82
NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. ix. JAN. 31, 1911.
must be said that it is little more than an
approach to the original, from which also it
differs in points of detail.
In 1841-2 Solomon Alexander Hart visited Italy, where he made many of those studies which were subsequently used in his pictures of Italian history and scenery. Amongst them was ' Milton visiting Galileo in Prison,' painted in 1847. Its present whereabouts is unknown, but the British Museum (Department of Prints and Draw- ings) has an engraving of it, of which a de- scription has been kindly supplied to me as follows :
" The print to which you refer is a proof
fore all letters of the wood-engraving by W. J.
Linton. It bears the inscription in pencil ' With
W. J. Linton's compliments.' The title, ' Milton
visiting Galileo in Prison in Florence,' is also
inscribed in pencil, and in the same handwriting." In 'N. & Q.,' 26 Nov., 1904, p. 426,
MR. CHR. WATSON writes as follows :
" I have recently seen at a friend's house a painting in oil colour of Galileo. I should like to know whether it is a copy or an original. It appears to be of considerable age. In the left- hand top corner of the painting there is the following inscription :
Galileus
Galileus
Math'us.
In Beeton's ' Dictionary of Universal Information ' there is an engraving of Galileo which resembles this picture, except that it bears no inscription. The head is turned to the left in both portraits." To this inquiry there was no decisive answer, but the present possessor of the picture, Miss Edith Chapman, Balham, S.W., informs me that experts have declared it to be a copy. But of what original ?
Engravings. Judging by printsellers' cata- logues, there should be many examples of this kind of memorial scattered over the British Isles. Besides the engraving of Solomon Hart's picture already mentioned, the British Museum (Print Room) possesses many other examples after the works of Villamena, Leoni, Dom. Tintoretto, Passi- gnani, Sustermans, and Allan Ramsay.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum there are two examples, one by J. ab Heyden after Villamena, and the other by Leoni after himself.
I myself have a considerable number, of which the following are the more im- portant :
1. By Joseph Calendi, after Sante di Tito (the earliest known portrait of Galileo, c. 1601).
2. By N. Schiavoni, after Domenico Tinto- retto (1562-1637).
3. By Villamena, 1613 inscribed " F. Villa- mcena Fecit."
4. By Leoni, 1624, inscribed " Eques Octaviu*
Leonus Roman' pictor fecit."
5. Anonymous, but after " 1'ecole du peintre- Cristofano dell' Altissimo." It is known that in 1619, which would be about the time that this- picture was painted, Galileo and his devoted friend Sagredo of Venice exchanged portraits ? but all further traces of them are lost. The original of my engraving was acquired in Florence- early in the last century, and brought to France (' L'Univers Pittoresque Italic,' Paris, 1845 r p. 291 and plate Ixiii.). Considering all the cir- cumstances, it is possible that this picture is the one which Galileo had ordered for his friend ; but how it got back to Florence, and where it is- now in France, I hope time and this publicity will show.
6. By Pietro Bettellini, after Passignani (1560-
7. By L. Travellpni, G. Cipriani, Thomas- Bakewell, Singer, Piotti - Pirola, Angiolini, and Bigola all after one or other of Sustermans" pictures.
8. By Hart, after Allan Ramsay (1713-84).
J. J. FAHIE. Chesham Bois Common, Bucks.
(To be continued.)
THE ROADS ROUND LONDON
SEVENTY YEARS AGO.
I WONDER if the following reminiscences of an old man will interest your readers. They relate to the forties of last century.
I remember two old ladies, one of whom told me that she was born at Tower Hill, and used to see occasionally a cart with pallid men sitting on their coffins, on their way to be hanged at Execution Dock. The other, the elder of the two, told me she- lived with her parents over their shop in the Poultry, and used to attend the minis- trations of the Rev. John Newton, the poet Cowper's spiritual adviser, at St. Mary Woolnoth's Church. This was before 1800.
As a child I lived at Brixton, then a village quite clear of London, consisting of a long road with villas scattered along it, the abodes for the " most part of retired business men. Where now is the district called Angell Town was a farm, and the River Effra ran in part along the eastern side of the main road, with occasionally little bridges- giving access to houses. It was quite open from where is now the police station to "The White Horse Inn, "and again for some little way south of Kennington Church.
I remember vividly an old man who worked as a jobbing gardener and was fond of sitting in the potting-shed and telling me stories of old days. One was that where Kenning- ton Church now stands was the dilapidated hangman's hut erected for the execution of
