The Dilettanti Society Knaptons.
1. Sir James Gray. 1741. Rep. p. 76. In black & white Van Dyck costume.
2. Earl of Middlesex (Duke of Dorset ), 1741. As
a Roman Consul returning from a campaign: red scarf over fancy armour.
3. Mr Howe. 1741. Half to left in slate-brown fancy dress. A globe behind to left as a cask, from a hole in whose side he fills a glass of bubbly white liquid.
4. Lord Hyde. 1741. In red, looking half out to leftthe holds up, at the right, a glass inscribed RES PVBLICA.
5V Sir Francis Dashwood (Lord le Despencer), 1742. As a sham Franc iscan, with tonsure, half to right, holding up a chalice inscribed MATRI SANCTORVM before the lower part of the Venus de Medici, seen in profile.
6., Mr Harris . 1742. In brown coat & white wig, half to right. He holds up a paper inscribed with a list of subscriptions towards a house for the Society.
7. Sir Brownlow Sherardj.742. Seated in a green gown & a grey cloak, in a 'Savonarola' chair, half to right.
3. Mr Ponsonby (Earl of Bessborough) , 1743. Rep. p. 82. Red & white turban.
9. Mr Fauquier . 1743. Rep. p. 112. In a red coat, with a huge black tie.
10. Hon.Sewallls Shirley . 1743. Rep. p. 14. In dark blue, holding up the lid of a casket inscrib- ed ET VIVAT.
1 1. Lord Galway . 1743. Half to left, as a Cardin- al pronouncing absolution.
12. Colonel Denny. 1744. Half to right, as a Roman sttandard-bearer, in greenish & scaly gold.
This Edition is limited to 350 Copies. Number
HISTORY
OF THE
SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI
SIB JOSHUA. REYNOLDS. V RA
HISTORY
OF THE
SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI
COMPILED BY
LIONEL CUST, M.A.
Director of the National portrait Gallery
AND EDITED BY
SIDNEY COLVIN, M.A.
Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum sometime Secretary of the Society
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY
LONDON MACMILL AN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 185)8
All rights reserved
o
OXFORD
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
fY CENTER RARY
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGES
Antiquity of the Society — State of England at its foundation — Date of foundation — Date of first records — Character of original members — Young Englishmen on the Grand Tour — Choice of name — Earliest meetings — Members in 1 7 %6 — Dashwood — Middlesex — Harcourt — The brothers Gray — W. Ponsonby — R. Grenville — Howe, Archer, Denny, Strode, Sewallis Shirley — Boone, Liddell, Fauquier, Harris, Dingley, Smithson — Hanbu ry Williams, Mitchell, Villiers — Smyth, Hay, Spence, &c. — Sandwich — Bedford, Brand, Holdernesse — Other members before 1770 I-ZI
CHAPTER II
Practices and regulations of the Society — Places, dates, and hours of meeting — The President : his toga and curule chair — The Secretary and Treasurer — The High Steward — The Arch-Master and his insignia — The Regalia : Bacchus's Tomb, the Ballot-Box, Seal, and Inkstand — Dining practices : forfeits and fines — Convivial excesses — Toasts — Election practices : qualification, admission, abdication — Committees and quorums . . . zz-^i
CHAPTER III
Miscellaneous activities ot the Society : the Westminster Bridge Lottery — Foundation of General Fund : building schemes — The Cavendish Square site — Its abandonment and the financial result — Promotion of the Italian opera — Middlesex and Vanneschi — Schemes for an Academy of Arts — Mr. Dingley's plan — Communications with Hayman's Committee of Painters — The Society's plan —
a 3
VI
Contents
Collapse of negotiations — Foundation of the Royal Academy: its relations with the Dilettanti — Proposal to form a gallery of casts from the antique — Revival of the building scheme — Suggested sites : the Green Park — The Star and Garter — Camelford House — Final abandonment of building scheme — Increasing riches of the Society — Face-money : Rule Ann. Soc. Undec. — Other sources of income — Incidental records . . 4.1-67
CHAPTER IV
The Dilettanti and Classical Archaeology — Earlier history of the study — The Earl of Arundel — The Arundel Marbles — Other collectors — Explorations in situ : Nointel and Carrey — Spon and Wheler ; Chishull — British artists in Rome ; Brettingham and Gavin Hamilton — Stuart and Revett — Sir James Gray and the Dilettanti — Election of Stuart and Revett — Their expedition to Athens — Dawkins and Wood — Le Roy and Dalton — The Dilettanti and The Antiquities of Athens — Success of the volume — The Society sends an expedition to Asia Minor — Chandler, Revett, and Pars — Instruc- tions to the expedition — Work in the Troad and Ionia — Approval of the Society — Work in Attica and the Morea— Return and reception of the explorers — The Ionian Antiquities : choice of materials — Preparation and publication of the volume — Presentation copies — Chandler's Inscriptions and Travels — Proposed con- tinuation of Ionian Antiquities — The drawings of Revett and Pars : various claimants for their use — Diffi- culties between Stuart and Revett — Appointment of a committee — Death of Stuart : posthumous publication of The Antiquities of Athens^ vols, ii, iii, and iv — Publication of Ionian Antiquities^ vol. ii — Custody of the Society's marbles — Marbles and drawings presented to the British Museum 6%-\o6
CHAPTER V
Personal changes in the Society — New members — Deaths of Founders — New spirit among their successors — J. C. Crowle — Sir Joseph Banks — Charles Greville — Sir William Hamilton — Sir Richard Worslcy, Mr. Peachey, and Sir George Beaumont — Charles Townley
Contents
vii
— Richard Payne Knight — Sir Henry Englefield — Hamilton and the ritual of Isernia — D'Hancarville — The Priapeia — Reception of the volume — Retrospect : work of the Dilettanti in Italy — Work in Greece and Asia Minor — Further enterprises : new Publication Committee — Specimens of Antient Sculpture — Mode of publication — Proposed second volume — Opportunities lost meanwhile — Sir William Hamilton's notes and drawings — Letter from Lord Elgin — The Parthenon Marbles since Carrey — Thomas Harrison — Action taken by Lord Elgin — Lord Elgin and the Dilettanti — Influence of Payne Knight in discrediting the Marbles — Champions on the other side : West, Fuseli, Haydon — Progress of the controversy — Crown Prince of Bavaria, Visconti, Canova — The Select Committee — Final result . 107-136
CHAPTER VI
Internal changes — The Ballot — Abolition of Forfeitures — Removals : Parslow's : the Thatched House — Researches in Greece and the Levant — Zeal of new members — Colt Hoare, Long, Ainslie, Hawkins — Morritt of Rokeby — Hope of Deepdene — Lord Morpeth, Lord Northwick, Earl of Aberdeen — Wilkins, Leake, Gell — New Ionian Committee — Its report on Gell's proposed expedition — Instructions to the expedition — Researches at Eleusis —
Work at Samos, Miletus, Magnesia, &c Work at
Rhamnus, Thoricus, and Sunium — The Aegina Marbles — Risks from pirates and privateers — Return of mission — John Peter Gandy — Resolutions as to publication — Congratulations to members of mission — Details of scheme — Sir Henry Englefield's appeal — Its results — The Unedited Antiquities of Attica — New edition of Ionian Antiquities — Further activities : second volume of the Specimens — Difficulties and delays — Mode of meeting expenses — Deaths of Englefield and Payne Knight — Sir T. Lawrence as Secretary — A German scholar's tribute — Distinguished members . . 13 7-1 71
CHAPTER VII
Secretaryship of W.R.Hamilton — Reparation to Lord Elgin — Correspondents abroad : the Hon. W. R. Spencer — Sir W. Gell — Mr. Edward Dawkins — The Chevalier
viii
Contents
Brbndsted — The Bronzes of Siris — Subscription for their purchase — Proposed continuation of Ionian Antiquities — Application from Mr. Penrose — Mr. Penrose supported by the Society — Investigations of Athenian Architecture — Latter years of Hamilton's secretaryship — Members elected under his regime : Shee, Mountstuart Elphin- stone, Hobhouse, &c. — Eastlake, Ryan, Munro of Novar, See. — Mr. Penrose, Monckton Milnes, Watkiss Lloyd, Panizzi, Cockerell, &c. — C. T. Newton : his cor- respondence from Syra and Mitylene — The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus — Proposal from the Arundel Society — Dedications of Cockerell's volumes . . . 172-191
CHAPTER VIII
Removals : new Thatched House Tavern ; Willis's Rooms — State of the Society — Sir C. T. Newton, Sir F. Leighton, Sec — Art collectors and amateurs ; country gentry, &c. ; Bar and Bench — Pollock, Venables, Bowen — Learning -y the Civil Service ; Foreign Diplomacy — New antiquarian enterprise : Mr. Pullan and the Temple of Teos — The Smintheum — Temple of Priene — Ionian Antiquities, vol. iv — Time and mode of publication — Penrose's Athenian Architecture, new edition — Appeals from various quarters : Temple of Ephesus • British School at Athens — Changes and removals since 1888 — Newmembers — Discussions and resolutions — Retrospect: changed conditions of archaeological study — Decline of classical enthusiasm in England — The Archaeological Institute of Rome ; various foreign schools at Athens — Revival of the study in England, but in another shape — Part taken, or to be taken, by the Dilettanti — Conclusion 192-ai?
CHAPTER IX
Portraits of members : George Knapton — Institution of face-money — Knapton's resignation — J. Stuart as Painter to the Society — Stuart superseded in favour of Reynolds — The two great portrait-groups — Nathaniel Dance — Various resolutions as to portraits — Death of Reynolds ; Lawrence chosen successor — Motion as to portrait of Sir J. Banks — The Reynolds groups : steps for their preservation — The groups engraved in mezzotint —
Contents
ix
Portrait of Payne Knight — Lawrence on the question of fresh portrait-groups — Portraits and face-money : various orders — Portraits of Lord Dundas and Benjamin West — Lawrence succeeded by Shee — Portrait of Morritt — Inquiries into state of pictures — Shee succeeded by Eastlake — Proposed series of engravings — Applications for loan of pictures : Manchester, South Kensington, National Gallery, See. — Eastlake succeeded by Leighton — Portraits of Lord Broughton and Sir Edward Ryan- Successive Painters to the Society : Sir F. W. Burton and Sir Edward Poynter — Further loans of pictures — Last portraits : Mr. Watkiss Lloyd, Lord Leighton, Mr. Sidney Colvin ...... z 16-13 7
APPENDIX
List of Members of the Society of Dilettanti . . 139-3 14.
INDEX
3I5,~33^
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Photogravures from original portraits in the possession of the Society of Dilettanti
PAOl
Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (alter Reynolds) Col. G. Gray (after Knapton) The Hon. Sewallis Shirley (after Knapton) . The Earl of Holdernesse (after Knapton) Sir James Gray, Bart, (after Knapton) . The Earl of Bessborough (after Knapton) The Earl of Sandwich (after Knapton) . William Fauquier, Esq. (after Knapton) Richard Payne Knight, Esq. (after Lawrence) J. B. S. Morritt, Esq. (after Shee) Sir Henry Englefield, Bart, (after Lawrence) Sir Edward Ryan, K.C.B. (after Leighton) . Sir William Hamilton and others (after Reynolds) The Hon. Charles Greville and others (after Reynolds)
Phototypes from the J^rgalia belonging to the Society
1 Baccbus's Tomb ' To face } i
Ivory relief of Perseus and Andromeda, after the
antique : from the back of Bacchus's Tomb . „ 34
The Bal lot-Box „ 36
HISTORY
OF THE
SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI
CHAPTER I
Antiquity of the Society — State of England at its foundation — Date of foundation — Date of first records — Char- acter of original members — Toung Englishmen on the Grand Tour — Choice of name — Earliest meetings — Members in 1736 — Dashwood — Middlesex — Har- court — The brothers Gray — W. Ponsonby — 7^. Gren- ville — Howe, Archer, Denny, Strode, Sewallis Shirley — Boone^ Liddell, Fauquier, Harris^ Dingley, Smithson — Hanbury Williams, Mitchell, Villiers — Smyth, Hay, Spence, &c. — Sandwich — Bedford, Brand, Holdernesse — Other members before 17 70.
THE history to be narrated in the following Antiquity chapters is that of a small private society of °ftloe gentlemen which for more than a century and So"et?' a half has exercised an active influence in matters connected with public taste and the fine arts in this country, and whose enterprise in the special field of classical excavation and research has earned the grateful recognition of scholars and the cultivated
4
x History of the Society of Dilettanti
public throughout Europe. There may be persons, outside the limited circle of its members, who will feel some surprise on learning that such a society exists ; that it was founded in the early years of the reign of George II ; and has maintained its existence with an unbroken record up to the present day. This fact is the more remarkable, since, although the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries are actually older in point of date, the Society of Dilettanti was not formed, as these were, with any definite intention of promoting the cause of either science or art, but simply, in the first instance, for the purposes of social and convivial intercourse. state of The foundation of the Society almost coincides England at with what may be termed the birth of modern itsfiunda- England, xhe accession of George II, in itself an
tion. o . . , O 5 . .
unromantic and apparently unimportant incident in the history of England, nevertheless forms one of the landmarks in that history. The final establishment on the throne of the Hanoverian branch of the Guelphs marks the close of the long struggle which had reached its climax in the Revolution of i<5 8 8. It denotes the complete extinction of any popular sympathy with the Jacobite cause, as was shown by the behaviour of the populace during the events of 1747. A new era had commenced in England, an era of progress, consolidation, and reform, equally marked in matters political, social, and commercial, in questions civil or religious, and in education, science, and art. The long ascendency of Sir Robert Walpole, as first minister of the Crown, taught the country for the first time to look to the prime minister as the real governing power, while the vigorous opposition excited by his administration opened its eyes to the advantages of the party system. It was
History of the Society of Dilettanti 3
early in the eighteenth century that the army and navy became permanent institutions and part of the national fabric of government. This without doubt contributed largely to the extraordinary extension of British commercial enterprise which ensued, leading through the agency of the East India Company to the establishment of the British Empire in India, and in later days to the founda- tion of Greater Britain in Australasia, South Africa, and in various parts of the New World. As com- mercial fortunes increased, the merchants of the East India, Turkey, South Sea, and other companies became powers in the State, and began to encroach on the social privileges of the feudal and territorial aristocracy. With the settled stability of the throne and the national institutions, the country grew wealthy and prospered. The foundation of the Bank of England is one of the great events in the history of finance. During this period there began to arise those great manufacturing enterprises which gained for Great Britain the commercial hegemony of the world. In religion, the settled supremacy of the Protestant faith enabled the Church to come to terms with the Nonconformists, whereby the latter gained a position of independence and a distinct voice in the affairs of State. The foundation of parochial schools for the first time opened the doors of education to the masses of the people. The press became an important and active factor in public life, both as a literary resource and as a political engine. Science and research were fostered by the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. The acquisition by the nation of the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, following on that of the Cottonian and the Harleian MSS., resulted in the foundation of the
B 1
4 History of the Society of Dilettanti
British Museum. A desire was promoted for the es- tablishment of a truly national school of art, leading to the St. Martin's Lane Academy and William Hogarth, and later to the foundation of the Royal Academy in the glorious age of Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The pursuit of knowledge and culture became not only popular but fashionable, and a tour round foreign courts and capitals was considered an indispensable qualification for young men of birth and wealth. These grand tours became the source of the formation of those great private collections for which England long remained so justly renowned. Date of In the midst of such an age as this it happened, foundatiov. to qUOte the WOrds of the preface of the Ionian Antiquities (1769), that
'In the year 1734. some gentlemen who had travelled in Italy, desirous of encouraging at home a taste for those objects which had contributed so much to their entertainment abroad, formed themselves into a society under the name of the Dilettanti, and agreed upon such resolutions as they thought necessary to keep up the spirit of the scheme/
It is a matter of regret, and one, it is to be feared, past remedy, that, at the time of the foundation of this Society, the original members had so little idea of the important part which it was destined to play that it was not thought necessary to keep regular minutes of their meetings. Founded essen- tially as a dining society, its future, so long as the strength of the bond which held its members together remained untested and unknown, was very imperfectly foreseen. When, however, after a year or two, it became evident that not mere conviviality (or, as its enemies uncompromisingly alleged, hard drinking), but the love of art, with the ambition of fostering
History of the Society of Dilettanti $
the same sentiment in others, was destined to be the genuine ruling principle of the Society, its members seem to have awakened to the fact that they might become a leading power in social life.
Through their negligence at the outset the actual Date of date of the foundation of the Society remains un- flrst certain. At a meeting held at the Bedford Head records- Tavern on March 6, 173d, it was decided to keep a regular minute-book, the records of meetings having been previously merely jotted down on loose papers. The first entries in the red morocco minute- books of the Society are dated April y and May 2, 173 6 — Anno Soc. Ter. in the Latin style adopted (and still kept up) for this purpose. When a separate book was commenced on December 13, 1744, for the minutes of the committee meetings, its date of com- mencement is Ann. Soc. Duodec. From these entries it may be assumed that the first meeting of the Society was held in December, probably on December 5- or 12, 1732. _
The majority of the original members were young ch aracter noblemen or men of wealth and position between of original twenty and thirty years of age, who had just come m home from their travels on the Continent (tours usually made under the charge of some governor of more mature age from the Universities or the Church), and who were eager on their return not only to compare notes of their experiences and acquisi- tions, but also to be regarded as arbiters of taste and culture in their native country. It can easily be imagined that the convivial meetings of a society thus constituted were characterized, in that age, by a vivacity which would be hardly in tune with the soberer ideas prevailing at the close of the nineteenth century.
6 History of the Society of Dilettanti
Young The young English aristocrat was a conspicuous
Englishmen figure m the chief centres of society on the Con- Grand Tour tinent- He was as much criticized abroad for what seemed in foreign eyes his insular eccentricities, as he was on his return for his affectation of foreign habits of speech and behaviour. We get frequent glimpses of him from memoirs and letters of the time. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, writing to her daughter about the winter which she passed in Rome in 1740-41, says :
c There was an unusual concourse of English, many of them with great estates and their own masters : as they had no admittance to the Roman ladies nor understood the language, they had no way of passing their evenings but in my apartment, where I had always a full drawing-room. Their governors encouraged their assiduities as much as they could, finding I gave them lessons of economy and good conduct; and my authority was so great, it was a common threat among them, " I'll tell Lady Mary what you say." I was judge of all their disputes, and my decisions always submitted to. While I staid, there was neither gaming, drinking, quarrelling or keeping/
In spite of Lady Mary's complacent opinion of her own influence, it is to be feared that the four practices mentioned in her last sentence were sadly prevalent among these young men, and that in many cases it was the governor, rather than the pupil, who profited most by the expedition. In any case, it was from among these young travellers that the Society of Dilettanti was recruited. ckoke of In the absence of original records, there is nothing name. ' beyond the obvious fitness of the name to explain why the original members called their Society the Dilettanti. The Italian word ( dilettante' appro- priately describes the character of these young men. The French word 'amateur ' had not yet been adopted into the vernacular, the word c virtuoso ' had already acquired a professional sound. There was in fact
History of the Society of Dilettanti 7
already in existence a Society of Virtuosi founded in 1689, and composed of 4 Gentlemen, Painters, Sculp- tors, Architects, etc., Lovers or Professors of Art.' This society held an annual feast on St. Luke's Day, and on more than one occasion attempted to im- mortalize its existence by portrait-groups. A refer- ence to the name chosen by the Dilettanti for their own Society is made in the preface, already quoted, to the first volume of their great work on Ionian Antiquities (1769) —
c It would be disingenuous to insinuate that a serious Plan for the Promotion of Arts was the only Motive for forming this Society. Friendly and Social Intercourse was, undoubtedly, the first great Object in view; but while, in this respect, no Set of Men ever kept up more religiously to their original Institution, it is hoped this Work will show that they have not, for that Reason, aban- doned the cause of Virtu, in which they are also engaged, or forfeited their Pretensions to that Character which is implied in the Name they have assumed.'
Taking December, 1732, as the probable date Earliest of the first meeting of the Society of Dilettanti, meetings. there is some ground for supposing that it, and perhaps a few subsequent meetings, may have been held in Italy. Private papers show that some of the earliest members were certainly on the Continent during some part of the winter of 1732-3, and it may well have been that at some common central meeting-place for young travellers, such as Rome or Venice (the latter has been assumed), the idea was first mooted of such a reunion in London.
It is difficult to ascertain for certain who were Members the true original founders of the Society, inasmuch m 171<s- as no list has been preserved of earlier date than May, 173d. The number of members at that date was forty-six, mostly young men of rank and fashion from twenty-five to thirty years of age, and many of
8 History of the Society of Dilettanti
them destined to play important parts as statesmen, courtiers, soldiers, diplomatists, divines, or merchant princes. Of the first category were Simon (after- wards Earl) Harcourt, Richard Grenville (afterwards Earl Temple), Sir Francis Dashwood (afterwards Lord le Despencer), and William Ponsonby (after- wards Earl of Bessborough) ; of the second, Cnarles Earl of Middlesex (afterwards Duke of Dorset), Lord Robert Montagu (afterwards Duke of Manchester), Thomas Lord Archer, Sewallis Shirley, and Daniel Boone ; of the third, George Gray, William Degge, William Denny, and William Strode ; of the fourth, Andrew Mitchell, Sir James Gray, Thomas Villiers (afterwards Lord Hyde and Earl of Clarendon), and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams ; of the fifth, Arthur Smyth (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin), Robert Hay (afterwards Archbishop of York), and the poet- author, Joseph Spence ; and of the last, William Fauquier, Robert Dingley, Robert Bristow, and Peter Delme'. To these were added young baronets like Sir Lionel Pilkington, Sir Robert Long, Sir Brown- low Sherard, Sir Henry Liddell, and Sir Hugh Smithson ; young peers like Viscount Gal way, Viscount Boyne, and gentlemen of position such as Simon Luttrell, Thomas Anson, James Noel, Thomas Grimston, John Howe, Henry Harris, Sir Thomas Whitmore, and Charles Feilding. Another original member was George Knapton, the painter, who held the important office of < Painter to the Society.' The minute-books of the Society afford sufficient evidence as to who among these noblemen and gentlemen took the most prominent part in its foundation and were most active in promoting its interests. It is easy to distinguish as ruling spirits Dashwood, Middlesex, Harcourt, James and George
History of the Society of Dilettanti 9
Gray, Howe, Boone, Harris, Fauquier, Ponsonby, and Liddell.
The man who, if not the actual projector and Dashwood. founder of the Society, was certainly its leading member in 1736, Sir Francis Dashwood, has earned an ill name in history for profanity and profligacy. He was born in 1708, and spent the early years of his manhood in foreign travel, during which he acquired a European reputation for his pranks and adventures. Bred in the school of Bolingbroke and Voltaire, he practised a contempt for piety and religion, which led him to the furthest ex- treme in the opposite direction. He roamed from court to court in search of notoriety. In Russia he masqueraded as Charles XII, and in that un- suitable character aspired to be the lover of the Tsarina Anne. In Italy his outrages on religion and morality led to his expulsion from the dominions of the Church. On his return to England he scandalized his contemporaries, and obtained withal a sinister immortality, by his performances as high- priest of the blasphemous and indecent orgies at Medmenham Abbey. In spite of this reputation he was a by no means incapable or uninteresting member of the House of Commons. For some years he held a position in the household of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and was therefore in continuous hostility to the Walpole administration. When the Earl of Bute became first minister, he made his most fatal mistake in making Dashwood Chancellor of the Exchequer. In that capacity Dashwood brought in the ill-starred excise bill on cider, which was the main cause of the collapse of the Bute ministry. Compensated with the barony of Le Despencer, to which he was co-heir through his
io History of the Society of Dilettanti
mother, he retired to his house at West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, married a rich widow, built a church as a set-off to his Medmenham escapades, patronized artists, dabbled in classical architecture, and finally died, old and neglected, in December, 1 78 1. With all his faults, let it be remembered that in the House of Commons he had manfully endeavoured to prevent the political murder of Admiral Byng; that in the Lords, when the great Earl of Chatham fell swooning to the ground, Lord le Despencer was almost the only peer to step forward with words of sympathy and hope ; and that as Sir Francis Dashwood he had been the principal founder of the Society of Dilettanti, for fifty years attended its dinners and committees, and supported both by counsel and money, even when he did not originate, all its most successful schemes and enterprises. Middlesex. Charles Sackville, Earl of Middlesex, eldest son of the Duke of Dorset, was born in 1711, and so was barely of age at the time of the foundation of the Society of Dilettanti. In 1730 he made a long tour in France and Italy under the tutorship of the Rev. Joseph Spence, the author of P oly metis ^ who in his letters speaks highly of his young com- panion's natural abilities. Middlesex was from the first associated with the following of Frederick, Prince of Wales, being for many years master-of-the- horse in the prince's household, while his wife was lady-in-waiting and principal < confidante ' to the princess. He is best known for his connexion with the history of opera in England. On this pursuit he squandered immense sums. He eventually succeeded his father as second Duke of Dorset, and died on January y, 1769. Horace Walpole says of him—
History of the Society of Dilettanti n
f His figure was handsome, had all the reserve of his family, and all the dignity of his ancestors. He was a poet too because they had been poets. As little as he came near them in this talent, it was what he most resembled them in, and in what he best supported their honour. His passion was the direction of operas, in which he had not only wasted immense sums, but had stood lawsuits in Westminster Hall with some of those poor devils for their salaries. The Duke of Dorset had often paid his debts, but never could work on his affections, and he had at last carried his disobedience so far, in complaisance to and in imitation of the prince, as to oppose his father in his own boroughs.'
Simon Harcourt, born in 1714, succeeded his Harcourt. father as second Viscount Harcourt in 1720. He travelled for four years on the Continent, from 1730 to 1734. Unlike the two members already- mentioned, Harcourt was attached to the household of George II, whom he attended at the battle of Dettingen. He held the important post of governor to George III when Prince of Wales, though his influence was counteracted after the king's accession by that of the Earl of Bute. He was sent to Germany to marry by proxy Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and escort her to Eng- land. Subsequently he became lord-chamberlain of the household, ambassador to France, and lord- lieutenant of Ireland. He was a consistent patron of the arts, and died in 1777 through accidentally falling into a well in his garden at Nuneham Courtenay. Horace Walpole sneers at Harcourt as c civil and sheepish, and only able to teach the prince what he himself knew, namely, hunting and drinking.'
Two others of the most prominent among the The brothers original founders of the Dilettanti were the brothers GraJ- James and George Gray. They were sons of Sir James Gray, who was created a baronet of Scotland in 1707 by Queen Anne. According to Horace
ix History of the Society of Dilettanti
Walpole, who seldom had a good word for the Dilettanti set, their 'father was first a box-keeper and then footman to James the Second.' In 1 744 Sir James Gray accompanied the Earl of Holdernesse on his embassy to the Republic of Venice, and re- mained there as British Resident until 1773. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, writing in 175-8, says that c Sir James Gray was, as I am told, universally esteemed during his residence here ; but alas ! he is gone to Naples.' Gray was appointed envoy extraordinary to Naples and the Two Sicilies in 1 75-4, and resided there many years. He took a prominent part in the discoveries at Herculaneum, and in the whole progress of classical research and excavation. He was in 1761 appointed envoy to the Court of Spain, and created a Knight of the Bath, but the outbreak of war prevented his taking up his residence at Madrid till 1766. He was created a Privy Councillor in November, 1769, and died in London unmarried in January, 1773. Although absent from England for most of the years of his membership of the Society of Dilettanti, Gray was one of the most useful and active of its members. His position at Venice and Naples brought him into contact with many of the young men whose travels and tastes qualified them for membership, and the Society looked to him to supply candidates for admission. His younger brother George Gray served with distinction in the army, and eventually attained the rank of major-general and became colonel of the 37th Foot. He was deeply interested in, and unfailingly assisted, all schemes of classical and anti- quarian research. He was to the Society of Dilettanti in England what his brother Sir James Gray was to it abroad. He had some distinction as an amateur
COLONEL GEORGE GRAY
History of the Society of 'Dilettanti 1 3
artist, and is said to have designed Lord Spencer's house in the Green Park. He was Secretary and Treasurer of the Society for thirty-three years, from 1738 to 1 771. On the death of his brother he succeeded to the baronetcy, but only survived him a few weeks, dying in London in February, 1773.
William Ponsonby, born in 1704, was eldest son of w.Vonsonby. Brabazon Ponsonby, second Viscount Duncannon and afterwards first Earl of Bessborough. He travelled a great deal on the Continent and in the East until 1739, and on his return took his place as a leader of taste and fashion, and in public life served as a Lord of the Treasury and as Postmaster-General. He became Viscount Duncannon in 1739 on n^s father's elevation to the earldom, and succeeded his father as earl in i7y8. As a collector of objects of art and antiquity he was one of the earliest and the most active in the country. He died in 1793.
Richard Grenville was a prominent member of R. Gren- the family clique of Pitts and Grenvilles who ruled Vllle- England for so long a time. The brother-in-law of the great Earl of Chatham, he filled numerous important posts in the government, and his life belongs to the history of his country. Born in 1 71 1, he was but little over twenty-one years of age at the time of the foundation of the Society, in which at first he seems to have played a leading part. * Squire Gawky,' as his contemporaries nick- named him, became Earl Temple on the death of his mother in 17 5 2, and died in 1779.
Among the most active of the early members of ^T?r the Society of Dilettanti were John Howe of Han- Benny] slope in Buckinghamshire (born in 1707, died in strode, 1769), and Thomas Archer, who was created a peer SewalUs
yn 9 r Shirley.
14 History of the Society of Dilettanti
in 1747 and died in 1768. Archer lived at Umber- slade, near Stratford-upon-Avon, and in London was conspicuous as a great dispenser of hospitality. William Denny, a noted man of fashion, was appointed to the governorship of Pennsylvania in i7j5, a post which was intended, no doubt, to be a lucrative sine- cure, but turned out otherwise. Serious hostility was shown to him as governor, and he was superseded in 175-9. General William Strode was known as a faithful friend and ally of the Duke of Cumberland, and the donor of the unfortunate statue of the duke which stood for a long time in Cavendish Square. Sewallis Shirley, a younger son of Earl Ferrers, born in 1709, was notorious among the reckless and profligate young men of fashion of his day ; among other notorious affairs of gallantry, he had relations with the celebrated Lady Vane (the 'Lady of Quality 9 whose adventures are recorded by Smollett in Peregrine Pickle), and later with Margaret Rolle, the rich widowed Countess of Orford, Horace Walpole's sister-in-law, to whose pranks and gallantries many allusions will be found in her brother-in-law's letters and memoirs. Shirley, whose connexion with the latter lady was for a time blessed by marriage, was none the less a member of Parliament and comp- troller of the household to Queen Charlotte, and died in 176$ without having outlived his reputation.
Daniel Boone, son of Charles Boone, governor of Bombay, was a wealthy member of the East India Company. He married a rich heiress, became a member of Parliament and clerk of the household to the Princess of Wales, and was moreover a con- fidential friend of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and therefore of the party opposed to the administration of Sir Robert Walpole. Sir Henry Liddell, Baronet,
HON. SEWALLIS SHIRLEY.
History of the Society of Dilettanti 15-
afterwards created Baron Ravens worth, is perhaps best known as the father of Horace Walpole's friend, the Countess of Upper Ossory, whilom Duchess of Grafton. William Fauquier was a director of the South Sea Company, and eventually became registrar and secretary of the Order of the Bath ; he was very active in promoting the work of the Dilettanti Society, of which he was Secretary from 1771 to 1774, and died in 1788. Henry Harris acted as High Steward of the Society from 1736 onwards ; he was a protege' of Sir Thomas Winnington, who was for a time Chancellor of the Exchequer, and obtained from him a profitable post as Commissioner of Wine Licences. Harris is best known outside the Society of Dilettanti as a friend and correspondent of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams ; he died in 1773. Robert Dingley was a London merchant, an amateur architect and artist, and a collector of works of art; he was put forward at one time to fight Wilkes in the Middlesex election, but has some real claim to distinction as one of the founders of the Magdalen Hospital in London ; he died at Lamb Abbey, Chiselhurst, in 1 7 8 1 . Sir Hugh Smithson gained high social promotion for himself and his descendants through his marriage with the heiress of the duchy of Northumberland and his subsequent elevation to the dukedom. He was regarded also as one of the handsomest men of his day. Perhaps a stronger claim to historical recognition lies in the fact that he was the father of an illegitimate son, who went to America and became the founder of the celebrated Smithsonian Institution at Boston, U.S.A.1
1 Sir Hugh Smithson, Mr. Howe, Mr. Bellingham Boyle, and Viscount Midleton, members of the Dilettanti, appear as members
1 6 History of the Society of Dilettanti
The diplomatists who appear as original members of the Society of Dilettanti were all distinguished in their careers, though their residence abroad natur- ally disabled them from taking any part in the regular proceedings of the Society. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the famous wit and satirist, spent nearly all his life abroad as envoy to Dresden, Berlin, or St. Petersburg. His letters, however, show that he never lost his interest in the Society. Mention has already been made of the services rendered to that body by Sir James Gray. Sir Andrew Mitchell achieved real distinction as envoy to the Court of Prussia, inasmuch as he was one of the few people who gained the confidence of that eccentric monarch, Frederick II. Thomas Villiers, second son of the Earl of Jersey, had a long and remarkable career in diplomacy, and was created successively Baron Hyde and Earl of Clarendon ; he died in 178*5, having bequeathed to his descen- dants a hereditary aptitude for the transaction of foreign affairs.
The two members who became distinguished as prelates of the Church naturally took but little part in the convivial meetings of the Society. Arthur Smyth, son of the Bishop of Limerick, travelled for some time abroad after leaving Oxford, for a time in the company of the Earl of Middlesex j he became successively Dean of Raphoe and of Derry, Bishop of Clonfert, of Down, and of Meath, and eventually Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, and died in 1 77 1 , Robert Hay, second
of a small dining society, called c The Harry the Fifth ' or c The Gang/ presided over by Frederick, Prince of Wales, of which there is a portrait-group, painted by C. Philips, in the corridor at Windsor Castle.
History of the Society of Dilettanti 17
son of the Earl of Kinnoul, similarly went through a course of travel on leaving Oxford, and became successively Bishop of St. Asaph and of Salisbury, and eventually Archbishop of York, dying in 1776. Joseph Spence, another of the original members, owed his election to the circumstance that he had travelled as governor to the Earl of Middlesex, and later also to the Earl of Lincoln. He was Pro- fessor of Poetry and afterwards Regius Professor of Modern History in Oxford, a friend and corre- spondent of Pope, and is well known as the author of Polymetis and the Anecdotes. He died at Byfleet in Surrey, in August, 1768. These were among the more remarkable of the earliest members of the Society of Dilettanti. Others, such as Colonel Degge, Sir Brownlow Sherard, Viscount Boyne, Viscount Galway, Mr. E. Clarke, Sir L. Pilkington, appear in the minute-books as active members, but their share in the proceedings is less defined. The names mentioned will show that, although the early meetings may have been convivial and perhaps uproarious, the members were for the most part men of education and distinction, and included several who were of real importance in the history of the country.
To the above must be added a few names of members Sandwich. who took an active and leading part in the early proceedings of the Society, although they were not elected until after 17 36, the date of the earliest extant list. These were the Earl of Sandwich, the Duke of Bedford, Mr. Thomas Brand, and the Earl of Holdernesse. John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, has been beyond doubt one of the best- abused men of his century. He was born in 171 8, and succeeded to the peerage at the age of eleven. After a course of education at Eton and Trinity
c
1 8 History of the Society of Dilettanti
College, Cambridge, he went in 1738 for a tour in the Mediterranean and the Greek Archipelago under the tutorship of the Rev. J. Cooke, who in 1799, after Sandwich's death, published an account of the journey. It was during this voyage that Sandwich acquired that interest in art and antiquities which made him afterwards so useful and energetic a member of the Society of Dilettanti. His public life as a statesman forms one of the chapters of the naval history of Great Britain. He was the British plenipotentiary at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. He encouraged and supported the expedi- tions of Captain Cook, and the name of the Sandwich Islands, given to the Hawaiian group in the Pacific Archipelago, has immortalized his memory in those seas. The familiar article of diet known by his name is said to owe it to the hurried meals he was in the habit of snatching amidst the incessant cares of his post at the Admiralty. The fame, or rather the ill-fame, of Sandwich rests upon the scandal caused by his conduct in private life, on which posterity has loved to dwell to the exclusion of any redeeming qualities. Associated with Dash- wood and Wilkes in the infamous orgies at Medmenham, Sandwich gained an unenviable reputa- tion and the nickname of 6 Jemmy Twitcher ' by his attack on Wilkes in the House of Lords. The murder of his mistress, Miss Ray, by the Rev. J. Hackman, brought fresh odium on his head, though Sandwich's own behaviour to the lady seems to have been without discredit. The powerful and scurrilous invectives of Churchill remain to com- memorate the odium which his conduct brought upon him. But Sandwich was a man who cared little for the opinion of others. As a patron
History of the Society of Dilettanti 19
of art, music, athletics, cricket, tennis, field sports, theatricals, racing, and gambling, and as a man of wit and pleasant conversation, he occupies a peculiar position in the history of his time. His capacity for work of all sorts was incredible. Posterity has judged him entirely by his vices. But the Society of Dilettanti cannot fail to remember that it was to him and Dashwood — men stamped by their enemies as
c Too infamous to have a friend, Too bad for bad men to commend' —
that it owes the inception and success of the principal schemes on which its reputation is based.
Sandwich was an intimate friend of John Russell, Bedford, fourth Duke of Bedford, and exercised a great ^^ne influence over the duke. Bedford, born in 171 o, r succeeded his brother as duke in 1732, and was a leading politician all his life. The Bedford party was a power in the State. He served also as lord- lieutenant of Ireland and ambassador to France. Horace Walpole, who had a private quarrel with Bedford, describes him as £a man of inflexible honesty and goodwill to his country ; his foible being speaking on every subject and imagining he understood it.J He was a little man with an im- petuous but refined manner, and very popular — the very reverse of Sandwich, whose manners were extravagant and rough. Thomas Brand, of the Hoo in Hertfordshire, was a member of the Bedford party in Parliament. He formed an important collection of classical antiquities. Robert Darcy, Earl of Holdernesse, born in 171 8, did not join the Society till May, 1747, when he was ambassador to the Signiory of Venice. He had been a lord of the bedchamber to George II, and attended the
C 2
20 History of the Society of Dilettanti
king at the battle of Dettingen. After serving for some years in diplomacy he became a Secretary of State, and subsequently held important posts in the household, acting as governor to the Prince of Wales from 1771 to 1776. He had a house at Sion Hill, Isleworth, where he entertained much society. Horace Walpole says of him that his c talents were not above mediocrity, but that he was taciturn and dexterous enough, and most punctual in the execution of his orders ' ; also, that < his passion for directing operas and masquerades was rather thought a con- tradiction to his gravity than below his understand- ing, which was so very moderate that no relations of his own exploits would, not a little since before, have been sooner credited than his being a Secretary of State.' Holdernesse married a Dutch lady, and died in 1778.
other Among other and apparently less active members
members wno joined the Society before i7yo, are not a few before \^o. ^Qgg names rank, high in the political and social history of the country. Such were Thomas Coke, the great collector, created Earl of Leicester in 1 744 ; Evelyn Pierrepoint, Duke of Kingston, who is less remembered on his own account than on that of his wife, the beautiful and bigamous Elizabeth Chud- leigh ; William, second Earl Cowper, F.R.S. ; Charles Wyndham, afterwards second Earl of Egremont ; Lewis and Thomas Watson, afterwards respectively second and third Earls of Rockingham ; William Wildman, second Viscount Barrington, afterwards Secretary of War and Chancellor of the Exchequer j George Montagu, Lord Sunbury, well known later as Earl of Halifax and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ; Nor- borne Berkeley, who successfully claimed the ancient barony of Botetourt, and later obtained the governor-
EARL OF HOLDERNESSE
History of the Society of Dilettanti 21
ship of Virginia, where he hoped to realize a fortune, but found instead a childless grave ; Welbore Ellis, afterwards Lord Mendip, a prominent and active politician ; William, Marquess of Hartington, after- wards Duke of Devonshire and Prime Minister ; Henry Bilson Legge, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer j the notorious political turn-coat and place-hunter, Bubb Dodington, who was also some- thing of a Maecenas and patron of art and poetry ; and lastly, Dick Edgcumbe, well known as a wit, versifier and draughtsman, who was solemnly appointed < Bard ' to the Society, and who derives a real title to the gratitude of friends of art from the fact that he was one of the first to recognize the powers of Reynolds. Scotland sent Kenneth Mackenzie, de jure Earl of Seaforth ; Mr. John Ross Mackyej and the amiable and ill-fated Lord Deskfoord, heir to the earldom of Findlater and Seafield. Of the last-named Horace Walpole writes to Harry Conway in 1 740 : c Harry, you saw Lord Deskfoord at Geneva ; don't you like him > He is a mighty sensible man. There are few young people have so good understandings. He is mighty grave, and so are you ; but you can both be pleasant when you have a mind.' But poor Lord Deskfoord's gravity and good understandings had no better end than melancholy and suicide. The fact that military and naval eminence began at the same time to be represented at the Society's board by the presence of heroes such as Granby, Anson, and Rodney, may be taken as farther illustrating the variety of the social elements from which the Dilettanti were from early days, and have ever since continued to be, recruited.
CHAPTER II
Practices and regula- tions of the Society.
Places, dates, and hours of meeting.
Practices and regulations of the Society — Places, dates, and hours of meeting — The President : his toga and curule chair — The Secretary and Treasurer — The High Steward — The Arch-Master and his insignia — The Regalia: Bacchus s Tomb, the Ballot-Box, Seal, and Ifikstand — Dining practices : forfeits and fines — Convivial excesses — Toasts — Election practices : qualification, admission, abdication — Committees and quorums.
SO much as is known concerning the origin of the Society of Dilettanti having been set forth in the preceding chapter, and brief notes having been added as to the character and individuality of some among the most conspicuous of its early members, the next step is to give such account of the constitution, practices, rules, and regulations of the Society as can be gathered from the official minutes kept during the first half-century of its existence. The text of these minutes has a character and quaintness of its own, which makes it seem desirable to quote them in most instances verbatim.
The first meeting of the Society of which a regular record is kept appears to have taken place at the Bedford Head Tavern in Covent Garden on March , 1736, for it was then ord red
fThat the Ld Boyne, Mr. How, Sr. James Gray, Sr Francis Dashwood, Mr. Gray, Mr. Degge, Sr Hugh Smithson, Mr. Archer, Sr Brownlow Sherrard, Mr. Whitmore, Mr. Denny, or any five
History of the Society of Dilettanti
members of the Society, do meet at the Bedford Head on Sunday next to enter the Minutes now in loose Papers regularly in a Book (T. Archer, President).5
It was from this date that the present series of red morocco minute-books was commenced.
The meeting-place seems to have been by no means fixed, for on February 4, 1 7 3 9, it was ordered
c That the Society meet no longer at the Bedford Head/ and
c Resolved that the next meeting be at the Fountain in the Strand/
A further change was made on March tf, 174*, when it was
' Resolv'd that the Society do adjourn their next meeting in April to the Star and Garter in Pall Mall/
In February, 1 74A it was ordered
'That the sd Committee do meet on Saturday the 18th at the King's Arms in Pail-Mall ' j
and on May 1, 17^7, it was again ordered
' That the Society do meet in December next at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall/
and
'That the Regalia of the Society be removed from the King's Arms, Westminster/
In February, 176$, it was ordered
' That the next meeting of the Society be at Mr. Almack's in King Street/
The first rule of the Society is as follows : —
That the members of the Dilettanti meet the first Sunday in the month beginning the first Sunday in December and ending the first Sunday in May/
The meetings of the Society were thus fixed to take place on the first Sunday in every month
X4 History of the Society of Dilettanti
from December to May, but in December, 175^7, the January meeting was postponed to the second Sunday in that month ; and on May 20, 1 78 1, it was resolved
c That it appears by experience to be for the advantage of the Society that the meetings be held twice in a month instead of once, that therefore the regulation for so doing be continued for the ensuing year/
But this was rescinded on March 5, 1784, when the Society reverted to c their original institution.' The season during which the meetings were held was after- wards changed : February to July being appointed instead of December to May: and this is the arrangement which holds at the present day. At the date of the foundation of the Society and for many years afterwards, the hour for dining was considerably earlier than at present. Among the early resolutions of the Society are these of February 4, 1739:
' Ordered that the money for the Dinners be collected at the first meeting of every year.
c Resolved that no business be transacted till after dinner/
On April 1 741, in consequence of a resolution,
*That Mr. Gage haveing left the soci. without leave of the President and contrary to a known and ancient custom be censured, it not being seven a clock,'
it was ordered
c That it be a standing Rule of this Society That the President do call for the Bill at seven a clock (if business will permit) and that he do positively without fail call for it at eight' •
and further ordered
c That no one be so disrespectfull as to go away before the bill is called for, without leave publickly asked from and obtained of the President/
In April, 1767, a fine of one guinea was inflicted for a breach of the latter order.
History of the Society of Dilettanti 25-
The President was chosen in rotation from the number of members present, the rule being at first
c That every Member be oblig'd to officiate as President accord- ing to his Order on the List of Names contain'd in the Book/
and
£ That the Member whose turn it is to officiate as President not being present, the next upon the List then present is to officiate for that Meeting (provided he has been Six Meetings in the Society) and the absent Member or Members who mist their turns be oblig'd to officiate according to their Order upon the List the next time they appear at the Society/
At first the office was compulsory, but on Decem- ber 4, 1742, it was resolved
* That any member shall have power to Decline the office of President upon the Penalty of one Guinea and his name be mark'd as if he had actually officiated that time.'
By a minute of May tf, 1739, it was resolved
1 That it is necessary that there be an Alteration in the dress of the President';
and on February 1, 1747,
c That a Roman dress is thought necessary for the President of the Society.'
This having been discussed in committee, the Society on March 1, 174°,
£ Agreed with the Committee as to model of the Roman dress, disagreed with them as to the Colour being crimson. Resolved that it should be of Scarlet,'
and further resolved
* That the President puts on the Roman dress when the Books are open'd,'
and
* That the President Quits the Roman dress when he leaves the Chair and not before.'
The
President : his toga and curule chair.
i<5 History of the Society of Dilettanti
This scarlet toga, in whose folds the President even at the present day sits enveloped, seems to have been from the first an irksome addition to the office. As early as December 6, 1741, a motion was made
' That Sr J. Gray for the high Misdemeanour committed during his second Presidentship in neglecting the insignia of the Office be now publickly reprimanded by the President and advised to take care of his behaviour for the future, and he was reprimanded accordingly.'
The arrangement of the folds of the President's toga was a subject of care and the duty of the Painter to the Society, for in March, 1778,
£The Painter of the Society [Sir Joshua Reynolds] was repre- manded for not sending the Toga to the Committee nor coming Himself as desired by the Society ' ;
and in March, 1 7 8 o, a motion was made
'That Mr. Steward be desired to undertake to have the folds of the Toga newly arranged which have been derang'd by the ill Taste of the Painter with whom it had been intrusted.'
A still direr tragedy connected with the history of the toga is recorded in the Society's minute- books as follows :
c April 18, 1750. The Toga not being Found in the House the Duke of Norfolk was desird by the Society to Lend his Robes for the Use of the President, which his Grace having been pleasd to assent the Robes were accordingly brought and the President arrangd therein.'
' Resolvd that secreting the Toga belonging to the Society is a high crime of misdemeenor. That all such as shall be convicted of being concernd in secreting the said Toga shall be considerd as guilty of high crimes and misdemeenors. That a committee be appointed to enquire into the mode in which the Toga of this Society has been secreted and to draw up Articles of impeachment against all such delinquents as shall be suspected of being principals or accessories in secreting the same. That the said Committee do meet at this house on the second of May next, and that the Duke of Norfolk E.M., the Earl of Sandwich and R. P. Knight Esqre. do attend in their places, and that the Sec. do order Stone the Taylor
History of the Society of Dilettanti
who is suspected of having the Toga in his Poscssion to attend at the Bar.'
cJune 6, 175)0. Mr. Stone attended with the new Toga and tried it upon the chairman, orderd that the new Toga be referrd back to R. P. Knight Esq.'
From these entries a great crime may be suspected, namely, that the two noble peers and the gentleman mentioned were guilty of making away with the old toga and causing it to disappear. By a minute of March 4, 1 7 3!, it was ordered
c That a Chaire be made for the use and Dignity of the PresdV
This chair is elsewhere alluded to as the f Sella Curulis.' The following bills in connexion with it are still preserved by the Society : —
Sir Brownlow Sherrard, Bart. 1739. Debt to Elka Haddock.
May ye <j. To a mahogany compass seat elboe chair, covering do. with crimson velvet and a mahogy pedestal to do. with castors . £\ 10 o
Received the full contents of this bill.
Per Elka Haddock.
and
Sir Brownlow Sherrard
Bought of John Atkinson and Co. 4§ yds. richest crimson Genoa velvet, z6s. . £<$ 1 3 9
The duties of Secretary and Treasurer had neces- The sarily to be discharged for the Society from the Secretary beginning. In the history of the Dilettanti these a^feasure) offices have sometimes been united in the hands of one member, and sometimes held separately. The office of Treasurer (or Steward) was discharged at first by Mr. Henry Harris \ that of Secretary from 1738 to 1 77 1 by Colonel George Gray. On February 7, 1 74^, it was resolved
i8 History of the Society of Dilettanti
* That there be a proper dress for the Secretary of the Society for the time being/
and on March 7 following,
c That the dress of the Secretary be according to the dress of Machiavelli the celebrated Florentine Secretary/
and
c That Sr F. Dashwood and Sr J. Gray do prepare the said dress against the next meeting of the Society/
The High On March 7, i74f, after the establishment of the steward. General Fund, it was resolved
e That an officer be appointed with title of High Steward to inspect the Oeconomy of the Society at their several meetings and to collect the contributions of the members towards increasing the general fund, and that in his absence he be empowered to appoint a deputy by letter.'
' Ordered that Mr. Harris be desired to except the office of high steward which he accepted of.'
At the same time it was resolved
e That a dress is thought necessary for the High Steward & that the said dress be referred to the consideration of the Committee.'
It does not appear that this dress was ever decided upon, though on April 4, 1742, it was ordered
( That a short staff or Baton of Command be part of the High Steward's mark of office.'
c That Mr. High Steward Harris and Sr F. Dashwood do pre- pare a proper baton of office for High Steward.'
And on February j-, 174^, it was resolved
c That it is the opinion of this Society that a small Bacchus bestriding a Tun with a silver chain be wore by the Very High Steward.'
It had been ordered on May r, 1743,
i That Mr. High Steward Harris has for future the Denomination of Very High Steward.'
The office of ' Very High ' seems to have lapsed for a time, for on February 1, 1778, it was ordered
* That the Office of Very High be Revived and that Mr. Banks
History of the Society of 'Dilettanti 29
be requested to accept the same. He accordingly accepted it to the full extent of the original Institution of Ann. Non. Soc.,'
a dress being also suggested again to denote the office.
On May 2, 1742, it was ordered
* That for the more decent Introduction of new members & for other ceremonious purposes it is very necessary there shou'd be appointed an Arch-Master of the Ceremonies/
and it was moved
e That the Right Honle. the Earl of Sandwich shou'd be appointed Arch master of the Ceremonies, and Fie was accordingly appointed and accepted of the said office/
On March d, i74|, it was ordered
'That the Committee appointed for Thursday the roth March do take into consideration the manner of apparelling the Arch- Master of the Society ' ;
and on February j-, 1 74^, it was resolved
c That a long Crimson Taffeta Robe full pleated with a rich Hungarian cap and a long Spanish Toledo be the properest dress to dignify the Arch-Master/
The following bill is preserved among the archives of the Society : —
Mr. Knapton.
Bt. of Ridley Tanner.
1 Feb. ao yards and \ crimson sarsnet, at zs. \d 4 yards and \ gold figuered orris, at <$s 4 yards scarlet cloth for the belt To a crimson tassell etc. . Making the dress A scarlet cloth hussar's cap 1 March. A sword, gilding etc.,
4 yards crimson sarsnet, at zs. q.d, z silk tasseels, cord, and binding Altering the cap, fur, etc., Altering the dress
|
£ |
s. |
d. |
|
z |
7 |
10 |
|
I |
1 |
3 |
|
0 |
4 |
0 |
|
0 |
z |
6 |
|
0 |
10 |
6 |
|
0 |
10 |
6 |
|
z |
17 |
6 |
|
0 |
9 |
4 |
|
0 |
10 |
6 |
|
0 |
7 |
0 |
|
0 |
z |
0 |
|
£9 |
0 |
1 1 |
The Arch- Master and his insignia.
go History of the Society of Dilettanti
Received the above on March and, 1 74^, in full for the above bill £9 6. o. Geo. Knapton.
Buckle, is.
This seems to have excited the irrepressible levity of Sandwich, for at the same time it was ordered
£ That the Ld Sandwich the present Arch Master be suspended from his office for his misbehaviour to and contempt of the Society,'
and
c That Sr Fraa Dashwood be requested by the Presid4 to accept the office of Arch Master, which he did.'
The Arch-master's dress was entrusted to Knapton, the Painter, and to Dashwood ; and on May 1, 1748, it was resolved
4 That Mr. Savage be requested to accept of the Function of Arch Master of the Ceremonies for the year Ensuing, and he accepted it accordingly.'
' That the Arch Master of the Ceremonies has Liberty to go to any Creditable Masquerade in the Robes of his Office.'
Lord Sandwich seems to have repented of his misbehaviour, for on February y, 17^4, it was resolved
* That the thanks of the Society be returnd to Ld Sandwich for his magnificent benevolence in presenting to the Society a Baudrier embossd and embroiderd with Gold for the Decoration of the Person of the Archmaster.'
The office was at first elective, but on May tf, i7yo, it was ordered
* That the President shall be empower'd to name an Arch Master at every meeting who upon refusal to serve shall forfeit one Guinea, but that the President shall not name the same Person a second time till each member present has served or forfeited ' •
and again on March 3, 1757, lt was ordered
£ That the office of Arch-Master of the Ceremonies be executed by Rotation, and that any member shall be excused serving upon the forfeiture of half a Guinea ';
History of the Society of Dilettanti 3 1
and eventually in December, 17 66,
c That the youngest member present (provided he has been six meetings of the Society) do act as Arch-Master or forfeit half-a- guinea to the General Fund, and that then the next youngest member do act, liable to the same forfeiture on non-compliance.'
A few words are necessary concerning the so-called The 4 regalia ' of the Society. As has been stated before, ¥ffaJ a minute-book was not kept until March 6, 1736, Tomb the when the still existing series of red morocco volumes Ballot-Box^ was commenced. It was not until April 1, 1744, Sjea^faKj that a separate vellum-bound book was provided 71 an for entering the minutes of the Committees of the Society, which met for the transaction of business on other days than those appointed for the dinners. On March 6, 1736, when the regular minute-books were first ordered, it was also ordered
* That a Box be made for the use of the Society/
and
' That the said box and the ornaments thereof be left to the direction of Sr James Gray, which at the request of the Society he consented to.'
On May 1, 1737, it was ordered
c That fifteen guineas be paid to Mr. Adye for carving and ornamenting the Box, which was done accordingly out of the forfeit money.'
Mr. Thomas Adye was then appointed c Scultore to this Society,' and it was also ordered
' That a Committee be appointed to meet on Sunday the 1 5th of May to transfer Books, papers, and money from the old Box to Bacchus's Tomb.'
A balloting-box was ordered on the same occasion, Mr. Knapton to provide the design and Mr. Adye to execute it. On May 7, 1738, it is recorded that
< It is the opinion of this Society that the Tomb of Bacchus and the Balloting- Box ought to be engraved on copperplates' ;
History of the Society of Dilettanti
but this laudable desire does not appear to have been carried out. On the same day it was ordered
c That the Lid of Bacchus's Tomb be ornamented and that the Ornaments thereof be left to the Tast and direction of Mr. Knapton and that the Tomb be left with him for that purpose ' ;
and
c That cases be made for the Tomb and Balloting-Box and that the direction of the same be left to Mr. Knapton.'
The following bill has been preserved : —
1739. Jan* 7* The Honble. Society of Dely-tentos.
Dr. to Thos. Adey.
For carving the top of Bacchus' Tomb, with
sculpture and ornaments of fouldige . . £11 11 o For a case for the Balloting Box . . . 1 1 1 6
£iz ix 6 (sic)
Feb. 8. Reed, the Contents. ~~ Per. Thos. Adey.
On April 1, 1739, it was resolved
* That the thanks of this Society be returned to Mr. Ponsonby for his great Generosity in presenting the Society with Ballotting Balls and Bag.'
The ornament for the top of Bacchus's Tomb, as the box for containing the books of the Society was henceforth called, was not executed till some time after, for on April 1, 1744, it is recorded that
£ Pursuant to an order of the Society of April Ann : Soc : Sex : That an Ornament is necessary for the Top of Bacchus's Tomb, Resolved that it is the opinion of the Society that a Bacchus is a proper ornament for the same and that the Sculptor of the Society be directed to execute.'
The inspection of this was delegated to Sir John Rawdon, Mr. Knapton, and Mr. Fauquier, and on February 3, i74j, there is recorded:
cPaid to Mr. Adye Ten guineas (out of the forfeit money) for
BACCH US'S
TOMB
History of the Society of Dilettanti 3 3
having gott executed the Bacchus for the top of the Tomb in Ivory to the satisfaction of the Society.'
A further adornment was subsequently deemed necessary, for on December 7, 1767, it was proposed and agreed,
' That as Bacchus's backside appeared bare, there should be some covering provided for it.'
Mr. Revett was therefore requested to prepare a design, which was approved by the Society in February, 176%, when it was resolved
c That Mr. Revett be desired to procure a model of the sd design executed by Mr. Moser and to be produced to the Society when finished.'
It does not seem as if this was ever carried out, for in April, 1 7 8 o, it is recorded that
' Sr John Tayler having Presented to the Society by the Hands of the Sec. a Bas Relivo in Ivory of Perseus and Andromeda, orderd that the Thanks of the Soc. be given to Sr John Tayler for his generous benefaction. A motion was made that Sr John Tayler's benefaction seeming to be nine inches long be proper to be applied to Bacchus's back — '
This application was entrusted to Mr. Stuart under pain of a forfeit, but on amendment the name of Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks was substituted. On May 4, 1740, it was resolved
'That it is necessary a publick Seal be made for the use of the Society,'
and a committee was appointed to consider a proper form and device for the said seal. On March 7, 174^,
' The Question being put to agree with the Committee in a resolution that the Device of the Great Seal of the Society be a Consular Figure in the chair with the Fasces and the inscription Auctoritate Reipublicae it passed in the Negative,'
and it was ordered
' That the figures of Minerva and Apollo be the Device of the Great Seal of the Society.'
D
54- History of the Society of "Dilettanti
On May 2, 1742, it is recorded
s That it is the opinion of the committee that the drawing of Apollo and Minerva produced by Sir Francis Dashwood bee the proper Device for the great seal of the Society/
and it was ordered
£ That the Motto for the said seal be either Virtus Dilectantium or Cum Judicio Elegantia or Inter Utrumque tene or Seria Ludo,'
and
£ That Seria Ludo be the Motto.'
The device of Sir Francis Dashwood appears, how- ever, to have been abandoned in favour of another, for a seal, well known to the Society afterwards as the « Medusa,' was ordered and purchased in March, 1 7 4 J, although no record appears in the minutes. The following bill, however, has been preserved : —
Delivered to Mr. Napton, from Jacob Dahomel, Jeweller. March 23, 174! :
A large seal of a Medusa's head in silver guilt in the shape of a Mercurs cape and a caducea for the handle of the seal : the cutting of the stone and Jewellers' work and silver comes to two guineas and a half . . . £1 1 2 6
The carving or chacer work comes to a guinea
and a half £1 \\ 6
The guilding and the chagrin casse . . £ i i o
£5 y 0
Received of the Society of Dilettanti the contents in full.
6th Jan. Geo. Knapton.
A silver standish or inkstand was procured for the Society in April, 1742, by Mr. William Bristow at a cost of twenty guineas, repaid him in the following March. This inkstand was presented to Sir Henry Englefield, Bart., on February 18, 1822, when he resigned the office of Secretary. Dining The dinners were paid for by a collection among
practices.
IVORY RELIEF
Let into the back of " Bacchus' s Tomb
History of the Society of Dilettanti 35-
the members present, the price being fixed at first at $s. per head. The sum then collected went to pay the cost of the dinner next ensuing. If this sum proved insufficient for the purpose, the deficit was supplied from the general fund. A forfeit of 1 os. 6d. was inflicted for non-attendance of members 'if in the kingdom and neglecting to send an excuse.' Forfeits were also inflicted for the breach of the following regulations, as recorded in the minutes : —
* April 176 7. Ordered that any member who quits the Room before the Bill is paid without first obtaining leave from the President do pay the sum of £1 1. o. to the General Fund.'
'April 1770. Resolved that any Member drinking to another during the Time of Dinner and the Member so drank to accepting the Compliment each of them to pay half-a-crown to ye General Fund.'
Under this regulation in March, 1779,
cMr Langlois being convicted of hob or nobbing with Sr Richd Worsley was find ....0:2:6. Sr Richd not having acknowledgd the receipt of the said comp* was allowed to be innocent and of course not fine able.'
'Feb. 1, 1778. Ordered that every Member who shall produce upon the Table a Dish of Tea or Coffee do pay to the Gen. Fund of this Society one guinea for every such Dish.'
On May 2, 1779,
' Mr Greville having producd a dish of Coffee upon the Table incurrd the Penalty of one guinea but refused to pay it.'
On December 6, 1778, it is also recorded that
c Ld Sandwich and Mr. Banks having calld this respectable Society by the disrespectful name of Club were find a bumper each which they drank with all proper humility. Lord Mulgrave do. do.'
eLd Sandwich having again calld the Society by the dis- respectful name of Club was again find a bumper and again respectfully submitted.'
Afterwards a fine of one guinea (reduced at a later date to half a crown) was inflicted for this crime. The following fine was ordered in January, 1780, viz. : ' That any Member who shall make a motion in the Society
3 6 History of the Society of Dilettanti
which motion is not seconded by some other Member then present do pay the sum of half-a-guinea into the Gen. Fund/
convivial The second of the ordinances above quoted was excesses. Qf some importance. Hard drinking was very much in fashion at the time, and much drunkenness was caused by the habit of friends toasting each other, often in bumpers, the compliment being one which it was considered an insult to decline. The reproach of convivial excess is one which the early members of the Society of Dilettanti neither could nor would have chosen to disclaim. Their reputation for it is shown by Horace Walpole's sneer in a letter to Sir Horace Mann on April 14, 1743, where he says of the Dilettanti that < the nominal qualification is having been in Italy, and the real one, being drunk : the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex and Sir Francis Dashwood, who were seldom sober the whole time they were in Italy.' Walpole's delicate constitution made it impossible to indulge in these excesses ; and in later years he became a martyr to gout without, as it seems, having done anything to deserve it. That the drunkenness of the time some- times led to an open scandal is shown by the story of the Calves' Head Club. On January 30, 1734, a party of young men, seven of whom (Harcourt, Middlesex, Boyne, Sewallis Shirley, Strode, Denny, and Sir James Gray) were members of the Dilettanti, met to celebrate the birthday of one of the company present by a dinner at the White Eagle Tavern in Suffolk Street. The disorder caused by their drunken revels attracted a crowd, who were led to believe that the dinner was held to commemorate the execution of Charles I on that day, and that a calf's head had been served at table by way of ridicule. A bonfire was lit, and on the diners
THE BALLOT BOX
History of the Society of Dilettanti 37
appearing at the windows they were stoned by the mob, in spite of their protestations of fidelity to the Government and the king. It ended in a riot, stirred up by a Catholic priest, which the newspapers converted into an event of historical importance. At the committee meetings of the Dilettanti Society, which were held under circumstances of less ceremony than the ordinary meetings, a high pitch of con- viviality seems to have prevailed, for on February i 8, i74|, it is recorded that
c The Committee growing a little noisy and drunk and seeming to recollect that they are not quite sure whether the Report of the Committee signed by Chairman and Toast-master Holdernesse may not be so intelligible to the Society as the meaning of the Committee have intended, etc., etc'
That the hard drinking of the time was not de- leterious to life seems proved by the fact that of the original members of the Society all, with but two or three exceptions, lived to be well into the second half-century of life. The resolution of April, 1770,, against health-drinking was repealed by a minute of February 13, 1791.
c The Resolution of April Ann. Soc. Trig. Sept. declaring " that every member who drinks to another or accepts the Comp* of being drank to during Dinner shall forfeit half a Crown " was taken into consideration & after due deliberation being had it appearing that little or no income had arisen from the infraction of this Rule it was unanimously resolvd that it be rescinded & that in Future members be at Liberty to drink to each other, & thank each other for the compliment without incurring any Penalty/
The general toasts originally proposed and adopted Toasts. by the Society were Viva la Virtu, Grecian Taste and Roman Spirit, and Absent Members. To these was added by a minute of March 7, 1747, ^st0 prae^ara» esto perpetua. On March 29, 1789, it was resolved to add the toast of The King to precede all others. This addition was, no doubt, due to the outburst of
3 8 History of the Society of Dilettanti
loyalty which took place when the king resumed his authority, after his recovery from his first attack of insanity, on March i o of the same year. A toast hardly tending to edification was enjoined on the committee meetings by a resolution of March 19, 1785. Election New members were proposed and seconded to the practices: dinners and elected by ballot. The regulation was
aualijica- J °
tion cThat no Person can be proposed to be admitted of this Society
admission but by a Member who has been personally acquainted with him or
abdication, her in Italy and at their request/
and
'that no Person propos'd can be admitted but by the Consent of more than three fourths of the Company present by Ballot.'
The first resolution was quaintly modified in March, 1 74I, by a resolution
'That it is the opinion of the Society that Avignon is in Italy,5
and
' That no other town in France is in Italy.'
Avignon was a great centre for English travellers,
the Duke of Ormonde having established a colony
of Jacobite exiles there. The member in question
seems to have been the Honourable Captain Edg-
cumbe, proposed by the Duke of Bedford, who,
f having passed the Gutt or Streigkts? was duly
elected. On January 174-y, it was moved by
Lord Sandwich, and carried nem. con. —
c That leave be given to any member of the Society Residing in Italy to propose Members by Letters, to be Balloted for as if present.'
( Resolv'd Nem. Con. that this order be pass'd into a Law.'
This was to enable Sir James Gray, then Secretary to the Embassy and afterwards British Resident at Venice, to secure members for the Society, so to speak, on the wing. In April, 1777, it was resolved
History of the Society of Dilettanti 39
'That all who can give proof of their having been ever out of the King's Dominions, shall hereafter be deem'd sufficient Candidates and may be elected Members of the Society ' ;
but in April, 1764, this resolution was erased as contrary to the original spirit and meaning of the Society, and the original rule was further amended by the resolution to substitute, for the words following 4 this Society,' the words —
' Who cannot bring sufficient proof of his having been in Italy, or upon some other Classic Ground out of the King's Dominions and at his own request.5
Early in 1742 it was considered necessary that a diploma or parchment instrument, with the great seal of the Society affixed, should accompany the admission of members. On February 4, i74|, it was resolved
c That it is the opinion of the Society that the Form of an Instrument for the Admission of Members be as follows : — To the Highly Favoured —
We the most Illustrious and vertuous Society of the Dilettanti do hereby inform you to take your place in our most august assembly. , President.'
And on April 1, 1744,
e That it is the opinion of the Society that a Committee of seven of the most antient members of this Society be appointed to sign the Diplomas to all those who are now members, and that the Presid1 do sign all those for the time to come.'
New members were obliged to take their seats within the next six meetings of the Society, and their introduction was conducted by the Arch- Master with ceremonies partaking to some extent of a masonic character. Resignation, whether voluntary or incurred through inadvertent neglect of the rules and usages of the Society, was styled abdication, and a member was said to have abdicated under the rule —
c That every Member who neglects to Come or Write Six
4-o History of the Society of Dilettanti
Meetings successively be looked upon as no longer a Member of this Society and his Name be Struck out of the List accordingly.5
The following minutes tell the story of the early attempts of the Society to keep inviolate the honour of being a member of the Dilettanti :
'April i, 1795). R^olved that to prevent difficulties which may arise from the appearance of any former members after abdication the officiating Secretary be directed to advise them of their neglect according to the following form : —
Sr — You having neglected to write or attend the Society of the Dilettanti as their Laws require I am ordered to acquaint you that you are no longer a member thereof.
' Resolved that any new elected member who shall not appear at the Society within six meetings, the day of election inclusive, shall be excluded.
' Resolved that in case any person elected does not make his appearance within the time before limited the person who proposed him shall be obliged to pay the forfeitures incurred by his non attendance/
' March z, 174.0. Ordered that one hundred Copies of the Letter notifying Exclusion be printed in Italicks.'
' April 1, 1744. Ordered that a printed Letter of Admonition sign'd by the secretary be sent to those members who have missed three times successively coming to the Gen11 Meeting.'
'May zy, 1744.. Ordered that the following form should be used in the Letter of Admonition : —
This is to inform you that you have neglected to attend or write your excuse to the Society of Dilet- tanti for three successive meetings, and that upon a fourth omission you will be no longer a member thereof. Resolved that this form be neither engraved, written, nor printed.'
c April 7, 1 74.5-. Resolved that when any member shall abdicate, a memorandum of the sum in which he shall then stand indebted to the Society be added by the Secretary as a Postscript at the bottom of the Letter.'
'April 5, 1747. The Society agreed with the Committee in their Resolution That the Debts of those members who have abdicated be examined into, and that a statement of the Debt of each particular abdicated member be sent forthwith with a most vehement Exhortation to them to pay their debts so fairly con- tracted and so unjustly detained.'
'March 4, 175^. Ordered that any member who does not
History of the Society of Dilettanti 41
make his personal appearance at the Society with in the space of two years (if in Great Britain) be excluded to commence from the first Sunday in December next.'
' April 6, 175-7. Resolved that all Persons who have ever been members of the Society may upon application at any of the meetings of the Society on or before the meeting in May 17 58 be re-admitted and considered as new-elected members/
'April 1, 1764. OrderM that any Person who has been a member of the Society and is re-elected shall on his re-election pay all the Debts incurred and due to the Society at the time of his Exclusion or that he shall be excused on payment of Ten Guineas.5
4 Jan. 13, 1780. Orderd that the Secretary shall in future when any member shall have incurrd 5- forfeits write him a letter notifying to him the danger of Abdication in which he stands and that he be allowd to incur two more forfeits before his abdication be considered as compleat.'
£ That a year of Grace be allowd to all who have abdicated during which year they may return to 6c again take their places in the Society without a re-election.'
With reference to the committees of the Society, Commit- it was resolved on April 7, 1745*, tees and
quorums.
c That a number not less than five do constitute all Committees of this Society,'
and in March, 1747, it was ordered
' That nine members shall be deem'd a sufF* number to Transact the common Business of the Society viz: Receiving and paying and putting out money to Interest and Electing of Members, But that no number less than twelve shall be empower'd to alter any of the Standing Laws.'
CHAPTER III
Miscel- laneous activities of the Society : the West- minster Bridge Lottery,
Miscellaneous activities of the Society: the West- minster bridge Lottery — Foundation of General Fund: building schemes — The Cavendish Square site — Its abandonment and the financial result — Promotion of the Italian opera — Middlesex and Vanneschi — Schemes for an Academy of Arts — . Mr. Dingleys plan — Communications with Haymans Committee of Fainter s — "The Society's plan — Collapse of negotiations — Foundation of the fyyal Academy : its relations with the Dilettanti — Proposal to form a gallery of casts from the antique — Revival of the building scheme — Suggested sites : the Green Park — "The Star and Garter — Camelford House — Final abandonment of building scheme — Increasing riches of the Society — Face-money : I^ule Ann. Soc. Undec. — Other sources of income — Incidental records.
THE earliest recorded transaction of the Society of Dilettanti relates to the lottery for the new bridge over the Thames at Westminster. This lottery was a scheme initiated by Sir Robert Walpole in order to defray the cost of constructing the new bridge. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1736 to sanction the lottery, and commissioners were appointed to manage it. The scheme was not very successful, although it was taken up by
History of the Society of Dilettanti 43
the public with their usual reckless impetuosity in such matters ; and Walpole had to bear the brunt of the complaints which came from those who were disappointed or dissatisfied. Numerous satirical prints were published on the matter. There seems to have been more than one drawing of the first lottery, and a second was begun in December, 1740. The Dilettanti, many of whom had no doubt been individually responsible for helping to start the scheme, were early in the field in a corporate capacity. On May 2, 1736, it was resolved (and this is the first resolution standing in their minute-books)
' That it is the opinion of this Society, that the proposal for a subscription to the Lottery for the intended Bridge is worthy the consideration of the Dilettanti and accordingly have agreed to subscribe two Guineas and a half each in case the same is agreed to at the next meeting. Harcourt, President.'
The sum of £112 17-r. &d. was thus raised by subscription, and the list of members who either subscribed or else were absent at the moment gives for the first time the names of those who have been since regarded as the original members of the Society. On May id, 1 7 3 it was resolved
'That Mr. Harris be desired by the Society of Dilettanti to take upon himself the office of Treasurer of the Lottery Money. That he be impowered to lay out in Lottery tickets one hundred & seven guineas & one half, for the use of the said Society ; and whatever deficiencys may remain upon the Collection of the Subscription, shall be made up out of the money contributed towards the next year's Dinners, which money he is hereby permitted to make use of- but at the same time, desired to write to so many Members as have not subscribed, or not paid in their money, if subscribed.'
Also it was ordered
' That Mr. Harris shall transmit to Sr Fra's Dashwood the number of tickets bought with one hundred and twelve pounds seventeen
44- History of the Society of Dilettanti
shillings and sixpence with the respective numbers of the said purchased tickets. L. Pilkington, PresidV
Eleven additional subscriptions were subsequently paid in, leaving Mr. Harris with £123 js. 6d. to invest in lottery tickets, and eventually twenty- seven tickets were purchased at £\ 11s. each from Richard Shergold, whose lottery office is stated in an advertisement of the London Daily Post, January 23, 1740, to have been at the Union Coffee House over against the Royal Exchange, Cornhill. Three of these twenty-seven tickets won prizes, and in March, 17 3 1, the following entry was made in the minutes : —
'Received of Mr. Harris £4.4. %s. od. for three prizes at .£11 4J. od. each and for 24. blanks at ys. each.'
It will thus be seen that the venture was not very profitable. When the second lottery was started in 1 740 it was resolved, on May 4,
' That thirty-nine pounds eighteen shillings and sixpence be paid to Mr. Treasurer Harris out of the Lottery Money, for the use of the Society, in the Adventure of the present Bridge Lottery/
And it was ordered
' That Mr Harris shall transmit to Mr Comptroller Boone the Number of Tickets bought with thirty-nine pounds eighteen shillings & sixpence with the respective numbers of the sd purchased tickets.'
Eight tickets were purchased with this money, two of which gained prizes of £20 and £10 each at the drawing in March, 174^- This venture was more successful than the last, but on December 7, 1740, it was ordered
' That a Committee of the whole Society be appointed to meet on Tuesday the 17th instant to enquire into the Conduct of Mr. Treasurer Harris and Mr. Comptroller Boone in respect to the purchasing of Lottery Tickets, and that they have power to call for Books, papers, etc. Duncannon.'
History of the Society of Dilettanti 45-
The result of this inquiry, if held, has not been preserved. A statement made by Colonel George Gray, the Secretary to the Society, just previous to the drawing of the last lottery gives an interesting record of the finances of the Society in 1740 and
I741-
Ann. Soc. Sept. £ s. d.
In the Lottery Box the first meeting . . . 27 9 8
Money arising from Profits . . . . 1 1 1 1 o
Overplus of Dinner Money for Ann. Sext. . 7 9 6
In Cash, exclusive of Dinner Money for Ann. Oct. . \6 10 2
Paid to Mr. Harris for Lottery Tickets . . . 39 18 6
Remaining in Lottery Box . . . 6 1 1 8 Thirty subscriptions for Dinners for the next year,
174,1 31 10 o
Total Cash . . £38 1 8
From this it will be seen that the ventures of the Society in the lottery were attended with great risk, reducing their cash in hand to £6 11s. %d. Had they been unsuccessful altogether, the Society might have had no further history, and might have distinguished itself by none of those achievements with which its name was subsequently to be connected. The original members were not, how- ever, prophets or clairvoyants, and the idea of making any practical use of their meetings and their funds had not as yet entered their heads.
The experience thus gained from the Westminster Foundation Bridge Lottery led to a very important resolution °fG^neral on March 7, i74i> that Tui/dLg
' The Words " Lottery Money," placed on the fourth partition schemes. of the Treasure be removed, and the Words " General Fund " placed in their room/
It was at the same time ordered
' That a Building be erected or procured for the more honourable and commodious reception of the Society/
4-6 History of the Society of Dilettanti
c That a Voluntary Subscription be made by every Member of the Society not exceeding five guineas nor less than one guinea.'
' That the General Fund be appropriated and made sacred to the sole use of erecting or procuring Building, etc'
' That an officer be appointed with title of High Steward, etc' (see page a8).
c That Mr. Harris be desired and empowered to ask and collect the voluntary Contribution not under one guinea nor exceeding five guineas for the erecting or procuring a Building for the more Honourable and Commodious reception of the Society as he occasionally sees them.'
On May i, 1743, it was resolved
' That four Commissioners be appointed to look out for a proper spot to build a Room. The Commissioners Lord Middlesex, Sr James Gray, Mr. Boone, Mr. Very High Steward Harris and a fifth added Sr Francis Dashwood.'
Active steps towards this scheme do not appear to have been taken till May 3, 1747, when a com- mittee of thirteen members (five being a quorum) was appointed
'To enquire and treat for a proper place and ground for the Erecting the Building intended for the Reception of the Society,'
and empowered to purchase ground for a sum not exceeding £300 or the value of that in annual rent. The thirteen members chosen were Sir Francis Dash- wood, the Duke of Bedford, Mr. Gray, Mr. Fauquier, Mr. Boyle, Sir H. Liddell, the Earl of Holdernesse, the Earl of Middlesex, Mr. Harris, Mr. Howe, Lord Duncannon, Mr. Boone, and Mr. Brand, and to this number were subsequently added the Earl of Bles- sington, Mr. Knapton, Mr. Berkeley, Mr. Shirley, Sir A. Calthorpe, Mr. Villiers, and Mr. Mackye. The Caven- This committee decided on a site in Cavendish dub square §quarej whjch was purchased by the Society from the Duke of Chandos at a cost of /400, the in- creased expenditure being sanctioned by a minute of December tf, 1747. The ground was situated
History of the Society of Dilettanti 47
on the north side of the square, between the houses of the Earl of Abercorn and Sir Richard Lyttelton. The ground was levelled, enclosed with a wall de- signed by Colonel George Gray, who was an amateur architect himself, and eight large elms and six horse- chestnut trees were planted on the north side of the square. Over two hundred pounds' worth of Portland stone was purchased and deposited on the spot, the foundations were actually dug out, and an additional piece of waste ground behind Lady Abercorn 's house was rented, apparently from Sir Richard Lyttelton, in order to afford a back entrance into the Society's premises. On May 3, 17^2, a resolution was passed
' That it is the opinion of the Society that it would be adviseable to come to a Resolution to fix upon some Antique Building as a model for that intended by the Society according to the most exact proportions & measurements that can be procured, this with a view to prevent the numberless difficulties that may come in fixing upon any new modern Plan as such an undertaking when finished must amuse the curious and having been approv'd for many ages must naturally put a stop to all supercilious Criticisms.'
On May tf, 17; 3, the Society agreed with the com- mittee in their resolution
* That the Temple of Pola be taken as a model for the intended Building and that a Plan or Elevation according to that model be forthwith directed to be prepared that it may be carried into immediate execution.'
Sir Francis Dashwood, Mr. Howe, Mr. Dingley, another member who dabbled in architecture and designed the Magdalen Hospital, and Colonel Gray were appointed a committee to carry out the above resolution. The choice of the Temple at Pola was probably due to the drawings by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, which had been taken there in i7fo, and doubtless submitted to Sir James Gray at Venice (see below, p. 76).
48 History of the Society of Dilettanti
Its aban- donment and the financial result.
The whole project, however, seems to have been abandoned by April 6, 17? 6, the Society resolving
c That a Committee be appointed to meet and that they have full Powers to treat with the best purchaser, that shall offer, and dispose of the Ground in Cavendish Square to ye best Bidder, but that the said ground be not disposed of for any sum under £1800 besides the full value of the stone, and that three be a Quorum provided that Sr Fra8 Dashwood or Col. Gray be one, and that the sd Committee have power of vesting the purchase money in the publick Funds for the use of the Society.'
The land was valued at .£2,200, and the com- mittee in May, 17J6, was instructed not to dispose of it for less than £2,400, c if such a sum is offer'd during the course of the summer.' Such an offer does not appear to have been made, for on May 1, 1 7 s 7, it was ordered
c That Sir Francis Dashwood and Colonel Gray dispose of the Ground before the next meeting for the best sum that they can get,'
and
' That the sd purchase money when receiv'd be vested in Bank Annuities.'
It was not, however, till May, 175-9, tnat tne follow- ing order was signed by the members present : —
' At the General Meeting of this Society it is this day order'd that Sr Fran8 Dashwood Bar* in whose name the Land in Cavendish Square was lately purchased of the most Noble Henry Duke of Chandois and his Trustees, in Trust for the use of this Society Do sell and dispose of the same and all the said Society's interest therein unto George Forster Tufnell Esqrand his Heirs for the sum of ,£1800 — which sum he the said Sr Fran8 Dashwood is hereby authorized and required to receive and to give a sufficient Receipt or other discharge to the said Purchaser for the same. Ordered that the said £1800 together with the produce of the General Fund be laid out in Gouvernment Securitys in the names of Sr Fran8 Dashwood and Col. George Grey for the use of the Society.'
It is not clear why the Society so suddenly
History of the Society of Dilettanti 49
abandoned its plan of erecting a Temple of Pola in Cavendish Square. So keen had the members been about the scheme a few years earlier, that they had passed a resolution in April, 1749,
£That any member who proposes to alienate any part of the Gen11 Fund to different purposes than for which it was established, viz*, towards procuring or erecting a Building for the more com- modious and honourable reception of the Society shall be declared an Enemy to the Society and that on no account any disposition shall be made of any sum appropriated to the sd Fund except on the day of a Gen11 call of the whole Society.'
Nay more, — a further subscription to a special Build- ing Fund was started at the same date, headed by a subscription of £20 from Dash wood and various sums from other members of the Society, the minimum being five guineas. It may have been the rapid rise in value of the land in Cavendish Square which led to the decision to part with it, for on the whole the Society came well out of the affair, since after defray- ing all the expenses and selling the Portland stone, the Society was left with a clear profit of £1,063 1 is.jd. This sum, added to that specially subscribed and to the General Fund, placed the Society in possession of capital from about £3,000 to £4,000. An attempt was made in April, 1776, to secure a room in Mon- tague House, presently to be occupied by the British Museum, or else in Somerset House ; but this proving unsuccessful, the idea of establishing the Society in a building of its own seems to have lapsed for the next five years, and the Society resumed its ordinary meetings at the Star and Garter Tavern in Pall Mall.
Meanwhile the Society had given other proofs Promotion that its members intended themselves to be con- °fthe sidered as leaders and arbiters of public taste. On March <5, 1 741, it was resolved
* That a Committee of the whole Society do meet at the Star
£
5"o History of the Society of Dilettanti
and Garter on Thursday the ioth of March to consider of the Proposals made to the Society in regard to the carrying on of Operas for the next season & if the scheme be found practicable that the Committee have full power to transact the affair with the Proposer the same as if a Society ' ;
and it was further resolved, on April 3 following,
* That it is the opinion of this Society that the scheme for carry- ing on of Operas is highly worthy of the Countenance of the Society of Dilettanti, that the Society is sensible by the number of subscriptions already obtained amounting in the whole to at least 170 that the scheme is likely to be brought into effect (by which it is the opinion of this Society that great Emolum13 must redound to the Society) and therefore it is most earnestly recom- mended by the Society the taking the most vigorous measures for the putting this scheme into immediate Execution especially as by the nature of the thing and the necessity of giving an answer to the Performers it can admit of no delay.'
This motion of the Society of Dilettanti was obviously due to the Earl of Middlesex, who was a great supporter of the Italian opera, and had in 1 74 1 himself taken the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, which he, as director and impresario, opened on October 31 of that year. This was in direct competition with the Italian opera as directed by Handel and Heidegger, and led to HandePs quitting London for Ireland, almost ruined by opera, but with the newly written score of The Messiah in his coat-pocket. Middlesex Middlesex engaged a new company of Italian artists, a»d with, the celebrated Galuppi as conductor, Monticelli
Vanneschi. r i * i ■
as first male soprano, Amorevoli as tenor, Visconti as first female soprano, and the Abbe Vanneschi as general manager. Horace Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann on November 1741 : —
' Here is another letter, which I am entreated to send you, from poor Amorevoli : he has a continued fever, though not a high one. Yesterday Monticelli was taken ill, so there will be no opera on Saturday, nor on Tuesday. Monticelli is infinitely admired,
History of the Society of Dilettanti
next to Farinelli. The Viscontina is admired more than liked. The music displeases everybody, and the dances. I am quite un- easy about the opera, for Mr. Conway is one of the directors, and I fear they will lose considerably, which he cannot afford. There are eight, Lord Middlesex, Lord Holdernesse, Mr. Frederick, Lord Conway, Mr. Conway, Mr. Darner, Mr. Brook and Mr. Brand. The five last are directed by the three first ; they by the first, and he by the Abbe Vanneschi, who will make a pretty sum.'
On April 1 4, 1 743 , Walpole writes again to Mann :
( There is a new subscription formed for an opera next year to be carried on by the Dilettanti, a club, for which the nominal qualification is having been in Italy, and the real one, being drunk.'
This is the subscription recorded as above in the minutes of the Society, but it does not appear to have come to anything, for no operas were given at the Haymarket Theatre from June, 1744, to January, 1745. From that date it was carried on fitfully under Middlesex's direction for about ten years, after which period, what with the whims, squabbles, and ailments of the performers, the in- difference of the public, and the reckless extravagance of Middlesex and Vanneschi, the whole scheme came to grief, and Vanneschi found himself in the Fleet prison.
Soon after this somewhat ineffectual attempt Schemes for of the Dilettanti to guide the public into a taste a0f^femy for Italian music, a scheme of a more important °* 1 * ' and very different nature came before their notice : namely, that for founding an Academy of Arts in London similar to these existing in Rcme, Bologna, and other cities on the Continent. The drawing academy which already existed in St. Martin's Lane was entirely in the hands of a committee of artists, who had no wish to enlarge its scope. The Dilettanti evidently aimed at the foundation of a new institution on a broader basis,
E 1
5"i History of the Society of Dilettanti
and including some of those social elements which
they themselves represented. Mr. At a committee meeting held at the King's Arms,
Dingle fs Pall Mall, on February 18, 174-f, the members *lan' present being Lord Holdernesse, Lord Duncannon,
Sir Francis Dashwood, Mr. Fauquier, Mr. Berkeley,
Major Gray, Mr. Gell, and Mr. Dingley,
'Mr. Dingley laid his scheme before the Committee which after having examined Resolved That it is the opinion of this Committee That it is highly worthy the Consideration of the particular members of the Society and recommend it as a scheme that deserves all encouragement.
' Resolved That it is the opinion of this Committee whenever Mr. Dingley's or any other scheme for an Academy shall take place to show their readiness to promote and encourage such scheme.
'That the Society of Dilettanti do give ten pounds per ann. out of their General Fund for the second best Performances in the three different Branches mention'd in the said scheme.
' Holdernesse, Chairman.'
This was the meeting to which allusion has already been made (p. 37), and at which a postscript was added to the effect that
* The Committee growing a little noisy and drunk and seeming to recollect that they are not quite sure whether the Report of the Committee signed by Chairman and Toast-master Holdernesse may not be so intelligible to the Society as the meaning of the Committee have intended, that there should be inserted after the word "encourage " and before the word " such," " having premiums assd." and after the word "that" and before the word "the" the word " then " be inserted and that the words " the " and " said " before the word " scheme " be expunged and the words " Mr. Dingley's" be inserted. Resolved in the negative.'
The precise nature of the scheme proposed by the versatile Mr. Dingley has not been recorded. A too adventurous bark, amply christened at its launching, it seems to have promptly foundered in port.
However, the desire of the Dilettanti to promote
History of the Society of Dilettanti si
some such scheme seems to have got abroad, for on February 2, 1755-,
c A Paper from Mr. Newton secretary to the Committee of Painters directed to the President was deliver'd to them by Colonel Gray and read accordingly/
This paper accompanied an introductory discourse Communka- and plan of an Academy for the Improvement of tions 'w'th Arts in General, and was drawn up by the select com- Co^mjttee mittee of painters, statuaries, architects, engravers, &c, 0f Painters. which had originally met at the Turk's Head Tavern, Gerrard Street, Soho, with Francis Hayman in the chair, on November 13, 1 7 5 3 ; a momentous date in the history of British art. The concluding paragraph of the said discourse contains a distinct reference and appeal to the Society of Dilettanti, as follows : —
' As then the undertaking is of a public nature ; as the expense to the public will be inconsiderable in comparison to the advantages to be expected from it ; as a distinguished set of Noblemen and Gentlemen, long ago convinced of the necessity of such a plan, set apart a sum of money to be applied to a similar use, when opportunity shall offer; as pecuniary rewards have been offered by another society of Noblemen and Gentlemen, to stimulate and encourage young beginners ; and as no founda- tion however narrow in its views and purposes whatsoever, has ever yet wanted patrons and benefactors, it would become criminal even to suppose a possibility that such an one as this would be suffered to perish in the birth for want of assistance only.'
On March 2, 1777, it was resolved
* That it is the opinion of the Society that a Letter be wrote to the Members of the Academy of Painting &c, to return them thanks for the particular regard shown in their application to them as a Body and to every member respectively and that as soon as the proposed scheme is brought to any maturity and a Charter obtain' d they will be ready to give them all the assistance that shall be in their power. (Bedford, president.)'
On April 6", 17 r?-, a letter from the Academy of Painters, &c, signed by the Gentlemen of the said Academy, among whom James Stuart and Nicholas
$4* History of the Society of "Dilettanti
Revett were also members of the Dilettanti, was read. The contents were as follows : —
* Gentlemen of the Dilettanti Society.
* May it please you to accept the sincere acknowledgments of us the Committee of Painters, Statuaries, Architects, etc., for the condescending Resolution passed in our favour, and com- municated to us by Colonel Gray, as also to permit us, in the most respectful manner, to represent, that in consequence of the encouragement derived to us from it, we have entertained thoughts of enlarging the plan of our Charter, so as to make room for the reception of a number of Members not of the professions above specified, to assist conjointly with us in directing and governing the Royal Academy, of which we are now soliciting the establish- ment; and that we should think ourselves highly honoured and extremely happy in receiving the number which may be proposed out of your Society ; to which we are also desirous to submit the nomination of our first President ; being persuaded that with your countenance and assistance we cannot fail to obtain the counten- ance and assistance of the public. But then we beg leave to add, that, such an alteration in our original plan making it absolutely necessary to have a suitable alteration in our Charter, it will be out of our power to bring it to an issue as required, till your pleasure with regard to this is made known to us. ' We are, Gentlemen,
£ Your most obliged and most devoted humble Servants, F. Hayman J. Gwyn Robt. Taylor
Chas. Grignion G. M. Moser Wm. Hoare
Thos. Hudson Sam. Wale L. F. Roubilliac
George Lambert Ric. Yco Thos. Carter
Samuel Scott Rl. Strange James Stuart
Richd. Dalton G. Hamilton
Fr. Milr. Newton Isc. Ware
J. Reynolds John Astley
Hy. Cheere Nicolas Revett
John Pine Thomas Sandby
' April 2, 175^
After reading this letter it was resolved
'That the consideration of the said Letter be referr'd to the General Meeting in May,'
and
'That Col. Gray be desir'd to inform himself from the Academy of Painters etc., of their scheme for a Royal Academy and the
History of the Society of Dilettanti 57
purport of their intended Charter, which he is requested to produce at the next general meeting ' j
and
' That an extraordinary and General Committee be appointed to meet on Sunday the zoth of April to consider of the proposition of the Academy of Painters etc., and that Circular Letters be sent/
At the committee meeting of the Dilettanti on The Society's April 20 the following resolutions were passed, and flan- adopted by the general meeting of the Society in May following: —
* That it is the opinion of that Committee That the President of the intended Royal Academy be all wayes and annually chosen out of the Society of Dilettanti.'
'That all the members of the Dilettanti be members of the Academy, but that only twelve of the Senior members Present at the meeting shall have votes.'
* That any artist may be chosen a Member of the Academy, but that only twelve of the Artists to be chosen annually out of their Body shall have votes, and that upon an equality of Votes the President shall have a second vote. \ Sandwich? chairman.'
In the minutes of the same meeting it is recorded that
* A printed paper of a scheme for a Royal Academy 1 being read to the Society it was agreed that Colonel Gray be desired to obtain one of the said printed papers from the author and to enclose the same in a letter to the Society of painters acquainting them that the Society of the Dilettanti approve of that as a groundwork to proceed upon tho' liable to alterations, and to desire their opinion thereupon and report the same at the next meeting of the Dilettanti in Dec'
No mention of such a report occurs in the minutes of the Society for December, 17 ff ; but the following was addressed to the Society by the Committee of Painters on December 30: —
4 To the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Dilettanti Society. Wc, the Committee of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, beg leave to remind the Honourable Dilettanti Society of two Resolu- tions of theirs j the one signed by His Grace the Duke of Bedford, encouraging us to proceed with our design of preparing and soliciting a Charter for the establishment of a Royal Academy •
1 Perhaps Mr. Dingley's scheme.
$6 History of the Society of 'Dilettanti
and the other by the Earl of Sandwich, Chairman of the Committee, for considering our proposals in relation thereto : assuring us that their determination thereon should be communicated to us; as also to intimate in the most respectful manner, that the sooner we can be favoured with the said determination, the more a favour we shall esteem it, — it appearing to us as highly unbecoming to proceed in an affair once laid before them, till we have been made acquainted with their sentiments upon it. * We are, Gentlemen,
* Your most obliged and most devoted humble Servants, F. Hayman G. M. Moser Jas. Paine
Robt. Taylor Saml. Scott Frs. Milner Newton
Saml. Wale Thos. Carter C. Grignion.'
J. Gwyn J. Reynolds
Collapse of There is no record in the minutes to show that negotiations, j-^jg ietter was ever submitted to the Society, or of any further communication with the Society of Painters on the subject. The Society of Dilettanti seems at first sight to have been rather high-handed in passing the resolutions detailed above, which were hardly consonant with the scheme set forth by the committee of artists ; but at that date circumstances had already shown the difficulty of carrying on an Academy managed by artists alone, and some of the artists themselves appear to have been of opinion that a strong infusion of unprofessional members would make the scheme more workable. It is evident that the Dilettanti would be content with nothing but the complete control of the new Academy, and that, their help not being forthcoming on any other terms, the whole scheme collapsed. One member however of the committee of artists, Sir Robert Strange, has in his Inquiry into the jf^ise and Establishment of the Jtyyal Academy left the following tribute to the behaviour of the Dilettanti on this occasion : —
' A Society composed of a number of the most respectable persons of this country, commonly known by the name of the
History of the Society of Dilettanti si
Dilettanti, made the first step towards an establishment of this nature. That society, having accumulated a considerable fund, and being really promoters of the fine arts, generously offered to appropriate it to support a public academy. General Gray, a gentleman distinguished by his public spirit and fine taste, was deputed by that Society to treat with the artists. I was present at their meetings. On the part of our intended benefactors, I observed that generosity and benevolence which are peculiar to true greatness- but on the part of the majority of the leading artists, I was sorry to remark motives apparently limited to their own views and ambition to govern, diametrically opposite to the liberality with which we were treated. After various conferences, the Dilettanti finding that they were to be allowed no share in the government of the Academy, or in appropriating their own fund, the negotiation ended.'
The Society nevertheless took a cordial interest Foundation in the Royal Academy when that body eventually °fthe Royal came into existence and obtained its charter in ^cademy-
r . r its relations
1768. As it turned out, the first President or the with the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, was actually Dilettanti. a member of the Dilettanti at the time of his election. The Society showed its interest in a practical way, for on March 6y 1774, it was ordered
* That the Interest of four Thousand pounds three pr Cent. Annuities be appropriated to the use of sending two students recommended by the Royal Accademy to study in Italy or Greece for three years, and no longer, from the time they are appointed • that tho: due attention is to be paid to the recommendation of the Royal Accademy the Dilettanti shall not be oblidged to receive the persons they propose except they are approved by a majority at a Call of the Society when if they think them insufficient they may nominate others/ [Seaforth.]
On February 2y, 1775-, a call of the Society was ordered for the first Sunday in the following month of March, and Sir Joshua Reynolds was desired to bring the students appointed by the Royal Academy to pursue their studies abroad to receive the approba- tion of the Society. The Dilettanti exercised their power of selection, for in March, 1 7 7 Mr. JeiFeries,
?8 History of the Society of Dilettanti
painter, and Mr. Banks, sculptor, being recommended by the Royal Academy, it was ordered
* That Mr. Jeffries be appointed as a student to go into Italy under the Protection of the Society 'j
and also
f That Mr. Pars also go into Italy claiming the same Protection, Their salaries to begin from the date of their arrival at Rome.'
The two students named arrived in fact at their destination on October 7 and December 21, i77y, respectively.
Proposal to The object of establishing a national drawing form a academy in London had been materially advanced castslram ^ mumficence of Charles Lennox, third Duke of the antique. Richmond, who, after returning from the usual tour in Italy, formed when twenty-two or twenty- three years of age a collection of paintings, sculpture, and casts from the antique in a gallery in the garden of his house at Whitehall. This he opened in March, 17^8, as a gratuitous school of drawing for students under the direction of G. B. Cipriani the painter and J. Wilton the sculptor. This was the first attempt to make a collection of such casts in England, and the first school in which the systematic study of antique sculpture was rendered possible to young students of small means. Horace Walpole says : * The institution of a school of statuary in the house of a young nobleman of the first rank rivals the boasted munificence of foreign princes.' The Duke of Richmond was not at the time a member of the Society of Dilettanti, which he did not join until March, 176" y ; but it may safely be attributed to his example that on March 1, 1 761, it was moved by Sir Francis Dashwood and carried,
4 That a Committee be appointed to consider of the expence, and how far it is practicable to procure the first and best casts of the
History of the Society of Dilettanti 5-9
principal Statues, Busto's, & Bass Relievo's great or small in order to produce something from this Society that may be bene- ficiall to the publick.'
In the original plan for the formation of a Royal Academy such a collection of casts, etc., had been contemplated, but only c for the improvement of the students.' The resolution of the Dilettanti, although not carried into effect, appears to be the earliest scheme in England for founding a set of casts from antique sculpture for the use of the public, such as have been recently formed at Cambridge, Oxford, and the South Kensington Museum.
This scheme had the effect of reviving the idea of Revival of a separate building to be erected for the use of the buildlvZ Society, since the committee to which it was referred, sc eme' its members being Sir Francis Dashwood, Colonel Gray, Colonel Denny, and Sir Thomas Robinson, were of opinion
'That some Act should be undertaken to show to the World the Intention of their Original Institution — in order to wh. they agreed. First— that some proper place should be found out, in order to build a Room, to hold any purchases of the Virtu kind the Society may hereafter make, and also it was Resolv'd that Enquiry should also be made with regard to any room or rooms, now built, which may answer the said purposes — to make a report to the Society on these heads, at their next meeting.
4 It was then proposed to recommend to the Society to purchase Casts of the best Statuery Busts or Basso-relievo's etc., that may be now in Great Britain or Ireland.
' It was further agreed by the Committee to recommend to the Society to purchase abroad any fine Casts of the best statues &c. in the manner and att the time the Society shall direct — & it is left to the consideration of the Society to make out the names of such Gentlemen abroad, who they think might be willing to assist in procuring those pieces of Virtu, which are the objects the Society have in view & letters to be wrote to 'em, signed by their members, desiring their assistance on this occasion.'
Keeping in view the requirements of this scheme, St?g&ested
1 • 1 1 1 • 7 sites: the
the committee made an attempt to secure the auction- Greeu Fark
6o History of the Society of Dilettanti
rooms of the well-known Mr. Cock, the auctioneer,
for their premises. But the negotiations proved
fruitless owing to a complication of leases between
Mr. Cock, a Mr. Smith, the Crown, and the French
Protestant refugees, whose chapel the building had
once been, while Mr. Cock asked an exaggerated sum
for his share in the lease. The committee then stated
their opinion
c That if a piece of ground could be obtained from the crown, adjoining to the Park Wall in Piccadilly situated between the Duke of Devonshire's and Lord Bath's in order to build an exact copy of an antique Temple, that it would be the properest way of disposing of the Society's money, according to their Intention, and would be a publick ornament, and the first example of this kind in his Majesty's Dominions — and redound greatly to the honour of this Society.'
No further action, however, was taken in the matter until March 28, 1764, when the committee declared, and on April 1, 1764, tne Society ordered
c That the Original Resolution viz*. That a Building be erected, for the more Commodious and Honourable reception of the Society for which purpose the money has hitherto been collected, be speedily taken into consideration being consistent with the Honour and Dignity of the Society.'
The committee further recommended
c That a memorial be presented to His Majesty beseeching His Majesty that he will be graciously pleased to allot a proper piece of ground in the Green Park next Piccadilly, or wherever else His Majesty shall think fit, on which a building may be erected for the more commodious and honourable reception of the Society, according to the Order of the Society at the last General Meeting j and that Lord Le Despenser, Lord Charlemont, Mr. Wood and Colonel Gray be desired to prepare such memorial to be laid before the Committee.'
A draft petition was prepared and Sir Francis Dashwood (now Lord le Despencer) 1 was desired to present the same to His Majesty, and if it meets with His Majesty's approbation to forward the petition to
History of the Society of Dilettanti 61
the Treasury.' On April 20 Lord le Despencer reported { that he had presented to His Majesty the petition agreed to at the last committee, which His Majesty received very graciously and was pleased to say he would consider on it.' This, however, proved a barren effort, for on May 1 a resolution was passed (and subsequently ordered by the Society)
'That it was the opinion of the Committee viz. Lord Le Despenser, Lord Middlesex, Mr. Howe, Colonel Denny, Lord Charlemont, Mr. Wood, Colonel Gray, Sir James Gray, Mr. Stewart and Mr. Fauquier, Secretary, that another Petition be presented to His Majesty, specifying particularly the ground in the Green Parke, on which it is proposed to erect the intended Building viz. to commence opposite the East End of Whitehorse Street next below the Earl of Egremont from thence one hundred and twenty four feet westwards towards Hyde Park Corner and projecting into the Green Park one hundred and forty Feet/
This petition was likewise presented to His Majesty by Lord le Despencer, who on June 5- following- reported to the committee that £ the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. G. Grenville, had returned him the Petition to His Majesty, desiring ground in the Green Park, to erect a building on, and at the same time acquainting him that His Majesty desired to see a Plan of the Intended Building first.'
At this gentle but obvious snub the Society The star abandoned their designs on the Green Park, but in Garter. May, 1 76s;, they made an attempt to secure for them- selves the premises of the Star and Garter Tavern in Pall Mall, at which they were accustomed to hold their monthly meetings. The tenant, Mr. Fynmore, was willing to part with his lease, which had twelve years to run, but on application to Mr. James Beau- voir of Danharn Hall, Essex, the lessee under the Crown, it was discovered that Mr. Beauvoir had no power to sell. No further steps were taken for
6z History of the Society of Dilettanti
some time towards erecting a building, but in April, 1770, it was resolved
* That any member making any motion for the appropriation of any part of the General Fund exceeding One hundred Pounds to any purpose but that of erecting the new Intended Building should for leave to make such motion pay the sum of two guineas, & in case the motion is rejected by a majority of the Members present, he is to forfeit the further sum of three guineas/
The matter, however, only advanced in fits and starts, though never dropped out of sight. In May, 1772, it was resolved
* That a Committee be appointed to Consider of a proper manner of effectually carrying into execution the resolution of the Society with regard to the New intended Building, — that Lord Dispenser, Sr James Gray, Mr. Howard, Ld Clanbrasil, Mr. Ascough, Sr Jos. Reynolds, Mr. Crowle, Be of that Committee and to meet next Saturday 9th May 177X5 — That all members who come have Voices and that Cards be sent to all acquainting them of this resolution, — That this Committee be Called the Grand Committee ! '
On May 2, 1773, it was resolved
* That during the Recess the Society be formed into a Committee to Consider of purchasing a piece of Ground to erect a Building upon for the use of the Society and that Five Members be a quorum, — That the Committee do not exceed the sum of one Thousand Pounds for the purchase of the Ground.'
Then nothing more was done until April, 1776, when it was ordered
4 That there be a Call of this Society next meeting to take into Consideration the disposal of a certain sum from the Publick Fund towards Building a Temporary Room for the Reception of the Society next year/
But this proposal was negatived in the following May. In April, 1777, it was proposed by the committee to take permanently a room at the Star and Garter Tavern, and in the following May the Society resolved to agree
ewith the Determination of the Committee of the acth April
History of the Society of Dilettanti 63
1777 and Recommend it to the members of the Society to pay a guinea per annum for 3 years to come to the Master of the Star and Garter tavern for the Recompense to him for the use of this room, — That the Secretary do pay two Hundred guineas to the Master of the Star and Gaiter Tavern upon His signing the Article of Agreement this day produced by the Secretary and laid before the Society for their inspection.'
It is not clear from the records of the Society camelford whether this arrangement was actually carried out House. or not. But the idea of erecting a separate building for the use of the Society seems to have been again abandoned about this date (1777) owing to heavy expenditure from its funds in another direction, as will be recorded in the succeeding chapters. It was once more revived in February, 1785-, by a proposal from Lord Camelford to sell to the Society the shells of two new houses adjoining his own in Hereford Street, which might be thrown together to form a museum 4 for what is properly called virtu.' The offer, however, was declined by the Society on discovering that in addition to an initial cost of £2,5-00 for the completion of the buildings by Sir John Soane, they would incur large ex- penses for furniture, decoration, ground-rent, taxes, service, &c. ; moreover, Lord Camelford made it a condition that he was to be allowed a special door and key leading from his own house into the gallery on the ground floor.
The last flicker of the building scheme seems to Final aban- have occurred in March, 1790, when it was resolved donment °f
building
< That a Committee be appointed to meet here on Sunday the scheme. aist instant; and that they do take into Consideration the sums that have been expended by the Society in attempting to provide a room ; and inquire into the state of the site of the Opera House, that was burnd down last summer, and how far the same may be proper to be purchasd for the purpose of building one, and to such other matters as they may think Fit.'
64 History of the Society of Dilettanti
Nothing appears to have come from the above resolution ; and thus the idea of a separate build- ing or even a separate room for the use of the Society was finally abandoned, and the Society continued to hold its meetings at the Star and Garter Tavern up to the end of the eighteenth century.
Increasing The voluntary subscriptions, however, of the rkhes of the senior members, and the customary contribution Society. tQ tjie budding fund, paid as an entrance fee by all newly elected members, added to the profit made by the sale of the land in Cavendish Square, had increased the riches of the Society and placed them in command of capital of no inconsiderable amount. This was further augmented by two enactments of great importance in the history of the Society. Face-money, On January 4, 174I, it was ordered
c That every member of the Society do make a present of his Picture in Oil Colours done by Mr. Geo. Knapton, a member, to be hung up in the Room where the sd Society meets;
(Sam1 Savage, President.) '
and on February 3, 174^", it was ordered, nomine contradicente,
c That every member of the Society who has not had his Picture painted by Mr. Knapton by the meeting in February next year, shall pay One Guinea per Annum till his Picture be Deliver' d into the Society, unless Mr. Knapton declares that it was owing to his want of time to finish the same.'
As many of the members did not care, or did not find opportunity to comply with this order, the pay- ments on this account, known as ' Face-money produced a considerable sum every year. Rule A?m. On February 5-, 1 74^, it was ordered
Soc. Undec. CThat aftef thc first of March I7+j every member who has any increase of Income either by Inheritance Legacy Marriage or preferment do pay half of one p. ct. of the first year of his
History of the Society of Dilettanti 6s
additional income to the Gen11 Fund, but that every member upon paymt. of £10 shall be released from such obligation.'
[Strafford, Presid*.]
This enactment, known as Rule Ann. Soc. rUndec.^ and still solemnly recited at every meeting of the Society, seems to have been first received in a rather ribald spirit, for on April 7, 1745", it was
' Resolv'd that the Committee have leave to sett again and that it be an Instruction to the said Committee to Consider and explain the word Preferment in the order dated Ann: Soc: Undec: Feby. ?th.'
In May, 1747, it was resolved
' To agree with the Comittee in their first Resolution That all Titles and Honours are deem'd Preferment. Also in their Comittee's second Resolution viz: That all Preferment shall be valued according to the subsequent rates viz :
An Arch Bishop A Duke . A Marquiss An Earl . A Viscount A Bishop A Baron A Judge . A Knight of the Garter A Knight of the Thistle A King at arms His Majesty's Ratcatcher A Knight of the Bath
his Blessing his Grace his Honour nothing something n ... . 6 pence 6s. U. lis. 4J.
10 pounds Scotch 5 pounds English
8 pounds
9 pounds
10 pounds.'
A Trumpeter On May 7, 1769, it was resolved
* That it is the opinion of this Society that the word Inheritance means any encrease of income by the death of another person $ but that this be not meant to extend to the falling in of Leases for Lives or Lands and Tenements.'
The payments on this account also produced annually a fairly large sum, and as it is one of the few orders dating from the early years of the Society's existence which remain in force at the present day, the full list of such payments gives
66 History of the Society of 'Dilettanti
a most interesting insight into the rank and position of the members. The first few entries give a good idea of these payments.
c March 4, 174I. Mr. Secretary Gray paid in the sum of eighteen shillings & threepence being the half of one p. ct. of £i%6 ior. conformable to the Resolution of Feb. 5th being appointed Major of Brigade.'
c Dec. 2, 1 744. Mr. Fauquier paid in to the Genu Fund the sum of fifteen shillings being the half p. Ct. of £1^0 ann. Conformant to the Resolution of Feb. 5th and appointed Director of the London Insurance Company ; Lord Middlesex being married to the Honble. Miss Boyle Daughter to the late Ld Viscount Shannon paid into the Gen11 Fund the sum of Twenty Guineas (not taking the advantage of the Resolution of Feb. ye 5th which admitts of compounding for ten pounds being the nearest calculation to his Increase of Income).'
eJan. 6, 174I. Received of the Duke of Bedford Eleven guineas for having accepted the Place of First Commissioner of the Admiralty; Receiv'd of Lord Sandwich Five guineas for having accepted the Place of one of the Lords of the Admiralty.'
The principal sources of the funds in the posses- sion of the Society of Dilettanti up to 1778 may therefore be briefly enumerated as follows :
Dinner Money. Lottery Money. Face-money. Fines and Forfeits.
Entrance subscriptions to Building Fund.
Fee of I per cent, on Increase of Income.
Profit from sale of land in Cavendish Square.
Interest on investments in bank or other annuities.
Interest on the sum of i^o guineas lent on mortgage to the
Earl of Sandwich, paid up to 1791, when the earl died
and the capital was never recovered.
To these funds must be added a legacy of £?oo made to the Society of Dilettanti by Mr. James Dawkins in 175*9. By accumulations derived from these various sources the riches of the Society, which in 1743 amounted to £321 $s. %d., had in May, 1778, increased to £4-,o66 19s. 2d.
The following incidents recorded in the minutes
History of the Society of 'Dilettanti 67
seem worth noticing as among the obiter dicta and facta of the Society. At a committee meeting (where the company seems to have been invariably very lively) on February 7, 174^, it is recorded :
' The Committee met. Resolved That it is the opinion of this Committee that Mr. Brand will be Damned.
' Resolved That it is the opinion of this Committee That all Publick pious Charities are private Impious abuses/
'March, 1747. Resolved that the Honble. Richard Edgecumbe be Bard to the Society.'
This was the Dick Edgcumbe already mentioned, the friend of George Selwyn and Gilly Williams and Horace Walpole, one of the choicest wits of his day.
'April 5, 1 75" 5". Whereas a very extraordinary message was sent up to the Society, by a Divine of the Church of England for ought it knows, with a couple of Books fairly bound, which the Society never can or will read, It was thought absolutely necessary to prevent any further interruption to send him one Guinea of publick money for the Society's private convenience.'
'March 2, 1760. John Russell a Boy between 14 or 15 years of age produced to the Society several drawings which were judged to be very deserving and therefore for his encouragement It was agreed to make him a present of £j 5. o.'
This entry appears to note the first appearance in public of John Russell, the well-known painter of portraits in pastels and afterwards a Royal Acade- mician. Russell seems to have enjoyed the special favour of the Society, for he was their guest at dinner on at least two occasions in 1774 and 1778. On March 1 7 8 <S, it is recorded that
' Mr. Johnnes having offered to the Society certain Poems of the Late Sir Ch. Hanbury Williams that have not yet been Publish'd on condition that they publish them, ordered that the consideration thereoff be referred to the Committee which meet on Sunday March 19.'
The publication of these poems seems to have engaged the attention of this committee, but no resolution was ever arrived at upon the question.
F 1
CHAPTER IV
The Dilettanti and Classical Archaeology — Earlier history of the study — The Earl of Arundel — The Arundel Marbles — Other collectors — Explorations in situ : Nointel and Carrey — Spon and Wheler ; Chishull — British artists in Rome ; Brettingham and Gavin Hamilton — Stuart and Revett — Sir James Gray and the Dilettanti — Election of Stuart and Revett — Their expedition to Athens — Dawkins and Wood — Le fyy and Dalton — The Dilettanti and ' The Anti- quities of Athens' — Success of the volume — The Society sends an expedition to Asia Minor — Chandler, J^evett, and Pars — Instructions to the expedition — Work in the Troad and Ionia — Approval of the Society — Work in Attica and the Morea — Return and reception of the explorers — The 'Ionian Anti- quities' : choice of materials — Preparation and publication of the volume — Presentation copies — Chandler's < Inscriptions ' and ' Travels ' — Proposed continuation of ' Ionian Antiquities ' — The drawings of J^evett and Pars : various claimants for their use — Difficulties between Stuart and I^evett — Appointment of a Committee — Death of Stuart: posthumous publication of 'The Antiquities of Athens,' vols. ii} iii3and iv — Publication of 'Ionian Antiquities,' vol. it — Custody of the Society's marbles — Marbles and drawings presented to the British Museum.
The /^VUR narrative has thus far been chiefly
Dilettanti I 1 occupied with the personal aspects and "Auk01""/'"1 ^"""^^ convivial usages of the Society, with its * ogy' building schemes, its gradual accumulation of cor- porate funds, and its projects, more or less successful,
History of the Society of Dilettanti 69
for the encouragement and patronage of the fine arts at home. We now approach a different and by far the most fruitful field of its activity. To the Dilettanti belonged for many years the chief, and in several instances the whole, credit of initiating and supporting those undertakings by which the remains of classical antiquity in Greece and the Levant have been explored and published for the benefit of students and of the world. Before recounting in detail their enterprises of this nature, a few words on the previous history of archaeological discovery and research in Europe will be in place.
From the days of the early Renaissance, the soil Earlier of Italy, and especially that of Rome and its neigh- history of bourhood, had been continually yielding up its ■ treasures, and the passionate curiosity and admira- tion excited by these, as well as by the remains of ancient architecture still above ground in the same country, had revolutionized the arts and the taste of Europe. But Greece itself, and the sites of Greek civilization in Thrace, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and the Archipelago, had under the Turkish dominion become practically inaccessible to students from the West. Beyond the small number of objects obtained from Greece by Poggio Bracciolini, and the remains observed and inscriptions copied in the islands by Ciriaco of Ancona, both of them in the fifteenth century, there had existed only a very meagre importation of antiquities from those coun- tries into Venice ; and these had consisted chiefly of the casual spoils of conquest. In promoting the regular search for such antiquities, and thus laying the foundations of what we now call the science of Greek archaeology, England may fairly claim to have taken a lead among the nations of Europe.
70 History of the Society of "Dilettanti
It was only in the seventeenth century that an English nobleman found and used the opportunity of giving a new stimulus to such research. The Earl of This was the famous art-lover and collector, Arundel. Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. He had spent some years at Rome, and there signalized himself by his zeal and lavish expenditure in the collection of ancient marbles and other antiquities. When Sir Thomas Roe was appointed ambassador from James I to the Ottoman Porte, in 1621, Arundel profited by the occasion and endeavoured, through the new ambassador, to secure some of the monuments of Greek art known or reputed to be scattered among the more famous classical sites of Greece itself and of the Levant. Roe accordingly sent agents to the sites on the Bosphorus and in the Troad ; but more definite work was commenced in 1^27 by William Petty, whom Arundel sent out as a special agent in his interest. Arundel found an important rival in George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who used his unparalleled influence at home and abroad to secure such objects for his own collection, and established a strong claim to a joint share with Arundel in the results of Roe's efforts. The Petty in 1625- visited Pergamon, Samos, Ephesus,
^Marbles Chios, Smyrna, and Athens, and obtained a number of marbles, including a valuable series of inscriptions. These were dispatched home, and arrived at Arundel House in 1 617 • and no less a person than John Selden devoted his attention to deciphering the inscriptions, which were published as the Marmora Arundelliana in i(52 8. A fresh collection of marbles was sent over in that year by Petty to Arundel, who after Buckingham's assassination found a fresh rival in Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery ;
History of the Society of Dilettanti 71
while other collectors on a smaller scale sprang up, including the king, Charles I, himself. The civil wars put an end for the time being to these pursuits. The collections of the king and the Duke of Buckingham were dispersed, and Arundel himself died in 1646, before the wars were ended. There is no need here to describe in detail the gradual dispersal and partial reunion of the famous Arundel Marbles — how some went to Tart Hall and were eventually sold ; how, after the bulk of the collection had been shamefully ill-treated and neglected by Arundel's grandson, all the inscriptions which could be saved were presented to the Univer- sity of Oxford j how another division of the collec- tion found its way to the Earl of Pomfret's house at Easton Neston, and after much mauling under the pretence of restoration by one Guelfi, was eventually reunited to the inscriptions at Oxford ; and how yet another part went to form the nucleus of the Earl of Pembroke's famous collection, still pre- served at Wilton House. The Wilton collection was presently much enlarged by the acquisition of the antiques which had belonged to Cardinal Mazarin, and of numerous busts collected some- what indiscriminately in Italy by the eighth earl.
These were the great collections of classical other antiquities gathered in England in the seventeenth collect{ century, though a historian cannot neglect the smaller cabinets formed by the third Earl of Win- chilsea (d. 1696), the first Baron Carteret (d. 169?), and Mr. John Kemp, F.R.S. ; the last sold in 1721. Mention must also be made of the celebrated col- lection of Dr. Mead (d. 17x3)? and of that — including miscellanies in almost every department of antiquity, curiosity, and natural history — which was formed by
7x History of the Society of Dilettanti
Sir William Courten, passed afterwards to Sir Hans Sloane, and finally became the nucleus of the British Museum. The first Duke of Devonshire, Edward Harley second Earl of Oxford, the fourth Earl of Carlisle, the architect Earl of Burlington, and Sir Andrew Fountaine, and above all Thomas Coke, afterwards created first Earl of Leicester, were all active collectors of antiquities in the early years of the eighteenth century. Explora- The attention of these several collectors and their thns in agents had been almost entirely confined to the ac- 5?* : , , quisition of such works of sculpture and fragments
Notntel and r \ • 111 i i • i_ ■
Carrey. °r architecture as were movable and portable within reasonable expense. In the meantime a beginning had been made in that other branch of classical research in which the Dilettanti were by-and-by to reap their especial laurels, that is, in the systematic exploration and study of ancient monuments as they were to be found existing in situ. About 1674 (or a little earlier) the Marquis Olier de Nointel, French Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, passed through Athens, and was so much struck by the beauty of the sculptures still remaining on the Parthenon, that he employed a painter, by name Jacques Carrey, a pupil of Le Brun, who accom- panied him in 1674, to make careful drawings in red chalk of all the sculptures which then survived. Wars and earthquakes, the ravages of time and man, had left little that remained of Greek sculpture or architecture undamaged or entire. The Turks, never a wilfully destructive race, had nevertheless allowed in contemptuous negligence all the monu- ments of antiquity which had survived the classical days to perish slowly by reckless usage, decay, and ruin. Even in Carrey's day the sculptures of the
History of the Society of Dilettanti 73
Parthenon were in a very damaged and mutilated state, but his drawings derive an especial value from the fact of the further destruction which ensued during the Venetian bombardment under Morosini in 1687 1. A narrative of De NointePs expedition was published in 1 5 8 8 by Cornelio Magni, of Parma, who accompanied it 2.
Shortly after Carrey had commenced his drawings, Sj>o» and in 167 j and 1676, a learned antiquary of Lyons, ^'fj^j Jacob Spon, in company with an Englishman, Mr. ' (afterwards Sir) George Wheler, travelled through Greece and the Levant. Theirs was the first anti- quarian expedition in those regions of which a careful record has been kept, and although the in- formation gathered by them has been supplemented and in part superseded by subsequent travellers, their labours served as a starting-point for all those which immediately ensued. Spon published an account of the expedition in 1 67 8 3, and Sir George Wheler an account in English four years later 4.
1 Carrey's drawings of the Parthenon pediments are preserved in the Louvre, and are well known by numerous reproductions in archaeological works. But there exist other pictorial records of M. de Nointel's expedition, in all likelihood also by Carrey's hand, which have until recently escaped notice. These consist of (i) two paintings in one of the upper galleries of the palace at Versailles, representing the reception of the Embassy at Constantinople ; and (1) a large picture recently deposited in the town museum at Chartres, in which are represented M. de Nointel and his suite received by the Turkish pasha at Athens. The town of Athens appears in the background, with the Acropolis, on which are seen the Parthenon, the Turkish minaret, and the mediaeval tower, surrounded by the red roofs of houses standing crowded up to the very walls of the enclosure.
2 Relatione della Citta £ Athene, colle Provincie delP Attica, Focia, Beozia, etc. net Tempi che furono passeggiate da Cornelio Magni, Parme- giano, Vanno 1674, e dallo stesso publicate V anno 1688.
3 Voyage d'ltalie, de Dalmatie, de Gre~ce et du Levant. Lyon, 1678.
4 A Journey into Greece by George Wheler, Esq., in company of
74 History of the Society of Dilettanti
Another traveller in classical lands whose work deserves recognition was Edmund Chishull of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Having received from his college the 'traveller's place,' he was in 1698 appointed chaplain to the factory of the Turkey Company at Smyrna, and during his residence there made various expeditions in Asia Minor and Turkey, of which he published ac- counts which proved valuable to later explorers *. Chishull found a friend and editor in the well- known antiquary Dr. Mead, and also owed some of his information to a French explorer in Asia Minor, M. Pitton de Tournefort, the botanist, whose voyage into the Levant was translated into English in 171 8. The published accounts of these several travels, together with the impetus given to the taste for Greek art by the marvellous yields of archaeological excavation in Italy, and the attrac- tion of an added spice of adventure, no doubt supplied the stimulus which induced some young English aristocrats on the Grand Tour, such as Lord Sandwich, Lord Charlemont, Mr. Ponsonby, and others, to extend their travels to Greece and the coasts of Asia Minor. The experience gained and interest awakened during these journeys were reflected in the subsequent action of the Society of Dilettanti. British Another group of persons who shared the pre-
artists in vailing enthusiasm for classical antiquity and 4 virtu ' BrZlL ham was to ^e found among the colony of British artists and Gavin wno made Rome their head-quarters from the Hamilton, early part of the eighteenth century. Among these
Dr. Span of Lyons, Lond. l(>8a, folio. Spon and Wheler met and compared notes with M. de Nointel at Constantinople.
1 Inscriptio Sigea antiquissima, ijxi ; Antiauitates Asiaticae, etc., 1728; Travels in Turkey and back toEngland, 1 747 (a posthumous work).
History of the Society of Dilettanti 75-
were two who are particularly identified with the cause of archaeology, and whose services to the collectors and amateurs of their age appear to have been free from the charges of extortion and falsifica- tion to which other purveyors of the antique then laid themselves open : viz. Matthew Brettingham the architect, who built the Earl of Leicester's house at Holkham (1699-1769), and Gavin Hamilton the painter (17 3 0-17 97).
In the course of the year 1742 there arrived two stuart and others whose names were destined to be still more Revett, honourably connected with the progress of the same study, and with the work of the Society of Dilettanti in particular. These were James Stuart and Nicholas Revett. James Stuart was the son of a mariner of North British extraction, and was born in London in 1 7 1 3 . Losing his father at an early age, he for a time supported his family by painting, and according to tradition painted fans for Goupy, the celebrated fan-painter in gouache. In 1742 he determined to go to Rome, and made his way there on foot. At Rome he not only studied art, but acquired a sufficient know- ledge of the classical languages at the College of the Propaganda to publish in 175*0 a treatise in Latin1 on the obelisk found in the Campus Martius, which attained sufficient notice to gain him a personal intro- duction to the Pope. Nicholas Revett was a member of a very ancient Suffolk family, being the second son of John Revett of Brandeston Hall near Framling- ham, where he was born about 1721. Determining to become an artist, he left England on September 22, 1742, for Leghorn, and thence proceeded to Rome,
1 De Obelesco Caesaris August'/, Campo Mart'to Nuperrhne Ejfoso, Epistola Jacobl Stuart Angli, ad Carolum Wentworth, Comitem de Malton. Roma, 1750.
76 History of the Society of Dilettanti
where he studied under Cavaliere Benefiale, a painter then in repute. In April, 1 748, he joined Brettingham, Stuart, and young Gavin Hamilton in an expedition to Naples, which they accomplished on foot, and it appears to have been during this expedition that the project of a journey to Athens was first mooted. At any rate it was towards the close of this year that the young men drew up the prospectus of a scheme entitled c Proposals for publishing an accurate descrip- tion of the antiquities of Athens, &C.' The idea seems to have originated with Hamilton and Revett, and to have been eagerly and warmly taken up by Stuart. Their scheme receiving support and financial aid from distinguished amateurs like Lord Charlemont and Charles Watson-Wentworth, Earl of Malton (after- wards Marquess of Rockingham), Stuart and Revett quitted Rome for Venice in March, 1770. At Venice they failed to obtain a ship for Greece and were delayed for several months. Three of these months they spent at Pola on the Dalmatian coast, occupying themselves with a careful examination of the theatre and other remains of classical antiquity in that city, The result of these researches was subsequently printed in vol. iv of The Antiquities of Athens : and it was no doubt due to them that in 17^3 the Dilettanti, as set forth in Chapter III, contemplated constructing their new building on the model of the temple of Pola. sir James At Venice Stuart and Revett were thrown much Or ay into the society of Sir James Gray, with con- Wettojrt' seQLuences of great importance both to the Society of Dilettanti and to their own future labours. It has been noted in Chapter II that at a meeting of the Society on January <5, 1747, a moti°n was carried permitting any member residing in Italy to pro-
SIR JAMES GRAY, BART. K B
History of the Society of Dilettanti 77
pose candidates by letters; and at the same time it was resolved that a letter be sent to Sir James Gray acquainting him of this resolution. Gray's situation, first as Secretary to the Embassy and afterwards as British Resident at Venice, afforded him special opportunities for enlisting young English travellers in Italy among the ranks of the Dilettanti ; but for a time few such travellers seem to have passed his way. In May, 1746, it was resolved nem. con.
'That the Secretary do write to Sir James Gray to remind him of his proper situation & peculiar ability to procure members for this Society/
He had already proposed by letter in May, 1745", Election of the Earl of Holdernesse, the Earl of Ashburnham, Stuart and and Mr. St. George \ and in December, 1746, in Revett- response to the above reminder, he wrote to propose Lord Hobart and Sir Thomas Sebright. His next candidate was Mr. Steavens, in May, 17x0; in the course of same year he proposed his new acquain- tances Stuart and Revett, together with a Mr. Trench; and the three were duly elected at the meeting in March, 17 s1- The election of the two young artists was a new departure for the Dilettanti, since their members, with the exception of Knapton, had hitherto been drawn from those who by rank or wealth figured as social leaders, and proved an important event for the Society, leading, as we shall presently see, to its first corporate venture in the domain of Greek archaeology.
It was not until January, 175-1, that Stuart and Their Revett succeeded in embarking from Venice. They expedition to travelled by Zante, Chiarenza (or Cyllene), Patras, Athens- Corinth, Cenchrea, Megara, Salamis, and arrived at the Piraeus on March 17, and at Athens on the following day. In the following May there arrived
78 History of the Society of Dilettanti
at Athens two English gentlemen of culture and learning, who were engaged, like themselves, on a voyage of archaeological research, and only wanted the services of practical artists to give greater utility and completeness to their work. Dawkins In 17 jo Mr. John Bouverie, Mr. James Dawkins, and Wood, and Mr. Robert Wood had started on a journey of exploration through the west of Asia Minor ; they had visited Cyzicus, Pergamus, Sardis, Teos, Ephesus, Miletus, and Magnesia on the coast, and at the last place Bouverie had died. Dawkins and Wood came to Athens soon after, and remained there some time, joining with Stuart and Revett in explorations, but not interfering with their work. In fact it was by means of the liberality of Mr. Dawkins that Stuart and Revett were enabled to carry through their work at Athens. In March, 175-1, Dawkins and Wood left for their celebrated expedition to Palmyra and Baalbec. Not long afterwards tumults arose in Athens, due to the misrule of the Turkish Govern- ment, and in March, 17^3, Stuart and Revett thought it advisable to go to Smyrna for a short time, visiting Delos and Scio on the way. They returned in June, but were again driven away in the follow- ing September both by the tumults and by a more formidable enemy, the plague, without having com- pleted their work of measuring all the buildings on the Acropolis. They became involved in a serious dispute with the British Consul, a Greek, and as a new pasha was appointed to govern the district about the same time, Stuart decided to avail himself of the escort of the retiring pasha to Constantinople to have his position secured by a firman. The escort proved treacherous, and Stuart more than once ran considerable risk of being murdered. He succeeded
History of the Society of Dilettanti 79
however in escaping, and arrived at Salonica, where he was subsequently joined by Revett, and whence the two made their way together again to Smyrna. The continuance of the plague rendered it impossible for them to return to Athens to complete their measurements and researches, and they arrived in England,after a long quarantine at Marseilles, early in 175-7. Meanwhile a fresh prospectus of the proposed publication of their researches had been issued in London by Colonel George Gray of the Society of Dilettanti in 1771 ; another was provided and issued in 17 s 2 by Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Wood ; and another in 17 si by Consul Smith at Venice.
It is important to notice these dates, because a Le Roy and Frenchman, M. Le Roy, was moved to undertake a rival Dalton> journey in the interests of France, and was supported both by royal favour and private interest. He did not however leave Rome for Athens until 1773. He published an account of his researches illustrated with plates, and an English translation, also illustrated, was brought out by Robert Sayer in 175*9, evidently in rivalry with the projected publication of Stuart and Revett, whose appearance it anticipated by three years. Richard Dalton also, who accompanied Lord Charlemont to Greece in 1749, and was afterwards employed by George III, made several drawings of Athenian antiquities which he engraved ; but they are of little value either for art or archaeology.
On their return to England Stuart and Revett The were at once admitted as members of the Society of ^'j^ffj1 Dilettanti, to which, as we have seen, they had been Antiquities elected at Venice four years before ; and in April, of Athens: 17 57, Stuart proposed Mr. James Dawkins as a member. Stuart's patron, the Marquess of Rockingham, had been elected in the preceding February ; Lord
8o History of the Society of Dilettanti
Charlemont was proposed by Mr. Dawkins and elected in. March, 1756 ; Mr. Robert Wood joined the Society a few years later, in 1763. Stuart and Revett set to work to arrange their notes and draw- ings for printing and engraving, and issued a fresh prospectus of their intended publication. In their expenses they were assisted by many members of the Dilettanti. In March, i7 5"7, it was resolved
'That the Society do present the Authors of the Antiquities of Attica with the sum of Twenty Guineas for their first Volume and for the further Encouragement of so great and usefull a Work do intend the same sum for each Volume as they shall be published/
It was not however until 176 2 that the authors were able to issue the first volume of The Antiquities of Athens, measured and delineated by James Stuart, F.j\S. and F.S.jf., and Nicholas Revett, painters and architects, with a dedication to the king. Many names of the Dilettanti appear in the list of subscribers \ the Duke of Bedford took two sets, Sir Francis Dashwood five, Mr. James Dawkins (who died in 1779) nad subscribed for twenty, the Marquess of Rockingham for six, in addition to those taken by other members of his family, and Mr. Wood for eight. On January 23, 1763, it was ordered by the Dilettanti
' That the thanks of the Society be returned to Mrs. Stuart and Revett for their attention in presenting them with their Book of the Antiquities of Athens so magnificently and elegantly bound.'
:ess of The success of this volume was instantaneous and volume, remarkable. Stuart found himself famous, and was for ever afterwards known as 4 Athenian Stuart M
1 It would appear that even before the publication of the work Stuart had expatiated freely upon its merits and those of the artists concerned, for there is a tradition, apparently well founded, that Hogarth's caricature of ' The Five Orders of Perriwigs,' published in 1 76 1, was intended as a satire on the authors of The Antiquities of Athens. This engraving is styled by Hogarth 4 The Five Orders
History of the Society of Dilettanti 81
The work for the first time revealed to the educated public the important place in the history of art which the existing remains of Greek sculpture and architecture still have a right to hold. The pub- lications of Dawkins and Wood on the ruins at Palmyra and Baalbec had excited interest, but had not appealed to the imagination of a class mainly educated on classical lines in so direct a manner as The Antiquities of Athens. ' Grecian Gusto ' became the fashionable craze of the moment, and Stuart and Revett found themselves elevated to the posi- tions of fashionable architects in a new but, it must be confessed, sadly inadequate application of the classical style to domestic use. It is from the publication of this first volume of Stuart and Revett's researches that the modern study of Greek archaeology may be said to date ; and although the Dilettanti were not responsible as a body for its publication, yet without the support which they gave to it, individually and as a society, the book might very probably have never seen the light.
The success of this publication, and the accession The Society to the Society, not only of Stuart and Revett, sends "n but also of Dawkins, Wood, Charlemont, and '^Asia* Rockingham, led the Dilettanti to concentrate Minor. their thoughts on a new scheme for the continua- tion of these researches in Greece and Asia Minor. On the regretted death of Mr. Dawkins in 17J9, he left a legacy of -£yoo to the Society, of which the following notices occur in the minutes —
* May, 175:9. Mr. Revett deliverd a message from Mr. Dawkins
of Perriwigs as they were worn at the late Coronation, measured Architectonically,' with a further statement that ' Least the Beauty of these capitals should chiefly depend, as usual, on the delicacy of the engraving, the Author hath etched thtm with his own hand.'
t G
8i History of the Society of Dilettanti
that he was ready to pay the £^oo, left as a Legacy by his Late Brother towards the Building or an Academy whenever the Society are ready to receive the same.
£Order'd Mr. Revett to return the Thanks of the Society to Mr. Dawkins and that they will lett him know when they think themselves Intitled to receive the said legacy.
* In order to show the Society's great regard for our late worthy member Mr. Dawkins, the Society proceeded to Ballot for the Deceas'd's Brother and he was Elected.'
On May i, 1763, it is recorded
c Received of Col. Gray £^00 paid to him by Mr. Henry Dawkins, being a Legacy left to the Society by his Brother Mr. James Dawkins, and for which sum Col. Gray has given a receipt sign'd by him to sd Mr. Henry Dawkins.'
After some consideration, actuated no doubt by a desire not to interfere with the future publication of Stuart and Revett's remaining material from Athens, and also probably at the advice of Mr. Robert Wood, the Society in 17^4 determined to apply a portion of the funds — which had accumulated to a fairly large sum since the last scheme for erecting a building had been abandoned — to sending out an expedition to Asia Minor at the cost and under the control of the Society. In the words of the preface of the Society's first publication —
' Upon a Report of the State of the Society's Finances in the year 1764, it appeared that they were possessed of a Considerable Sum above their current Services required. Various Schemes were proposed for applying part of this Money to some Purpose j which might promote Taste, and do Honour to the Society, and after some Consideration it was resolved " That a Person or Persons properly qualified should be sent, with sufficient Appointments to certain Parts of the East, to collect Informations relative to the former State of those countries, and particularly to procure exact descriptions of the Ruins of such Monuments of Antiquity as are yet to be seen in those Parts."
c Three Persons were elected for this undertaking. Mr. Chandler of Magdalen College, Oxford, Editor of the Marmcra Oxontensta, was appointed to execute the Classical Part of the Plan. The Province of Architectuie was assigned to Mr. Revett, who had
HON . WILLI AM PONSONBY, afterwards Earl of rjesstorough .
History of the Society of Dilettanti 83
already given a Satisfactory specimen of his Accuracy and Diligence in his Measures of the remains of Antiquity at Athens. The choice of a Proper Person for taking Views, and copying Bass ReliePs, fell upon Mr. Pars, a young Painter of promising Talents. A Committee was appointed to fix their Salaries, and draw up their Instructions, in which, at the same time that the different objects of their respective Departments were distinctly pointed out, they were all strictly enjoined to keep a regular journal, and hold a constant Correspondence with the Society.'
It is interesting to record the names of the com- mittee who were appointed to draw up the instructions for this expedition. They were Lord le Despencer (Sir Francis Dash wood), chairman ; Sir James Gray, Mr. Shirley, Lord Hyde, Colonel Denny, Colonel Gray, Mr. Howe, Mr. Fauquier, Earl of Bessborough, Earl of Sandwich, Mr. Ellis, Duke of Bedford, Duke of Kingston, Mr. Dingley, Mr. Stuart, Mr. Revett, Mr. Berkeley; and the committee called to their assistance Lord Middlesex, Mr. Wood (of Palmyra fame), Mr. Robinson (afterwards Sir Thomas), Marquess of Tavistock, Lord Warkworth, Earl of Charlemont, and Mr. Brand. It is to the credit of these gentlemen and noblemen, some of whom have borne but little character for seriousness in their life, that the instructions laid down by them were not only clear and distinct in their conception, but were carried out with conspicuous success by those upon whom they were enjoined.
At the meeting of the Society in April, 1764, the chandler, resolutions of the committee were adopted, it being Revett> at also ordered ars'
' That a sum not exceeding Two Thousand pounds be appro- priated to the above excellent Purpose ; ' and ( That when such Persons properly qualified can be procured and are approved of by the Society, an application be made to His Majesty and His Ministers for the strongest and best Recommendations to the Embassadors, Ministers, and Consuls, and also to the Turky Company in order to facilitate the Operations of such Persons/
G 2
84 History of the Society of Dilettanti
At their meeting in the following May the Society agreed to the appointment of Messrs. Chandler, Revett, and Pars, and ordered that
e Upon the best Calculation that can be made the scheme proposed may be carried into execution at the rate of about eight hundred pounds a year/
The choice of Mr. Richard Chandler to take charge of this expedition shows the serious spirit in which the Dilettanti set about this work. Chandler, a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, was introduced to them by Mr. Robert Wood, who had helped and advised Stuart and Revett in their Antiquities of Athens, although he only joined the Dilettanti in 1763. Chandler had already performed an important service to Greek archaeology by his description of the Arundel Marbles at Oxford, published in two folio volumes, entitled Marmora Oxoniensia, at the expense of the University Chest. He was thus admirably fitted by previous training for such a task as that now entrusted to him. Revett's skill in measuring and drawing monuments of sculpture and archi- tecture had already been tested. William Pars was a young painter who had just gained a medal from the Society of Arts.
Instructions The following instructions were drawn up by
to the Mr. Wood1: —
expedition.
'Instructions for Mr. Chandler, Mr. Revett and Mr. Pars. Whereas the Society of Dilettanti have resolved that a person or persons properly qualified be sent, with sufficient appointments, to some parts of the East, in order to collect informations, and to make observations relative to the ancient state of these countries, and to such monuments of antiquity as are still remaining ; and the Society having further resolved that a sum not exceeding £xooo be appropriated to that purpose, and having also appointed you
1 Dr. Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor, ijj^.
History of the Society of "Dilettanti Sf
to execute their orders on this head • We the Committee, entrusted by the Society with the care and management of this scheme, have agreed upon the following instructions for your direction in the discharge of that duty to which you are appointed,
i. You are forthwith to embark on Board the Anglican a, Captain Stewart, and to proceed to Smyrna, where you will present to Consul Hayes the letters which have been de- livered to you from one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and from the Turkey Company and you will consult with Mr. Hayes about the most effectual method of carrying these instructions into execution, z. The principal object at present is that, fixing on Smyrna as your head-quarters, you do from thence make excursions to the several remains of antiquity in that neighbourhood, at such different times and in such manner as you shall, from the information collected on the spot, judge most safe and convenient j and that you do procure the exactest plans and measures possible of the buildings you shall find, making accurate drawings of the basreliefs and ornaments, and taking such views as you shall judge proper; copying all the inscriptions you shall meet with, and remarking every circumstance, which can contribute towards giving the best idea of the ancient and present state of these places. 3. As various circumstances, best learnt on the spot, must decide the order in which you shall proceed in the execution of the foregoing article, we shall not confine you in that respect, and shall only observe in general, that by a judicious distribution of your time and business you may, with proper diligence, in about twelve months visit every place worthy your notice within eight and ten days journey of Smyrna. It may be most advisable to begin with such objects as are less distant from that city, and which may give you an opportunity of soon transmitting to the Society a specimen of your labours. You will be exact in marking distances and the direction in which you travel, by frequently observing your watches and pocket compasses, and you will take the variation as often as you can. 4.. Though the principal view of the Society in this scheme is pointed at such discoveries and observations, as you shall be able to make with regard to the ancient state of those countries, yet it is by no means intended to confine you to that province : on the contrary, it is expected that you do report to us for the information of the Society whatever can fall within the notice of curious and observing travelleiSj and, in order to ascertain more fully our meaning on this
86 History of the Society of Dilettanti
head, we do hereby direct, that, from this day of your departure from hence to that of your return, you do each of you keep a very minute journal of every day's occurrences and observations, representing things exactly in the light in which they strike you, in the plainest manner and without regard to style or language, except that of being intelligible ; and that you do deliver the same, with what- ever drawings you shall have made (which are to be con- sidered the property of the Society) to Mr. Hayes, to be by him transmitted, as often as conveyances shall offer to us, under cover to William Russell, Esq., Secretary to the Levant Company, and you shall receive from us, through the same channel, such further orders as we may judge necessary.
f. Having ordered the sum of £xoo to be invested in Mr. Chandler's hands to defray all expenses which may be in- curred till your arrival at Smyrna, we have also ordered a credit in your favour to the amount of £800 per annum , to commence from the date of your arrival at that place ; you giving drafts signed by Mr. Chandler and Mr. Revett, or Mr. Pars ; the whole to be disposed of as follows, viz : — £100 a year to Mr. Revett, £80 a year to Mr. Pars, who are each of them to be paid one quarter in advance ; the remaining £6ro to be applied to the common purposes of the Journey by Mr. Chandler, who is to be Treasurer, paymaster and accomptant, and may appropriate to his own private use such part of that sum as he shall find necessary, informing us of his management of the common stock, and transmitting to us his account from time to time.
6. And though our entire confidence in your prudence and dis- cretion leaves us no room to doubt but that perfect harmony and good understanding, which are so necessary as well to your own happiness as to the success of the undertaking, will subsist among you, yet in order to prevent any possible dispute which might arise about different measures in the course of this expedition ; we expressly declare, that the direction of the whole is hereby lodged in Mr. Chandler, assisted by Mr. Revett. And though Mr. Revett and Mr. Pars should protest against any measure proposed by Mr. Chandler it is our meaning that any such difference of opinion should not in the least interrupt or suspend your operations ; but that, at the same time that such persons as dissent from or disapprove of what is proposed shall transmit to us their reasons for such dissent, they do notwithstanding continue to pursue Mr. Chandler's plan until they receive our further orders for their conduct.
History of the Society of Dilettanti 87
Given under our hands, at the Star and Garter, this 17th day of May 1764.
(Signed) Charlemont Middlesex
Rob. Wood Le Despenser
Tho. Brand J. Gray
Wm. Fauquier Besborough.' James Stuart
In accordance with the above instructions Chandler, Work in the Revett, and Pars quitted England on June 9, 1764, J™?fand in the ship Anglicana, Captain Stewart, bound for Constantinople. They were landed in the Darda- nelles, and took the opportunity of visiting the Troad with the plains of Troy and the Sigean promontory, where Chandler copied the celebrated inscription, which was in later days brought itself to England. On leaving the Dardanelles they travelled by Tenedos and Scio to Smyrna, where they arrived on September 11. Making Smyrna their head-quarters, as directed by the Dilettanti, they made two prolonged excursions in the neighbour- hood (September 30 — October 29, 1764, March 25- — August 8, 1765)- Among the most important antiquities explored by them were the temple of Apollo Didymaeus, near Miletus, and the Sacred Way leading up to the temple from the harbour, with the seated figures of the priestly clan of the Branchidae, which were destined, nearly a century later, to be secured for the British nation by another explorer, Mr. Newton, also a leading member of the Dilettanti Society. They also explored Clazomenae, Erythrae, Teos, Priene, Tralles, Laodicea, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Magnesia. Further work in Asia Minor was, however, checked by the most serious enemy which foreigners could encounter — an outbreak of the plague. The party nevertheless succeeded in getting to Smyrna, and left that place on August 20
88 History of the Society of Dilettanti
for Athens, which they reached on August 31, after touching at Sunium and Aegina on the way. From time to time they sent home to the Society of Dilettanti a consignment of journals and draw- ings, as appears from the report in the committee- book.
Approval of At a committee meeting on May 1, 176 tie Society. Mr. Fauquier reported
e That Messrs. Rivett, Chandler and Pars had drawn for £800 viz : — .£400 on the 3rd August 1764 from Leghorn, and .£400 on the 2.2nd January 1765 from Smyrna which Drafts had been paid, and that their credit was now out. Ordered that a Letter of Credit be sent to Leghorn to empower the said Gentlemen to draw on the Society for £800 more, viz : — £4.00 in July next and £400 in January next. Mr. Wood produced to the Committee Letters from the said Gentlemen viz : — one from on board the Anglicana dated 25th Augt. 64, three from Smyrna bearing ztfth Sept. and. Novr. and the 5th of Jany. last and also a Journal from the 51th of June to the 3rd of September last.
c Order' d the said Letters and Journal be enter'd in a fair hand in a Book to be provided for that purpose.
c The Several Drawings following made by Mr. Rivett and Mr. Pars were produc'd to the Committee viz : — Two views and a plan of a ruin'd Building at Troas an Inscription on a Pedestal with the ornaments of the same a Fragment of a Basso Relievo, and a Copy of the Sigean Inscription/
All which met with the approbation of the com- mittee.
c Resolv'd that it is the opinion of this Committee that Messrs. Rivett, Chandler and Pars have (as far as they have gone) complied with their Instructions, and answer'd the intent and meaning of the Society in sending them.'
At a committee on December i o —
£ A Letter from Mr. Chandler dated Smyrna 14th Augt. was read. Mr. Fauquier reported to the Committee that Messrs. Chandler, Rivett, and Pars had drawn on Messrs. Backwells & Co., two Bills for £400 each and that these Bills had been paid. Several Drawings of Architecture and Basso relievos and many Greek Inscriptions sent by the said Gentlemen were produced to the Committee and met with the approbation of the Committee.
History of the Society of Dilettanti 89
c Resolv'd that it is the opinion of this Committee that Messrs. Chandler, Rivett and Pars have so well answer' d the meaning and intent of the Society in sending them to Greece that they deserved commendation and further encouragement/
In the minutes of December if, 1765", it was ordered
'That the Drawings sent by Messrs. Chandler and Co., from Greece, be sent to the Star and Garter in Pall Mall on the first Sunday in Febry to be seen by the members of the Society from the hours of Eleven o'clock to four o'clock and not afterwards that day.'
On February 6, 1766, at the committee
cMr. Wood produced to the Committee several Views and Drawings of Architecture sent by the Gentlemen in Greece all which met with the approbation of the Committee.'
e The Committee took into consideration the Order of the Society at their last meeting (On Feb. z) viz : — that the Further sum of £^oo be granted to the Committee for the use of the Gentlemen employ'd in the East, in order to bring them home through the Morea or Magna Grecia if Practicable • if not that they be confined to such a sum as will bring them home in the most frugal and expeditious manner any former resolution to the contrary not- withstanding.'
'Resolv'd that it is the opinion of this Committee that the Gentlemen in Greece have taken great Pains in the several Draw- ings transmitted to the Society.'
' Resolv'd that a Letter be wrote to the said Gentlemen acquaint- ing them that their Performances had given Satisfaction to the Society, and that in consequence thereof They had granted a further sum of £%oo> to the Committee for the purpose of bringing them home through the Morea and Magna Grecia, if Practicable.'
Chandler's party remained at Athens until June 1 1, Work in 1766^ completing1 some of the work which Stuart ^ttlca a' and Revett had been compelled to leave unfinished, * e m and visiting Marathon, Eleusis, Megara, Epidaurus, Delphi, Salamis, Aegina, Nemea, Corinth, and in the Peloponnesus Nauplia, Argos, Mycenae, and Chiarenza (or Cyllene), Patras, Olympia, and the plain of Elis. From the latter place they made their way to Zante, from whence they eventually
90 History of the Society of Dilettanti
Return and reception of the explorers.
took ship on September i, 1766, for England, and landed at Bristol on November 2 following; their return having been hastened by an illness which most of the party contracted in Elis.
On reaching London Chandler lost no time in handing over to the Society his journal, drawings, copies of inscriptions, and all the marbles collected by him during the expedition. At the committee on December 2, 1766,
c Mr. Chandler and Mr. Pars attending were called in. Many Drawings and Measurements of Architecture were produced by Mr. Revett and also a great Variety of Views and Drawings of Basso relievos of the Temple of Minerva at Athens and others were produced by Mr. Pars, which appeared to the Committee to be all done with Taste and Accurateness.'
c Mr. Chandler brought to the Committee a Basso Relievo part of the Frieze of the Temple of Minerva representing a Horse's Head and Bust of a Man of Exquisite Workmanship, and acquainted the Committee that He had some other Marbles brought from Athens particularly a very Curious Inscription relating to the architecture of the Temple of Minerva.'
' Resolv'd That it is the opinion of this Committee that Mr. Chandler, Mr. Revett and Mr. Pars have each of them in their respective departments fulfill'd the Expectations of the Society, and that They deserve the Thanks and further Encouragement of the Society.'
On December 1 1 the committee met and resolved
c That at the next meeting of the Committee the Gentlemen who are return'd from the East do deliver into the hands of the Committee the Journal Drawings and Marbles, which they have brought with them.
'Resolv'd that at the next meeting of the Committee the remaining part of the £^oo granted to the Committee the and of Feb. last for the use of the Travellers in the East be disposed of by that Committee in the manner they think most proper.'
The sum amounted to £400, and on January 17, 1767,
' The Committee having very maturely consider^ the Works perform'd by Messrs Chandler, Rivett & Pars and their Gratefull and Proper behaviour, came to the following resolution.
History of the Society of Dilettanti 91
c ResolvM that Four hundred Pounds (being the remaining part of the £,%oo voted the 2nd of Febry. last) be divided equally between them and to be paid to them directly, on condition that they each of them in their respective departments do Promise to deliver their works in such Order and Arrangement as shall appear satisfactoiy to the Committee.'
The journals, drawings, marbles, and inscriptions, The c Ionian copied by Chandler, Revett, and Pars during their 7 expedition, having been delivered up by them to Iboie" of the Society of Dilettanti, the committee appointed materials. to supervise the expedition proceeded to make a selection from them of what seemed most suitable for publication. In view of the projected continuance of Stuart's publication, The Antiquities of Athens, the committee evidently considered it advisable not to spend their money on that part of the material before them which would be likely to conflict with Stuart's work, and was really little more than a supplement to it. In the preface to the Ionian Antiquities the Society state that
c The Materials which they brought home were thought not unworthy of the Public : The Society therefore directed them to give a Specimen of their Labours out of what they had found most worthy of Observation in Ionia ; a Country in many re- spects curious, and perhaps, after Attica, the most deserving the Attention of a Classical Traveller. Athens, it is true, having had the good Fortune to possess more original Genius than ever was collected in so narrow a Compass at one Period, reaped the Fruits of literary Competition in a degree that never fell to the lot of any other People, and has been generally allowed to fix the Aera which has done most Honour to Science, and to take the lead among the antient Greek Republics in matters of Taste : However, it is much to be doubted, whether, upon a fair Enquiry into the Rise and Progress of Letters and Arts, they do not, upon the whole, owe as much to Ionia, and the adjoining Coast, as to any other Country of Antiquity.'
c The Knowledge of Nature was first taught in the Ionic School : And as Geometry, Astronomy, and other Branches of the Mathematics, were cultivated here sooner than in other Parts of Greece, it is not extraordinary that the first Greek Navigators,
History of the Society of Dilettanti
who passed the Pillars of Hercules, and extended their Commerce to the Ocean, should have been Ionians. Here History had its Birth, and here it acquired a considerable degree of Perfection. The first Writer who reduced the knowledge of Medicine or the Means of preserving Health, to an Art, was of this Neighbourhood : And here the Father of Poetry produced a Standard for Composition, which no Age or Country have dared to depart from, or have been able to surpass. But Architecture belongs more particularly to this Country than to any other • and of the three Greek Orders it seems justly entitled to the Honour of having invented the two first, though one of them only bears its Name; for though the Temple of Juno at Argos suggested the general Idea of what was after called the Doric, its Proportions were first established here. As to the other Arts which also depend upon Design, They have flourished no where more than in Ionia ; nor has any Spot, of the same Extent produced more Painters and Sculptors of distin- guished Talents. Among the Remains of Antiquity which have hitherto escaped the Injuries of Time, there are none in which our Curiosity is more interested than the Ruins of those Buildings which were distinguished by Vitruvius and other antient Writers, for their Elegance and Magnificence. Such are the Temple of Bacchus at Teos, the Country of Anacreon ; the Temple dedicated to Minerva, at Priene, by Alexander of Macedon ; and the famous temple of Apollo Didymaeus, near Miletus. However mutilated and decayed these Buildings now are, yet surely every Fragment is valuable, which preserves, in some degree, the Ideas of Symmetry and Proportion which prevailed at that happy Period of Taste.'
The three temples mentioned in this extract
formed therefore the material for the volume to be
issued by the Society of Dilettanti. The committee
on January 31, 1767, recorded that
c Having considered the Drawings of the Views, architecture, and Bass Reliefs, of Asia Minor, It is their Opinion, That they be engraved at the expence of the Society, and that such part of the Journals and Inscriptions be published as relates thereto.'
On February 7, 1767,
{ It appears to the Committee that the Publishing the Drawings etc. by Degrees is the properest method, and have selected from them Three of the most curious and Interesting subjects as the first specimen of the intended work : viz : — one view of the Temple of Apollo Didymaeus, called the Branchidae, Four pieces
Preparation and
publication of the volume.
History of the Society of Dilettanti 93
of Architecture and Views, The Temple of Minerva Polias at Priene, and five Pieces of Architecture, Two pieces of architecture of the Temple of Bacchus at Teos, The engraving of which will amount to about the sum of ;£i8o.'
This was agreed to by the Society in March. On February 14, 1767,
cMr. Rivett was desired to shade some of the drawings of Architecture ready for the Engraver, and to produce them to the Committee on Saturday the z8th instant to which day the Com- mittee adjourned/
At this next meeting of the committee (of which no record has been kept) it must have been decided to publish a volume to be entitled a Specimen of the work intended by the Society, for on March 7, 1767, it was resolved
£That it is the opinion of the Committee That at least One hundred and fifty Copies of the first specimen of the intended work be engraved, and Printed, for the use of the Society.'
And on March 8, 1767, it is recorded that
cMajr Genl Gray laid before the Committee the sums already expended in the plates for the specimen amounting to about £x<)0 and was desired to proceed as he shall find necessary.'
In March, 1768, it was ordered by the Society
( That a Committee of the whole society be appointed to meet on Teusday {sic) the 8th day of March at 1 1 o'clock in the morning to consider further on the publication of the first specimen of the intended work. That five members do constitute a Committee, and that they be empower'd to give such orders and directions with respect to the said work, or any other matters relative thereto as to them shall seem necessary, and that they have power to adjourn themselves from time to time.'
The meetings of this committee have not been recorded, there being a hiatus valde deflendus (as a later Secretary has it) in the committee-book for some years. The work, however, progressed, as is shown from the payments in the minute-book.
94- History of the Society of Dilettanti
'May 1768. Paid to Mr. Revett and Pars an account for Copper Plates for specimen . . . 2 o
To Do. on Do. account .... £^0 o o
Presentation The specimen was, however, ready for publication copies. jn the following March, 17^9, when it was ordered that copies of the same should be sent to the King and Queen, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin ; the Royal Society, Royal Academy, Society of Antiquaries, and British Museum. In April it was further ordered that copies should be sent to the King of Spain and the Universities of St. Andrews and Aberdeen. The book was ready in the following May, when it was resolved
c That the books of the specimen of Ionian Antiquities be pre- sented to the several personages and Societies according to the list sent in by Coll. Gray ' ;
and the following payments were made among others :
To Mr. Revett on account ..... £<jo
To Do. for printing papers &c. . . 100 To Mr. Pars for finishing and making new draw- ings colouring Sec. ...... 42
To Mr. Revett on account . . . . . 25
The presentation of the volumes to the King and the Queen was entrusted to Lord le Despencer, who reported to the Society at their meeting on January 14, 1770,
c That pursuant to their request he had presented the Book of the Specimen of Ionian Antiquities to the King, having previously obtained permission from his Majesty to Inscribe the Book to Him and that the Book had been most graciously received by His Majesty, who was pleased to declare his approbation of the work.'
Lord le Despencer also reported to the Society
c That he had deliver'd another Book of the Specimen of Ionian Antiquities to Lord De Lawarr Chamberlain to the Queen as the proper Channel thro' which it might be presented to Her Majesty who was pleased to receive it most graciously.'
History of the Society of Dilettanti 95-
Sir James Gray, who had now been for some years Ambassador and Plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain, reported at the same meeting —
* That pursuant to their request he had directed Mr. Harris (he having left Madrid before the Book arrived) to present the Book of the Specimen of Ionian Antiquities to the King of Spain and that in consequence he had received a letter from Mr. Harris which he read to the Society as follows : —
Escurial. Nov. 7, 1769. I received a few days ago from Bilboa, the elegant publication of Ionian Antiquities design' d as a present from the Society of Dilettanti to his Catholic Majesty. In consequence of which I yesterday waited on the Duke de Lozada, who in the evening in the name of the Society, presented it to the King : the Duke this morning told me, it had given His Majesty infinite pleasure and that he had charged him through me, to return his thanks to the Society for it.
(Signed) James Harris.'
The valuable collection of inscriptions copied chandler's during the expedition and the journals were handed */»^>-^ over to Mr. Chandler to publish at his own risk travels' and discretion. At a meeting of the committee on March 8, 1768, it is recorded that
£Mr. Chandler desiring permission to publish the Inscriptions collected by him in the Expedition to Asia Minor and Greece, the Committee are of opinion That he be permitted to publish them and that he place such Title to the said Work as the Society shall judge proper/
In 1774 Chandler, who had returned to Oxford and taken the degree of Doctor of Divinity, published at Oxford the inscriptions in a volume entitled Inscriptiones antiquae, pleraeque nondum editae : in Asia Minori et Graecia, praesertim Athenis, collectae. Cu?n Appendice. In 1775- he published, also at Oxford, the first instalments of his journals as Travels in Asia Minor, and in 17 76 the second part as Travels in Greece. All these three works are dedicated to the
9 6 His tor}' of the Society of Dilettanti
Society of Dilettanti, and were published with their assistance, as is shown by the following entries : —
'March 1773. Order'd That the Secretary do write to Mr. Chandler that as a Mark of the Society's approbation of the intended Work They have orderd their Secretary to pay Mr. Chandler Twenty five Guineas upon his delivering a compleat Bound Sett for the use of the Society.'
c Feb. 1774. The officiating Secretary having read a Letter from Dr. Chandler desiring to dedicate his Book of Inscriptions to the Society, the Secretary was order'd to write to Dr. Chandler to acquaint him that the Society did accept of His Dedication as proposed and to make him a present of Twenty five Guineas for the same, when He shall deliver the Book properly bound to the Society.'
'March 1775". Read Dr. Chandler's Letter and order'd by the Society to inform Him they accepted of His offer of dedicating His Travels &c. to them.'
'March 1776. That the Secretary be order'd to give Dr. Chandler twenty five guineas, upon the completion of the Pubn. of His Travels and think a further Dedication totally unnecessary.'
A second edition of the Travels in Asia Minor and Greece, containing many emendations by Nicholas Revett, was published in 1 8 1 7 ; Revett's copy with his manuscript corrections is now in the British Museum. A new edition, with a memoir of Chandler by Ralph Churton, was published at Oxford in 1 82$-. Proposed That the Society intended to continue the publica- continuation tion of the Ionian Antiquities is shown from minutes VJZtL' dated resPectively January, 17.71, April, 1771, and April, 1772.
c That General Gray be directed to enquire of Mr. Revitt what Expence will attend preparing for Publication of the Drawings belonging to the Society.' — ' That L* Gen1 Gray who has given in a List of the Drawings in Mr. Revett's possession in con- sequence of a order of the Society be empowered to pay Mr. Revett fifty pounds towards finishing the same.' — ' That General George Gray do pay to Mr. Rivett (out of the General Fund) a further sum of Fifty pounds and desire him to continue his drawing for the use of the Society.'
History of the Society of Dilettanti 97
The matter, however, made slow progress, for in March, 1774, a further minute occurs,
c That Mr. Rivet having wrote to the Secretary of the Society desiring the Society woud assist Him farther towards the compleat- ing the Publication of the Asiatic and Grecian drawings, Agreed that He be paid Ninety nine pounds nineteen shillings out of the General Fund.'
Little progress was, however, made with the work, although the value of the drawings was well known.
In 1776 and 1777 Paul Sandby, the well-known Drawings of artist, made applications to the Society for leave to ^vett and publish a series of aquatint engravings from Pars's Fars.: drawings of Athens. This request was acceded to claimants in a minute of March, 1777. for their use.
' That Mr. Sandby have permission to engrave all the Views belonging to the Society and that Mr. Greville be Intrusted with them to deliver them two at a time to Mr. Sandby and to see they are properly engraved according to the specimens produced with a proper dedication to the Society. That the Society do not divest themselves of their Property in the Drawings It being understood Mr. Sandby is to present the Soc. with four engravings of each drawing and to return the original drawings.'
Meanwhile, as Mr. Revett delayed so long with the drawings, a fresh competitor appeared in the field in the person of Stuart, Revett's former colleague, and apparently now his rival. Stuart contemplated a continuation of his Antiquities of Athens, and (having purchased all Revett's rights in the book) applied to the Society for the use of their drawings in order to complete his work. In March, 1777, it was ordered
c That Mr. Rivet be orderd to attend with the Drawings belonging to the Society that are in his possession this day foithnight and that a Committee who are appointed to meet do take into consideration whether Mr. Stewart is to be permitted to have any of them for his use ' ;
and in May, 1777,
* That Ld Mulgrave, Mr. Dundas, & Mr. Crowle be appointed
H
98 History of the Society of Dilettanti
to inspect the Drawings and Sketches belonging to the Society in the possession of Mr. Rivett and to give Him such directions as they think proper which of the unfinish'd sketches He shall first proceed to execute.'
All schemes for further publication however hung fire, for in February, 1 7 8 o, it was ordered
c That the Sec*, do deliver the Drawings belonging to the Soc. to Mr. Wyndham and that he have the custody of them for one year giving a proper receipt for them to the Sec.' ;
and again in March, 1780,
* Mr. Banks movd that the Sec. do order Mr. Revett to deliver all the drawings belonging to them finishd and unfinishd into the hands of the Secretary before the next meeting.'
Mr. Sandby, who had been entrusted with certain drawings belonging to the Society in order to engrave them in aquatinta, returned the drawings to the Society, and begged leave by the Secretary to thank the Society for the use of them, and to present a set of the prints to them for their use. In the following April
' Mr. Wyndham to whom the Soc. had entrusted the Care of their drawings requested that they would empower him to deliver to Mr. Stuart for the use of his intended publication of a second volume of Athenian Antiquities the Drawings of the Eastern View of the Temple of Minerva at Athens taken by Mr. Pars and such of the Basso releivos belonging to the same Temple as he may wish to make use of to which request the Soc. agreed.'
In March, 178 1, Sir John Taylor moved and Mr. Wyndham seconded the following motion, viz.: —
' That Mr. Peachy be allowd the use of such Drawings the Property of the Soc. now in the custody of Mr. Windham as he shall think fit to have copies made of the same for his use promising the Soc. that he will not permit the artist who copies them to take any other copy than that intended for his use nor will communicate the copies taken by him to any other person.'
Difficulties It would appear that the dilatory progress made between t^Q further publication of these drawings
History of the Society of "Dilettanti 99
was due to difficulties between Stuart and Revctt, Stuart and and that the Society decided in favour of the former j for at a committee held on April 21, 1782, it was
£ Resolv'd That it is the opinion of this Committee that a Sum not exceeding £\oo be granted to Mr. Revett as a full compensation for all his Claims upon the Society including his payment for finishing Drawings by order of the Society and for work done upon and paid for an unfinished plate.
c On condition that he gives up to the Society as there property all Memorandums, Scetches and other Private Remarks taken by him during the voyage to Greece and Asia Minor which he made under the Patronage of the said Soc'
c That whereas the Learned Judge Potter by his hereditary Knowledge of Grecian Antiquities and that he has acquired of the Laws of his Country is amply able to prepare a proper acquitance to Rivett the said Mr. Rivett to the Performance of his pait of this Contract he be requested by the Society to produce a Draught of the said acquittance at their next Meeting.'
' That whereas the Secretary has receiv'd information that the Plates of the Ionian Antiquities Formerly publish'd by this Society were in the Possession of the Late Ld. Le Despencer at the time of his Death the Secretary be empower'd to apply to the executors of the said Late Ld. Le Despencer for the said Plates the Property of the said Soc. and empower'd to receive the same.'
4 That all the Drawings and Plans of the Propylaea and all others of Fragments of Antiquities in the Acropolis belonging to this Society be lent to Mr. Stuart for the space of one year in order for their publication in the second volume of the Antiquities of Athens.'
These recommendations of the committee were ratified by the Society with the further proviso, evidently passed in the hope of hastening matters,
c The said Mr. Stuart agreeing to return the same into the hands of the Secretary within twelve months from the Day when they shall be deliverd to him and to publish engravings of each and every one of them in the second vol. of his Work entitled Anti- quities of Athens within eighteen months from the said day on which they shall be delivered by hand or present to the Society finishd proofs of all of them under the Penalty of 10 guineas to be paid by him the said Mr. Stuart and applied to the General Fund.'
h a
ioo History of the Society of Dilettanti
Appoint- ment of a committee.
Revett still, however, had to be disposed of, and in May, 1782, the committee for publishing the drawings resolved
c That the Receipt prepared by Mr. Justice Potter according to the order of this Committee at their last Meeting does appear to this Committee to be a proper and sufficient Receipt/
* That it is the opinion of this Committee that all the Remain- ing perfect Copies of the Ionian Antiquities now in the Hands of Mr. Revett be bought by the Society at 1? shill. a piece.'
4 That every member of this Soc. who shall desire to purchase (Bona fide for himself) the Ionian Antiquities, shall have them at the Price paid to Mr. Revett by the Society and that all profits by the future public sale of the Ionian Antiquities shall be applied to the intended publication of the Remaining Antiquities in addition to the £150 proposed to be given out of the Income of the Society.5
It was also resolved
£ That in order for the Publication of the Remaining unpublished Drawings made by Messrs. Revett and Pars in Ionia and Asia Minor the Society be requested to appoint a Select Committee of its own Members to take the Charge of, and direct the said publication — which Committee shall be answerable for the care and accuracy with which the publication shall be conducted.'
* That a sum not exceeding ^i^o for one year be appropriated out of the Income of the Soc. to the engraving of such Drawings etc. as the Committee shall judge worthy of Publication, together with such Letterpress as shall be thought necessary for the Explan- ation thereof, and that the Committee shall at the end of the year report to the Society the progress of their said work.'
£ That when any Numero of the said work shall be fit for Publication, a perfect copy of the said Numero shall be presented by the Society to each of its members.'
The committee appointed for this purpose of the Society consisted of Mr. Knight, Mr. Windham, Mr. Peachey, Mr. Stuart, and Mr. Gore. In May, 1783, Mr. Revett produced 200 copies of the Ionian Antiquities, which were collated and found correct. On March, 13, 1785-, it is recorded
* That Lord Sandwich moved, Mr. Potter seconded that in-
History of the Society of Dilettanti 101
structions be given to the Committee of Publication to assist Mr. Stuart immediately and effectually towards the Publication of his Athenian Antiquities but that the said Committee be answerable to the Society for the Property of the Plates engravd at their expence untill the Publication of the second volume of the said Athenian Antiquities be actually effected which motion being put was agreed to nem. con.'
On February 26, 1786,
i Mr. Stuart attended and informed the Committee that he had been prevented by indisposition from Collecting together the Drawings belonging to the Society but intended to do so forthwith.'
And on March, 19, 1786,
c Mr. Stuart delivered in the Drawings intrusted to him by the Society for the Finishing his Athenian Antiquities which being compared with the scedule were found right and return'd to him.'
The second volume of Stuart's Antiquities of Death of Athens made this slow progress, no doubt, owing to Stuart: the increasing age and infirmities of the author. C^JJJ Stuart had been appointed Painter to the Society, and 0f<Athe?iian through the influence of Lord Anson had obtained Antiquities? the almost sinecure post of Surveyor to Greenwich v^s'"> Hospital. He was employed in architectural work of a classical nature by Earl Spencer, Lord Anson (whose house in St. James's Square, designed by Stuart, is stated to have been the first building of Grecian architecture in London), and Lord Eardley. He was helped in the preparation of the volume by his assistant and successor at Greenwich, William Newton, whose brother, James Newton, engraved some of the plates. It was almost ready for publica- tion toward the end of the year 1787, but its final appearance was delayed by Stuart's death, which occurred in February, 1788. It was then at last issued by his widow, although it bears the date 1787. Prefixed was a 'Letter to the Public from Elizabeth widow of James Stuart,' in which she
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states, 4 to the gentlemen of the Dilettanti Society I am greatly beholden, they having, with the utmost liberality, presented me with many of the plates, necessary to complete the volume, from original drawings in their possession'; and again, 'Com- pleted by the assistance of William Newton of Greenwich, having been left unfinished by the sudden death of Stuart, who had been very infirm for some years and left his papers in great disorder. The completion of the work is entirely due to the Society of Dilettanti.' In a minute of June i, 1788, Mr. Windham moved and Mr. Knight seconded,
'That the vote of March 13, 1785: in Favor of Mr. Stuart be renewed on behalf of his Widow on condition that the expenditure of the money of the Society be limited to the Paying for Plates of the Drawings lent by them for the completion of the second volume of the Athenian Antiquities.