monument of his taste and liberality, the present Tabley House, within view of the venerable family man sion, and about two miles from Knutsford.

Sir John was born at this heredi tary seat, and he derives his second christian name from the ancient family of the Flemings, at Rydell, in Westmorland, to whom he is related by the maternal line. During his preparatory course of school education he discovered talents for drawing, and his father procured him, in succession, the instructions of an artist named Marras, of Thomas Vivares, the admirable land scape engraver, and, finally, of Paul Sandby, then considered the first landscape painter in water colours in this country. But the young amateur quitted the manner of these masters to study nature, and formed a light, pleasing style of draw ing views with the pen and ink, brushed over with a broad tint of Indian ink and bistre. In due season he was sent to the University, and obtained his degree of Master of Arts, in Trinity College, Cambride.

Sir John had the misfortune, when very young, to lose his father; but when of age, he made the tour of France, Flanders, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain with all the advantages of rank and fortune, to introduce him in the courtly circles, and cultivate his prevailing passion for music and painting. He possessed from nature a good ear, and, by attending the Opera in Italy, he acquired a pure taste for the delicacies of composition; that true sensibility, which never fails to discriminate between the genuine expression of passion and sentiment and the heartless bravura of execution, and empty flourish of sound without feeling. He freely mingled in the fashionable gaieties of high life, but the chef d'œuvres of the pencil and chisel, and the beauties of architecture, drew his diligent attention, and he remained sufficiently long in the chief cities, through which he travelled, to obtain a competent knowledge of their manners and customs.

When Sir John was at Rome, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, now so well known for his liberal opinions, his philanthropy, taste, learning, and

antiquarian researches, was there also, indulging in all the classical delights of that capital. A similarity in their taste produced an acquaintance between the two Baronets. Their pursuits led them into the same paths of pleasure and study, and they visited, together, the eminent painters, sculptors, and mustcal performers; drew in company from the same picturesque ruins and landscapes in that vicinity, and examined all that was worthy of admiration in the eternal city, with the benefit of mutual observation and comparison. After leaving Rome they travelled some time together, and thus cemented a friendship which has subsisted, with unimpaired kindness, to the present hour,

It was then much more customary than it is now for Englishmen of rank to visit the Continent with a belief, that the climate of England disqualified their countrymen from the attainment of excellence in painting and sculpture. This senseless prejudice was rendered more inveterate by travel among foreigners, who were bred up in a low opinion of English genius. On their return home, the Anglo-Italians deemed it necessary to prove their cultivated taste and foreign acquirements by expressing an open contempt for British artists, and their works. Not only men of weak understanding were conspicuous for this unworthy conduct, but gentlemen, in every other view of superior abilities, suffered their minds to be infected with this degrading anti-national spirit: as if the sending a goose from England to Naples, for a few weeks, could change its species, and return it a nightingale to London! they imagined that a sea voyage of a few hours, and a post-haste journey of purblind curiosity through Italy, could convert an ignorant man, who had never before given up a hour to the study, into a connoisseur and an arbiter in the arts. With this comfortable opinion that taste and science were to be acquired by a stretch of the legs and hands, many of these enlightened men squandered large sums on the Continent in the purchase of real or modern antiques, pretended masterpieces, coins, medals, gems, pictures,

and mutilated statues. Sir John Leicester presented a noble contrast to these gentlemen. Although his relish for the fine works of the old schools had detained him much longer abroad than he had intended, he returned to England with the unpretending merit of having reserved his fortune for the encou ragement of English artists.

He

more than once re-visited the Continent, renewed his acquaintance with the most celebrated cabinets and galleries of paintings, and enjoyed their beauties with an additional zest; but he invariably returned to England with the same true English spirit,-the same high opinion of his country, and the same generous hope of seeing its genius for the Fine Arts duly developed and exalted.

After some years spent in acquiring a knowledge of the great world abroad, Sir John devoted himself to public affairs at home, at an eventful era of English history. The Baronet and Lord Clifton were returned to serve in Parliament, as representatives for Heytesbury, in Wiltshire; and he entered upon his legislative duties untrammeled by the support of any party, without any engagement to the Minister, or to the Opposition. As the friend of the Prince of Wales, he uniformly supported his Royal Highness during the three successive sessions that he sat in the house. The private circle of that illustrious Personage was then in the highest splendour; and the most celebrated votaries of fashion and pleasure, who formed the pride and admiration of the British Court, mingled with the most illustrious statesmen, senators, and other eminent public characters in the select parties of the heir apparent. An invitation to the Palace of Enchantment, as it was termed, was deemed a most enviable distinction, and the sparkling refinements of wit and classical fancy gave additional poignancy to those memorable festivities. The rank and elegant manners of Sir John introduced him to the Prince, and the coincidence of his judgment with that of his Royal Highness, being founded in sincerity, was more highly valued. His taste in music and painting,-his talents for

conversation, his acquirements and knowledge of the gay world on the Continent, rendered him a favourite. The Prince had given employment to the pencil of Sir Joshua Rey: nolds, Gainsborough, Romney, and other eminent artists, and he occasionally indulged in the purchase of select pictures by the old masters, the additions to which have, in the course of years, formed the rich treasury of paintings now in Carlton Palace. The Baronet also became a member of the Harmonic Society with the Prince, and he was a frequent visitor at Kempshot. He shared in the field sports of his Royal Highness, and that illustrious Personage was present when Sir John proved the superior accu racy of his eye and precision of his hand in a trial of skill with the best two shots of the day, Colonel Richardson of the Guards, and the

Duke of Richmond.

While the fashionable Gazettes recorded the high style of Sir John's town and country establishments, the Ministerial and Opposition Jour nals bore testimony to his amenity in St. Stephen's Chapel, and to the public spirit, with which he endea voured, by his recommendation and patronage, to bring native genius into notice. At this period, after having held the command as Lieute nant Colonel of the Cheshire Militia for thirteen years, he was honoured by a fresh mark of Royal favour, in being appointed Colonel of a Regiment of Provisional Cavalry, raised for home defence against the meditated hostility of the French Republic. His seasonable attention to the comfortable accommodation of the Corps, and his firmness in keeping up the military discipline, won him the attachment of the privates. His brother Officers returned his frankness and suavity with unceasing tokens of esteem and regard. His loyal tender of his services to the King, when the enemy again made preparations to invade our shores, were most graciously accepted; and he set an example of patriotism to others by raising that well-known Regiment, which his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales granted him his permission to term the Earl of Chester's Yeomanry, and, afterwards, the Prince Regent's Regi

ment. Sir John was neither sparing of expense nor exertion on this meritorious occasion; and, with the zealous co-operation of his Officers, he brought the Corps to vie in military discipline with the oldest of the regulars. The tumultuous assemblages in Lancashire called forth a display of its prompt and efficacious interference. Under the command of General Sir John Byng, this fine body was the principal means of suppressing the insurrectional movements of the Blanketeers, which spread so wide an alarm through the country. They surprised all the ringleaders, and escorted them, without bloodshed, to the Castle of Chester. This important service was duly appreciated. The Prince Regent was pleased to convey, in the most gracious manner, his thanks, and the thanks of the Government, to the Colonel, Sir John Fleming Leicester, and to the Officers and Regiment, for their active and efficacious aid in the dispersion of the rioters, and for the speedy restoration of order. The Officers and Privates entertained a high sense of Sir John's long continued efforts for the honor and discipline of the Corps, and for the preservation of local tranquillity. They presented to him, as their Colonel, a superb vase of massy silver, executed after the antique, with an inscription expressive of their affectionate esteem for his devotion to their welfare and the public 'service. A private plate, etched from this vase, by Mr. George Cuit, an excellent artist then resident in Chester, conveys a spirited transcript of its form and orna

ments.

If his hereditary fortune had not robbed the Arts of his versatile talents, Sir John might have acquired celebrity as a musical composer, or as a Wilson, or Gainsborough, in landscape painting. If he had been necessitated to turn his mind to handicraft invention, he might have obtained reputation and fortune as an Arkwright in mechanics. His musical parties, and box at the King's Opera House, form no small part of his enjoyments. His voice is deficient in compass, but his taste is pure, and his science equal to that of an able professor.

There are several landscapes of his painting, in oil colours, hung up in the collection at Tabley House, which shew excellent indications in outline and colouring; but, being rapidly hurried over, they do not contain more than can be tastefully displayed by the first impatient dash-in of a masterly pencil. Even in these desultory flashes of fancy the amateur is struck by the freshness of tint, the picturesque arrangement of lines, and the union of the whole. They exhibit so much fine thought and genuine feeling that many have regretted the life of an amateur so qualified had not been devoted to painting. No eye can more quickly discover what is wrong in a picture, or sooner point out a remedy. Of this, a single instance may be sufficient. Hilton was commissioned by Sir John to paint the picture of the Mermaid, and, when that artist sent it home, the writer of this memoir happened to be in Hillstreet. Sir John pointed out to him an extravagance in the disposition of the hair, and a want of repose in the light and shadow, which injured the effect of the figures. This writer was sensible of those defects-but in a few hours afterwards he was suprised to see them amended, and, on examination, he found that Sir John had corrected with water-colours, what was offensive to the eye of taste. When Hilton saw the change, he, himself, at once, with his usual modesty and candour, approved of the alterations; took home the picture, and adopted the improvements in oilcolours, which his munificent and tasteful patron had practically demonstrated.

The specimens of his mechanical ingenuity are sufficiently curious to Occupy a conspicuous place in a Museum. In a private apartment at Tabley House, fitted up for his operations in this way, there are a variety of tools improved or invented by himself, and a number of his performances in carving and turnery, well worthy of inspection. But his application as an amateur-painter, or self-taught artizan, is liable to frequent interruption. Besides his military command as Colonel of the Royal Cheshire Yeomanry, Sir

John has the honor to fill the office of Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Clieshire, and has, also, generally some plans going forward for the improvement of his estates. Within his domain he is also occupied. The ten or twelve pleasure vessels on the noble lake in his park were built according to his own direction; and his skill in the management of his little fleet, in his aquatic parties with the neighbouring gentry, renders these excursions more delightful. He added considerably to the extent of this lake, and built the insulated tower in it, some years ago. In 1819, or 1820, an accidental fire consumed some apartments in Tabley House, but it was luckily extinguished before it could reach the pictures. The loss amounted to some thousand pounds, and Sir John was his own architect on that occasion. In place of those parts of the house, which had been burned, he built apart ments in a light and elegant style from designs drawn by his own pencil,

A London Journal (the Examiner), of the 11th of November, 1810, contains the following record of an important change in Sir John's life, which was attended with great eclat in the empire of fashion Married, yesterday, in the Palace of Hampton Court, by special license, that distinguished patron of British genius, Sir John Leicester, Bart. to Geor giana Maria, youngest daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Cottin, and god daughter of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; a young lady, whose loveliness and singular ac complishments, at the age of six teen, are the themes of universal panegyric."-Sir Peter Leycester's. description of Lady Eleanor Byron, one of Sir John's ancestors, whose portrait, as already mentioned, is among the beauties at Hampton Court, was applied to the bride.. "This Eleanor is a person of such comely presence, handsomeness, sweet disposition, honour, and general repute in the world, that we have not her, equal."-Public praise is too frequently exaggerated or lavished without justice; but in the instance, under present notice, the commendation fell short of the truth. Sir John, soon after his happy union, employed Sir Thomas

Lawrence to paint a whole-length portrait of Lady Leicester; and that artist's charming likeness of her ladyship, in the character of Hope attended by angelic genii in the clouds, has been so generally admired in the Hill-street gallery, that the visitors to that temple of taste and public spirit are well ac quainted with the beautiful features and lovely sylph-like figure of the original.

It required no ordinary exertion of fortitude in any individual, however high his rank or extensive his influence, to attempt and persevere in the noble design which Sir John had formed in Italy, of endeavouring to remove the senseless preju dices against the genius and works of the British artists. At a period, when a French nobleman or cours tier, at Paris, would have considered his robe of honour tarnished and his name disgraced, unless, among his other claims to distinction, he ranked high in the esteem of his countrymen, as a patron of the French painters and sculptors, an Englishman of the same rank, in London, would have considered his character as a connoisseur irretrievably forfeited, by having a landscape or an historical picture by an English painter hung up in his apartments. With a very few exceptions, this humiliating and foolish prejudice, which I have noticed in my remarks on Sir John's travels, continued to prevail among the higher classes. In vain had the King, in 1768, established the Roy al Academy, and in vain had Boydell, Macklin, and other commercial speculators, roused by the display of rising genius in the exhibitions of the academicians, furnished employment to the British pencil, and proved that with due encouragement it was capable of refuting those unfounded aspersions, and becoming a means of national glory. The great body of the British nobility and gentry held aloof from the struggles of British art, until the Royal patronage, the efforts of commercial men, 37 annual exhi bitions, and the noble example of Sir John Leicester, had decreased the old inveteracy against native genius, and brought the English pencil into a rising degree of public favour.

(To be continued.)