The following is taken from the fly-leaves of my copy of Gibbon's Rome, 1st vol. 1779, 8vo.:
"The following anecdote and verses were written by the late Charles James Fox in the first volume of his Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
"The author of this work declared publicly at Brookes's (a gaming-house in St. James' Street), upon the delivery of the Spanish Rescript in June, 1779, that there was no salvation for this country unless six of the heads of the cabinet council were cut off and laid upon the tables of both houses of parliament as examples; and in less than a fortnight he accepted a place under the same cabinet council.
"On the Author's Promotion to the Board of Trade in 1779.
By the Right Hon. C. J. Fox."King George in a fright
Lest Gibbon should write
The story of Britain's disgrace,
Thought no means more sure
His pen to secure
Than to give the historian a place.
"But his caution is vain,
'Tis the curse of his reign
That his projects should never succeed;
Tho' he wrote not a line,
Yet a cause of decline
In our author's example we read.
"His book well describes
How corruption and bribes
O'erthrew the great empire of Rome;
And his writings declare
A degeneracy there,
Which his conduct exhibits at home."
G. M. B.
SAMUEL WILLIAMS.
The obituary of the past week records the death of Samuel Williams, a self-taught artist, whose pencil and graver have illustrated very many of the most popular works during the last forty years, and to whose productions the modern school of book-illustrations owes its chief force and character. Samuel Williams was born Feb. 23, 1788, at Colchester in Essex; and during his very earliest years, his self-taught powers were remarkable, as he could draw or copy with the greatest ease anything he saw; and he would get up at early dawn, before the other members of the family were stirring, to follow the bent of his genius. His boyish talents attracted much notice, and, had he not been very diffident, would have brought him before the world as a painter. In 1802, he was apprenticed to Mr. J. Marsden, a printer in Colchester, and thenceforward his pencil was destined to be employed in illustrating books. Whilst yet a lad, he etched on copper a frontispiece to a brochure entitled the Coggeshall Volunteers; and this was a remarkable production, as he had never seen etching or engraving on copper; and he about the same time taught himself engraving on wood, executing numerous little cuts for Mr. Marsden: amongst others, a frontispiece to a History of Colchester. So much was his talent seen by parties calling at his employer's, that Mr. Crosby, a publisher of some note in his day, promised that, when his apprenticeship ended, he should draw and engrave for him a natural history; and this promise was faithfully performed, and a series of three hundred cuts given to him immediately. Besides these, he executed numerous commissions for Mozley, Darton and Harvey, Arliss's Pocket Magazine, and other works; in all which a strong natural feeling and vigorous drawing were leading characteristics.
In 1809 he visited London for a short time, and returned to Colchester; and resided there till 1819, when he settled in London. In 1822, Mr. C. Whittingham published an edition of Robinson Crusoe, the illustrations to which are drawn and engraved by the subject of this notice; and the freedom of handling, as compared with cotemporary works, was conspicuous. After these, Trimmer's Natural History, published by Whittingham; the illustrations to Wiffin's Garcilasso de la Vega; and other works, showed his talents as a designer as well as engraver.
In 1825, William Hone started his Every-Day Book, employing Mr. Williams to make the drawings for the "Months," and other illustrations; and the peculiar style, like pen-and-ink sketches, attracted much notice, the freedom and ease of these drawings being greatly admired; and some of our present artists confess to having been first taught by copying the free off-hand sketches in Hone's Every-Day Book. A second volume followed in 1846, and the Table Book in 1847; in 1848 the Olio was published, and afterwards the Parterre; both works remarkable for their spirited illustrations. Several of the engravings to the London Stage, 1847, displayed great variety of expression in the figures and faces. Howitt's Rural Life of England, Selby's Forest Trees, Thomson's Seasons (the edition published by Bogue), Miller's Pictures of Country Life, all drawn and engraved by him, exhibit exquisite rural "bits," in which, like Bewick, Samuel Williams could express with the graver the touch of his pencil, thus far excelling his cotemporaries. The Memorials of the Martyrs was the last work on which he exercised his double skill. Of works not drawn by himself, Wiffin's Tasso shows some of his best efforts; but as for years past he had been engaged on most of the best works of the day, it is impossible to specify all. Had he devoted his time to painting, which the constant employment with pencil and graver prevented, he would have taken high rank as a painter of rural life, as his pictures of "Sketching a Countryman," and "Interior of a Blacksmith's Shop," exhibited in the Royal Academy when at Somerset House, testify, as they are marked by perfect drawing and admirable expression. Some miniatures on ivory, painted in his very youthful days, are marvellous for close manipulation and correct likeness. After a long and painful illness, borne with great fortitude, Mr. Williams expired on the 19th September, his wife having predeceased him not quite six weeks, leaving behind him four sons.
J. T.