XXVII.

THREE FULL-LENGTH SKETCHES OF SCOTT. 1825-1831.

THESE Sketches are brought together, as exhibiting, from different points of view, a whole-length of the Author of Waverley, as he used to be seen on the streets of Edinburgh.

(A.)

The first of these Sketches, or the one to the left, is by DANIEL MACLISE, done at Cork in 1825. The quotation from the Memoir of Maclise, in No. XXVI., explains the circumstances under which the youthful artist was enabled to take his sketches on the spot, and to attract the notice and approbation of Sir Walter Scott himself.

A few years later, in Fraser's Magazine, there appeared a series of clever sketches, as the "GALLERY OF ILLUSTRIOUS LITERARY CHARACTERS," chiefly contributed by Maclise with the signature of Alfred Croquis. In No. VI. of this series the accompanying lithograph sketch by Maclise was given in November 1830, with a descriptive account of Scott, from which the following is an extract :

"On the opposite page is old Sir Peveril ! Many a time has he figured on canvas or paper, in stone, bronze, or plaster, in oil or water-colours, lithographed, copperplated, mezzotinted, in all the variety of manner that the art of the sculptor, the founder, the modeller, the painter, the etcher, the engraver, the whole tribe of the imitators of the face divine, could display him. He has hung in the chamber of kings, and decorated the door of the alehouse-has graced the boudoir of beauty, and perambulated the streets borne upon the head of a swarthy Italian pedlar. He has been depicted in all moods and all postures; but we venture to say that the Baronet, as he really looks, was never so exactly put before the public as we now see him.

"There he is, sauntering about his grounds, with his Lowland bonnet in his hand, dressed in his old green shooting-jacket, telling old stories," etc.—(Fraser's Magazine, November 1830, p. 412.)

(B.)

The centre figure is reduced from the large (and somewhat unfinished) painting exhibited as No. 71. To the notices of Mr. JAMES HALL, given at pages 15 and 113, it may further be added, that at the time of the great fire in Edinburgh, in November 1824, Mr. Hall made various spirited drawings and sketches of the ruins. Eight of these, some in lithography, others engraved in outline, were published for the benefit of the sufferers—an instance of the liberal-minded spirit which Mr. Hall displayed through life.-See Burgon's Memoir of Patrick Fraser Tytler, 1859, p. 171.

(C.)

The third or right-hand figure is from a Drawing by BENJAMIN WILLIAM CROMBIE, a Miniature Painter, Edinburgh, in 1831. He was the son of Mr. Andrew Crombie, Solicitor-at-Law, Edinburgh (b. 1761, d. Sept. 1847), and was born at Fountainbridge, in the parish of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, July 19, 1803. His name occurs as an Exhibitor at the Scottish Academy in 1829, and in subsequent years, with few exceptions, during the rest of his life. He died at Edinburgh, June 10, 1847.

Crombie will chiefly be remembered by a series of plates, coloured or tinted, which were published in separate parts, each plate having two figures, exhibiting a marked contrast, of the more striking personages in Edinburgh. They were afterwards collected and published in oblong folio, with this title, Men of Modern Athens; or Portraits of Eminent Personages (existing or supposed to exist) in the Metropolis of Scotland. Edinburgh, Hugh Paton, 1839-1851. They are cleverly drawn; and the names of the persons are given on a separate leaf, in the complete set of forty-eight plates, or ninety-six full-length figures. The one of The Author of Waverley is of an earlier date, and not included in that Volume.

XXVIII.

THE ABBOTSFORD FAMILY, BY WILKIE. 1817. (No. 76.)

The above is an Outline Sketch of the upper portion of a fine Painting by Wilkie, representing (not indeed very happily) Scott and his family in the character of peasants.

This painting, executed in 1817 for Sir Adam Ferguson, whose portrait is the most successful in the group, has been several times engraved (Nos. 141-144). It is thus graphically described by Sir Walter himself, in a letter to his friend Sir Adam Ferguson, dated Abbotsford, 2d August 1827:

"The idea which our inimitable Wilkie adopted, was to represent our family group in the garb of south-country peasants, supposed to be concerting a merry-making, for which some of the preparations are seen. The place is the terrace near Kayside, commanding an extensive view towards the Eildon Hills. 1. The sitting figure, in the dress of the miller I believe, represents Sir Walter Scott, author of a few scores of volumes, and proprietor of Abbotsford, in the county of Roxburgh. 2. In front, and presenting, we may suppose, a

NO. XXVIII.]