A Biographical Sketch 



he was quickly knocked out of time, and obtained nothing but the 

 contempt of his noble antagonist. 



This peer seems to have had a haughty and insolent manner 

 with those he considered his social inferiors, in spite of his con- 

 descension in associating with sporting men. After the episode 

 first mentioned, " His Grace ordered a coach, and after enquiring 

 of Morland where he was going, desired him to get into it, with 

 Parker, and said he would set him down. The noble peer then 

 mounted the box, and the coachman got behind. When they 

 arrived near Morland's mansion, the Duke stopped, and asked 

 which was the house. On being told that it was three doors further 

 off, he abruptly bade the painter get out, and in a manner which 

 did not a little hurt his pride ; for he often observed, when speaking 

 of this incident, that he was never so chagrined at any insult he 

 ever received." 



Morland had indeed an incurable dislike for the company of 

 aristocrats and men of fashion. This he carried so far that he 

 would refuse commissions from would-be patrons, preferring to sell 

 his works through the dealers, although he lost heavily by doing so. 

 But he always liked to please his own tastes and to paint his 

 pictures as his own genius dictated, whereas he explained that, if 

 he painted anything for a gentleman connoisseur, he was sure to 

 have it sent back with instructions to alter the sky or the back- 

 ground, or some detail of composition which, if carried out, would 

 spoil the whole effect. 



He was a democrat in every fibre, and would not have given 

 half-a-guinea for a " handle to his name." He did, indeed, refuse 

 to apply for a baronetcy, to which, in the opinion of his friends, he 

 was justly entitled. The Morland family claimed to have descended 

 from Sir Samuel Morland, a scientist of considerable renown during 

 the Protectorate of Cromwell and the Restoration. Employed for 

 the time in the diplomatic service, by Thurloe, Cromwell's Secretary 

 of State, and afterwards one of the gentlemen who met Charles II. 

 at Breda in 1660, he was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, 

 and a baronet in return for his services. But it was as a scientist 

 that he became most famous, and he certainly showed a remarkable 

 genius for invention. It was he who first produced a speaking 



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