7S Continuation of the State of 



which it was intended, probably comforted 

 him with the thought that it would not be 

 paid for 'till after his death. Being neither 

 oflentatious nor liberal, genius had no fa- 

 vour from him : He reigned as an attorney 

 would have reigned, and would have prefer- 

 red a conveyancer to Praxiteles. 



Though painting in his age had attained 

 it's brightefc epoch J, no tafte reached this 

 country. Why Ihould it have fought us ? 

 the king penurious, the nobles humbled, 

 what encouragement was there for abilities ? 

 what theme for the arts ! barbarous execu- 

 tions, chicane, procelTes, and mercenary 

 treaties, were all a painter, a poet or a 

 ftatuary had to record — accordingly not 

 one that deferved the title (I mean na- 

 tives) arofe in that reign. The only names 

 of painters that Vertue could recover of 

 that period were both foreigners, and of 

 one of them the account is indeed exceed- 

 ingly flight ; mention being barely made 

 in the regifler's ofBce of Wells, that one 

 Holbein lived and died here in the reign of 

 Henry VII. Whether the father of the ce- 

 lebrated Holbein I Ihall inquire hereafter 



J Raphael was born in 1483, 



5 



