William Scvope 417 



the ill-fated Arcbishop of York, whose trimming cost 

 him his head. 



William Scropc, born in 1772, was a direct descendant 

 of Richard, the first baron. His father, the Rev. Richard 

 Scrope, D.D., was in possession of the fine estates of 

 the Scropes of Castle Combe, in Wiltshire ; and on his 

 death, in 1785, William succeeded to the property. 

 Eight years later, in 1793, this fortunate young man 

 succeeded also to the Cockerington estates, in Lincoln- 

 shire, which had been in possession of another branch 

 of the family descended from Adrian Scrope, the 

 regicide. 



Educated at Eton and Oxford, William Scrope had 

 distinguished himself as a classical scholar. But it was 

 as an artist that his talents were most conspicuous. 

 Landscape was his forte, and many pictures of his, the 

 subjects of which were taken from Scotland, Italy, Sicily, 

 Switzerland, and the Tyrol, were exhibited in both the 

 Royal Academy and the British Institution, of which 

 latter body, founded in 1805, he was one of the most 

 active directors. Scrope was " assisted " in his painting 

 by William Simson, a now forgotten Scottish landscape 

 painter, who acted as " ghost " to the amateur, and 

 perhaps, like another celebrated " ghost " who figured in 

 the Belt v. Lawes cause celbbre> imparted to his patron's 

 pictures much of their artistic merit. 



Sir Walter Scott thought Scrope "one of the very 

 best amateur painters " he ever saw, " Sir George 

 Beaumont scarcely excepted." But Sir Walter was 

 by no means an infallible authority on art, and was 

 always disposed to look with a very kindly eye on the 



VOL. II. 6 



