198 On the Early Lije of Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. 



Earl Camden, whose private secretary Mr. Watson Taylor had been 

 during the Earl's lord-lieutenancy of Ireland in 1798.) While 

 this sale was going on, a picture dealer called upon me, and after a 

 minute examination of the portrait of Miss White, offered me 150 

 guineas for it. I however declined the offer, as I had made up my 

 mind, whenever I sold it, to give the refusal to the Queen. In 

 1839 I addressed a letter to Lord Melbourne, then First Lord of 

 the Treasury, on the subject. The matter was by him referred to 

 Sir Henry Wheatley, the keeper of her Majesty's Privy Purse, and 

 in a few days the bargain was brought to a close, and the portrait 

 placed in the picture gallery at Buckingham Palace. Sir Henry 

 informed me next day that Her Majesty was very well pleased 

 with the purchase, and had been comparing it with a sketch which 

 she had herself made of the picture when lent to her at Earlstoke 

 Park. 



On the back of the canvass is the following autograph : 



" Be pleased to keep this picture 

 from the damp and from the sun." 



T. Lawrence, 15th Sept., 1784. 



Sir Henry Wheatley shewed me on this occasion, a most excellent 

 likeness of himself, in full regimentals, by Lawrence, for which 

 1000 guineas had been paid. This was one of the painter's last 

 productions. 



I may here perhaps be allowed to insert some letters referring to 

 that period in Lawrence's career, when he had first begun to attract 

 attention in London. They were addressed by his father to the 

 Rev. Dr. Kent, a worthy clergyman of rather eccentric habits, who 

 then lived at Whistley House, in the parish of Potterne, near 

 Devizes. Among other eccentricites he always rode on a white 

 horse. The doctor and his horse appear to have attracted the 

 young artist's notice ; as one day Dr. Kent rode up to the Bear Inn, 

 Devizes, which was at that time kept by Mr. Lawrence Sen., and 

 demanded in an authoritative manner to be shown a caricature of 

 himself and horse, which he heard was in Mr. Lawrence's posses- 

 sion. Mr. Lawrence suspecting bis son Tom had been exercising his 

 pencil at the doctor's expense, called him from his play and asked 



