Painting in England, 3 



before the reader fuch materials as that la- 

 borious antiquary had amafled for deducing 

 the Hiftory of Englilh Painting from a very 

 early period. 



The * firfl evidences in favour of the art 

 are drawn from our records f, which Mr. 



* Dr. Thorpe M. D. when writing his hiftory of the 

 town and diocefe of Rochefter, difcovered at the weft end 

 of that cathedral two bufts of Henry I. and his queen in 

 (lone, whieh had never been obferved before. 



t Since the firft edition of this work, I have been in- 

 formed by a curious gentleman, that the earlieft place 

 in a catalogue of Englifh painters is due to St. Wolftan 

 bifhop of Worcefter in 1062, or at leaft to Ervenius or 

 Erwen, his mafter. William of Malmfbury, who wrote 

 the life of Wolftan in three books, gives the following 

 account ; " Habebat tunc [Wolftanus] magiftrum 

 Ervenium nomine, infcribendo et quidlibet coloribus 

 cffingendo peritum. Is libros fcriptos, facramentarium 

 & pfalterium, quorum principales litteras auro effigia- 

 verit, puero Wolftano delegandos curavit. llle precio- 

 forum apicum captus miraculo, dum pulchritudinem 

 intentis oculis rimatur, fcientiam litterarum internis 

 haufit medullis. Verum dodlor ad faeculi fpedans com- 

 modum, fpe majoris premii, facramentarium regi, tunc 

 temporis Cnutoni, pfalfterium Emmae regin^ contribuit. 

 Perculit puerilem animuni fafti difpendium, & ex imo 

 peftore aha traxit fufpiria." If this paffage is not fuf- 

 ficient authority, as I think it is not, o prove St. Wol- 

 ftan a painter, at leaft it is decifive for Ervenius, who 

 was certainly an illuminator of MSS. 



A 2 Vertuc 



