BISHOP BERKELEY'S PORTRAIT.

The following letter may perhaps have some interest in itself; but I send it for insertion in the pages of "N. & Q." in the hope of obtaining some information about the pictures which it mentions. It is addressed on the back, "The Reverend the Provost and Fellows, Dublin College;" and in the corner, "Pr. Favour of The Right Hon. Lord Viscount Molesworth;" and does not appear to have ever passed through the post.

Reverend Sir, and Gentlemen,

My late dear Husband, the Rev. Dr. Berkeley, Prebendary of Canterbury, son of the late Lord Bishop of Cloyne, having most generously appointed me sole executrix of his will, and having bequeathed to me all his fine collection of pictures, &c., I trouble you with this to beg to know whether a very remarkably fine, universally admired portrait of Bishop Berkeley, in his lawn sleeves, &c., painted by that famous artist Vanderbank, which, together with its frame (now much broken by frequent removals), cost five hundred pounds: the back-ground, the frontispiece to his Lordship's Minute Philosopher, and the broken cisterns from the Prophet Jeremiah: "They have hewn them out broken cisterns." The late Archbishop of Canterbury was perpetually entreating Dr. Berkeley to present it to the Gallery of Lambeth Palace, where there is already a very good portrait of Bishop B.—But justice to my dear excellent son, then living, as Dr. B. told his Grace, precluded a possibility of his complying with his request.

If this picture will be an acceptable present to the Rev. the Provost, and the Gentlemen Fellows of the University of Dublin, it is now offered for their acceptance, as a most grateful acknowledgment for the very high honour[[1]], they were pleased so graciously to confer on his Lordship's only descendant, the late learned accomplished George Monk Berkeley, Esq. (Gentleman Commoner of Magdalene Hall, in the University of Oxon., and student of the Inner Temple, London), from his very sincerely grateful mother.

Some time after the death of his son, Dr. Berkeley told me that at my death he wished the wonderfully fine portrait of his father to be presented to some place of consequence. I immediately replied, "To Dublin College." He said, "They have one already; perhaps it would be well to leave it as an heir-loom to the Episcopal Palace at Cloyne." I said perhaps the gentlemen of Dublin College would prefer this, esteemed one of the very finest pieces of painting in Europe. The face certainly looks more like a fine cast in wax, than a painting on canvas, as numbers of the best judges have always exclaimed on seeing it.

I request Dr. Berkeley's noble relation, the excellent Lord Molesworth, now on a visit in Ireland, to deliver this, and to learn from the Provost and Gentlemen of the University of Dublin, whether it would be agreeable to them to receive this, and transfer the one they at present have to Dr. Berkeley's highly respected friend, the present Bishop of Cloyne, for the Palace. Lord Molesworth will have the goodness to receive and transmit the answer of the Provost and Gentlemen to her who has the honour to subscribe herself, with the most perfect respect, their

Very sincerely grateful and

(Thro' her unspeakably dear excellent Son)

Most highly obliged,

Eliza Berkeley.

Chertsey, Surrey, England.

The 18th of Feb., 1797.

I cannot find any evidence to prove that this letter was ever so much as received by the University. It came into my possession amongst the papers of a private friend, a late distinguished ornament of the University, whose death has been an irreparable loss to the public, to the Church of England, and to a large circle of friends. No notice of such a letter, or of so liberal a donation, is to be found in the Register of the University, nor is there such a picture in our possession. I have made inquiry also, and find that it is not at Cloyne. The conclusion therefore is, either that Mrs. Berkeley changed her mind, or that from some accident the letter never was presented: at all events, it is certain that the picture of Bishop Berkeley, to which it relates, was never in the possession of the University for whose halls it was intended.

Can any one tell me where it now is; and what was the fate of "the fine collection of pictures" which was the property of Dr. Berkeley of Canterbury, and bequeathed by him to his widow, the writer of the above letter?

J. H. Todd.

Footnote 1:[(return)]