guage that we can use, the fashion which has of late become so prevalent amongst us, of exploring every circumstance of the private history of individuals, and publishing every scandalous or piquant anecdote, which can be supposed saleable in a depraved market. This fashion should be allowed to remain exclusively with the low weekly press, with which it commenced. The genius and celebrity of Nollekens, as an artist, ought to have protected him from the pen of his pupil and friend, if no other motives could have operated in his favour.

As a piece of biography, the memoir before us is a very insignificant performance. It is desultory and digressive beyond all endurance. The author appears to have collected from the files of old newspapers, and other sources of that description, as well as from all the old gossips who frequent the British Museum, a vast number of anecdotes concerning all sorts of people, who were in any way remarkable during the last century. The mere incidental mention of any body concerning whom he has a paragraph among his stores, leads forthwith to the production of the precious treasure, and to its insertion in his work, whether it has any or no connexion with the affair of Nollekens. In this way he has contrived to make up two thick volumes, whereas about two hundred and fifty pages contain all that relates to the sculptor, and about half that number would very well embrace all that Mr. Smith, at least, should have stated about him.

The grandfather and father of Nollekens were both Dutchmen, and painters of some respectability; both however resided the greater part of their lives in England, and the subject of these memoirs was born in London on the 29th of January, 1737. He learned drawing at Shipley's school in the Strand, and in his thirteenth year was placed under the instruction of Peter Scheemakers, a sculptor of considerable eminence. From his earliest youth he was remarkable for his love of modelling, and of bell-ringing! Whenever the funeral bell of St. James's church was going, and young Nollekens was out of the way, Scheemakers instantly knew where his apprentice was to be found. However he appears, notwithstanding this idle trick, to have paid great attention to his art. His progress may be judged from the fact recorded in the Registrar's books, that in 1759, and 1760, he obtained three prizes from the Society of Arts, for models in clay. By means of the money thus acquired, amounting to about 607. he was enabled, after having served his master for ten years, to proceed to Rome in 1760, where he arrived with twenty guineas in his pocket. Another prize for a basso relievo in stone, consigned to England in the same year, and one in 1762, of 52. 10s. for a basso relievo in marble, placed him in easy circumstances, and he was thus at liberty to apply all the natural strength of his mind to his art, without any of those apprehensions which too often cloud the budding hours of genius. We may, in this instance, as well as in many others, perceive the real practical utility, which such institutions, as that of the Society of Arts, produce to the community.

It was an auspicious beginning for Nollebens, that the first bust he made was executed

for Garrick. This good fortune happened to him in a manner highly honourable to Garrick, and perfectly indicative of his character. He recognised the young artist at Rome."What! let me look at you! are you the little fellow to whom we gave the prizes at the Society of Arts?" "Yes, Sir," being the answer, Mr. Garrick invited him to breakfast the next morning, and kindly sat to him for his bust, for which he paid him 12. 12s. Another bust, that of Sterne, who was then at Rome, brought him into great notice. Of this performance he was proud to the latest hour of his life.

We were much amused with the simplicity of the author in relating the following anecdote:

"Barry, the Historical painter, who was extremely intimate with Nollekens at Rome, took the liberty one night, when they were about to leave the English coffee-house, to exchange hats with him; Barry's was edged with lace, and Nolleken's was a very shabby plain one. Upon his returning the hat the next morning, he was requested by Nollekens to let him know why he left him his gold-laced hat. Why, to tell you the truth, my dear Joey,' answered Barry, I fully expected assassination last night, and I was to have been known by my laced hat.' This villanous transaction, which might have proved fatal to Nollekens, I have often heard him relate."-vol. i. p. 7.

Does not Mr. Smith know that Barry was mad on this subject? He conceived that all the world was in a conspiracy against him on account of his great talents as a painter, and hence he was in perpetual fear of assassina. tion. Nollekens might have felt quietly enough in the laced hat, and even in the whole of Barry's costume, if he had asked to exchange with

him.

While at Rome, Nollekens purchased, for a mere trifle, those ancient Roman terracottas. which are now let into the walls of the first room of the Gallery of Antiquities in the British Museum. They were purchased by the government from the late Mr. Townley, to whom Nollekens had sold them, and are much admired for the gracefulness of the figures, and the lightness and beauty of the foliated orna

ments.

We can hardly believe that Nollekens was so dishonest, as the following anecdote represents him:

"The patrons of Nollekens, being characters professing taste and possessing wealth, employed him as a very shrewd collector of antique fragments; some of which he bought on his own account; and, after he had dextrously restored them with heads and limbs, he stained them with tobacco water, and sold them, sometimes by way of favour, for enormous sums."vol. i. p. 11.

If this be true, Nollekens might just as well have taken those "enormous sums" out of the pockets of his patrons, and transferred them to his own. Another equally discreditable story is told of him by his biographer:

"Jenkins, a notorious dealer in antiques and old pictures, who resided at Rome for that purpose, had been commissioned by Mr. Locke, of Norbury Park, to send him any piece of sculpture which he thought might suit him, at

a price not exceeding one hundred guineas; but Mr. Locke, immediately upon the receipt of a head of Minerva, which he did not like, sent it back again, paying the carriage and all other expenses.

Nollekens, who was then also a resident in Rome, having purchased a trunk of a Minerva for fifty pounds, found, upon the return of this head, that its proportion and character accorded with his torso. This discovery induced him to accept an offer made by Jenkins of the head itself; and two hundred and twenty guineas to share the profits. After Nollekens had made it up into a figure, or, what is called by the venders of botched antiques, "restored it," which he did at the expense of about twenty guineas more for stone and labour, it proved a most fortunate hit, for they sold it for the enormous sum of one thousand guineas! and it is now at Newby, in Yorkshire."-vol. i. pp. 11, 12.

Our author also accuses him of having been a great smuggler of silk stockings, gloves, and lace, from Italy. His contrivance is said to have been this:-"all his plaster busts being hollow, he stuffed them full of the above articles, and then spread an outside coating of plaster at the back, across the shoulders of each, so that the busts appeared like solid casts." It is hardly fair, and certainly is not very friendly, to ground a general charge of snuggling against Nollekens, upon the single fact that he brought over from Rome, enclosed in a bust of Sterne, the lace ruffles in which he usually went to court. This is the only evidence which his biographer brings against him; the imputation pretty clearly shows the spirit in which the whole work is written.

Upon his return to England, which as well as we can collect, appears to have been about the year 1770, Nollekens became at once the most fashionable sculptor of the day. In the two following years he was chosen, first an associate, and then a member of the Royal Academy. His next business was to marry. He fell desperately in love with Mary, second daughter of Saunders Welch, Esq., the successor in the magistracy of Henry Fielding, and obtained her hand. This lady, according to the author, was the very "pink of precision."

"Mary's figure was rather too tall, but yet graceful; her eyes were good, and she knew how to play with them; her blooming complexion stood in no need of milk of roses; her nose, I must own, and it was the opinion of Nollekens too, was rather of the shortest; her teeth were small, bespeaking a selfish disposition: indeed the whole of her features were what her husband would sometimes call scorney, particularly in their latter days during their little fracas: for be it known, she had no small sprinkling of pride in consequence of a compliment paid her by Dr. Johnson. Her light hair shone in natural and beautiful ringlets down her back to the lower part of her tightly-laced waist; such a shaped waist as her father's friend, Fielding, has given Sophia Western, in his Tom Jones.'"-vol. i. pp. 16, 17.

The author describes Mrs. Nollekens' wedding dress with all the particularity of a milliner. It was quite in the old court dress style, except that she wore no powder in her hair, the auburn beauty of which she had the good

sense to retain. Though she never experienced the luxury of being a mother, it appears, nevertheless, through all the varied and not very gentle colours in which the author represents her, that she was a virtuous and domestic woman, though perhaps a little too thrifty, and somewhat too much inclined to jealousy Her husband's profession frequently rendered it necessary for him to obtain models from a certain class of females; the introduction of these persons into the artist's study, was never, even to the last hour of her life, borne very patiently by Mrs. Nollekens. This was not altogether unnatural; at least it was suffi ciently justifiable to protect her from the ridicule, which Mr. Smith occasionally lavishes upon her on account of this propensity. She was famous for recipes for all sorts of economical dishes, and for her needlework. The only foreign language which she knew, was French she had a sister who spoke seven of the continental dialects.

Among the sculptor's distinguished sitters was his late Majesty, with whom Nollekens (though a Catholic) was a great favourite. Dr. Johnson's bust, by Nollekens, is well known as an admirable likeness. The Doctor complained of the hair, with some justice, for it was mo delled from the flowing locks of a sturdy Irish beggar. The fellow, after sitting an hour, refused to take a shilling for his pains, representing that he could have made more by his

trade!

"Most of his sitters were exceedingly amused with the oddity of his manner, particularly fine women, who were often gratified by being considered handsome by the Sculptor, though his admiration was expressed in the plainest language. I remember his once requesting a lady who squinted dreadfully, to look a little the other way, for then,' said he, 'I shall get rid of the shyness in the cast of your eye' and to another lady of the highest rank, who had forgotten her position, and was looking down upon him, he cried, 'Don't look so scorney; you'll spoil my busto; and you're a very fine woman; I think it will be one of my best bustos. I heard him ask the daughter of Lord Yarborough, in the presence of her husband, to prove to her that he had not forgotten all his Italian, if she did not recollect his dancing her upon his knee when she was a Bambina. He was very fond of speaking Italian, though I have been told it was exceedingly bad; and he would often attempt it even in the presence of the Royal Family, who good-temperedly smiled at his whimsicalities. Even the gravest of men, the Lord Chancellor Bathurst, when sitting to him for his bust for the Chancery Court, in his large wig, condescendingly endured the following collection of nonsense, in which at last his Lordship was obliged to join. Nollekens-Ah! there goes the bell tolling; no,-it's only my clock on the stairs: when I was a boy, you would have liked to have seen me toll the bell; it's no very easy thing, I can tell you;-look a little that way, you must toll, that is to say, I did, one hour for a man, three times three; and three times two for a woman:-now, your Lordship must mind, there's a Moving bell and a Passing-bell; these the Romans always attended to.' 'You mean

the Roman Catholics, Mr. Nollekens,' observed his Lordship. Yes, my Lord, they call that the Moving-bell, which goes when they move. a body out of one parish to the next, or so on. The Passing-bell, is when you are dying, and going from this world to another place.' 'Ay, Mr. Nollekens,' observed his Lordship, there is a curious little book, published in 1671, I think by Richard Duckworth, upon the art of Ringing, entitled Tintannologia.'”—vol. i. pp. 53, 54.

The following anecdote is amusing:

"A lady in weeds for her dear husband, drooping low like the willow, visited the Sculptor, and assured him that she did not care what money was expended on a monument to the memory of her beloved; Do what you please, but do it directly,' were her orders. Industry was a principle rivetted in Nollekens's consti. tution; he rose with the lark, and in a short time finished the model, strongly suspecting she might, like some others he had been employed by, change her mind. The lady, in about three months, made her second appearance, in which more courage is generally assumed, and was accosted by him, before she alighted, with Poor soul! I thought you'd come;' but her tripping down with a light fantastic toe,' and the snorting of her horses, which had been hard-driven, evinced a total change in her inclination, and he was now saluted with,How do you do, Nollekens: well, you have not commenced the model?'-'Yes, but I have though,' was the reply. The Lady Have you, indeed? These, my good friend, I own,' throwing herself into a chair, are early days; but since I saw you, an old Roman acquaintance of yours has made me an offer, and I dont know how he would like to see in our church a monument of such expense to my late husband; indeed, perhaps, after all, upon second thoughts, it would be considered quite enough if I got our mason to put up a mural inscription, and that, you know, he can cut very neatly.My charge, interrupted the artist, for my model will be one hundred guineas;' which she declared to be 'enormous.' However, she would pay it and have done with him.'"

From a great number of anecdotes without point, and sometimes, indeed, without meaning, we shall select a few, which will perhaps entertain the reader. They will require no observation from us, as they offer nothing that demands or admits of criticism:

"Mrs. Thrale one morning entered Nollekens's studio, accompanied by Dr. Johnson, to see the bust of Lord Mansfield, when the Sculptor vociferated, 'I like your picture by Sir Joshua very much. He tells me it's for Thrale, a brewer, over the water: his wife's a sharp woman, one of the blue-stocking people.' -Nolly, Nolly,' observed the Doctor, I wish your maid would stop your foolish mouth with a blue bag. At which Mrs. Thrale smiled, and whispered to the Doctor, My dear Sir, you'll get nothing by blunting your arrows upon a block.'"-vol. i. p. 114.

*

"Nollekens at all times strongly reprobated @olossal sculpture, more especially when commenced by the too-daring student in the art;

and, indeed, whenever any one led to the subject, he would deliver his opinion, even to persons of the first fashion and rank, with as much freedom as if he were chiding his mason's boy, Kit Finny, for buying scanty paunches for his yard-dog Cerberus. No, no, my Lord,' he would vociferate, with an increased nasal and monotonous tone of voice, 'a grand thing dont depend upon the size, I can assure you of that. A large model certainly produces a stare, and is often admired by ignorant people: but the excellence of a work of art has nothing to do with the size, that you may depend upon from me. In this, he unquestionably was correct; as the graceful elegance of a Cellini cup or a bell for the Pope's table, does not consist in immensity. I have a cast from an antique bronze figure only three inches in height, which, from its justness of proportion and dignity of attitude, strikes the beholder, when it is elevated only nine inches above his eye, with an idea of its being a figure full thirty feet in height."— vol. i. pp. 201, 202.

"Those who recollect the figure of Dr. Wolcot in his robust upright state, and the diminutive appearance of Mr. Nollekens, can readily picture to themselves their extreme contrast, when the former accosted the latter one evening at his gate in Titchfield-street, nearly in the following manner. Why, Nollekens, you never speak to me now: pray what is the reason?' Nollekens- Why, you have published such lies of the King, and had the impudence to send them to me; but Mrs. Nollekens burnt them, and I desire you'll send no more: the Royal family are very good to me, and are great friends to all the artists, and I dont like to hear any body say any thing against them." Upon which the Doctor put his cane upon the Sculptor's shoulder, and exclaimed, 'Well said little Nolly; I like the man who sticks to his friend; you shall make a bust of me for that. I'll see you d-d first!' answered Nollekens, and I can tell you this besides, no man in the Royal Academy but Opie would have painted your picture, and you richly deserved the broken head you got from Gifford in Wright's shop: Mr. Cook, of Bedford-square, showed me his handkerchief dipped in your blood: and so now you know my mind. Come in, my Cerberus, come in.' His dog then followed him in, and he left the Doctor at the gate, which he barred up for the night."

The author thus contrasts Nollekens with Flaxman:

"It was highly amusing to notice the glaring contrast of the two Sculptors, Nollekens and Flaxman, whenever they came in contact in a fashionable party, which I own was rarely the case. The former, upon these occasions, who was never known to expatiate upon Art, generally took out his pocket book, and, in order to make himself agreeable, presented his recipes, perhaps for an inveterate sore throat or a virulent scorbutic humour, to some elegant woman, with as much alacrity as Dr. Bossy, of Covent-garden fame, formerly did to the wife of a Fulham or a Mortlake market-gardener. The latter, however, like a true descendant of Phidias, was modestly discoursing with a select circle upon the exquisite productions of Greece; at the same time, assuring his aud