By Mr. T. B. Smith. 



197 



to which the latter as may be imagined, attached ever afterwards 

 great value. 



" So fond was Mr. Lawrence of books, that in almost every room 

 in the house there was a bookcase, containing a choice selection of 

 volumes for the use both of his guests and of his personal friends." 



Such are the particulars which I obtained from my dear and 

 respected friend, who died a few weeks after she had related them 

 to me. I have often since regretted that I had not drawn her 

 attention to the subject before her faculties were dimmed by age, 

 as she could then doubtless have given me much information which 

 had, in 1830, entirely escaped her memory. 



Sir Thomas Lawrence was born at Bristol in the year 1769. Of 

 the geniality of his father's character, I heard much from the late 

 Sir Robert Blagrove, with whom I spent an evening at the Bear 

 Hotel, Devizes, some 22 years ago. Sir Robert told me that when 

 a subaltern, he had been recruiting at Devizes, and was quartered 

 at the Bear for nearly three months. Though upwards of 80 years 

 of age at the time that I met him, he proved to be a most lively 

 and entertaining companion, and, amongst other things entertained 

 me by singing with great heartiness the chorus of a song, with 

 which, he said, " the jolly old landlord used to amuse him in his 

 younger days." 



Some references having been made in Waylen's History of 

 Devizes, 1 to the sale of the portrait of Miss White, of which mention 

 has been made above, the following additional particulars of the 

 sale may perhaps not be considered out of place. 



It having become generally known that this picture had been 

 sent to the Duchess of Kent, and the Princess Yictoria, for their 

 inspection during their visit to Earlstoke Park, in 1830, it became 

 an object of considerable interest, and on the sale of the Earlstoke 

 collection two years later, Mr. George Robbins, the auctioneer, 

 wished me to allow it to be included in the catalogue. This I declined 

 to do. It is somewhat remarkable that among so valuable a collection 

 of paintings as that possessed by the late Mr. Watson Taylor, there 

 should have been only one by Sir Thomas Lawrence, (a portrait of 

 1 History of Devizes, 1859, p. 453. 



