a 
eS 
; 
; 
-nard was the authoress 
1825.) 
fashion in those days to, print and 
publish the trials for assumed libel and 
sedition? No doubt there are some 
records of the uncommon and cruel 
treatment which he is said to have ex- 
perienced, but I have not been fortu- 
nate enough to meet with them. It is 
probable, he was not the only sufferer, 
in the same cause, at that time. I hope 
that some of your intelligent corre- 
spondents, who may be in possession of 
authentic documents connected with 
his case, will be so good as to favour 
your numerous readers with, at least, a 
reference to where they can be found. 
May I presume to ask whether the pre- 
sent worthy Alderman Cox be a de- 
scendant of his? If he be, perhaps he 
will be kind enough to give the infor- 
mation required. ghar s ls 
Pimlico, 29th Sept. 1825. 
—>—. 
Auup Rogin Gray. 
F the Editor of the Monthly Maga- 
zine will refer to the Obituary in 
Blackwood’s Magazine for August last, 
he will find, that the late Lady Ann Bar- 
of “ Auld 
Robin Gray,”—the ballad, I mean. 
Oct. 1, 1825. 
Without referring to the high au- 
thority quoted, we believe we can pro- 
duce, from the Edinburgh’ Observer, a 
much better account of the matter at 
issue. It is, at least, confirmatory of 
our previous information. 
“ The following extract from a letter, 
written to the late Thomas Hamersley, 
Esq. by the Rev. William Jervis, rec- 
tor of Urington, in Somersetshire, in 
June 1812, has been handed to us. It 
shows that the words of the ballad of 
Auld Robin Gray were written by Lady 
Anne Lindsay, and that the music was 
composed by W. Jervis. A gentleman 
now resident in Edinburgh, and in- 
timately acquainted with the composer, 
can answer for the authenticity of the 
letter :— 
“My dear Sir: Anxious as you have ever 
been for the sake of right, as well as for the 
fair fame of your friends, you have more 
_ than once solicited that I could publicly 
claim an offspring, which for more than 
forty years, has been of uncertain origin. 
Nothing could have induced me to under- 
__ take this, at my period of life, but the offer 
of your kind testimony to the genuineness 
of this my early production, which an ac- 
quaintanee with it in manuscript, long be- 
fore it surreptitiously found its way to the 
public eye, enables you so convincingly to 
bear. As to the ballad or story, you may 
Auld Robin Gray.—Correggio’s Holy Family. 
391 
remember that I received it from the 
Honourable Mrs. Byron, and understood 
it to have been written by Lady Anne 
Lindsay.” ——— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
{ WENT to view the lately purchas- 
ed Correggio (Holy Family) at the 
Angerstein Gallery ; it had been sold at 
different times, by different proprietors, 
for £60, £70, £100, £500, and some 
other number of pounds which I do 
not recollect; but in our days of mag- 
nificence, wealth, good and bad taste, 
the bargain was closed a few days since 
by the English Government, for 3,800 
sovereigns. Gold they tell me may be 
bought too dear—pictures I know can: 
its dimensions are fourteen inches by ele- 
ven; itis protected by two glasses, with 
a small interval between, which precau- 
tion is very detrimental to light and 
shadow. This picture is highly finish- 
ed, and beautifully coloured; the in- 
ternal evidence of its being a genuine 
production from the pencil of Correggio, 
is frappant: it has not been injured by 
varnish, which is often (indeed, gene- 
rally) the destruction of choice ‘ pic- 
tures; nor has it been defiled by ad- 
ventitious retouching. In the back- 
ground there is a very ordinary Joseph 
at hard labour, with an ill-constructed 
plane. This subject has been often re- 
peated by the same great master, and 
of like dimensions, as it appears by 
- several prints (I think nine); but witha 
little variation: sometimes the child is 
resplendent with that sort of effulgence 
which we admire in the glow-worm, 
which luminous effluence being reflect- 
ed, admirably lights the virgin’s face and 
the rest of the picture, and seems to 
be a very beautiful thought of the ar- 
tist, who, however, has pourtrayed a 
mere woman, and her child a mere 
boy. Both are gracefully disposed, 
though not with that delicacy a sinner 
expects from a saint;* the child has 
not been circumcised, which is contrary 
to the authority of Holy Writ. If you 
require more accuracy respecting sums, 
dates, measurement, &c., more shall 
be sent, from your friend and admirer, 
To cover this picture with guineas, as an 
equivalent, would be very inadequate ; the 
guineas must again be covered three or 
four deep. 
* An artist, whose beautiful designs cor- 
responded with the delicate sensibility of 
his mind, was not a little embarrassed by 
the request of a lady of high rank to ex- 
patiate on the merit of this chef-d’ceuvre. 
