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Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
William Ponsonby to Lady Caroline Lamb, 20 April 1823
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol. I Contents.
Prefatory Address
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter XXVII
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXIX
Chapter XXX
Chapter XXXI
Chapter XXXII
Chapter XXXIII
Chapter XXXIV
Chapter XXXV
Chapter XXXVI
Chapter XXXVII
Chapter XXXVIII
Vol. I Index
Vol. II Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter IV
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter XXVII
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXIX
Chapter XXX
Chapter XXXI
Chapter XXXII
Chapter XXXIII
Chapter XXXIV
Chapter XXXV
Chapter XXXVI
Chapter XXXVII
Chapter XXXVIII
Chapter XXXIX
Chapter XL
Vol. II Index
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Brighton,
April 20, 1823.
Dearest Sister,

I send you all that I can recollect about Salvator Rosa’s pictures. I must have some account in town
162 LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR.  
of all those I have seen, or liked, abroad; but now I can only quote from memory. Lady Morgan will, of course, have much better information, both from books or her own observations, than any I can send. Boydel’s engravings, and Richardson’s and Pond’s, give some of the finest pictures in England. With respect to the Duke of Beaufort, he has no pictures of any kind now (but family portraits); and I much doubt any of any great reputation having, at any time, been purchased in Italy, unless Lady Morgan is very sure of the fact. I could easily find out by applying to the Duke, if she wishes it. The second and third Dukes of Devonshire were both great collectors of gems, precious stones, books, pictures, drawings, prints, &c., and the Salvators at Devonshire House were bought by them: I think by the third. Jacob’s Vision is, I believe, reckoned the finest; but I like the large landscape at Chiswick, which was bought by Lord Burlington, the best. It is the fashion now to run down all the pictures at Devonshire House and Chiswick; but I do not believe justly. Amongst the number, there may be some bad; but I would back Sir Joshua Reynolds’ and West’s opinions and my own eye, though I am no judge, against modern critics. My brother had two, Zenocrates and Phryne, still at Roehampton, and a smaller one, which you must recollect, Jason and the Dragon; the figure in armour, spirited and graceful, like all Salvator’s, and the rocks almost as natural as at Sorrento, and the cave where he studied; both have been, I think, engraved by Boydel. The former was bought by my grandfather,
WRITING THE WORK ON SALVATOR ROSA.163
at the sale of the old Lord Cholmondeley; the latter has had rather a remarkable fate, having belonged to two of the richest men in England, in the possession of both of whom it seemed likely to remain; and, indeed, in my grandfather’s it seemed tolerably secure, though he was not quite in that predicament. He bought it at the sale of the Duke of Chandos, in Cavendish Square. It was afterwards sold to Mr. W. Smith, and, at his sale, travelled back again in the possession of Watson Taylor to its old habitation in Cavendish Square,—likewise purchased by Watson Taylor. It is now shortly to be sold again with his pictures; but I hope Lady Morgan will not puff it before its sale takes place, as I have great thoughts of squeezing out all I can possibly afford, to try and get it back again, though it does seem to porter malheur. She, of course, knows of the Belisarius still at Raynham. It was given by the King of Prussia to Lord Townshend when Secretary of State. There were formerly two (if not three) very large pictures by him at Lansdowne House, left by the late Lord Lansdowne to the Dowager, and sold by her. I have some idea the present Lord Lansdowne bought them back. I only remember the subject of one of them,—Diogenes: fine, but not a pleasing picture. It has been etched by Salvator Rosa himself, together with three other large ones; but I forget whether either of the other two I mentioned at Lansdowne House are amongst them. The four are these,—Diogenes; Regulus, formerly at the Colonna Palace, at Rome, but not there now. I have seen it, but forgotten where; the Battle of the
164 LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR.  
Giants and the Child exposed;, hanging on a most beautiful tree. They are generally bound up with his etchings of groups and single figures. Lord Ashburnham has, I believe, St. John preaching in the Wilderness. The Prodigal Son travelled to Petersburgh with the Houghton collection. Two very fine sea views at the Pitti Palace, and the Witch of Endor, formerly at the Garde Meuble et Versailles, and now, I suppose, in the Louvre. I find one at Lord Derby’s. Prince Ramoffski showed me a card at Vienna, in the lid of a snuff-box, on it a very pretty sketch by Salvator Rosa, which he is said to have done one day that he called on a friend who was out, to show him he had been there. They tell pretty much the same story of Michael Angelo at Rome. There is, at Rome, a painter who paints Claudes and Salvators for the use of the forestieri in a most extraordinary manner, and has taken in numbers of us.

Your affectionate brother,
William Ponsonby.