Portrait Painters of the last Century.—I am anxious to obtain some information respecting the portrait painters of the last century. I have in my collection a picture by H. Smith, 1736. Can any of your readers give me an account of him?
Durandus.
[A biographical list, alphabetically arranged, of portrait painters, is given in Hobbes's Picture Collector's Manual; being a Dictionary of Painters, vol. ii. pp. 467-515., edit. 1849; a useful work of the kind. The name of H. Smith is not noticed.]
Ætna.—To whom can the following passage refer?
"We found a good inn here (Catania), kept by one Caca Sangue, a name that sounds better in Italian than it would in English. This fellow is extremely pleasant and communicative, and among other things he told us that Mr. ——, who has published such a minute description of his journey to the crater of Ætna, was never there, but sick in Catania when his party ascended, he having been their guide."—Travels through Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, &c., vol. ii. p. 21., by Thomas Watkins, A.M., F.R.S., in the years 1787, 1788, 1789; 2 vols. 8vo., 2nd edition, London, 1794.
Anon.
[The reference is probably to M. D'Orville, whose minute description of his journey up Mount Ætna was copied into the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxiv. p. 281., extracted from D'Orville's work, entitled Sicula, or the History and Antiquities of the Island of Sicily, &c., 2 vols. folio, Amsterdam.]
Sir Adam, or Sir Ambrose, Brown.—This friend of Evelyn, who lived at Betchworth Park, is sometimes called Sir Adam, and sometimes Sir Ambrose, in Evelyn's Memoirs. Is not Sir Adam the correct name?
C. H.
[The entries in Evelyn's Diary seem to be correct. Sir Ambrose Brown, obit. 1661, was the father of Sir Adam, obit. 1690. See the pedigree in Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. i. p. 560.]