LETTER FROM MR. ALDERMAN BOYDELL TO ALDERMAN SIR JOHN WILLIAM ANDERSON; READ BY THE LATTER IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, WHEN APPLYING FOR LEAVE TO DISPOSE OF THE SHAKSPEARE PAINTINGS, &C. BY LOTTERY. DEAR SIR, Cheapfide, Feb. 4, 1804. THE kindness with which you have undertaken to reprefent my cafe, calls upon me to lay open to you, with the utmost candour, the circum. ftances attending it, which I will now endeavour to do as briefly as poffible. It is above fixty years since I began to ftudy the art of engraving; in the courfe of which time, befides employing that long period of life in my profeffion, with an industry and affiduity that would be improper in me to defcribe, I have laid out with my brethren, in promoting the commerce of the Fine Arts in this country, above three hundred and fifty thousand pounds. When I first began bufinefs, the whole commerce of prints in this country confifted in importing foreign prints, principally from France, to fupply the cabinets of the curious in this kingdom. Impreffed with the idea that the genius of our own countrymen, if properly encouraged, was equal to that of foreigners, I fet about eftablishing a SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND, with what fuccefs the Public are well acquainted. It is, perhaps, at prefent fufficient to fay, that the whole courfe of that commerce is changed; very few prints being now imported into this country, while the foreign market is principally fupplied with prints from England. In effecting this favourite plan, I have not only spent a long life, but have employed near forty years of the labour of my nephew, JOSIAH BOYDELL, who has been bred to the bufinefs, and whofe affittance during that period has been greatly inftrumental in promoting a fchool of engraving in this country. By the bleffing of Providence, thefe exertions have been very fuccefsful; not only in that refpect, but in a commercial point of view; for the large fums I regularly received from the Continent, previous to the French Revolution, for impreffions taken from the numerous plates engraved in England, encouraged me to attempt also an ENGLISH SCHOOL OF HISTORICAL PAINTING. I had obferved with indignation, that the want of fuch a School had been long made a favourite topic of opprobrium against this country among foreign writers on National Tate. No fubject, therefore, could be more appropriate for fuch a national attempt than England's infpired Poet, and great painter of nature, SHAKSPEARE; and I flatter myfelf the most prejudiced foreigner mult allow that the Shakfpeare Gallery will convince the World, that Englishmen want nothing but the fostering hand of encouragement to bring forth their genius in this line of art. I might go further, and defy any of the Italian, Flemith, or French Schools to fhow, in fo thort a space of time, fuch an exertion as the Shakfpeare Gallery; and if they could have made fuch an exertion, the pictures would have been marked with all that monotonous famenefs which diftinguishes thofe different fchools. Whereas in the Shakspeare Gallery every artist, partaking of the freedom of his country, and endowed with that ori ginality of thinking fo peculiar to its natives, has chofen his own road to what he conceived to be excellence, unfhackled by the flavih imitation and uniformity that pervade all the foreign fchools.. This Gallery I once flattered myself with being able to have left to that ge nerous Public, who have for fo long a period encouraged my undertakings; but unfortunately for thofe connected with the Fine Arts, a Vandalick Revolution has arifen, which, in convulfing all Europe, has entirely extinguished, except in this happy ifland, all thofe who had the taste or the power to promote thofe arts; while the tyrant that at prefent governs France tells that believing and befotted nation, that, in the midst of all his robbery and rapine, he is a great patron and promoter of the Fine Arts; just as if thofe arts that humanife and polish mankind could be promoted by fuch means, and by such a man. You will excufe, my dear Sir, I am fure, fome warmth in an old man on this fubject, when I inform you, that this unhappy Revolution has cut up by the roots that revenue from the Continent which enabled me to undertake fuch confiderable works in this country. At the fame time, as I am laying my cafe fairly before you, it fhould not be difguifed, that my natural enthufiafm for promoting the Fine Arts (perhaps buoyed up by fuccefs) made me improvident; for had I lain by but ten pounds out of every hundred pounds my plates produced, I fhould not now have had occafion to trouble my friends, or appeal to the Public; but, on the contrary, I flew with impatience to employ fome new artift with the whole gains of my former undertakings. I fee too late my error; for I have thereby decreafed my ready money, and increased my stock of copper plates to fuch a fize, that all the printfellers in Europe could not purchafe it, especially at thefe times fo unfavourable to the Arts. Having thus candidly owned my error, I have but one word to fay in extenuation. My receipts from abroad had been fo large, and continued fo regular, that I at all times found them fully adequate to fupport my undertakings at home-I could not calculate on the prefent crifis, which has totally annihilated them-I certainly calculated on fome defalcation of thefe receipts, by a French or Spanish war, or both; but with France or Spain I carried on but little commerceFlanders, Holland, and Germany, who, no doubt, fupplied the rest of Europe, were the great marts; but, alas! they are now no more. The convulfion that has disjointed and ruined the whole Continent I did not foreseeI know no man that did. On that head, therefore, though it has nearly ruined me and mine, I can take but little blame to my felf. In this fate of things, I throw myfelf with confidence upon that public who has always been but too partial to my poor endeavours, for the dif pofal of that which, in happier days, I flattered myself to have presented to them. I know of no means by which that can be effected just now but by a Lottery; and if the Legislature will have the goodness to grant a permiffion for that purpose, they will at least have the affurance of the even tenour of a long life, that it will be fairly and honourably conducted. The objects of it are, my pictures, galleries, drawings, &c. &c., which, unconnected with my copper-plates and trade, are much more than fufficient to pay, if properly, dif pofed of, all I owe in the world. I hope you, my dear Sir, and every honest man, at any age, will feel for my anxiety to discharge my debts; but at my advanced age, of eighty-five, I feel it becomes doubly debrable.—I am, dear Sir, with great regard, your obe, dient and obliged fervant, JOHN BOYDELL. Sir John William Anderfon, Bart SOME ACCOUNT OF HENRY BRACKEN, M.D. LATE OF LANCASTER. (Continued from Page 30.) WHEN, foon after this, the rebels made their retreat into the North, he, Mr. Lettenby, and the others of their companions, confcious of what they had done to offend them, thought it beft to abfcond before they reached the town; but Mrs. Bracken, believing they would not do any injury to a woman, ventured to ftay at home. When arrived there, the rebels immediately went to the Doctor's house + to feize his perfon; but mifling him, they took Mrs. Bracken into custody, * The 13th of December. and told her, that her husband had. interrupted a meffenger of theirs, and that he was one of the worst enemies they had. They then demanded a hundred guineas for her release; but the evaded paying them, and, by a very lucky artifice, made her efcape through a window of the cellar. Finding this, they began to plunder the houfe, and deftroyed the chief furniture which they did not find convenient to carry away; and, among other things, the Doctor's papers, and feveral tracts he He chiefly lived (and at last died) in a house, now rebuilt, two doors above that in which he was born. had had in contemplation to publifh. Be fore this devaftation was completed, an advanced party of the King's forces were within a mile of the town, and, of courfe, they defifted from further mifchief. Now, all this (and which is but a fmall part of what might be adduced on the fubjeЯ) either thews, that the Doctor was truly and radically loyal, or elfe, that he was one of the molt confummate, nay prepofterous, hypocrites that ever lived. In oppofition, however, to these appearances, his enemies were refolved to prove him to be a rebel; and this on the following trivial grounds; for though they pretended to have other evidence, of the strongest and most furprifing caft, to produce on the day of trial, no other ever came to light. of which fome died almost every day. No bail could be admitted. The Habeas Corpus A&t was fufpended; and by the Jailer, who was under the influence of his enemies, he was very harthly treated. An alarming fituation in which he continued till the next affizes (perpetually fumigating an apartment not limited wholly to himfelf, and using every means he could to elcape conta gion); when, nothing being brought forward against him, he was admitted to bail till the affizes following. On their arrival, alío, nothing appeared, and he was, of course, difcharged. The Judge was confiderably moved with thefe cruel proceedings, and he called them a moft fcandalous piece of bufinefs. Several eminent characters, alfo, on the Grand Jury and on the Circuit, who had by this time got a competent knowledge of an affair which inade great noife in the country, spoke of it in terms of the highest indignation. In the town, too, was railed a refentment not ealy to appease, and the names of the profecutors were brought into deferved obloquy all around. When the rebels were in, Lancaster, on their march to the South, it chanced that the Doctor was thrown into the way of the Duke of Athol and Lord Balmerino, who, having formerly feen the Doctor at Paris, the one as the Marquis of Tullibarden, and the other as Colonel Elphinston, they challenged It was faid above, that this was a and fhook hands with him. This was moft unhappy affair for the Doctor. foon after their entering the town; For, befides the interruption it formed and when they left it, the latter of to his bufineis, the vexation of mind it thefe Noblemen obferving him in the produced, and the conftant danger his freets, he very politely bade him fare- own life was long in from infection, it well. The firft of thefe interviews was was the occafion of his lofing his only at Mrs. Livfey's, and where it was the fon, a fine youth, of about twenty-one Doctor overheard fomething of the facts years of age, who, from his frequent (as above intimated) which he thought viits to his father, fatally caught the of confequence enough to tranfmit to contagion. Like affiduities were also the Duke of Cumberland; and where fatal to one of his fervants, and many alfo, to the great fatisfaction of his ene- others whom circumitances compelled mies, at the request of the Duke of to enter thofe dangerous abodes. Every Athol, he drank this toat, The King, one will feel thefe to be fevere trials. and profperity to England; an equivocal And the lofs of his fon fo much affectexpreffion, which the Doctor no doubted his fpirits, that he perhaps never conceived might be as loyal in his after thoroughly regained his former mouth as the contrary in the pro- vivacity. pofer's. But it and the interviews together were by fome circulated abroad as fuil proof that the Doctor, however he might outwardly appear, was at laft difcovered to be a rebel at the heart. Accordingly, on the 22d of January 1746, he was committed to the Castle, which at that time contained a number of rebel prifoners fent thither from Carlile, and among whom there raged a most dangerous fever, which had alfo communicated itself to the town, and Theie many calumnies, however, did not injure the Doctor in the good opinion of the world. His practice ftill continued uncommonly great; though we may here add, that, after all his labours, he was not poffeffed of much wealth. From his genteel manner of living, his many whimsical projects, and untoward difalters, joined with the pecuniary affittance he was never backward to lend his friends, the chief of his riches lay in his re The house lately inhabited by Mr. Marton. putation; putation; a confcioufnefs of having done a deal of good to his fellows, and of the regard thefe fervices had naturally produced. In the time of the Doctor, and in country places in particular, it was too much the cuftom of the Faculty, when a patient's cafe was critical, or become hopeless, to foretell, out of the family, how he would go on, or how and when he would die, &c. To the difplay of this vain, and often cruel, kind of prefcience he was greatly inclined, and indeed was, perhaps, feldom excelled in the accuracy of such predictions. However, though thefe concurrences doubtlefs have their weight, as to the world at large, in producing a good opinion of a phyfician's abilities, yet they certainly ought, on many accounts, to be very foaringly and delicately ufed. And it is well, that this caution is one of the improvements which the practice of phyfic has received from late years, and our progrefs in feeling and refinement. The urinal, too, in thofe days, was often brought to the phyfician, inftead of the patient; and by its aid, it has been reported, the Doctor would fometimes have pretended to difcover the particulars of the patient's malady, when he perhaps had chiefly gathered them from the mouth of the bearer. In apology for this artifice (fo the tale has run) he would obferve, that Ignorant people should be dealt with a good deal in their own way. How this was I will not pretend to determine, and fhall only obferve of it, that, if true, it exhibited a fpecies of cunning much below the character of the Doctor, and of which his skill and fagacity by no means flood in need. Though a good opinion of the phyfician (if to fecure that might be part of his aim) has certainly often a very ferviceable effect on a patient, yet the thus operating on the body, through the medium of the mind, may be as well, and much more reputably attempted, by means lefs quackith; and to manage which with addrefs is now become one valuable province of the medical art *. While we have these fhades of our portrait in view, candour requires that we alfo acknowledge, what appears to have been justly alledged in diminution of the Doctor's moral character, that he was addicted to unlawful commerce with the fex; and, among other of his ftrange undertakings, was concerned in fmuggling liquors from the Isle of Man. What could be his motive thus to gamble with the King (as he sometimes called it) is not easy to fay; nor do I wish to palliate a practice which the humbleft of the community know to be wrong, and in the participation of which more enlightened minds certainly ought always to be ashamed. Many, indeed, are the tales yet remembered refpecting thefe and fimilar tranfactions; the peculiar fallies of his genius and the celebrity of his cures. But our pages must have their limits. And on this account, as well as on an other which the friends of the parties muft approve, I forbear to fay any thing particular of the paper-war that was carried on betwixt him and Dr. Chrifto. pherfon in the year 174, the year in which he was first Mayor of the Town, and to which honour, it may be here added, he arrived a fecond time in the year 175. Thus he proceeded on till, in 1762, he found that, though of an uncom monly good conftitution, years, and the great exercife he had ufed both of body and mind, had begun to give him warning of their power, by difcovering the fymptoms of a diforder which he forefaw would probably be fatal, though he might linger under it for fome time. Amid all his inadvertencies, he still had it in view to provide fomething hand fome for his wife, in cafe the furvived him, and now he faw the ne ceffity of fetting about it in earnest, which he accordingly did; and in the fmall period his life was spared, he juft gained his purpofe; for when he died, all his effects did not amount to above 1200l. This event happened on the 13th of November, in the year 1764, when he had juft terminated his fixtyfeventh year, and which he met with "Though the Doctor certainly did, at times, comply fo far with the prevailing notions of the country, as, from a fight of a patient's urine, in cafes of fever and affections of the urinary paffages, to prefcribe, rather than from the blundering accounts often given by meffengers, yet he always ridiculed, in a vein of great pleafantry, the myfterious conduct of thofe empiricks who deluded the public under the title of Water Doctors."-M. Chriftian refignation. He was buried in an aile of the church, and a small brass plate, with his name and the ufual dates, fixed to a ftone in the floor, is all the monumental record of a man who, taking him for all in all, was certainly an honour to his native town, as well as to his profeffion. Neither the Doctor nor Mrs. Bracken having any near relations, the funk part of the above-named provifion for an annuity during her life; which, with the intereft of the reft, enabled her to live very decently. And finding, from the great age the had attained, that the perfon of whom the had purchased this income would be a lofer by the bargain, he took care to make him due amends in her will; in which, after giving a few fmall legacies to particular friends, the left the whole of her effects to an old fervant-maid, who was lightly related to the Doctor. He had four children by his wife, three daughters, and the fon we have already mentioned, all of whom died young. His widow died in 1785, aged 87. Her perfon was tall, comely, and majeftic; and in her youth the was efteemed very handsome. She did not want fpirit any more than her husband, yet they lived together in great harmonyt. Though of a carriage, at times, fomewhat lofty, he was refpected by her acquaintance. Her converfation was chearful, and the omitted no opportunity to manifest the impreffions of loyalty the had received from the conftant example of her husband, and the early inftruction of her father. When the Doctor first began to practife in Lancaster, he found the drugs there in fo poor a state, that he deter mined to keep his own, and take ap prentices; and he generally had two or three at a time, each for about three years; whom, after the example of his worthy matter at Wigan, he took a good deal of pains to instruct by occa-' fional lectures on the various branches of his art. On this account the young men he fent into the world were foon found to poffefs fuperior qualifications; which, with the fanction of their maf ter's celebrity, was a fufficient recommendation to them wherever they chose to offer their fervices to the public. Bating the particular failings glanced at above, I have heard of nothing refpecting his domestic habits materially deferving blame, but much to commend. He was fond of angling, shooting, courfing, and the like active diverfions, but was not paffionately attached to any, except horse-racing t. He was an early rifer from bed, and temperate in his manner of living. Though he did not affect to talk much on religious fubjects, he never forgot due reverence to the Almighty; and, during the long confinement that preceded his death, every day, nay almost every hour of every day, was marked with fome ferious and pious act. Indeed the vanities of this life were then totally fwept from his mind, and the inquifitive fpirit which he still poffeffed was bent only on contemplations that had a reference to futurity. He used to fpeak highly of the Common Prayer, and fay (I believe in the words of fome one of our Divines), that if the Apof tles were to come again upon earth, they would freely join in the faith and practice of the E tablished Church. His creed was, therefore, uninjured with that deitical taint, which I am afraid is fo truly said to appear in the converfation and opinions of the generality of "Though, during his long illness, a good deal of his time was occupied in devotional exercifes, nevertheless he often laboured under great mental depreffion; and "The found of the funeral beli" [as I have noticed in my Medical Survey, p. 124] "always produced extraordinary dejection, and which all his fortitude could not arm him againit.-The drama of his life was certainly clofed most creditably for himself, as well as comfortably and refpectably for his relict.”—V. + What gave her the greatest uneafinels, which the made visible, was his attachment to running-horfes, and the frequent converfations he had with his grooms. And when the remonftrated with him on thus demeaning himfelf, he would fay, Why may not I be indulged in this humour? and then add, laying his cane once or twice gently across her gown skirts, Nanny, Nanny, who makes the pot boil? Juft to fhew the force of this liking in one inftance, it may be noted here, that he would frequently get up in the fummer about two or three o'clock in the morning, and in his night-gown and flippers, and with a telefcope in his hand, go into the Church-yard to look at his horfes, exerciling on the Mar, and then häften to bed again. the |