Smarts settled at Reading. John Newbery also secured by his will provision for Mrs. Smart; and her daughters, Mrs. Le Noir and Mrs. Cowslade, ultimately inherited the ‘Reading Mercury.’ In 1795 Elizabeth married a French refugee, Jean Baptiste Le Noir de la Brosse, chevalier of the royal and military order of St. Louis. Her husband had settled as a teacher of French at Reading, and wrote many educational works, such as ‘The Logographical … French Spelling Book,’ 1799, 8th edit. 1839, and ‘Pratique de l'Orateur François,’ 4th edit. 1812, besides two ‘Odes Pindariques’ on current French politics. He died at Herne Hill on 4 Jan. 1833, aged 80 (Gent. Mag. 1833, pt. i. p. 91). Mrs. Le Noir lived at a house within the precincts of the Abbey of Reading, and died, aged 86, at the Priory, Caversham, on 6 May 1841.
Mrs. Le Noir was author of: 1. ‘Village Annals, a Scene in Domestic Life,’ a novel in 2 vols. 1803. 2. ‘Village Anecdotes, or the Journal of a Year, from Sophia to Edward,’ 1804. The printer and publisher complain of the author's handwriting, and make it the excuse for the long list of errata. A second edition in 1807 is dedicated to Dr. Burney, who praised the book very highly. There was a third edition in 1821. 3. ‘Victorine's Excursions,’ 1804. 4. ‘Clara de Montfier, a Moral Tale,’ in three volumes, 1808, dedicated to Lady Charlotte Greville; 2nd edit. 1810, under the name of ‘The Maid of La Vendée.’ Dr. Burney criticised the manuscript very favourably. 5. ‘Conversations, interspersed with Poems, for the Amusement and Instruction of Youth,’ 2 vols. 1812. 6. ‘Miscellaneous Poems,’ 2 vols. 1825, dedicated to Viscountess Sidmouth.
Like Dr. Burney, Mary Russell Mitford greatly admired Mrs. Le Noir's tales and poems; she writes that her ‘books when taken up one does not care to put down again’ (Recollections of a Literary Life, iii. 101). The novels are interesting as specimens of the fashionable fiction of their day. Some of the verses, notably ‘The Old Oak at Ufton Court’ and ‘The Morning Hymn,’ were characterised in their day as ‘beautiful.’
A daughter of Mrs. Le Noir's husband by a former marriage published for the perusal of young ladies, ‘Les Promenades de Victorine,’ 1804, apparently a translation of her stepmother's ‘Victorine's Excursions,’ ‘Le Compagne de la Jeunesse,’ and ‘L'Instructrice et son Elève.’ She died at Leamington on 21 Sept. 1830 (Gent. Mag. 1830, pt. ii. p. 477).
[Information supplied by Mr. Frederick Cowslade, proprietor of the Reading Mercury; Anderson's Poets, xi. 119, 122; Early Diary of Frances Burney, i. 127; A Bookseller of the Last Century, by Charles Welsh; Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Gent. Mag. 1823, pt. i. p. 582, and 1841, pt. i. p. 667.]
LENS, BERNARD (1631–1708), enamel-painter, apparently of Netherlandish origin, was born in 1631, and practised in London as an enamel-painter. He died on 5 Feb. 1708, aged 77, and was buried in St. Bride's, Fleet Street.
Lens, Bernard (1659–1725), mezzotint-engraver and drawing-master, son of the above, was born in London in 1659, and received instruction in art from his father. He was employed at first to draw for engravers, but afterwards practised extensively as a mezzotint-engraver himself. He engraved a number of small biblical or mythological subjects after Vandyck, Van der Vaart, Sir Peter Lely, C. Maratti, Guido Reni, and others, as well as many portraits, including those of John, lord Cutts, Charles, duke of Richmond, Lady Mary Radclyffe, Mother George of Oxford, aged 120, and various members of the royal family. He engraved some curious mezzotint plates of displays of fireworks given on William III's return from his Irish campaign on 10 Sept. 1690, on the capture of Namur on 9 Sept. 1695, and on the general peace on 7 July 1713. Lens also drew a number of topographical sketches in Indian ink, several of which are preserved in the print room at the British Museum. Lens, with John Sturt [q. v.] the engraver, kept a drawing-school in St. Paul's Churchyard. In 1697 they issued a broadside setting forth the advantages of learning drawing in every profession. A portrait by Lens of Isaac Bickerstaffe was engraved by Sturt in 1710. Lens died on 28 April 1725, and was also buried in St. Bride's, Fleet Street.
Lens, Bernard (1682–1740), miniature-painter and drawing-master, son of the last-named by his wife Mary Lens, born in London in 1682, was a student of the Academy of Painting in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. He distinguished himself greatly as a miniature-painter in water-colours, and was esteemed the best exponent of this art in his time. Lens's miniatures are frequently to be met with in private collections, but the similarity of his signature, his initials interlaced, with those of Sir Peter Lely and Lawrence Crosse [q. v.] has sometimes caused their works to be confused. He painted several miniatures of Mary Queen of Scots, from a well-known original. One of these is in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch. A portrait of Sir Thomas Tipping on horseback, drawn by Lens in 1724, is in the print room at the British Museum. He also made several
