T H O 



T H O 



cliurcli, is tlie mod perfeft part of the ancient builJiiig. 

 The revenues of the abbey were ellimated, at the diflblu- 

 tion, at 411/. I2J-. 11^. clear yearly value. Great part of 

 its poflcfTions, with the fcite, was granted in 1549 to John, 

 lord RufTell, anccftor to the duke of Bedford, who is lord 

 of the manor, and owner, not only of the town, but alfo of 

 19,000 acresof the furrounding lands. This extenlive pi-o- 

 perty is divided into farms from 25/. to 400/. per annum, 

 generally in a very improved llate of cultivation. A market 

 is held on Thurfdays, and two annual fairs were granted for 

 Thorney to Francis, earl of Bedford, in the 1 3th year of 

 Charles I. by the charter of incorporation for the govern- 

 ment of the Bedford Level. The inhabitants of the pari(h, 

 who are chiefly the defcendants of French Proteftants, are 

 ftated in the population return of the year 1 8 1 1 , to amount to 



1675 : the number of houfes being 251 Lyfons's Magna 



Britannia, vol. ii. part I. Cambridgelhire. Beauties of 

 England and Wales, vol. ii. Cambridgelhire ; by .1. Britton 

 and E. W. Brayley. 



Thornev IJland, a fmall ifland, in a bay of the Englifli 

 Channel, near the coall of Suflex, about four miles in cir- 

 cumference, with a village of the fame name, at the mouth of 

 the Lavant ; 7 miles S.W. of Chichefter. 



THORNHILL, 5/V James, in Biography, may be called 

 the father of hiftoric painting in England. He was the fon of 

 a gentleman of an ancient family in Dorfetfliire, and was born 

 at Weymouth in 1676. His family having fallen in fortune, 

 he was obliged to refort to fome profeffion for fupport, and 

 guided by an early tafte for painting, fixed upon that art as 

 a bafe on which to raife a fortune and a name. He came 

 to London, and was affifted by the celebrated phyfician 

 Sydenham, who placed him under the tuition of an artift of 

 little note, whofe name is not known, and to whom, from 

 the ftate of the art at the time, he muft have been far lefs 

 indebted for the progrefs he made, than to his own inge- 

 nuity and induftry. After having praftifed for a while 

 ■with fome celebrity, he travelled to Holland and to 

 Flanders ; and thence vifited France, but did not proceed 

 to Italy. Moft probably his objeft in this journey was 

 only to acquire a knowledge of colouring ; and he might 

 have fatisfied his mind on compofition and form, by having 

 fpent three years in copying the cartoons of Raphael, which 

 he was permitted to do by the favour of the earl of Halifax. 

 Thefe copies are ia oil, and were bought after his death by 

 the then duke of Bedford ; and by his grace's fucceflbr, 

 the late duke, were prefented to the Royal Academy. 

 They are wrought with care, but lack the delicacy of cha- 

 racter and feehng obfervable in the originals. On his re- 

 turn to England, his reputation was increafed, and honour 

 and employment accompanied it. Queen Anne com- 

 miffioned him to paint the interior of the cupola of St. 

 Paul's, which he did in eight compartments. The fubjeft 

 afiigned him was the hiftory of St. Paul ; and he treated it 

 with confiderable grandeur of fl.yle,both as to compofition and 

 execution ; but his defign wanted chaftity and fimplicity, 

 and the heads of his figures have not fufficient refinement of 

 expreffion. It was, however, the firft attempt by an Eng- 

 lifhman of the kind, and fully juilified the preference given 

 to him over La Guerre and t^a Foffe, who were then paint- 

 ing the halls and ftaircafes of our nobility. He was after- 

 wards employed to decorate an apartment at Hampton 

 Court, with emblematlfcal allufions to the hiftory of the 

 queen, and her union with her confort, George, prince of 

 Denmark. But his grand work is the great hall at Green- 

 wich Hofpital, where he has painted naval trophies and 

 allegorical figures in great profufion ; and if much praife 

 cannot be given to the purity of the defign, it ought not to 



be withheld from thi- brilliancy and vigour of the execu- 

 tion. Altogether, it is a work unrivalled in its kind here, 

 and well entitled him to the honour of knighthood, which 

 George I. foon after conferred upon him. This was fome 

 compenfation to him for the mortification of having liis 

 demand for thefe paintings contefted, and being in the end 

 paid only at the labourer's rate of fo much per fquare 

 yard, (40J). 



He had the honour of fo far re-eftablifliing his family in- 

 fluence as could be cffefted by being chofen to reprefent his 

 native town in parliament ; but he did not enjoy his honours 

 long, as he died at the early age of 57, leaving a fon, named 

 alfo James, for whom he had procured the appointment of 

 ferjcant-painter to the king, and a daughter married to 

 Hogarth. 



THORNY Trefoil, in Botany. See Fagonia. 



Thorny Rejl-Harroiu, in Agriculture, a frequent weed in 

 poor barren pailure land, which is not removed without 

 difficulty, in confequence of its perennial nature. 



THOROE, in Geography, a fmall ifland of Denmark, 

 in the Little Belt, near the ifland of Funen. N. lat. 55'-' i c'. 

 E. long. 9° 53'. 



THOROLD, a townlhip of Upper Canada. 



THOROUGH, the common name of an inter-furrow 

 between two ridges. They (hould always be clean and 

 well-drawn. 



Tno'B.ovon-Bafe, or accompaniment to a continued bafe 

 by figures. 



Thorough-bafe is but an aukward tranflation of the 

 Italian terms bajfo cont'tnuo, by which accompaniment by figures, 

 without any other guide for the right-hand on keyed inilru- 

 ments, was at firft called. 



The French term accompagnement is the (horteft and moft 

 comprehenfive title for the harmony expreffed by figures 

 over the bafe ; if, as Rameau has done in his " Code de 

 Mufique," we add " for the harpfichord or organ," as 

 there are feveral other kinds of accompaniment befides _that 

 on keyed-inftruments. 



Rameau defines accompaniment or thorough-bafe in the 

 following manner. " Accompaniment on the harpfichord 

 or organ, confifts in the execution of a complete and regu- 

 lar harmony, by feeing only the notes of one part of that 

 harmony ; and this part is called the bafe, being in reality 

 the bafis or foimdation of the whole compofition. This 

 bafe is played with the left-hand, and its harmony with the 

 right." 



We (hall endeavour to affift our mufical reader, who has 

 every thing to learn in the art of accompaniment, more by 

 example than precept, and fhall give him a feries of pro- 

 greffive leffbna in- the mufical plates, which will explain 

 the whole myftery of mufical combinations from the com- 

 mon chord, to the moft extraneous harmony. 



We take it for granted that he is perfeftly acquainted 

 with the mufical fcale or gammut, in the bafe and treble 

 clefs at leaft, as well as with the time-table ; and that the 

 accidents of flat, (harp, and natural, are familiar to him. 



The firft thing, therefore, that we ftiall recommend to 

 his ftudy, is a table of intervals, both in notes and figures. 

 See Plate II. 



N° I. prefents a fcale in half notes, in which all the flats 

 occur, from the unifon to the 9th ; another fcale expreffed 

 by ftiarps. 



2. Number of femitones above the bafe in each interval. 



3. Common chords, major and minor, to all the twelve 

 femitones, modulating by jths. 



4. Modulation in common chords, major and minor alter- 

 nately, the bafe falling a 3d at each chang*. And in 



463 order 



