A BOOK OF THE MOMENT

JOSEPH FARINGTON, R.A.

[COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE New York Times.] The Farington Diary. By Joseph Farington, R.A. Vol. VI. (Hutchinson. 21s. net).

TIIE new volume of Farington's Diary is worthy to stand with its companions, which already number five. It is true that there is a certain lack of briskness and sprightlineii in the entries for 1810-1811, but that was only to be expected with advancing years. Indeed, Farington anticipates the criticism here. In recounting how in 1810 Middiman the engraver called on him to talk over old times—they had kfio wn each other since 1767—he tells us that :—

" He [Middiman] complimented me on the appearance I formerly bore, saying, I was the handsomest man he had seen, & my person corresponded in good form with my countenance. Thus did He speak of the living Old Man as He wd. have done of a deceased person, and I listened to His speaking as of one who was passed & gone. To this does age bring us.'

That, however, is entirely an overstatement. There is nothing corpse-like about Farington's entries. Though they

are not up to his highest record of vitality they would be counted wonderfully vigorous and youthful in many another

diarist. Taken RS a whole, the new volume in no way dero- gates from Farington's claim to be one of the great English

diarists. Here is still the man we knew in former volumes, the man of infinite interest, not only in the Arts, but in all that concerns human beings. Not even Pepys himself could have better maintained the apophthegm of Terence. Farington,

also, has the great advantage of having very few social or political prejudices. You see a certain movement of public

opinion reflected in him, but it is like a shadow. His general attitude is one suited to a calm recorder of life's passing shows.

He puts down what he sees and what he hears, and he keeps his ears specially open to the apparently trivial but in reality important matters of everyday life : how much money a man has got ; how he contrived to make it or to lose it ; whether his health was good or had; whether his wife was rich or poor, or beautiful or ugly, and what was her maiden name.

You feel that Farington never saw anybody without in effect putting those questions to himself, and, speaking generally, finding answers. Of course, this might have been done by a man, like Crabbe Robinson, not particularly interested in any special profession, but only anxious to reflect life.

Farington liked to use the mirror immensely, but he was also genuinely interested in the management of the Royal Academy, that great corporation of artists to which he devoted so much time. He worked at the Academy as you will sometimes find a clever Oxford or Cambridge scholar work in and for his College. But, above and beyond this, Farington was a real devotee bf the Arts, and no one must imagine that because he dwells on and is so much interested in prices that he had a sordid outlook. Few men were better judges of a picture than he. And further—what one does not expect to find in the history of such a busy recorder of the procession of life—besides all his other gifts Farington was an exceedingly accomplished painter. As Messrs. Walker's exhibition of Farington's works showed some three years ago, he had a real mastery over the brush and the pencil. Like Turner, he was essentially a landscape painter ; but he could and did occa- sionally enter other fields. Again, like Turner, he was a painter both in oil and in water colours. It is true that as a rule, and especially in later life, most of his work was done in 'water colour or in pencil, but the few existing oil pictures by him show that he was quite as much at ease in one medium as in the other. He was a student and follower of Wilson, but never in a slavish sense. Indeed, his canvases are not only as competent but as individual as his Diary, and as full of life. In the water colour drawings his handling of old buildings is excellent, as are also his wider landscapes. I remember par- ticularly a large water colour painted in 1798 in Flanders of a Vauban fortress that had been partially destroyed by the British. It not only showed the position of the walls with an exactness which would have pleased a General who wanted a figurative report, but showed also the spirit of the artist seeking beauty even in- the cannon's mouth.

But beyond accounts of operations and illnesses, of mar- riages and births, of great feasts, and of the petty spites of Academies and Colleges, Judges and Bishops, there is always in our ears the sound of the cannon Of the Peninsular War and the menace of Napoleon. It is interesting to note how in 1810 and 1811—the period covered in this volume extends from January 16th, 1810, to June, 1811—public interest and Public confidence was growing in regard to Our forces in the Peninsula and how strongly the animosity against Napoleon was increasing. Farington's urbanity seldom gives way, but it does in the case of Napoleon.. For example, the last entry in the present volume is :— _

"JUNE 9.... (Lestock) Wilson I dined with. .. . Mr. Lelyvoldt was formerly Secretary to the Dutch Ambassador. He spoke of Buonaparte, & said, 'There had been many great & extraordinary men, in all of whom there had been some mixture of virtue with crime and vice, but Buonaparte had not a single virtue, in thitt respect He was an exception.

Six days before he made the following entry :— " On our way home, after tea. I stopped sometime at Lyson's Chambers in the Temple, where we read the Gazette acct, of the Saneinary Battle at Albuers, in Spain between the Allied Army of British, Portuguese & Spaniards, commanded by General Bores. ford with the French army commanded by Marshal Soult, in which the former were victorious. . . . Lawrence ed. He dined lately in company with Sir Sidney Smith & Lord Burghersh. The latter, who had served in the army in Spain & Portugal, was of opinion that Buonaparte would give up His attempt on those countries shd. He suffer a few more defeats ; Sir Sidney Smith, on the con- trary, thought that Buonaparte would never give it up, but, at last with an overwhelming force wd. sweep everything before Him. .. ."

The Diary in many ways shows how little English life, public and domestic, has changed. But there is one notable excep- tion—that is duelling. Though the duel was always an exotic in England, the number of duels fought in London during the first thirty years of the last century was very large. Quite a number are recorded by Farington, but usually without any special comment. Here is an account of a futile attempt at reciprocal homicide recorded in regard to a close friend of Farington, Lord de Dunstanville. The other " party " was Sir Christopher Hawkins :— "On the morning appointed for the meeting Lord D. rose at six o'Clock, which surprised Lady D. who said to Him that there must ba something very particular to cause His rising so early. . . . Lord D. went to a place appointed & found Sir Edward Buller & with Him, in a Chaise, pr000ed(ed) to meet Sir Christopher. Two Shots were fired by each. The first Ball fired by Sir Christopher touched the Hair of Lord de Dunstanville. After the two shots had been fired the Seconds interfered, and would not allow the matter to gO farther. . . The morning before that on which the Duel was fought, Lane called upon Lord D., but did not see Him. His Lord- ship afterwards told Him that Is was then employed in adding Codicils to His Will & in settling His affairs . . . '

As proof of what an encyclopaedia of odd things is Faring- ton's journal I will give a quotation from the 1810 portion of the' book :—

"Jess I.... Admiral (Charles) Boyles told me that while He commanded the Windsor Castle, in passing through the Darda- nelles with 4 other Men of War, where the passage is not more than a quarter of a mile wide, several shot were fired upon them froth pieces of Ordnance of a prodigious Caliber. One of these shot hit the Windsor Ccurtk, & lodged in the Main-mast. It was a plea!, of Granite, made round & smooth & was 800 pounds in weight . . . I showed Him Wm. Daniell's etchings from Dance's Heads & pro- posed to him to sit to Dance which M agreed to."

We do not get the exact date as to when the 'Windsor Castle' was hit ; but anyone who wishes to know what a granite cannon ball is like cannot do better than pay a visit to the Gardens of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, where he may see several examples of these projectiles. I well re- member as a boy an old cousin who was an Admiral, who had seen a good deal of service in the Levant, telling me that the Turks in Greece and the Islands, and in and around Con- stantinople, were in the habit of firing the heads of Greek statues from their guns, and that they made excellent pro,. jectiles. When the supply of heads failed, they imitated them in granite. Whether the story was true, or whether the Admiral was "pulling my leg" I do not know ; but my story is at any rate supported by the very large number of torsos in our museums of sculpture bearing the laconic in- scription, "Head missing."

3. Sr. LOE STRACHEY.