89 X. Matthias Read Reprinted from the "Whitehaven Guardian," April 1st, 1875. |BOUT half-way between the entrance gate to Trinity Churchyard and its boundary to the left on entering, standing against the wall with its back to Scotch Street, is a plain square tombstone of red sandstone. Careful attention to the preservation of this by frequent coverings of white paint, has almost reduced it to a state of illegibility, as complete as neglect and the natural exfoliation of the sandstone has the neighbouring and more elaborate monument to a member of the Fleming family, most probably Daniel, the Land Surveyor (by which I am inclined to think Landing Surveyor is meant), grandfather of that Daniel, the fifth Baronet, whose marriage with his cousin Anne, the heiress of Rydal Hall, reunited for a brief period the title to the ancient inheritance of the family previous to their final severance. After diligent study I have succeeded in deciphering nearly the whole of the inscription on the plain stone I have mentioned, and it is as follows: Jane Read, Born July ye 7, 1706, died March ye 28, 17 who died Novbr. ye 8, 1747, aged 78 years. Here, also lies Mrs. Elizabeth Read his wife who died April ye 2, 1748, in ye 79th year of her age. Confirmatory of, and supplementary to, the above, I may add that Jane was baptized at St. Nicholas's Church, the only church then in Whitehaven, on the 13th July, 1706, and William on the 5th June, 1703, at the same place; whilst another daughter, Elizabeth (who survived her parents, married, and left descendants, still, I believe, connected with this locality), was baptized at the Old Church on the 1st April, 1707. It is not my intention to attempt to weave a biographical sketch of Matthias Read, but I am able to give some particulars relative to him, derived from original sources, and to supplement them with a few miscellaneous gleanings. The first allusion to him that I find in the details which I have gathered exists in the "Memoirs of the Gilpins" by the Rev. Wm. Gilpin of Boldre, author of various works on picturesque scenery, a work still in manuscript, with the perusal of which I have been favoured.* Its account of Read differs somewhat from that given in Hutchinson's "History of Cumberland," but I certainly consider Gilpin the more reliable authority. The extract is as follows, and the person alluded to is William Gilpin, grandfather of the author of the Memoirs, steward to Sir John Lowther, and Recorder of Carlisle "If Mr. Gilpin had been a man of large fortune he would have been a great encourager of the art of painting. It appeared so from the little he did. At Whitehaven lived a painter of the name of Read; a man of little note, where nothing could be less esteemed than his art. He wrought cheap, and was employed chiefly in daubing colours on the heads and sterns of ships. Mr. Gilpin easily saw he had genius above such employment. He engaged him, therefore, in copying a tolerable picture or two, which he found in Sir John Lowther's house at Whitehaven; and was surprised at his succeeding so well. He carried him afterwards to Scaleby Castle; where he kept his pencil long engaged in landscape, portrait, and history. In the two last-mentioned branches of his art, he did but little; it had been better if he had done less. But where he had easy Nature before him he was often happy in his imitations. Though he knew * This manuscript was subsequently (1879) edited by Mr. Jackson, and published for the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæological Society.-ED. nothing of the artificial composition of landscape, he touched a tree or a piece of foreground with spirit; in flower pieces he rather excelled. Mr. Gilpin not only employed this artist, but wrought under him. At least he got from him the method of handling a pencil, and mixing colours on a palette. I have seen several little pieces of his painting which were wonderfully well considering the mere scraps of leisure he had to employ on this amusement. It plainly appeared how great a master he might have been if he had been bred to the profession, and had the full means of improvement. The notice, however, he had taken of Read brought that neglected artist into some esteem; and there was hardly a house in Whitehaven, whose master could afford it, which had not a picture or two painted in panels over doors or chimneys by his hand." The taste for painting which Read cultivated in William Gilpin became an heirloom in that remarkable family. The Rev. Wm. Gilpin was no mean amateur, and his brother Sawrey was a professional artist and R.A. John Smith, born at Irthington, was a pupil of the latter, and was amongst the very first to depict the scenery of our Lake District. Smirke, whose fame is national, and Sheffield, both born at Wigton; Sutton and Crosthwaite, both Cumbrians, also, may all be classified, through the Gilpins and Smith and their mutual inter-connexion, as children or descendants in art of Matthias Read; so that this untaught genius exercised an influence attended with no mean results. I find from some authorities at present in my possession, that Matthias Read was living in Irish Street, Whitehaven, in 1713 and 1714. During the years 1715 to 1730 he is stated to have been a dweller in Cross Street, but as Irish Street is omitted from the enumeration during this period, and when it is taken up again in 1731 he is there, and remains till 1746 when my accounts cease, I am satisfied that from first to last he resided in one house; I believe in Cross Street on the west side, perhaps in the house at the corner of Irish Street, which would solve the difficulty. In the same records for the year 1728 he is called for the first time Mr., and as Mr. Matthias Gale was at one time his next neighbour, and Mr. was then used with much greater economy than we now bestow our title of Esquire, it is evident he had become, notwithstanding his education having been originally somewhat inferior, for his handwriting bears that stamp, a man of some consideration. He was churchwarden in 1737. Our medical attendants have good opportunities of knowing what manner of men we are; and if it be true, as it is said, that great men have no honour in the eyes of their valets, it must be confessed that few of us would like our medical men to make public the private opinions they form of us, from their opportunities of seeing us in our weakest moments. If the notes I append were of a different nature, they should never be submitted to the printer, and I doubt whether the great Samuel Johnson will come so well out of the ordeal, in the correspondence with his doctor, which is to be sold in London on the 1st of April. Doctor Brownrigg, no mean authority, was called in to attend Matthias on the 13th January, 1738, and the following is the commencement of his voluminous notes on the case, which surely preserves a specimen of obsolete practice :-" Dominus Rhead Pictor celebris, septuagenarius, macilentus, Temperies melancholiæ, in vivendi modo temperatus ingenii acris et operi suo acriter incumbens, per maximum vitæ curriculum morbo nullo affectus præter podagram cujus tamen paroxismi erant mites et raro invadentes. Doloris tamen impatiens ab hinc quinquennium malum hoc fugare voluit ope Balnei frigidi, remisit statim dolor ab ejus usu," &c., &c. Later the attacks returned, and the patient "Torminibus dirissimis cruciatus fuit." He was not finally relieved from the ailment, which became complicated, until the 28th of March. I find that Matthias Read was a party to the agreement entered into for the building and endowment of Trinity Church, dated 12th February, 1713, contributing £10, a very handsome sum; for out of the number of 125 subscribers, only eleven, including Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Lowther, gave more, and the great majority gave less. The altar-piece of that church, now removed (a painting of "The Ascension "), was his work; and if it were a donation, together with the sum named, it would certainly constitute him the chief benefactor after Sir James. The altar piece of St. Nicholas, representing "The Last Supper," was one of his earliest works, and did much to raise his reputation. A painting on panel over the chimney-piece of the back bedroom in a house in Cross Street is by him, and represents Judith handing the head of Holofernes to her female attendant. Owing to the disagreeable nature of the subject, which met the owner's eye every morning when he awoke, it was doomed to destruction many years ago; but out of deference to the remonstrance of a muchrespected brother of the brush, long since deceased, who was requested to obliterate it with another coat of paint, it was spared for time to throw his consuming shadows over it. Most of us are familiar with the old "Bird's Eye View of Whitehaven," engraved by Richard Parr, from a painting by Matthias Read, executed in 1738. I know not where the original is, perhaps at Holker Hall, where there is certainly a view of the town by him; it having fortunately escaped the late disastrous fire. There are two views, at least, of Whitehaven at Lowther Castle, but I doubt their being his productions. A portrait of William the Third, by Read, still exists at Holker, and others with which his name was associated were at one time not uncommon in Whitehaven and its neighbourhood. It is quite possible that he may have had special opportunities in Ireland of seeing the monarch" of pious and immortal memory," and that he may have painted him from recollection, for we can scarcely suppose him to have been favoured with sittings. It is much more probable, however, that he copied from one of the many original paintings by celebrated artists. It would be interesting to ascertain approximately the number of his works still existing in and about Whitehaven. |