Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/48

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EIGHT FRIENDS OF THE GREAT

March 1792 from Somerset House to St. Paul's Cathedral in great state and amid general lamentation.

Metcalfe had asked Bartolozzi to design a card invitation to the ceremony but there was not sufficient time for its preparation. There were 10 pall bearers and 65 armozeen [stout plain silk] black silk scarves, hat bands & silk gloves were provided for the noblemen and other friends. The sum of £67. 9. o was spent in hat bands and leather gloves for the servants. There was an allowance of 1s. per head for liquor to 27 coachmen and 6d. each to 87 tenants. The burial fees at St. Paul's amounted to £44. 7. 5 and the total bill came to £588. 14. 6.

When Burke received from Malone a copy of the first edition of his work on the life and works of sir Joshua, the dying man sent from Bath on 4 May 1797 in reply a long letter, in which he expressed his earnest desire that a monument should be erected to the memory of his friend in the cathedral. This part of his epistle concluded with the remark "You will speak to Mr. Metcalfe about it of course." Many years passed away before these hopes passed into fruition. It was not until 1813 that the monument by Flaxman was erected.

Metcalfe sat to Reynolds for his portrait in July 1780, Feb. 1781 and Feb. 1782. The picture of him which was put up for sale at the dispersal of his pictures on 15 June 1850, was wrongly attributed in the catalogue to Reynolds. It was painted by Battoni at Rome and represents him as a young man in a redcoat, with gold embroidery and a white lace cravat. At the sale it was bought in and is now with many other portraits of the family at Hawstead House. They are described in Farrer's volume of "portraits in Suffolk houses, west" 1908.

Some lines said to be the composition of Boswell, were inserted in Notes and Queries for 1860. They set out the disgust of several discontented suitors at the marriage of the