MISCEllANEOTIS. 369 



Holland House portrait became mistaken for one of Addison it would, be difficult 

 to explain ; but this circumstance may assist in accounting for its being at Holland 

 House at all — Addison and Sir Andre^w Fountain were intimate friends, and both 

 fi'iends of Sir Stephen Fox, the founder of the Holland family. Touching the 

 merit of the supposed portrait itself, it is rather singular that Lord Macaulay, in 

 bis Essay on Addison, speaks of it in terms of qualified praise, which, after the 

 discovery just made, have a remarkable significance. After looking at the picture 

 he writes, — ' The features are pleasing; the complexion is remarkably fair; but 

 in the expression we trace rather the gentleness of his disposition than the force 

 and keenness of his intellect.' Now that the mistake has come to light, it is in 

 the interest of art and literature that it should be made generally known, in order 

 to prevent any further resort by artists or publishers to a mythical portraiture of 

 the great essayist." So says a writer in the Illustrated London Hews. But what 

 of the Addison, alias Fountain, of Poet's Gorner ? It would seem to be curable 

 in the estimation of some, at least, of the critics, by the very simple process of a 

 new inscription, which shall give back to Sir Andrew his own face, and turn the 

 fictitious Joseph out of the Abbey, till his friends and admirers shall see fit to 

 restore him in honest good faith. " Why should not Sir Andrew Fountain be in 

 Westminster Abbey ?" writes a Norfolk man to the Athenaeum ; and all disin- 

 terested readers echo, why not? "Sir Andrew Fountain was one of the most 

 distinguished men of his time. Born of an ancient family of the County 

 of Norfolk, he entered the University of Oxford at an early age, where he 

 displayed remarkable talent. He was selected, as the most distinguished 

 scholar of his year, to deliver the Latin oration before William HI., who 

 was so pleased with him that he knighted him on the spot. He formed part 

 of the brilliant embassy of Lord Macclesfield to the Electress Sophia, in 1701. 

 He there was a conspicuous ornament of the most brilliant circle in Europe. 

 He became afterwards the constant correspondent of Leibnitz, who fre- 

 quently consulted him, Sir Andrew Fountain being one of the most learned 

 Anglo-Saxon scholars in Europe. He published a treatise on Anglo - Saxon 

 and Anglo-Danish coins, in Hickes's ' Thesaurus Septentrionalis.' He was 

 intimate with Pope and Addison ; and, above all, he was the first real friend 

 Swift ever found during his stormy life — the first man who took him by the hand 

 and treated him like a gentleman, and introduced him to his distinguished friends 

 as an equal. Sir Andrew accompanied, in 1107, the accomplished Thomas Lord 

 Pembroke, then Lord Lieutenant, to Ireland, where he found Swift living 

 in comparative obscurity. Sir Andrew introduced him to Lord Pembroke, and 

 they all three became most intimate. They returned together to England in the 

 following year, and Swift then resided with Sir Andrew; and now, for the first 

 time, Swift's talents were appreciated by the great London world. Sir Andrew 

 Fountain was the trusted friend of Caroline, wife of George II. ; indeed, so highly 

 did she appreciate his great abilities, that she requested him to superintend the 

 education of her favorite son William." On the death of Sir Isaac Newton, he 

 became Warden of the Mint. Men of less mark, therefore, than the friend of 

 Swift, and Newton's successor in the Mint, have undoubtedly got admission among 

 the Abbey's noble dead ; though none of them by so odd a chance of mistaken 

 identity, D. W. 



