550 
his leifure hours in the evening were devot- 
ed to the ftudy of perfpective, and learning 
French without the aid of a mafter. To im- 
prove himfelf in the pronunciation ofthe lan- 
guage he -had thus acquired, he regularly 
attended at the French chapel. After very 
fteadily purfuing his bufinefs for fix years, 
finding himfelfa better artift than his teacher, 
he bought from Mr. Toms the laft year of his 
apprenticefhip, and became his own matter ; 
and the firft ufe he made of his freedom was 
to return into his own country, where he mar- 
ried a very deferving young perfon of a moft 
refpectable family, to whom he had an early 
attachment ; and with whom he lived many 
years in great felicity. In the year 1745 tte 
became his own matter, and immediately 
after he was out of his time publifhed fix 
fmall landfcapes, defigned and engraved by 
hmielf. This, from his having in moft of the 
views, chofen a fituation in which a bridge - 
formed part of the fcenery, was entitled the 
Bridge-book, and fold at a fhilling; a fum 
which would not now pay for the paper and 
printing. Small as this fum was, he fome- 
times {poke with apparent pleafure of a fil-. 
verf{mith in Duke’s-court, St. Martin’s-lane, 
having folti fo many, that when he tettied 
his annual account, he thought it would be 
civil to take a filver pint-mug in part of pay- 
ment ; and this cup he retained until his 
dying day. He afterwards defigned and en- 
graved many other views, generally of 
places in and about London, and publithed 
the greateft part of them at the low price of 
one thilling each. But, even at this early 
time of life, he was fo muchalive to fame, that 
after having pafied feveral months in copying 
an hiftorical picture of Coriolanusby Sebaitian 
Concha, he fo much dilliked his own engrav- 
ing, that he cut the plate to pieces. Befides 
thefe, he engraved many prints from Brock- 
ing, Berchem, Salvator Rofa, &c. The man- 
mer in which many of them are executed is 
highly refpectable, and being done at a tile 
when the artift had much other bufinefs to 
attend to, difplays an induftry rarely to be 
perallelled, and proves that had he devoted all 
his time to engraving, he would have ranked 
high in the profeffion. His facility of execu- 
tion, and unconguerable perleverance, hav- 
ing thus enabled him to compiete a great 
number of prints, he. collected the whole in 
one port-folio, and publifhed it at five gul- 
'hheas. He modeftly remarks, that it was by 
he profit of thefe prints that the engraver 
of them was firf enabled to hold out encou- 
ragement to the young artifts in this line; 
and thereby he flatters himfelf he has fome- 
what contributed to improve the art in this 
country 5 aud adds, it-is the firft book that 
ever made a Lord Mayor of London, and 
that when the fmallnets of this work is com- 
pared with what has followed, he hopes it 
will imprefs all young men with the truth of 
what ke has often held out to them, that 
induftry, patience, and perfeverance, if unit- 
Account of the fate Mr. Alderman Boydell. 
[ Janz, 
ed to moderate talents, are certain to fur- 
mount all difficulties. The arts were at the 
time he began, at a very low ebb in this 
country. Wotton’s portraits of hounds and 
horfes, grooms and fquires, with a diftant 
view of the dog-kennel and ftable ; and Hud-_ 
fon’s portraits of gentlemen in great-coats 
and jockey-caps, were in high repute. In- 
ferior prints from poor originals were almoft 
the only works our Englith artifts were 
thought capable of performing ; and, morti- 
fying as it muft be to acknowledge it, yet it 
mult be admitted, that (with the exception 
of the inimitable Hogarth, and two or three 
others) the generality of them were not 
quatitied for much better things. The powers 
of the artifts were, however, equal to the 
tafte of a great majority of their cuftomers ; 
and the few people of the higher order, who 
had a relifh for better productions, indulged 
it inthe purchafe of ltalian and Flemifh pie- 
tures, and French prints ; for which, even at 
that time, the empire was drained of im- 
menfe fumsef money. To check this deftruc- 
tive fathion, Mr. Boydell! fought foran Englith 
engraver who could equal, it not excel them; 
and, in Woollet, he found one. The Tem- 
ple of Apollo, from Claude, and two pre- 
mium pictures from the Smiths of Chichefter, 
were amongft the firft large works which this- 
excellent artift engraved ; but the Niobe and 
and the Phaeton, from Willon, eftablithed 
his fame. For the firft of them the Alder- 
man agreed to give the engraver fifty gui- 
neas ; and when it was completed paid him 
ahundred. The fecond, the artiit. agreed 
to engrave for fifty guineas, and the Alder- 
man paid him one hundred and twenty. 
The two prints were publifhed by fubferip- 
tion, at five fhillings each. Proof prints were 
not at that time confidered as having any 
particular value; the few that were takey 
off to examine the progrefs of the plate were 
delivered to fuch fubfcribers as chofe to have 
them, at the fubfcription price. Several of 
thefe have fince that time been fold at pub- 
lic auctions, at ten and eleven guineas each. 
By thefe and fimilar publications he had the 
fatisfaciion to fee in his own time the bene- 
ficial effects of his exertions. We have be- 
fore obferved that previous to his eftablith- 
ing a continental correfpondence for the ex- 
portation of prints, immenfe fums were an- 
nually fent out of the country, for the pur- 
chafe of thofe that were engraved abroad ; 
but he changed the courfe of the current, 
and for many of the later years of his liie 
the balance of the print-trade with the Con- 
tinent was very much in favor of Great Bri- 
tain. Having been fo fuccefsful in thus en- 
couraging the art of engraving, he refolved 
to direct his next efforts to the encourage- 
ment of painting in this country. To effect 
this, he projected a plan, which, confidered 
in all its bearings, is we believe of a much 
greater magnitude than any ever attempted 
in any age, in any publication, by a private 
mdivi- ~ 
