66 MY DEAR SIR,

"Sunday, 11th February, 1821.

"OLD Mr. Roscoe is in town for a few days at his son Robert's house, No. 6, Dyer's Buildings, Holborn: I am to dine with them on Tuesday, at five: Robert came to invite you to the party, but finding you were out of town to-day, requested me to do it for him. You cannot do a thing more agreeable to them or me than comply with our request, if disengaged; and as it probably may be the last time you will see Mr. Roscoe in London, I hope you will suffer no trifling engagement to deprive us of you.

66

Ever,

"HENRY FUSELI."

"We may go together."

"To John Knowles, Esq."

A few days afterwards I had again the pleasure to meet Mr. Roscoe at Fuseli's table; there were also present, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Mr. Lock, Mr. Howard, R. A., Mr. J. Symmons, and Mr. Robert Roscoe. The conversation was desultory, sometimes upon literature, at others upon art; and at two more intellectual dinnerparties I have seldom been present. Fuseli was animated and energetic, and shewed that he then possessed a mind of the greatest vigour, with an unimpaired memory.

CHAPTER XII.

Decline of Fuseli's Health.-Letter from Mr. James C. Moore. -Fuseli's Bust by Baily, and Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence. His last Academical Lectures.-Particulars of his Illness and Death.-Proceedings relative to his interment, with an account of the ceremony.-Copy of his Will.

THE intimates of Fuseli had observed, with much concern, that for two or three years, although his general health did not appear to be materially affected by age, yet there was a predisposition to water in the chest, which usually manifested itself when he took cold, by his being occasionally affected with some difficulty in breathing, irregularity of pulse, and also by the swelling, in a slight degree, of his feet and ancles. These symptoms were repeatedly removed, in a few days, by the appropriate reme

dies, but after intervals they recurred. On the 23d August, 1823, he sent a note to my house, early in the morning, expressing a wish to see me immediately, which summons I promptly obeyed. On my arrival, he said, that although when we parted at ten o'clock the preceding evening, he did not feel at all indisposed; yet, shortly after he had retired to bed, he found a difficulty in breathing, such as he had never before experienced, and that his legs were much swollen, and wished therefore to consult a friend of mine, Dr. Maton. I told him that the Doctor was absent from London, and therefore advised him to send for a physician with whom he and I were well acquainted, (Sir Alexander Crichton,) to meet his friend and usual medical adviser, Mr. Richard Cartwright; to which proposal he assented. Mrs. Fuseli was at this time at Brighton, for the benefit of her health; and he gave me strict injunctions not to inform her of his indisposition. But as his medical advisers told me the disease was water in the chest, and that the symptoms were alarming, I wrote to Mrs. Fuseli, informing her in some degree of the facts; and, although much indisposed herself, she came immediately to London.

His case, for some time, was considered to

be almost hopeless; and Sir Thomas Lawrence, in anxious solicitude for the safety of his friend, advised that Dr. Holland should also be consulted. This gentleman was fully aware of his danger, but coincided in every respect in the propriety of the previous treatment, and said that nothing more could be done. After three weeks of suffering, which Fuseli bore with patience and fortitude, his spirits never having forsaken him, nature made a great effort, and he, contrary to the expectations of his medical attendants, rallied, and in a few weeks more was restored to a state of comparative health.

During this illness, he received the visits of his particular friends in the evening, and conversed with his usual energy; and it must have been highly gratifying to his feelings to see the anxiety which they manifested for his safety; more particularly the Countess of Guilford and her two amiable daughters, the Ladies North, and also Sir Thomas Lawrence,* who, with the

* While these pages were passing through the press, Europe and the fine arts have been bereaved of the splendid talents of Sir Thomas Lawrence. This gentleman died, after au illness of a few days continuance, on the 7th of January, 1830, in the sixty-first year of his age.

Shortly

writer of this account, allowed no engagement to interfere, and were his constant companions

Shortly after Sir Thomas's arrival in London, Fuseli saw "the future promise" in the youth, and was therefore gratified in making remarks upon his portraits for his improvement. This kind notice, from a man whom Sir Thomas held in the highest esteem for talents and various acquirements, made a deep impression on his mind: he sought an intimacy with him, which, upon more mature knowledge of the individual, ripened into the closest friendship. The world is now deprived of these two great artists, and there can be no other than feelings of deep regret for their loss. These, however, with regard to myself, are not unmingled with those of satisfaction, when I consider the many happy hours passed in their society, and that this pleasure was enjoyed for more than twenty years.

At the death of Mr. West, in the year 1820, Fuseli was among the most forward of the Academicians to propose that his friend, Sir Thomas, who was then on the Continent of Europe, should fill the chair. This honour he felt due to him, not only for his unrivalled powers as a portrait painter, but for the elegance of his mind and the urbanity of his Few men had so pleasing an address, and fewer the happy method of making this acceptable to the particular persons with whom he conversed.

manners.

Although Sir Thomas Lawrence was not, in the usual acceptation of the word, a scholar, being unskilled in the dead languages; yet he was well versed in English literature, had a fine taste for poetry, and I have heard him recite some lines of his own composition, (full of merit) with great taste, feeling, and judgment.

Sir Thomas is known to the public chiefly as a portrait painter, the only lucrative branch of the art in England.