893 



STANHOPE, GEORGE, D.D. 



STANHOPE, EARL. 



C6t 



picture ; as for instance in his admirable ' Castle of Ischia,' his 

 Dutch Boats off Dordrecht,' or bis 'Mont St. Michel.' Once for 

 awhile however ho took a fancy to run ashore to g^-t up a semi- 

 theatrical piece of effect, like his ' Salvator Rosa's Study,' 1849, and 

 'Macbeth and the Weird Sisters,' 1850; but luckily the whim did not 

 last long. . 



Happily, although he won his laurels by an almost topographically 

 faithful rendering of particular scenes, Mr. Stanfield has shown that 

 his power did not forsake him when he essayed a loftier and more 

 poetical theme. He failed it is true in the kind of subjects we have 

 just named, but when he chose for his pictures subjects that lay 

 strictly within the lino of his own experience and observation, and 

 that were the genuine product of his own inclination, ho was thoroughly 

 successful. Indeed tho full power of Stanfield as a painter can only 

 be felt on a studious examination of his great imaginative pictures. 

 Of these the earliest that occurs to us is a work of great power 

 though not his most perfect work, because in it he did not give free 

 scope to his feeling the ' Wreck of a Dutch East Indiamau on the 

 Coast of Holland,' 1844. A more striking picture, and, to those who 

 had not seen with what remarkable and continually increasing skill 

 he painted mountains, one that seemed scarcely to fall within his 

 general range, was ' The French Troops (1796) fording the Margra ; 

 Sar/.ana and the Carrara Mountains in the distance,' 1847. With this 

 may fairly rank his 'Battle of Roveredo,' 1851 ; ' The Pyrenees,' 1854; 

 and his ' St. Sebastian- during the Siege under tho Duke of Welling- 

 ton British troops taking possession of the Heights and Convent of 

 St. Bartolomeo,' 1855. Still nobler and more poetic however are the 

 pictures where ships and the sea play the chief part, as in ' The 

 Victory, bearing the Body of Nelson, towed into Gibraltar seven days 

 after the Battle of Trafalgar,' 1853 ; ' The Abandoned,' 1856 ; and his 

 ' Port na Spana, near the Giant's Causeway, with the Wrecked Vessels 

 of the Spanish Armada,' 1857, a work wanting little to render it one 

 of the most impressive of its class which has proceeded from the 

 pencil of any painter of any time or school. 



We said above that Stanfield on quitting his sea-academy entered a 

 school which exerted a less wholesome influence upon him, though it 

 gave him immense technical dexterity and knowledge of picturesque 

 effect. To us it seems that most of his faults as a painter are trace- 

 able to the influence of his theatrical training. Whilst sea and shore 

 and distant hills are true to the very verge of pictorial realism, it 

 almost invariably occurs that the simple unaffected nature-like spon- 

 taneity of appearance is marred by some object some building, figure, 

 broken spar, or implement which in a moment suggests that it is 

 placed there to ' tell;' in fact to produce the old stage brilliancy, and 

 which does remind one of the stage lamps and glitter, as well as stage 

 trouping and arrangement. And in the same way, from his eye 

 having been so long accustomed to seek after what would produce a 

 clear sharp impression at a distance, even the best of his works are 

 often hard and deficient in those delicate aerial gradations and atmos- 

 pheric influences which Turner taught us to look for in scenes and 

 circumstances such as Stanfield loves to paint. But while these are 

 niceties which the ordinary observer will not heed, there are in all 

 Stanfield's pictures such unmistakeable knowledge and enjoyment of 

 what he delineates, such evident mastery over his materials, and so 

 true and manly a style of representing nature, as to secure for them 

 general admiration. Indeed it may be doubted whether any other 

 English landscape-painter has on the whole obtained so general a 

 measure of popularity. 



In the above enumeration of his paintings we have omitted some to 

 which reference will perhaps be expected. Such are his series of 

 Venetian pictures painted for the Marquis of Lausdowne's seat at 

 Bowood ; another series for the Duke of Sutherland's at Trentham ; 

 also the 'Battle of Trafalgar,' which he painted for the United 

 Service Club ; and the fresco in the summer-house at Buckingham 

 Palace. We ought also to add that he has made numerous designs 

 for engraving, including those for Heath's ' Picturesque Annual,' and 

 bis popular ' Coast Scenery.' He has likewise published a series of 

 lithographic copies of his sketches ' The Moselle, the Rhine, and 

 the Mouse,' 30 plates, drawn on stone by Haghe, Gauci, &c., folio, 

 1838. The Veruon Gallery contains four pictures by Mr. Stanfield. 

 The Sheepshanks collection contains three of his paintings ; but in 

 neither collection is there one of his more important works. Mr. 

 Stanfield's son, * GEOIIGE C. STANFIELD, is a painter of considerable 

 promise, pursuing a line of landscape very similar to his father's 

 inland views, and favourably distinguished by careful drawing and 

 execution. 



STANHOPE, GEORGE, D.D., a dignitary of the English church, 

 whose writings continue to be prized as amongst the most valuable 

 practical works which the divines of the church have provided for 

 the edification of its members, belonged to a family several branches 

 of which have been ennobled, and was the son and grandson of 

 clergymen who had been harshly treated when Puritanism was in the 

 ascendant. His father had the living of Hartshorne in Derbyshire, 

 where George Stanhope was born in 16CO. He had hia earlier educa- 

 tion at Eton, from whence he passed to King's College, Cambridge. 

 He had the living of Tewing, but resided for the greater part of his 

 life on his vicarage of Lewisham, to which he was presented in 1689 

 by Lord Dartmouth, to whose son ho had been tutor. He gave up 



Tewing in 1703, on being presented to the vicarage of Deptford St 

 Nicholas. He commenced D.D. in 1697. In 1701 he was appointed 

 dean of Canterbury. This was the highest preferment he enjoyed, 

 but it was understood that he would have been made bishop of Ely 

 by the Tory Ministry of the latter years of Queen Anne, had the sec 

 fallen vacant only a few weeks sooner than happened to be the case. 

 He was chaplain to King William and Queen Anne, and had a share 

 in the education of the Duko of Gloucester, the heir-presumptive to 

 the crown. He was a celebrated preacher, and a very influential 

 person in all affairs relating to the church. 



His principal work is his ' Paraphrase and Comment on tho Epistles 

 and Gospels as they are read in the Book of Common Prayer.' This 

 was written originally for the special use of the Duke of Gloucester. 

 It is a large work, forming four octavo volumes, and has gone through 

 at least nine editions. Of his other practical writings the chief charac- 

 teristic is this, that they are, if not direct translations of ancient 

 authors, chiefly Christian, adaptations of their sentiments to the use 

 of members of the English reformed church. Thus we have his 

 'Morals of Epictetus;' the 'Christian Pattern, by Thomas a Kempis, 

 with Prayers and Meditations for the Sick annexed ; ' the ' Meditations 

 of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ; ' the ' Christian Directory,' written 

 originally by the Jesuit Parsons ; 'Pious Breathings,' from the works 

 of Saint Augustine, with select Contemplations from Saint Ansclm 

 and Saint Bernard. To these are to be added a translation of 

 Charron's ' Three Books of Wisdom,' and of the Maxims of Roche- 

 foucault. He printed also various Sermons, including a set of Dis- 

 courses at Boyle's Lectures. His translation of tho ' Devotions ' of 

 Bishop Andrews, written originally in Greek, was not published till 

 after his death. He died in 1728, and was buried in the church at 

 Lewisham. 



STANHOPE, JAMES STANHOPE, FIRST EARL, was the eldest 

 or only son of the Hon. Alexander Stanhope, second son of Philip 

 Stanhope, first earl of Chesterfield. His mother was Katherine, 

 daughter of Arnold Burghill, Esq., of Thingehill, in Herefordshire ; 

 and he was born in 1673. His father, who lived till 1707, was 

 employed as envoy by King William to Spain in 1699, and to the 

 Hague in 1700 (during the negociation of the Partition Treaties), and 

 jain by Queen Anne to the Hague in 1702. Young Stanhope 

 accompanied his father to Spain ; and, after spending a year or two 

 in that country, made the tour of France and Italy. 



He first carried arms under the Duke of Savoy (Victor Amadeus II.), 

 and then under King William, in Flanders, in the war carried on 

 against France by the Grand Alliance, which was terminated by the 

 peace of Ryswick, in 1697. Young as he was, William was so much 

 struck with his spirit and talent, that in 1694 he gave him a captain's 

 commission in the Foot Guards, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

 He was wounded at the siege of Namur in 1695. 



He appears to have been first returned to parliament for the borough 

 of Cockeriuouth, at the general election after the accession of Anne, 

 in September 1702; and he continued to be a member of the Houso 

 of Commons from this time till his elevation to the peerage ; having 

 been returned again for Cockermouth in 1705, 1707, 1708, and 1710, 

 for Wendover in 1714, for Cockermouth in 1715, and lastly for New- 

 port in the Isle of Wight, in April 1717, after having vacated his seat 

 by taking office. 



For some years however he appears to have taken little or no part 

 in the proceedings of the House; it is not till 1713 that his name 

 occurs in the reports of the debates ; and indeed he was all this time 

 chiefly employed in quite another field. In 1702 he went as a 

 volunteer on the expedition to Cadiz, so disgracefully misconducted 

 under the command of Admiral Sir George Rooke ; and in 1703 he 

 proceeded to Portugal, and, having been made a brigadier-general in 

 1704, served under the Duke of Schomberg in the still more unsuc- 

 cessful operations carried on in that country, till he was forced to 

 surrender with his regiment at discretion. But soon after, having 

 probably been exchanged, we find him serving again under the Earl 

 of Peterborough, in whose brilliant Spanish campaign of the year 170.5 

 he greatly distinguished himself. After the capture of Barcelona (at 

 which he was present), in September of that year, he was sent home 

 with despatches from Charles III. ; and early in 1706 he was sent 

 back by Queen Anne as envoy extraordinary to his Spanish majesty. 

 In 1707 he was made major-general; and in 1708 he was appointed 

 commauder-in-chief of the British forces in Spain. That same year 

 he projected and accomplished the capture of Port Mahou and tho 

 reduction of the island of Minorca. In 1710 he gained the battles of 

 Almanara (17th July) and Saragossa (9th August); but on the 27th 

 of November following, he and the forces under his command, amount- 

 ing to 2000 men, being surprised ' and attacked by the Duke of 

 Vendome at Brihuega, were, after a gallant defence, forced to surrender 

 themselves prisoners of war. 



This terminated his military career. Tindal (iv. 213) says that ho 

 was detained in confinement throughout the winter of 1710-11, and "Jill 

 all the prisoners on both sides were released," that is till the end of the 

 war; but it appears that he was one of the managers for the Commons 

 on the trial of Sacheverell, in the beginning of the year 1710; and he 

 is expressly stated to have distinguished himself in a very particular 

 manner on that occasion before the lords in Westminster Hall. (See 

 his speech in 'State Trials,' xv. 126-134.) As soon as he got home he 



