Oil picture. 50 by 31 in.
In the foreground is a man seated on a rail, with what looks like a plan or drawing in his left hand. He turns to the spectator and, with his right, points in the direction of Spencer House, the park front of which still remains unaltered. This figure, in all likelihood, represents John Vardy, the architect who designed it. The pond is wrongly named Rosamond’s Pond on the frame. It is mentioned in the Calendar of Treasury Papers, 9 June 1725, as a “canal or basin lately made over against Devonshire House,” and was soon afterwards converted into a reservoir of Chelsea Waterworks. A walk by it, planted with trees, was called the Queen’s Walk. This reservoir was enlarged in 1729, and filled up in 1856. The Green Park Rosamond’s Pond was in the old bed of the Tyburn, much farther west. A more famous Rosamond’s Pond, in St. James’s Park, disappeared 1770. All three are marked on Rocque’s map of 1746. The figures scattered about the foreground and reflected in the water show very well the costume of the period. In the distance is Buckingham House (see [No. 48]).
By W. Hogarth, 1760 (1697-1764). Lent by the Earl Spencer.
69 NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE, KING CHARLES’S STATUE, AND THE GOLDEN CROSS, CHARING CROSS.
Oil picture. 16 by 9 in.
This historic mansion was built c. 1605 for Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, and left by him to his nephew, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk. It came to the Percys through the marriage, in 1642, of the daughter of the second Earl of Suffolk with the tenth Earl of Northumberland. The house was sold under the compulsory clause of an Act of Parliament in 1873, and Northumberland Avenue covers the site. The lion on the front is of lead, and is now at Syon House, Isleworth. The statue of Charles I was the work of Hubert Le Sœur, and the pedestal, according to Horace Walpole, was by Grinling Gibbons, but it is now generally assigned to Joshua Marshall, master mason. On the left appears the famous old Golden Cross coaching inn, its sign overhanging the roadway. It was rebuilt in 1832. An engraving of this design, issued in 1753, has on it “Canaletti pinxt et delint.—T Bowles sculpt.” It was republished by Laurie and Whittle in 1794.
By Canaletto, 1697-1768. Lent by the Marquess of Sligo.
Oil picture. A circle, 21 in. in diameter.
William Hogarth was most active in helping the Foundling Hospital during its early period. In the charter of incorporation he appears as a “Governor and Guardian.” Immediately afterwards, in 1740, he gave one of his masterpieces, the portrait of Captain Coram, founder, and within a few years the “March to Finchley,” and other pictures. In 1746 various painters were induced through his influence to present examples of their work; among them were F. Hayman, S. Scott, R. Wilson, and T. Gainsborough, and all were elected Governors excepting the last-named, then a mere lad, who, after some years’ work in London, had lately returned to Norfolk. As time went on further help of this kind was forthcoming, crowds flocked to see the paintings, and the success of such informal exhibitions prepared the way for the foundation of the Royal Academy.