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Norwich.—Among the pictures he is proposing to give to a London dealer in part-exchange for others is one by by Teniers which he had previously offered to Turner. Asks if he still wants it, and if he will help him obtain a copy of one of Christie’s sale catalogues.

(Signed 'Geo. Stacy Jr'.)

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Transcript

Sir

By last Nights Coach I returned from London, and have discovered there a sort of “Rara avis in terris” a perfect prodigy, I assure you, an honest dealer in pictures!! I am so told however, and have no reason to think otherwise at present, our acquaintance however has been Cut short, and as I know well that opinions hastily formed are frequently obliged to be retracted, I will venture no further on this point just yet.

The liberty I am taking in addressing this epistle to you Sir, is shortly this, I am very desirous to take from the number of pictures I possess, and to add to them quality, five and twenty for me, rather than fifty, but these shall be of the first class!!!—the worthy Gentleman above alluded to, has three pictures that will be to me a great acquisition, and we have so far got through, that it is agreed he is to take the stipulated sum in two thirds cash, one third Pictures—amongst five small ones I intend sending, is the little breakfast picture of “Taste” by Teniers, bought at the late Mr Harveys sale, but when removing them from the wall this morning for the purpose of packing, I remembered your request when at my house with Mrs Turner, to have this picture offered you in case I should ever be induced to part with it, I have now nothing as a companion and do not care for keeping it, should you therefore still feel desirous to possess it, it is at your service upon the same terms I had it at the sale, (23 Guineas) I will delay my package untill I receive your reply, and should you decide upon taking it, it shall be directly dispatched for Yarmouth, you will probably be in Norwich in the Spring of the year, ’till which time delay the payment, then on your calling I shall have the pleasure to show you a Picture, which I believe to be the very finest of Ruisdaels productions.

I have now Sir a favour to ask of you, and I am sure if it lays in your means you will oblige me,—I am endeavouring to collect catalogues of the most eminent sales of pictures that have taken place within the last fourteen years, amongst those I have, is one, of the sale at Mr Christie’s room on Monday July 12th 1811, {1} the Pictures were all fine, but amongst them in particular one Rembrandt Ship Builder &c the Hayfield Wouwerman, Philip, Bathing the Eunuch, by Both &c &c these with many others of them were from the Cabinet of Mr Schmi[dt] {2} of Amsterdam, this catalogue is but in eight or ten instances marked, and should you possess one, and for a day or two would grant me the loan of it to complete mine by, I shall esteem it an obligation.

Am Sir
most respectfully
Your Obliged Hble Serv[an]t
Geo: Stacy Jr

Norwich
Decr 14th 1821

To
Dawson Turner Esqr

[Superscription:] Dawson Turner Esqr | Yarmouth

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No marks of posting.

{1} The date is apparently wrong. See A Catalogue of … Italian, French, Flemish and Dutch Pictures … comprising the flower of the very precious cabinet of Mr Schmidt of Amsterdam … which will be sold by auction by Mr Christie at his Great Room, Pall Mall, on Wednesday, June 12th, 1811, and The Times, 12 June 1811, p. 4. The collector referred to as ‘Mr Schmidt’ was Pieter de Smeth van Alphen, a Dutch merchant and banker. See ‘An unwritten chapter of Dutch collecting history: the painting collection of Pieter de Smeth van Alphen (1753-1809)’, Simiolus, vol. 40, no. 1 (2018), pp. 18-98.

{2} A small piece of the paper has been cut away where the seal was attached.

(Etching. By Coke’s name in the index for 1812 Dawson Turner has written, ‘his portrait by Mrs D. T. inserted’.)

(Attribution from the National Portrait Gallery Collection, reference NPG D22584.)

Transcript

Wednesday 22nd Jan[uar]y 1800

My Dear Sir!

My daughters particularly thank Mrs T. for the drawings. Since she was good enough to offer, & my eldest daughter {1} only mixes water colours & lead (having nothing else here), I will thank Mrs T. to lend the box of body-colours she show’d me; of which my daughter will be as sparing as possible, & carefully return the rest. Indeed, they are going away, in a week or a fortnight, with Mrs Walker & Lady Irvine: which brings me to a request.—I wish them much to having the honour of knowing Mrs T.; that they may have a claim to see her, in my house or houses of their own, hereafter, when she wanders from Yarmouth: I wish them to see a Lady, whom they have repeatedly heard me mention as a model of a wife & a mother: & I sh[oul]d like to know whether Mrs T. do not think that few girls of 18 have the good sense of my eldest daughter. The greatest obligation Mrs T. can confer upon me, is to let me introduce my children to her, the evening that I read the tragedy; w[hic]h, too, they have not heard. Never mind M. Septmonville, about whom I spoke before. The sooner we fix, the better. Mr Gurney’s poem {2} is, now, finish’d; so he will not be occupied. It will be a most creditable, elegant, manly thing. Make him keep the lines to his sister; {3} w[hic]h are Ditto, as above.

Yours ditto, as ever, very faithfully
H. Croft.

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{1} Sophia.

{2} Presumably Cupid and Psyche: A Mythological Tale, from the Golden Ass of Apuleius, by Hudson Gurney, published anonymously by J. Wright, ‘opposite Old Bond Street, Piccadilly, London’, in 1799. Dawson Turner’s presentation copy, which he supplemented with a portrait and autograph of the author, is in the British Library (General Reference Collection 11632.g.2). A second edition appeared in 1800.

{3} Hudson Gurney had one full sister, Agatha, who married Sampson Hanbury, and two half-sisters, Elizabeth, who married John Gurney Jr, and Anna. See W. H. Bidwell, Annals of an East Anglian Bank (1900), p. 400.

(Undated, but probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)

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Transcript

My Dear Sir!

A thousand thanks for your & Mrs T.’s kind civilities about my daughters! It was my intention to have call’d & said we w[oul]d not give the trouble of coming to dinner; but, as Mr Gurney said it was arrang’d, I acquisce’d, & bagg’d him to say we w[oul]d have that pleasure.

And, now, my Dear Sir, whose friendship it gives me so much happiness to have made here, let me beg of you & Mrs Turner to serve me in another respect. You know how well I take correction as a poet, & you shall see I will bear it as well as a father. I beg you both, of whom I think so highly, to tell me what you think of my daughters; & what I can seek to alter. They have been the whole object of my life, both before I went abroad & since. As I have no son, & my first wife’s property & my own (which, on the falling-in of ground-rents in London, must shortly be above three thousand a year) must, on my death, go among my three daughters, equally, by settlement, or to their children or the survivors; I have spar’d no expense, to qualify them for the situations they have a right to, in this odd world.

But {1} my great object has been to keep all three (of course, the eldest, principally) from being coxcombs—to give them that good sense, w[hic]h is worth every thing—& to qualify them to be a comfort to a father, &, at a proper time, to a husband. Not being able to leave this place (but I hope, now, that all will soon be settled by Lady Croft & her friends), & their mother in law being employ’d about my affairs, I made them come hither; & I own that I am nearly satisfied, considering the eldest was only 18 last august. {2} But I shall long, much, to know Mrs T.’s & your real sentiments. Both of you, as parents yourselves & now looking forward about your own children, will excuse a parent’s anxiety about his; especially, when there is not any thing I would not do to prove to Mrs T. & you how truly I am,

My Dear Sir!
your most oblig’d & affect[iona]te friend
H. Croft

P.S. | May I beg you to send me those printed papers tomorrow morning, with Mrs T.’s real opinion? My daughters know nothing about that.

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Letters missing from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Written as a catch-word at the foot of a page and repeated at the beginning of the next.

{2} Sophia Croft was born on 18 August 1781.

(Dated Saturday. Probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)

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Saturday

My Dear Sir!

The picture of my children 5 or 6 years ago, {1} but very like still, I sent, this morning; for you & Mrs T. to see. You can return it on monday; when I will beg you to lend Sophy another body-colour drawing, & Mary Anne another of Mortimer’s, w[hic]h I think Mrs T. was good enough to say she c[oul]d borrow. The bearer brings Mrs T.’s two, & their copies. Sophy has purposely made hers lighter, as I thought yours was too Penseroso; I being fond of the pleasant saddle honest Dryden mentions in his dedication of Virgil, “w[hic]h will be sure to amble, when {2} the world is upon the hardest trot”. Give me gay sunshine; or moonlight, w[hic]h does not add to the gloominess of scenes always gloomy enough.

Dont† forget, if we ever get a good day, to give Sophy a lesson in botany, at Downes’s garden, some morning; as {3} I expect she understands a little. When she leaves Yarmouth (in a fortnight or so, I imagine) she will, I am sure, be happy if Mrs T. can charge her with any commissions in Town. Tomorrow ev[enin]g I mean to come & sit with you.

Ever most truly y[ou]rs
H. Croft

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Letters missing from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Presumably the painting of his three daughters as cherubim, attributed to Lemuel Francis Abbott, now in the possession of the National Trust.

{2} This word, which is at the beginning of a line, is preceded by opening inverted commas.

{3} This word resembles ‘or’ more closely, but ‘as’ makes more sense.

† Sic.

(Attribution and identification of original from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D7805).)

(Etching. Subscribed ‘Mrs. MT’.)

(Attribution and full name of original artist from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D22576).)

(Etching. The caption is ‘Richard Roberts’. Attribution and date from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (D22590).)

(The salutation is ‘Madame’.)

Transcript

Liverpool 28th Decem[be]r 1817.

Dear Sir.

I feel great regret at not having forwarded to you Mr Roscoe’s catalogues, which have been finished a long time, but detained in expectation that a vessel would sail from hence to Yarmouth, by which I could have sent them. I am going to send a parcel to my father (viâ London) in the course of a fortnight and shall enclose them with the medallion of Mr Roscoe, and a Catalogue of our Library; I shall request my father to forward the parcel to you by coach as soon as he receives it, and by these means you will get it much earlier than if it were sent by sea, as the parcel you sent me in the summer was two months in reaching me. I have made the Catalogues as complete as possible, and shall be most happy to do any thing else in my power for you. The Catalogue of the Athenæum Library is now 15 years old, and I hope soon to have another, you will not therefore consider the one I shall send you as a “correct report;” there having been 4000 volumes added since it was printed. In your catalogue of Mr Roscoe’s books, you will see a great many articles with the letter A prefixed, I have done this in consequence of the following circumstance. At the auction, a purse was formed by a number of gentlemen, for the purpose of purchasing some books, and presenting them to Mr Roscoe. A selection was made of those marked A in the catalogue; 220 volumes in number, and purchased for about £300, a sum infinitely below their value; but as the circumstances under which they were bought, were pretty well known there was but little competition. When their intention was made known to Mr Roscoe, he gratefully but firmly declined receiving them, unless he was allowed to pay for them the money they had cost. This, of course, was not agreed to; and Mr R. then stated it as his wish that the books should be presented to the Athenæum; {1} this was finally agreed upon;—a very handsome case has been made to contain them, and the different works published by Mr R. and given by him to this Institution and the whole termed the “Roscoe collection.”

I am now about to mention a subject, which I cannot think of but with great pain, when I consider the many and great obligations you have already conferred on me. I allude to the Bill coming due in March for twenty pounds, and which I very much fear I shall be unable to provide for. When I came here, I had only fifty pounds, and the expences I naturally incurred at commencing housekeeping, and the prospect of an increase of family, which I may look for about that time, with the expences attended upon it;—have and will make such demands upon my income as to render it a matter of great inconvenience, if not impossibility.—It is on this account, my Dear Sir, I make the request and believe me I feel much shame in doing it that you will withhold the Bill, till my means will better enable me to take it up, than they will when it becomes due. I have great reason to suppose that my income in the next year will be larger than the present, as I hope to increase it by the arrangement of several libraries, and by receiving some other appointment which I could hold together with this;—as all the Proprietors of the Athenæum to whom I am at present known, treat me with the greatest respect, and many of them have made voluntary offers to serve me, whenever an opportunity may occur. I will not mention any time for the bill to be withheld, but leave that entirely to you, considering myself of course accountable for any interest which may occur upon it. As I feel very considerable anxiety and uneasiness on this subject, I shall feel very much obliged by your writing me respecting it as early as convenient.—You have, doubtless, seen the Bibliographical Decameron, {1} a fine copy of it has been given to me by the Bookseller to this Institution. It is a very splendid, and I think not a dear work; in a letter to Mr Roscoe, Mr Dibdin says it has cost him 5000 guineas. I think it might have been more generalized, as your Library will afford specimens of “bibliopegistic” excellence, not surpassed by any London binder, and Jones our bookbinder, who has been, and is engaged in binding many of Mr Coke’s valuable manuscripts, beats Lewis hollow. I have seen a copy of the Decameron bound by Lewis, which so far from being superior to, is absolutely worse than many common specimens of country binding. I most heartily wish Mrs Turner and yourself may enjoy much pleasure in your journey to the Classic land, you will I have no doubt, pick up many rare articles. I will take the earliest opportunity of speaking to Mr Roscoe about his portrait, and will also remind Mr Martin of the autographs, both which I will endeavour to procure and send you with the Catalogues. I beg that you will present my best respects to Mrs Turner and your family, and to Mr Sparrow, whose kind attention to me I ever most gratefully remember, and believe me Dear Sir

Yours most respectfull and sincerely
Geo Burrell.

If you should ever want any engravings to be cut in wood, I can recommend a very able artist to you in my assistant librarian, I think Mr Roscoe has sent you one of his specimens in Lord Nelson’s monument, and by the parcel, I will send you some more of his doing.—

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq. | Yarmouth.

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Postmarked at Liverpool, 29 Dec. 1817, and marked with the postage charge ‘1/1’. Letters omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Semi-colon supplied. The preceding word is at the end of a line.

{2} The Bibliographical Decameron, or Ten Days’ Pleasant Discourse upon Illuminated Manuscripts and Subjects connected with Early Engraving, Typography, and Bibliography, by T. F. Dibdin (3 vols, 1817), published for the author by W. Bulmer and Co.

Transcript

July 18th. 1817.

My dear Sir,

At last I return you with many thanks Mr. Cotman’s letters, & I can assure you I have felt satisfaction & delight in his satisfaction & delight. Very much should I have liked to [have] been with him (yourself & some others being of the party) at Shoreham & Steyning: ¿Is there any account of ichnography of these churches? I forget whether while waiting for the packet wch was to carry you to France, you looked at any of the neighboring villages.

I thank you again for the trouble you took respecting my question about Thou & You. I do not however feel completely answered or rather I should say refuted. ¿Can you tell me when Y was first substituted for Th? ¿Is there any language, Celtic or other, from wch both the Roman & our own are, {1} derived that is wanting in the Y, or never uses Th., or uses them promiscuously?

Do not forget, whenever you see a Norman arch regular in it’s ornaments, to examine whether it be not so connected with the other parts—windows—tower—buttresses &c. as to infer the probability of it’s never having been moved—And Vice versâ.

My inference respecting the brick & flint, & subsequently brick & thin stone, radiated arches over the windows of Churches is drawn rather circuitously. I have suspected this date to be from 1480 to 1540 for some time & should much like to have my supposition confirmed by your observation. The W. window in Ormesby tower is thus radiated: it was created 1490. Potter Heigham & other windows are so: I think I can ascertain by connecting the new roof there, with that at Ludham & another at Loddon (these roofs by the bye are another help,) that they were built about 1490. The East window of the Dutch Church, Elm Hill, Norwith (finished 1460) is not radiated. The W. window of St. Andrew’s Hall (part of the same Church) evidently more modern is radiated.

At present, my dear Sir, I cannot say when the Introduction to the Brasses will be finished, because I really cannot say when it will be begun. I am so involved with domestic trifles (for they who cannot hire assistance must use their own fingers) that I feel to have no time to spare & my wife has extorted a promise from me to compile a new Sermon every week & to preach it too—this takes me up time. “very good,” you say, “but perform all your promises in rotation, & you promised me while you were single.” I shall, I hope bye & bye be able to perform all my promises.

Mrs. Layton (my Mother is in Suffolk) tho’ unknown to Mrs. Turner, yet knowing her in character & feeling grateful for her kindness to me, begs to join me in expressions of respect & esteem for her, & for yourself. Speak for me to Elisabeth also & Harriet, Hannah, Ellen, Gurney & the poor little […] {3} How is he? How fares the colony at Halesworth? How are you all?

Yours faithfully
Js. Layton.

[Added on the outside:] Obtain for me some seeds of the Pap: Cambr: {4} & a root of a double tulip wch is at the corners of the squares in Mr. Penrice’s garden & I will thank you.

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq | Yarmouth.

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No marks of posting.

{1} The comma is superfluous.

{2} Reading uncertain.

{3} A word, perhaps ‘babe’, has been lost here where the seal was cut off.

{4} Papaver cambricum, the Welsh poppy.

(Cf. No. 92a. According to Palmer and Tucker (Palgrave Family Memorials, p. 50) this etching was made by Mary Turner from a painting begun by Sir Thomas Lawrence and finished by Samuel Lane in 1816. But the portrait is subscribed ‘S. Lane, Pinxt 1810’.)

(Signed ‘R Pearce’.)

Transcript

Dublin, 28 July 1817—

My dear Sir

I was a good deal surprised, I may say shocked, at the account of Layton’s marriage—his letter to you was one of the most desperate I have ever read—he fairly renders you the halter wherewith to hang him & is indifferent whether you do or not—he attempts no justification, shews no cause & with theatrical hardihood glories in self exposure. Is it not like the act of frenzy? no one can say it is the decision right or wrong, of a reasoning being. I really am sorry for him. You justly observe that you have yet to learn the circumstances that led to the event—something no doubt remains to be told, which indeed I should like to know, for the mysterious enigma in which the intelligence is conveyed fairly baffles me. The relation of this extraordinary transaction has led you naturally enough to general observation, & for what you have suggested as a warning to me that I make no shipwreck of myself, I receive as a further instance of your friendly regard. But tho’ I agree most entirely in the view you have taken, I must be allowed to submit in my own behalf that all your reasoning presumes (in the instance in which you apply it) that there has been if not a neglect, at least an indifference to the fair opportunity which is generally extended to all. This with perfect sincerity I can assure you is not the case with me. I may perhaps be romantic, tho’ I believe I do not pass for being so, but I have feelings about marriage which have hitherto excluded me, & may perhaps for ever, from entering upon the enjoyments (& no-one more highly values them) of that state. Without meaning to underrate worldly advantages, I never could contemplate a connexion of which these were to be the main considerations—& I know I have been blamed more than once, for what was considered turning my back upon myself—Othello says—

“But that I love the gentle Desdemona
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription & confine
For the Sea’s worth.”—& so say I.

On the other hand, peculiar circumstances which it would be long & tedious to explain have prevented my exercising a choice free from the advantages above referred to. I never could in fact have so chosen without knowing that I was acting selfishly as regards others & impudently as regards myself. Celibacy is therefore in me, a state not of deliberate preference, but of submission to circumstances which I cannot confront & do not care to oppose.—You kindly tax me & what is worse, Mrs Turner taxes me, with protracting my stay in England & not going to you, in contempt of your joint invitation. It is true I did delay (for that is the proper word) much longer that I originally intended—but it was a delay without premeditation & without plan, continuing from week to week, or rather from day to day. I never had time sufficient in prospect, to enable me to propose an excursion to Yarmouth—to have accomplished which according to my wishes & engagements, could not have been done in a day. {1} I rely therefore on your candor for an excuse, & I must make the same appeal to Mrs Turner’s. It vexes me that you have not yet got Junot’s catalogue {2}—pray remind Mr Evans when you next are in town, that Mr Crosse of Hull, more than a year ago, sent his catalogue to be marked for you—this may bring the matter to his recollection. The Dublin Society has not yet ordered Cotman’s work, but I intend to propose it the first opportunity, I think with you that it will be of use to us. I have been searching “Nashe’s Lenten Stuff” in vain, for a word which I thought I had met in that tract, nor can I now remember it—it is that which Mr Kemble was offering an explanation of—it occurs as you told me in Shakespea[re] {3} & seems to signify some kind of ship—do remind me of it, that I may puzzle myself no longer. Mr Prendergast’s eldest son is now at Lowestoff† with a Cambridge tutor, who is cramming him during the recess—he has applied to me to bring him acquainted with some of the neighbourhood & I know no method so effectual as mentioning the circumstance to you, with an assurance that whoever may do him the kindness to notice him will find him to be an amiable, well-disposed young man, reasonably gifted & cultivated according to his time of life—he has but just left school & his residence at Cambridge is to commence with the next Term. I beg my kindest regards to Mrs Turner & your young ladies, Hannah not excepted, & believe Me to be

Yours very sincerely & faithf[ull]y
P L Patrick

[Direction:] To | Dawson Turner Esq[ui]r[e] | Yarmouth | Norfolk

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Postmarked 28 July 1817, and marked with the postage charge ‘1/6’. There are some indistinct pencil inscriptions on the outside. Letter omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} A few words in this sentence were torn away with the seal, and have been supplied by Turner.

{2} The catalogue of the Library of Field Marshal Junot, sold by R. H. Evans in 1816. ‘A very remarkable collection of books, printed on vellum by Didot and other eminent printers, the most noteworthy being the unique copy of Longus’s Pastoralia, printed expressly for him by Didot, with the original drawings by Prudhon, and a set of proof impressions of the engravings to illustrate the work. Sold for £37 10s.’ See F. Norgate, ‘Book Sales by R. H. Evans (1812-1845)’, The Library, series 1, vol. iii (1891), pp. 12-13.

{3} The end of this word is concealed by the guard.

† Sic.

(Attribution and full name of original artist from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D22568).)

(Attribution from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D35653 and NPG D35654).)

(Attribution from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D22583). There is also a copy in the Victoria and Albert Museum (29831:192).)

(Attribution from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D22598).)