ALS 
finifhed, and carry it away with him, fome 
other perfon, who was lurking within fight 
for that purpofe, and kuew the itate of 
Mortand’s “pocket, by the temptation of 
a few guineas laid upon the table, carried 
off the picture, and left the intended pur- 
chafer to lament his Jefs, and feek his re- 
medy by getting Morland to paint him 
another picture; z. ¢ when he was in the 
humour to work for money which he had 
already fpent; and in making this fatisfac- 
tion he certainly was not very alert: thus 
all were ferved in their turn, and though 
each exulied in the fucce/s of the trick, 
when he was {o lucky as to get a picture 
in this way, they all joined in exclaiming 
agawi{t Morland’s want of honelty, in not 
keeping his promi/és to them. 
The confequences of this ¢onduét were 
frequently diltrefs, the f{punging-hoafe, 
and the jail; except when he had the good- 
fortune to efcape into a retirement .un- 
known to all but fome trufty dealer, who 
for the time took all his works, and paid 
him a ftipulated fum for bis fupport. On 
one occafion, to avoid his creditors, he re- 
tired from public fight, and lived very ob- 
fcurely near Hackney : fome of the ncigh. 
bours, from his extreme privacy and other 
circumitances, entertained a notion that 
he was either a coiner or_a fabricator 
of forged bank notes ; which fufpicion 
being communicated at the Bank, the Di- 
rectors fent fome police officers to fearch 
the houfe, and if guilt fhould appear, to 
take the offender into cuftody. Upon their 
arrival, they were foon obferved by Mor- 
land, who, underflanding them to bea 
bailiff and his followers, come in quett of 
himfelf, immediately retreated into the 
garden, went out at a back door, and ran 
over the brick fields towards Hoxton, and 
then to London. Mrs. Morlana, trem- 
bling with furprife, opened the front door, 
when the police officers entered, and began 
to fearch the heufe; but upon explana- 
tion taking place, and upon her afluring 
them, with an unaficcted fmplicity (fo 
very evidently the nataral refult of truth) 
that they were miftaken, and likewife in- 
forming them of the caufe of bis flight, 
and on their difcovering little more in the 
houfe than fome very excellent unfinifhed 
pictures, which even in thefe men excited 
Sentiments of admiration and refpect, they 
faid they were convinced of the miftake, 
and retired. Upon communicating the 
sefult of their fearch to the Direciors of 
tbe Bank, that they had made no difcovery 
of bank-notes, but that it was Morland 
the painter’s reweat from his creditors 
they had chanced to dilcover, aud an ac» 
Memoirs of George Moriand. 
j [Dee. 1, 
count of his flight to avoid them as bailiffs, 
the Direétors of the Bank commiferated the 
pecuniary embarraflment of this unfortu- 
nate genius, and alfo on account of the 
trouble they had unintentionally given 
him, generoufly fent him, as a voluntary 
prefent, two bank-notes of twenty pounds 
é¢ach. 
He was found at another time ina 
lodging in Somer’s Town, in the follow- 
ing moft extraordinary circumftances : his 
infant child, that had been dead nearly 
three weeks, lay in its coffin, in the one 
corner of the room; an a{s and foal ftood 
munching barley-ftraw out of the cradle ; 
a fow and pigs were folacing themfelves 
in the recefs of an old cupboard; and 
himfelf whiftling over a beautiful piGure 
that he was finifhing at his eafel, with a 
bottle of gin hung up on one fide, and a 
live moufe fitting (or if you pleafe, kick- 
ing) for its portrait, on the cther. 
Morland’s garret ferved him for all the 
purpofes of life, and of this he has left a 
moft admirable picture, as a companion to 
Sir Jofhua Reynolds’s kitchen, in Leicefter- 
{quare, the houfe that once belonged to hig 
father. A great number of his pictures 
were loft a few years ago, in a fhip that 
foundered onits paflage to Ruffia. 
7hen in confinement, and even fome- 
times when he was at liberty, it was com- 
mon for him to have four guineas per 
day aad his drink; an object of no {mall 
confequence, as he began to drink before 
he began to paint, and continued to, do 
both alternately, till he had painted as 
much as he pleafed, or till the liquor com- 
pleatly got the better, when he claimed his 
money, and bufinefs was at an end for the 
day. This laid his employer under the 
neceffity of paffing his whole time with 
him, to keep him in a ftate fit for work; 
and to carry off ‘the day’s work when it 
was done ; if he did not, fome eves-drop- 
per got the picture, and he was to get what 
redrefs he could. ; 
By this condué&, fteadily purfued for 
many years, he ruined his conftitution, 
diminifhed his powers, and funk himfelf 
into general contempt. He had no fo- 
ciety, nor did he with for any other but 
the loweft of thofe beings whofe only en- 
joyment is gin and ribaldry, and from 
which he was taken, a fhort time fince, 
by a marfhallea writ, for a {mall fum of 
money: when taken to a place of confine- 
ment, he drank a large quantity of {pi- 
rits, and was foon afterwards taken ill. 
The man in whofe cuftody he was, being 
alarmed at his fituation, applied to feverak 
of his friends for relief ; but that ce 
if 
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