Part 11

In 1794 we find him exhibiting 'The Sleeping Girl,' after Sir Joshua Reynolds; and in 1797 a portrait of Lord Eglinton, which attracted the attention of the Prince of Wales, who appointed him, in 1800, his enamel-painter, and became a generous patron to him afterwards. In the following year he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy, and enamel-painter to George III.; and he occupied the same post under George IV. and William IV. He subsequently executed several fine enamels, mostly after Sir Joshua Reynolds, and also a fine piece after Leonardo da Vinci. On 15th April, 1811, he was elected Royal Academician, and shortly after produced the largest enamel which had ever been painted up to that time, viz., a copy of the 'Bacchus and Ariadne' in the National Gallery, after Titian, eighteen by sixteen inches. This picture was considered so marvellous a production that more than 4,000 persons went to inspect it at Bone's house; and it was at length sold to Mr. G. Bowles, of Cavendish Square and Wanstead, for 2,200 guineas. The story goes, on the authority of Mr. George Bone, of Blackheath, that this sum was paid in the form of a cheque drawn on Fauntleroy's Bank. Bone cashed it on his way home, in order to have the pleasure of showing to his wife so huge a sum in coin. The following day the notorious forgeries and frauds were discovered, and the firm was bankrupt. But according to a writer in the 'Annual Biography' for 1836, who seems to have been well acquainted with Bone, the amount was paid partly in cash and partly by a draft.

Bone next undertook, in addition to enamel portraits and copies from the ancient masters, a series of historical portraits, mostly of the time of Elizabeth. They were of great merit, but unsuccessful financially. These were exhibited at his house, 15 Berners Street, near that of his friend Opie, No. 8, who painted Bone's portrait.[70] There were also portraits of the Cavaliers distinguished in the Civil War, painted for J. P. Old; as well as portraits of the Russell family, from the reign of Henry VII., for the Duke of Bedford. A catalogue of the last-named was privately printed in 1825, and there is a copy of it in the South Kensington Museum.

In 1831 failing eyesight compelled him to retire to Somers Town, and reluctantly to receive the Academy pension; but owing to the expensive professions adopted by his sons, there was no alternative. Here he died of paralysis on December 17th, 1834. Some time before his death Bone offered his works, which were valued at £10,000, to the nation for £4,000. This offer was declined, and some time afterwards, viz., 22nd April, 1836, they were sold by auction at Christie and Manson's, realizing about 2,000 guineas, and so were scattered far and wide. Other important sales of Bone's enamels took place on the following dates, viz.: 1st May, 1846; 25th April, 1850; 10th May, 1854; and 13th and 14th March, 1856.

Bone had a large family--twelve, it is believed; of whom ten survived. His eldest son, Henry Pierce Bone, born November 6th, 1779, first exhibited at the Academy in 1799. He commenced enamel-painting in 1833, was appointed enamel-painter to Queen Adelaide, and afterwards to her present Majesty and the Prince Consort; and in the course of fifty-six years he exhibited 210 miniatures and enamels. He died in London, October 21st, 1855. Bone's grandsons (W. Bone and C. K. Bone) are also enamelers.

Robert Trewick Bone, the third son, born September 24th, 1790, was a subject-painter of some ability. He died from the effects of a hurt, May 5th, 1840. One son, Thomas, a midshipman, was wrecked and drowned, in the _Racehorse_, sloop, off the Isle of Man. Another, Peter, a lieutenant in the 36th Regiment, was wounded at the battle of Toulouse, and died soon after his return to England; and another of Bone's sons was called to the bar.

Of Henry Bone's private character, it was truly said, by one who knew him well, that 'unaffected modesty, generosity, friendship, and undeviating integrity adorned his private life;' and as to his artistic merits, it is no exaggeration to say that he was 'unequalled in Europe for the perfect truth and enduring brilliancy of his productions.'

A voluminous list, prepared by the late Mr. J. Jope Rogers, of the works of art produced by the various members of the Bone family, will be found in the 'Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall,' No. XXII., for March, 1880. It shows a total of 1,063 recorded works by this gifted family, nearly half of which were painted by the principal subject of this brief memoir.

Chantrey executed a fine bust of Henry Bone, which has been well engraved by Thomson; and there is another portrait of him, as an elderly man, which was painted by Harlow, and engraved by F. C. Lewis in 1824.

FOOTNOTES:

[69] His 'H. B.' signature was similar to Doyle's ('H. B.') and most of his works are, fortunately for collectors, so signed.

[70] Bone's various residences in London were as follows, in chronological order: Spa Fields; 195, High Holborn; Little Russell Street; Hanover Street, Hanover Square; and in 1801, Berners Street; thence he moved to Clarendon Square, Somers Town.

_REV. DR. WILLIAM BORLASE, F.R.S._,

THE ANTIQUARY.

_REV. DR. WILLIAM BORLASE, F.R.S._,

THE ANTIQUARY.

'In the shade, but shining.'

POPE _to Borlase_.

The little parish of Ludgvan[71] (or as it is sometimes called, Ludgvan-Lees), on the north shore of the Mount's Bay, can boast of having contributed at least its share to the list of illustrious Cornishmen. Small, remote, and obscure as it is, Ludgvan is one of the places mentioned as the birthplace of Sir Humphry Davy; it was for more than half a century the residence of the subject of this article; and here, too, at Tremenheere, was born one of the most illustrious professors of the healing art that the county has ever produced--himself the friend and medical attendant of Borlase and of Pope--I refer to Dr. William Oliver, of Bath.

That the pursuits of a keen inquirer, endowed with no ordinary powers of observation and considerable artistic talent, should, in such an out-of-the-way corner of England as Ludgvan still is, have been directed towards natural history, and to the megalithic remains of antiquity with which the neighbourhood once abounded, and of which there are still numerous examples, is not to be wondered at. And it cannot be denied that the study of those sciences, both in Cornwall and elsewhere, was materially benefited by the numerous and careful drawings and descriptions of the stone monuments of a mysterious and almost unknown race of men, which it was one of the main objects of Dr. Borlase's learned leisure to investigate and record. Many of these ancient remains have altogether disappeared since his time, and many others have been mutilated or altered; but in the Doctor's volumes such minute descriptions of them have been preserved that the loss of the monuments themselves has been rendered of much less serious importance than would have been the case but for his careful and elaborate records. Of the deductions and suggestions which are appended to those descriptions something will be said hereafter.

But, in accordance with the method adopted in the case of the other Worthies of Cornwall, it is well first to say something of the stock from which Dr. Borlase sprang. A Norman origin is claimed for the family--they are said to have descended from one Taillefer: presumably some connexion of him who is reported to have struck the first blow at the Battle of Hastings. Coming into Cornwall, as, by the way, very few other followers of the Norman Conqueror did, the Borlases seem to have adopted a custom which has always more or less prevailed in the county of merging their own name into that of their place of residence; and here it may be observed that the name of Borlase, supposed by some to mean 'the high green summit,' is still attached to two or three little homesteads in the parish of St. Wenn, three or four miles north-east of St. Columb Major.[72] The direct male line became extinct in the time of Elizabeth, when the coheiresses married a Tonkin and a Bray; and the family does not appear to have risen to any distinction until they moved farther westward, and about the middle of the seventeenth century took up their abode (which is still in the possession of a member of the family) at Pendeen, in the parish of St. Just.

The early Pendeen Borlases seem to have been staunch Royalists, for it seems that one of them assisted his cousin, Colonel Nicholas Borlase, in raising a troop of horse for the King. Of this troop a writer in the _Quarterly Review_ for 1875, quotes the following story:

'Being on one occasion much pressed by the Puritan forces, and making a running fight, he set fire to a large brake of furze in the night, which the enemy taking for the fires made on the approach of the King's army, immediately fled with great precipitation, and left him both bag and baggage, which he seized the next morning.'

By way of comment on these proceedings, Fairfax quartered some of his troopers at Pendeen,--doubtless to the intense annoyance of the owner thereof; and as regards Colonel Nicholas, a letter from Cromwell to Lenthall tells all that I have been able to gather as to that hero's career. It is dated Edinburgh, 13th June, 1651, and asks the Speaker to hasten the hearing of Borlase's case, which seems to have been involved in the conditions of the hurried treaty of Truro, when Hopton surrendered to Fairfax, and terminated the supremacy of the Royal cause in the West country.

The Borlases were not, however, without some sort of barren reward for their faithfulness to the Stuart cause; for Humphry, who was Sheriff of Cornwall during the last two years of the reign of James II., was created a peer by that monarch _after his abdication_. Under these circumstances he, of course, never enjoyed the title. He sometimes resided at Truthan, in the parish of St. Erme, near Truro, and left his estates to the Borlases of Pendeen.

Dr. Borlase was born at Pendeen, on 2nd February, 1695, the second son of his father, 'John of Pendeen, twice Member of Parliament for St. Ives in Cornwall in the reign of Queen Anne, and Lydia Harris, of Hayne, county Devon, his wife,' a lady descended, so the writer in the _Quarterly Review_ informs us, through the Nevilles and Bouchiers, from Edward III. But the Borlases had also plenty of good Cornish blood in their veins; and amongst other old families of the soil with whom they intermarried may be named their not very distant neighbours, the Godolphins.

With a member of the last-named family John Borlase seems to have had an altercation one day in church, the particulars of which are set forth in his victim's petition to Parliament as follows, viz.:

'HONOURED SIRS,

'Life, the precious tenet of mankind, forceth me to inform your honours that Sunday, the 26th February, 1709, in full view of most of the congregation of Maddern, John Borlase, one of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace, did wilfully break the peace by striking me almost to the ground with his staff, and if not timely prevented by one Paul Tonkin, he would have been striking me again. He did at the same time highly threaten me, with Chrit^{r}. Harris, Esq., Jane his wife, and John his son. Mr. Harris ordered his servant to beat me. Of the truth of the above information I am ready to give my corroboration. Humbly craving the Honble. Speaker and House of Commons not to skreene such daring offenders, but to give me leave to prosecute them as the law directs, is the humble prayer of, Hond. Sirs,

'Your in all humility and duty,

'FFRANCES GODOLPHIN.'

What this poor gentleman had done to deserve the 'Justice's justice' thus summarily inflicted on him, observes the writer in the _Quarterly Review_, from whom I quote this letter, there and then, in the midst as it seems of divine service, and by the occupant of the next pew, we are left to conjecture.

Pendeen[73] is a house of unusual interest in this part of Cornwall, where, indeed, primæval remains abound, but where are few examples--save small and (with one or two exceptions) not particularly interesting churches--of mediæval and later architecture. It is now occupied as a farmhouse, but was formerly a place of much more importance. Substantially built of native granite, the structure was evidently designed for the occupation of some prosperous man; and its ground-plot indicates that it was so traced as to be capable of some sort of defence against marauders. In one of the bedrooms--most probably that in which William Borlase first saw the light--are some curious figures on the wall, of which a sketch is preserved by the writer.

But it is not so much to the house itself as to its surroundings that we must look for what were probably the determining circumstances of Borlase's career. He was in the very heart of the cromlehs, the cliff-castles, the weird stone-circles, and the huge monoliths of a forgotten race; and, close to the house, there was a long and mysterious double cave--a vau or ogou--which, we can but believe, must have excited an inquiring child's awe-struck interest. We are indebted chiefly to himself for the little that we know of his early days; and this information is derived from a modest autobiographical sketch which he drew up in 1772, when seventy-seven years old, for his friend Huddesford, the Curator of the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, an institution to which Borlase contributed nearly the whole of his collections of natural history and antiquities.

His first school seems to have been at the nearest town, Penzance; and of him his master said what so many a master has said of many another apt but dreamy and indolent scholar, who was nevertheless destined afterwards to distinguish himself, that 'he could learn, but would not.' Thence he went, in 1709, under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Bedford, at Plymouth, where he seems to have profited more by the instruction which he received. It has also been supposed that he was educated partly at Tiverton School. In March, 1712-13 he was entered, Cornish fashion, at Exeter College, Oxford, and here he took his B.A. and M.A. degrees in due course; was in 1719 ordained deacon; and in 1720, priest.

Dr. Borlase gives the following picture of the Oxford of his days:

'When I was at Oxford in the year 1715, we--I mean pupils, tutors, barbers, shoe-cleaners, and bed-makers--minded nothing but Politics; the Muse stood neglected; nay meat and drink, balls and ladies, had all reason to complain in their turns that we minded Scotland and Preston more than the humane, softer, and more delicate entertainments of Genius and Philosophy. This was a most unhappy time, and I have often lamented it.' And he concludes with the strong Conservative opinion: 'If I can see anything in our English history, 'tis that the poor nation is always the worse for alterations, tho' particular persons may be the better, that is, the richer or more powerful.'

His amusing description of a journey home from the University with Sir John St. Aubyn, in 1722, is given hereafter in the chapter on that family.

Two years after he was ordained priest, and (his father having bought for him the next presentation) he was presented to the living of Ludgvan, by Charles, first Duke of Bolton, through the influence, as Nichols inaccurately tells us, of Sir William Morice, of Werrington--a family with whom the St. Aubyns intermarried. This living he held for fifty-two years.[74]

When Borlase settled in his Rectory, the retired situation of the place did not altogether prevent his indulging in the mild social dissipations of the neighbourhood; notably there was a bowling-green club, formed in 1719, which proved an agreeable means of meeting with his friends, and afforded Mr. Gwavas--one of the latest writers in the old Cornish language, and a member of the party--an opportunity of composing a set of verses in Cornish in honour of the foundation of the club.

There can be little doubt, from what we know of his surroundings and proclivities, that Borlase was already making notes of the neighbouring antiquities, and dipping into his favourite authorities--the best of the day--for information, which he was afterwards to apply in a somewhat too speculative manner, to his pet subject--the Druids. He seems to have relied mainly for this purpose upon several passages in Julius Cæsar, Pliny, Elias Schedius de Diis Germanis, Smith's 'Syntagma de Druidis;' a collection of the French and German writers in Frickius de Druidis, Sheringham, Sammes, Montfaucon, Mons. Martin's 'Religion of the Ancient Gauls,' Toland's 'History of the Druids,' Rowland's 'Mona Illustrata,' Dr. Stukeley in his 'Stonehenge and Abury,' and Keysler in his 'Antiquities.'[75]

His method was to examine, and especially to survey and to _draw_ carefully the old weather-beaten stone structures of Cornwall; being convinced, as he says, 'of the necessity of copying the original monuments,' and 'offering something to the public which their _undeniable_ properties suggested.' We shall, however, I think, presently see that, in endeavouring to carry out this method, the worthy antiquary was rather prone to do that which so many other investigators have done--namely, to see that which he _wished_ to see.

Fortunately for him, and for the records of the 'Cornish Antiquities,' when he married (as he did in 1724) Anne Smith, the daughter of the then Rector of Camborne and Illogan--'peramatæ, amanti, amabili,' as he wrote for her epitaph--he found a partner who (again to use his own words) took 'more than her part of the domestic cares,' in order that he might the better prosecute his antiquarian researches. The marriage ceremony was performed by his elder brother the Rev. Walter Borlase, LL.D., of Castle Horneck (the seat of the family on their removing from Pendeen, about a century and a half ago), afterwards Vice-Warden of the Stannaries from 1761 to 1776.

Although he lived to a very ripe old age, his health seems to have somewhat failed him for a time in 1730; and he accordingly repaired to Bath, as the waters were then in high repute for maladies such as his, in order to be under the care of his friend Dr. Oliver, who happily cured him, and gave him 'a new lease of life.' There can be little doubt that this excursion was also of great importance in another way; for it was here, and at this time, that he made the acquaintance of Pope,[76] of Ralph Allen, and of many other well-known characters in the literary and scientific world, who afterwards became his correspondents. His clever pencil was also employed during his sojourn at Bath in designing the obelisk in Orange Grove--so named after the Prince of Orange--another of those persons who credited the renowned Bath waters with the power of renewing their youth.

In 1732 Dr. Borlase's elder brother, Walter, died; and thereupon the subject of this memoir had the Vicarage of St. Just added to his previous preferment. This second living he held for the long period of forty years. The two places were not so far apart (only about twelve miles) as to preclude his giving attention to both cures; and indeed those biographers who have written of Borlase (notably Chalmers), state that his performance of his clerical duties was highly praiseworthy, being marked with 'the most rigid punctuality and exemplary dignity.' At St. Just, a populous mining parish, his congregation often consisted of 1,000 persons on a Sunday morning, and 500 in the afternoon. This, too, it must be remembered, was at a time when Churchmanship generally was at a very low ebb in Cornwall, and needed Wesley's trumpet-call to arouse it.[77]

Notwithstanding his increased responsibilities, Borlase did not neglect his antiquarian and scientific studies, nor his out-of-door pursuits of gardening and planting, for which the mild air of Ludgvan was highly favourable. In fact, at this period he seems to have 'entered upon the study of Druid learning' with renewed fervour. His chief companions were Sir John St. Aubyn of St. Michael's Mount hard by, and the Rev. Edward Collins of St. Erth, the latter of whom appears to have joined in nearly all his rambles, and not to have failed to administer occasionally 'the salutary censure of a friend;' for, as Borlase himself tells us, he found Mr. Collins a useful 'check in some disquisitions.'

Thus tranquilly passed away some fifteen years of this quiet and uneventful, but busy life,[78] until circumstances again brought him into contact with that outer world of larger and more learned minds which 'do mostly congregate in cities.' In 1748 he went to Exeter, to be present at the ordination of his eldest son. Here he was introduced to the Dean of Exeter, the Rev. Dr. Charles Lyttelton, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, and the first President of the Society of Antiquaries. And it is not a little curious to note, by the way, that Dr. Lyttelton's successor as Dean of Exeter, Jeremiah Milles, of Duloe in Cornwall, also succeeded his predecessor in the Deanery in the distinguished post of President of the Antiquaries. It can readily be believed that new sources of intellectual enjoyment opened up with an acquaintance with such men as these. They forthwith became correspondents; and to their names were added, either about this time or at other periods of Borlase's life, those of Linnæus, Gronov of Leyden, Stukeley, Atterbury (Bishop of Rochester), Browne Willis, Pococke (Bishop of Ossory), Thomas Pennant, and Ellis, the author of the 'Corallines.' The library at Castle Horneck contains upwards of forty volumes in MS. of Borlase's Correspondence and Notes.

One of the fruits of Borlase's visit to Exeter was the production of his first essay (or 'Exercise' as it was termed) for the 'Philosophical Transactions.' This appeared in 1749. It was the first scientific account of any of the Cornish minerals; and was entitled 'Spar, and Sparry Productions, called Cornish Diamonds.' This was considered of sufficient merit to secure his election as Fellow of the Royal Society, an honour which was conferred upon him on his visit to London in the following year. Many other contributions followed, nineteen in all; chiefly on subjects connected with meteorology and natural phenomena, and one paper of an antiquarian character. They are catalogued in the 'Biographia Britannica,' vol. ii., p. 425.

But the time had now arrived when Borlase felt himself strong enough to invite the attention of the world to more considerable works from his pen and pencil. And first he turned his attention to grouping and arranging the results of his archæological researches, the publication of which, by subscription, he set about accomplishing. It was not, however, until 1753 that he saw his way clear to taking the MSS. of his 'Cornish Antiquities' with him to Oxford--preferring that city to London for two reasons, the first of which we can easily understand, viz., its greater retirement; but the second is one which sounds strange to modern ears, because of the '_more ready access to books_.' So great was his diligence, and that of his engravers, that the work, in folio, with its numerous illustrations, was published at Oxford in February of the following year, 1754;[79] and the indefatigable author at once returned to Cornwall in order to arrange the materials for his next great work, the 'Natural History' of his native county. Meanwhile, in 1756, appeared his account of the Scilly Islands, an enlargement of one of his papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' and a work of which Dr. Johnson wrote in the _Literary Review_ that 'This is one of the most pleasing and elegant pieces of local inquiry that our country has produced.'