At the British Portrait Gallery 241 



which hangs in our National Portrait Gallery. It is a much 

 more pleasing one than the emaciated, dishevelled representa- 

 tion of the philosopher which, from the brush of Kneller, 

 does duty in all illustrated biographies. Locke died twenty 

 years after Milton and it is not unlikely that the painter of 

 the portrait of the great thinker never saw the great poet. 



AT THE BRITISH PORTRAIT GALLERY. 



Take a chair in Room IX. facing the end of it. You have 

 before you as central figure, " Prior's Kitty, ever young," 1 the 

 beautiful Duchess of Queensberry. She stands at full length ; 

 dressed in light grey or drab, with the accompaniments of the 

 milkmaid whom she personates, though she is more suggestive 

 of an aristocratic young Quakeress. She was the friend of 

 Pope, Swift, and Prior, and the patroness of Gay. Below 

 her to the right is the portrait of Prior himself, and in line with 

 him James Thompson, of " The Seasons," Jonathan Richard- 

 son and George Virtue. We will not confuse Jonathan with 

 Samuel. This Richardson was not the author of " Sir Charles 

 Grandison," but an able painter and critic. His essay 

 on the theory of painting excited the enthusiasm for art of 

 Joshua Reynolds when a boy, and he has been called Reynolds' 

 pictorial grandfather. Next to him is a specimen of his art 

 in a fine portrait of George Virtue. To Virtue we owe a debt 

 of gratitude as an early collector of portraits and one who 

 did, perhaps, more than any other to promote a fondness for 

 them and to make them accessible to all, in excellent engrav- 

 ings. Richardson's own portrait is also by himself, so that 



1 Walpole wrote : — 



" To many a Kitty, Love his ear would for a day engage, 

 But Prior's Kitty, ever young, obtained it for an age." 



(We borrow from the catalogue. ) 



