We give the pleasing description from his admirable poem of the Seasons.

Say shall we wind

Along the streams or walk the smiling mead,
Or court the forest glades, or wander wild
Among the waving harvests, or ascend,
While radiant summer opens all its pride,
Thy hill delightful Shene. Here let us sweep
The boundless landscape: Now the raptur'd eye,
Exulting swift to huge Augusta send,
Now to the sister hills that skirt the plain,
To lofty Harrow now, and now to where
Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow.
In lovely contrast to this glorious view,
Calmly magnificent, then will we turn
To where the silver Thames first rural grows.
There let the feasted eye unwearied stray:
Luxurious there, rove, through the pendent woods,
That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat;
And sloping thence to Ham's embow'ring walks ;-
Here let us trace the matchless vale of Thames,
Fair winding up to where the Muses haunt

In Twit'nam bow'rs, and for their Pope implore
The healing God; to royal Hampton's pile;

To Claremont's terrass'd height, and Esher's groves.
Where in the sweetest solitude, embrac'd

By the soft windings of the silent Mole,

From courts and senates Pelham finds repose.
Enchanting vale! beyond whate'er the Muse
Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung!

O vale of bliss! O, softly swelling hills!

On which the power of cultivation lies,

And joys to see the wonders of his toil.—

Heav'ns, what a goodly prospect spreads around,
Of hills and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires,
And glitt'ring towns, and gilded streams, till all
The stretching landscape into smoke decays.

In a work of this kind whose object is to represent embellished nature by the power of the pencil, the circumstance that Sir Joshua Reynolds occupied a villa on the summit of Richmond Hill, and on the particular part of it which the

RICHMOND HILL.

engraving represents, demands particular notice; and more than justifies the brief account which will follow of that great master of the British school of painting.

This distinguished artist was the son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, who was the master of the grammar school at Plympton, in Devonshire: he was born July 16, 1723. He was educated in the usual mode of school discipline by his father; but he, at a very early age discovered very strong inclination for the art in which he afterwards became so eminent, by copying the prints which he found in his father's books. At eight years of age he afforded an example of determined perseverance, for at that early period he made himself master of the Jesuit's perspective, and executed, according to rule, a drawing of the grammar school at Plymton, wherein his father taught. But it was the perusal of Richardson's treatise on painting, which the most powerfully inflamed his mind with the love of his art.

After some practice in different parts of the country, where there are yet to be seen many of his juvenile efforts, in which, however, the most partial eye would find it difficult to discover any promise of that superlative excellence which he afterwards attained, he was placed, when about seventeen years of age, with Hudson, the most eminent artist of that day, with whom he remained about three years. In consequence of some disagreement with his master, he retired into Devonshire. There he lived, without making any great effort, though as it appears from a few pictures he painted in that interval, not without considerable improvement till the year 1749, when he was carried by Captain, afterwards Lord Keppel, to Italy, where he passed three years.

On his return from Italy, he hired an house in Rupertstreet, Long Acre; and a whole length portrait of Admiral Keppel, which he painted soon after, was so superior to any picture that had been produced by contemporary artists, as to place him at once at the head of his profession. Indeed he introduced a new, and very superior style in portrait

painting. He united to a dignified characteristic resemblance of the head, and an endless variety of spirited and graceful attitudes, picturesque back-grounds, with novel and striking efforts of light and shade, and a voluptuous richness and harmony of colour.

Beautiful and seducing as his style undoubtedly was, it cannot be recommended in so unreserved a manner as his industry both in study and practice. Colouring was evidently his first excellence, to which all others were more or less sacrificed; and though in splendor and brilliancy he was exceeded by Rubens, and Paul Veronese, in force and depth by Titian and Rembrandt, and in freshness and truth by Velasquez and Vandyck, yet, perhaps, he possessed a' more exquisite combination of all these qualities, and that peculiarly his own, than is to be found in the works of either of those celebrated masters.

It has been judiciously observed, that in his history he does not appear to possess much fertility of invention; as, whenever he has introduced a striking figure it may commonly be traced to some of his predecessors: the merit of skilful adaptation, therefore, is all that can be allowed him: but in portrait, the variety of his attitudes and back grounds is unequalled by any painter ancient or modern.

He himself candidly confesses that drawing was the branch of the art in which he was most defective; and from a desire, perhaps, to conceal this defect, with an over-solicitude to produce a superabundant richness of effect, he was too frequently tempted to fritter his lights, and cut up his composition, particularly, if it happened to be large, into too many parts.

Sir Joshua Reynolds, however, cannot be too much praised and imitated by all who are ambitious to attain similar eminence. His industry was incessant, nor was it ever wearied into despondency by miscarriage, or elated into neglect by success. He was always aiming at advancement in his art; nor did he relax in this principle, till the defect in his sight obliged him to resign his pencil.

RICHMOND HILL.

In the year 1782, he was afflicted with a paralytic stroke from which, however, he soon recovered, and suffered no subsequent inconvenience from it.

In 1784, on the death of Ramsay, he was appointed principal painter in ordinary to his Majesty, which office he enjoyed to his death.

more.

In July 1789, while he was painting the portrait of Lady Beauchamp, he found his sight so much affected that it was with difficulty he proceeded in his work, and in a few months he was totally deprived of the sight of his left eye; and fearing that his remaining eye might suffer, he determined to paint no He afterwards was threatened with symptoms of total blindness, but that calamity did not overtake him. He now suffered from a very serious disorder in his liver, of which he died February 23, 1792. On Saturday, March 3d, his remains were interred in the crypt of the cathedral of St. Paul's, near the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, with every honour that could be shewn to worth and genius:—a great number of persons of distinction, with the whole of the Royal Academy, attended the funeral ceremony; and the pall was supported by three Dukes, two Marquisses, and five other Noblemen. The body had previously laid in state in the apartments of the Royal Academy in Somerset House.