Lord Sunderland what I shall conclude his character with: “He has his father's head and his mother's heart”’ (Walpole, George II, i. 77). His popularity partly arose from the belief that he was hardly used by the king, and partly from the unpopularity of the king, and antipathy felt towards the prince's brother, the Duke of Cumberland, whose regency, should the king die before his successor was of age, was regarded with general dread. When Frederick's death became known, elegies were cried about the streets, to which the people responded with, ‘Oh! that it was but his brother!’ and ‘Oh! that it was but the butcher!’ Perhaps, however, the real sentiment of the nation was expressed in the lines beginning with
Here lies Fred,
Who was alive and is dead;
and ending with
There's no more to be said.
Two songs of which Frederick was the author, one in French, the other in English, are printed in Walpole's ‘George II,’ i. 432–5.
[Lord Hervey's Court of George II; Walpole's Reminiscences, Memoirs, and George II; Wraxall's Memoirs; Coxe's Life of Walpole; Dodington's Diary; Opinions of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough; Warburton's Horace Walpole and his Contemporaries, i. 225–69; Jesse's Court of England, ed. 1843, iii. 119–60; Carlyle's Frederick the Great; Stanhope's Hist.]
FREEBAIRN, ALFRED ROBERT (1794–1846), engraver, was apparently the son of Robert Freebairn [q. v.], the landscape-painter, and is probably identical with the younger Freebairn who etched the ‘Sketch-book’ of Robert Freebairn, published in 1815. He was a student at the Royal Academy, and engraved some vignettes and illustrations after Arnold, Nixon, David Roberts, S. Prout, Pyne, and others for the ‘Book of Gems’ and other popular works. His later work seems to have been entirely confined to the production of engravings by the mechanical process, invented by Mr. John Bate, known as the ‘Anaglyptograph.’ This machine was specially adapted for reproducing in engraving objects with raised surfaces, such as coins, medals, reliefs, &c. Freebairn produced a large number of engravings by this process, some of which were published in the ‘Art Union’ (1846). His most important works in this style of engraving were ‘A salver of the 16th century,’ by Jean Goujon, and a series of engravings of Flaxman's ‘Shield of Achilles;’ the latter, a very remarkable work, was executed and published at Freebairn's own risk and expense. He only completed it shortly before his death, which occurred somewhat suddenly on 21 Aug. 1846, at the age of fifty-two, a few days after the decease of his mother. He was buried in Highgate cemetery.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Art Union, 1846, pp. 14, 161, 264.]
FREEBAIRN, ROBERT (1765–1808), landscape-painter, born in 1765, and apparently of Scottish descent, is usually stated to have been the last pupil of Richard Wilson, R.A. [q. v.] This does not seem certain, as Freebairn was articled to Philip Reinagle, R.A. [q. v.], and it was from Reinagle's house that he sent his first picture to the Royal Academy in 1782, the year of Wilson's death. He continued to exhibit landscapes up to 1786, when he appears to have gone to Italy. In 1789 and 1790 he was at Rome, and sent views of Roman scenery to the Academy. In 1791 he sent two views of the ‘Via Mala’ in the Grisons, probably taken on his return journey. His stay in Italy formed his style, and he brought back to England a storehouse of material, on which he drew plentifully during the remainder of his life, his productions being mainly representations of Italian scenery. When in Italy he was patronised by Lord Powis, and on his return to England by Lord Suffolk, Mr. Penn of Stoke Park, and others. His compositions were noted for their elegance rather than for grandeur, and were pleasing enough to enable him to secure sufficient patronage and commissions for his pictures, most of which he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He occasionally painted views of Welsh and Lancashire scenery, but his chief excellence lay in his Roman subjects. Some of his drawings were published in aquatint. Freebairn died in Buckingham Place, New Road, Marylebone, on 23 Jan. 1808, aged 42, leaving a widow and four children. After his death there was published in 1815 a volume called ‘Outlines of Lancashire Scenery, from an unpublished Sketch-book of the late R. Freebairn, designed as studies for the use of schools and beginners, and etched by the younger Freebairn’ [see Freebairn, Alfred Robert]. A Robert Freebairn, perhaps related to the above, edited several works of Scottish literature during the eighteenth century.
[Gent. Mag. (1808) lxxviii. 94; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Wright's Life of Richard Wilson, R.A.; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
FREEBURN, JAMES (1808–1876), inventor, was born in 1808 in the parish of St. Cuthbert's, Midlothian. At an early age
