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following the lead of his patrons and bending his steps westward, 
for it is in 1727 that we find Bernard Lens painting in Bath. 
Bernard Lens, of whom Horace Walpole speaks in terms of 
high commendation, was the third of the name, and coming of a 
family of artists, he appears to have been superior both to his 
ancestors and to his children. He held the office of painter to the 
Crown, and produced (as well as original portraits) copies in 
miniature of the works of the great masters, and though I have 
not been able to trace any portraits from his hand that can be 
definitely assigned to Bath, we have in this very Institution a 
most interesting signed and dated work by him, I mean the 
framed drawing of the Roman bronze head of Minerva, hanging 
on the wall. In addition to this he made at the same time 
‘drawings of the hypocausts discovered in Stall Street, which are 
preserved at the Bodleian. 
I must here explain that though one knows from various 
authorities that a certain miniaturist has at one time or another 
worked in Bath, it is in many cases quite impossible to decide 
whether any individual miniature from his brush was painted in 
the city. Many artists did not sign their miniatures, very few 
dated them, and it is on dates that we must rely in the case of 
those artists who were not permanently domiciled here, such men 
as Ozias Humphrey, Samuel Collins, and Richard Cross. Of 
course if one hasa known portrait of a person who was in Bath at 
the time that the artist was here it is a not unwarrantable 
assumption that the portrait was painted here, for it was a pleasant 
and fashionable method of filling the ample leisure of the Bath 
season. But with regard to the artists who lived here for long 
periods, such as Daniell, Jagger, Hutchisson, and Ford, the case 
is different, and it may be safely assumed that any miniatures of 
theirs were painted in Bath. 
Besides the miniaturists whose names I have definitely traced 
as working here, more than thirty in number, there are a few who 
I expect to find also made their début in Bath. Among these 
Dh Mails ie 
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