surgeon's bill was paid, his 

 further attendance being dispensed with. The 

 man then died. He had expressed a wish to be 

 buried in his best clothes, viz. a velveteen coat, 

 with half-crowns shanked for buttons ; together 

 with a waistcoat, with shillings similarly prepared 

 for buttons ; but a woman who had lived with 

 him ran off with these garments ; so he was buried 

 in " his second best, without a shroud, and in the 

 very best of coffins." He was buried in the 

 churchyard of the nearest town. "They had a 

 hearse and ostrich plumes ; and about fifty gypsies, 

 men and women, followed him ; and when the 

 church service was over, and the clergyman had 

 gone, the gypsies stayed in the churchyard and 

 had a service of their own." What follows is (to 



