to say, not a single Reynolds. Perhaps the most interesting of the Hoppners is the portrait of the first Marquis of Hastings, better known as Lord Moira (No. 358), the friend of George IV., who atoned for political failures in England by a brilliant governor-generalship in India. He is in uniform, the tight, white breeches set off by the red coat—a little, monkey-faced man. The words in which Scott recorded his death are an admirable comment on the picture: "Poor old Honour and Glory dead—once Lord Moira, more lately Lord Hastings. He was a man of very considerable talents, but had an overmastering degree of vanity of the grossest kind. It followed, of course, that he was gullible. In fact, the propensity was like a ring in his nose into which any rogue might put a string. He had a high reputation for war, but it was after the pettifogging hostilities in America, where he had done some clever things. He died, having the credit, or rather having had the credit, to leave more debt than any man since Cæsar's time. £1,200,000 is said to be the least. There was a time that I knew him well, and regretted the foibles which mingled with his character, so as to make his noble qualities sometimes questionable, sometimes ridiculous."[1]
There is a pleasing portrait of the literary lady Mrs. Delany by Opie (No. 375), and there are many more of the same period.
But most characteristic of the age of George III. is the collection of the pictures of Benjamin West
- ↑ Diary, December 22, 1826.
