By T. Malton the Younger (1748-1804). Lent by the Secretary of State for India.
78 [A WATER PAGEANT ON THE THAMES.] Plate XXXIII.
Oil picture. 43½ by 23½ in.
This doubtless represents a procession of the Lord Mayor elect from Three Crane Stairs to Westminster, which until the adoption of the new style in 1752 took place on 29 October (the day after the feast of SS. Simon and Jude) and was the precursor of the present Lord Mayor’s Show. A gay scene and evidently a noisy one, the river crowded with state barges belonging to the Corporation and the City Companies, adorned with flags, streamers, pendants, etc., and there is much loud music. To spectator’s left is old Somerset House, every point of vantage occupied by spectators watching the show. Behind is the steeple of St. Mary-le-Strand. St. Paul’s Cathedral is conspicuous, and many church towers and spires appear, also the Monument, part of old London Bridge before the removal of houses, and in the distance the Tower of London.
School of S. Scott. Lent by the Earl Brownlow.
Oil picture. 20½ by 15¼ in.
This painting is wrongly called on the frame “Southwark Bridge,” the first stone of which was not laid until 1815. It represents the first Blackfriars Bridge, originally Pitt Bridge, designed by R. Mylne and built between 1760 and 1769. The Temple Gardens are shown to the left and St. Paul’s beyond them.
R. Burford is chiefly known as the painter and proprietor of panoramas in Leicester Square and in the Strand. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1812 to 1818. The date on the frames of this and the companion picture ([No. 80]) is 1808, which seems too early for such mature work, as he was born in 1792 and would therefore have been only sixteen at the time.
By R. Burford (1792-1861). Lent by Mr. Colin Agnew.