It O M 



II O M 



ROMKINT, a town of Ana, in the country of Karafm ; 

 230 miles N.W. of Samarcar.d. 



ROMMEN, a town of Pruflia, in the palatinate of 

 Culm ; eight miles S.E. of Lautenburg. 



ROMMENDAL, a towyi of Norway ; 24 miles N. of 

 Berga. 



ROMNA, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 

 Tchcrnigov ; 88 miles N.E. of Tchernigov. N. lat. 50 

 36'. E'. long. 33 24'. 



ROMNEY, George, in Biography, was born at Dalton, 

 in Lancafhire, in December 1734. His father was a native 

 of the fame place, where, upon a fmall patrimonial eflate, 

 he followed the threefold occupation of merchant, builder, 

 and farmer; but as his family was large, the joint profits of 

 his triple concerns barely afforded the means for its mainte- 

 nance. At the age of 12, George was taken from the 

 village fchool, where he had imbibed the rudiments of 

 learning, and engaged by his father to fuperintend the 

 workmen. He employed his lcifure hours in carving, and 

 being fond of muiic, made a violin for himlelf, which he 

 preferved till his death. 



He was lirlt tempted to draw, from feeing lome ordiua-v 

 prints in a periodical magazine, which he imitated with ccn- 

 iiderable fuccefs ; and his firlt attempt at drawing a por- 

 trait was from memory, when endeavouring to defcribe the 

 features of a llrangcr whom he had feen at church. When 

 he was about 15, his mind was led atlray from the occu- 

 pations in which his father had engaged him, by the fociety 

 and converfation of a peculiar, but ingenious man, named 

 Wilkinfon, who refided at Dalton. He was afterwards 

 placed under the care of a Mr. Wright, a cabinet-maker. at 

 Lancafter; but he, foon perceiving the turn of Romney's 

 mind for drawing, advifed his father to leave him at liberty 

 to indulge his propenlity, and become a painter. At the 

 fame time he recommended an artill of the name of Steele, 

 as a preceptor for the youth ; and with him he continued to 

 Rudy and practife for a fhort time only, in which, however, 

 he acquired, to a certain extent, the knowledge and ufe of 

 the materials of the art. 



When he left Steele, and had begun to pradtife portrait 

 painting as a means of fubliltence, he became anxious to 

 vilit, and tempt his fate in the metropolis. He laboured 

 therefore very hard, painting portraits at low prices, and 

 occafionally producing picture* of hiltorical fubjccls, which 

 he difpofed of by way of raffle at Lancalter. By thefe 

 means he acquired a fum of nearly a hundred guineas ; of 

 which taking thirty pounds to pay his travelling expences, 

 and leaving the remainder with his wife, he fct out to 

 put his long intended projett into execution, in the year 

 1762. 



He firP. refided in the city, where he painted portraits at 

 five guineas a • head, and acquired confidcrablc pradlice 

 through the friendly affiflance of Mr. Braithwaite, then of 

 the poll-office. In 1764 he vifited France, in company with 

 Mr. Greene, of Gray's Inn. There he was introduced to 

 Vernet, and, by his friendly alhllance, obtained admittance 

 to the gallery of the duke of Orleans, the Luxembourg, 

 and other repofitories of art. On his return, he took up 

 a reiidencc in Gray's Inn, to be near his travelling com- 

 panion ; and, by a picture of judge Yates, obtained favour 

 among gentlemen of the robe, and afterwards produced 

 many excellent pictures of perfons eminent in that pro- 

 feffion. In 1763 he obtained a prize from the Society for 

 the Encouragement of Arts and Sciences, for an hillorical 

 pifture, the fubjed of which was the death of king Edmund. 

 In 1768 he quitted Gray's Inn, and went to live in Great 

 Newport-ftreet, where he continued to advance in reputa- 



tion and practice ; exhibiting with the i. corporated foe! 

 of artifts in Pall Mall, and in Sprhig Gard 



Though thus rapidly g blic refpedl as an an 



Romney was himfelf fo confcious of his want of ftyle, 

 the neceflity of cultivating his tafte by feeing the gr 

 models of antiquity, that he nobly refolved upon relin- 

 quifliing, for a time, the pecuniary . Ivantages his tale 

 acquired him, (which now amounted to 1200/. a-year.) 

 and vilit Italy, where alone he could, al •, attain 



the objeft of his defire. He accordingly arranged a plan ot 

 travel with Mr. Ozias Humphrey, a miniature painter ot 

 celebrity, and on the 20th March 1773, they fet forward on 

 their journey, through France, to Rome. There, and at 

 01 her places, where the bed works of art were to be found, 

 he remained two years; leading a life reclufe and ttudi 

 and making fome tew copies. 



On his return, in July 1775, he took the houfe in Ca- 

 vendifh-fquare, where he refided till he retired, in 1798, from 

 public practice, to live at Hampflesd, in a houfe he had 

 built ; and where he hoped to recruit a weakened confti- 

 tution by tranquil enjoyment, and the beneficial effects of 

 purer air. During the preceding 20 years, Romney had 

 d uninterrupted fuccefs in the pr.adtice of his pro- 

 feffian, to which he was fo ardently attached, that his whole 

 delight was in it. His talents, in return, were highly 

 eileemed, and encouraged by an immenfe influx of empl 

 ment. He, in meafure, divided the attention of the town 

 with Reynolds, and indeed by numbers was preferred before 

 him ; but he wanted the fuavity of mind and manners 

 which his accomplimed rival enjoyed. Timid and refer* >i. 

 and, at the fame time, ardent and enterprifing, his ima- 

 gination was tremblingly alive to thofe irritating circum- 

 itances, by which vulgarity and ignorance conflantly wound 

 the mind of the portrait painter, and fubject him to mortifi- 

 cation and difguft. The flighted appearance of coldnefs in 

 a friend, or of hollility in a critic, was often fufficient to ob- 

 ltruft the exertions of his faculties. This timidity and re- 

 ferve were the reafons that, amidlt the immenfe crowd of 

 perfons to whom, of courfe, by his profeiTional practice, he 

 was known, there were few with whom lie lived in friendly 

 intercourfe. His mind dwelt conltantly on the art he de- 

 lighted and excelled in, and among thole only who fympa- 

 tln/ed with his peculiarities, was he happy to alTociate. 



Romney was fubjedt to occalional depreffion of fpirits, 

 which the kind attentions of his friend Hayley, and the in- 

 vigorating air of the SulTcx Downs, among which that friend 

 refided, and where our painter ufually fpent his fummer 

 months, often partially removed. On the approach of age, 

 he was lefs able to cope effectually with attacks of that 

 nature, and they gained llrength upon him to an alarming 

 degree. In 1797 he felt a flight paralytic flroke, which 

 affected his eye and his hand, and prevented him from con- 

 tinuing his proteflional labours. He then retired, as we have 

 faid, to Hampdead, but finding his health flill decline, he, 

 ill 1799, revifited his native country ; and at Kendal re- 

 ceived from a wife, whom, though deferted for fo long a 

 fpace of time, he had fupported, and protected from po- 

 verty, a kind and afleftionate attention till his death, (which 

 occurred in Nov. 1802,) having unhappily funned the lofi 

 of that faculty which ii the diiunguiftung glory of man, and 

 relapfed to the helplefs Hate of infancy. 



Of Romney, as an artill, it is by no means eafy to appre- 

 ciate the jult charafter. That he pollefled gcniuB and talents 

 in an eminent degree, no one can deny. The learned editor 

 of Pilkington's Dictionary ha;, faid, " that he was made for 

 the times, and the times for him." It had perhaps been 

 more juft to have obferved, that Romney was made for bet- 

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