MR. ALDERMAN BOYDELL,

In a volume containing the bigography of the eminent artists of this country, claims a peculiar and pre-eminent distinction; for though the productions of his own burin cannot be claffed with those of men who have devoted their lives to the practical part of their profession, he has rendered more real fervice to the English school than the whole mass of our English nobility, and may very fairly be denominated the father of the arts in Great Britain.

He was born on the 19th of January, 1719, at Dorrington, in Shropshire, of which place his grand-father was vicar*. His father, who was a land-furveyor, intended his fon for his own profession; and had it not been for one of thofe little accidents which determine the path that men are defined to walk, he had wafted that life, which has been fo honourable to himself and beneficial to his country, in measuring and valuing the acres of Shropshire squires, and the manors of Welsh baronets. Fortunately for himself, and the arts, a trifling incident gave a different direction to his mind, and led him to aim at the delineation of scenes more picturesque than the ground-plans of houses, bounddaries of fields, or windings of obfcure roads.

While he was yet very young, chance threw in his way "Baddeley's Views of different Country Seats;" amongst them was one of Hawarden Castle, Flintshire, which being the feat of Sir John Glynn, by whom he was then employed in his profeffional capacity, and in the parish of which his father was an inhabitant, naturally attracted his attention.

An

He was afterwards vicar of Ashbourne, and rector of Mapleton, both in Derbyshire.

An exact delineation of a building he had fo often contemplated, afforded him pleasure, and excited an astonishment easier to conceive than defcribe. Confidering it as an engraving, and naturally reflecting that from the fame copper might be taken an almoft indefinite number of impreffions, he determined to quit the pen and take up the graver, as an instrument which would enable him to diffeminate whatever work he could produce, in fo much wider a circle. This refolution was no fooner made, than it was put in execution; for with that fpirit and perfeverance which he has manifefted in every fucceeding scene of his life, he, at twenty-one years of age, walked up to the metropolis, and at the age of TWENTY-ONE bound himself apprentice for seven years to Mr. Toms, the engraver of the print which had fo forcibly attracted his attention.

These, and accidents equally trifling, fometimes attract men of strong minds into the path that leads direct to fame, and have been generally confidered as proving that they were born with fome peculiar genius for fome peculiar ftudy; though after all, genius is, perhaps, little more than what a great moralift has defined it-"A mind with ftrong powers, accidentally directed to fome particular object; for it is not easy to conceive that a man who can run a given diftance in a short time with his face to the east, could not do the fame thing if he turned his face to the weft." Be this as it may-It is recorded of Cowley, that by reading Spenfer's Faerie Queen, he became a poet. Pope fays of himfelf, that while yet a boy he acquired his first tafte for poefy by the perufal of Sandys's Ovid and Ogilby's Virgil; Sir Joshua Reynolds had the first fondness for his art excited by the perufal of Richardfon's treatife on Painting; and, as we have before obferved, Mr. Alderman Boydell was in

duced

duced to learn the art of engraving by the coarfe print of a coarse artist, representing a mishapen Gothic

castle.

His conduct during his apprenticeship, was eminently affiduous; eager to attain all poffible knowledge of an art on which his mind was bent, and of every thing that would be useful to him, and impelled by an industry that feems inherent in his nature,* whenever he could, he attended the academy in St. Martin's-lane to perfect himself in drawing; his leisure hours in the evening were devoted to the study of perfpective, and learning French without the aid of a mafter; to improve himself in the pronunciation of the language he had thus acquired, he regularly attended at the French chapel. After very fleadily purfuing his business for fix years, finding himself a better artift than his teacher, he bought from Mr. Toms the last year of his apprenticefhip, and became his own mafter; and the firft ufe he made of his freedom was to return into his own country, where he married a very deferving young perfon to whom he had an early attachment, and with whom he lived many years in great felicity. During his stay he made many drawings of different romantic spots, and remarkable buildings, in Derbyshire and Wales, which he afterwards engraved: but his first publication made its appearance in 1745, immediately after he was out of his time, and was entitled the Bridge-book; it confifted of fix small-sized land-scapes,

* How striking a contraft does his conduct form to that of Chatelaine, who was at the fame period employed by Mr. Toms, and in the fame workshop etched and engraved at one fhilling an hour; but who, with all his taste and talents, and he had much of both, was so dissipated and idle, that at the expiration of the first half-hour he frequently demanded his fixpence, and retired to a neighbouring alehouse to expend it.

Among thefe were a view of the ftraits in Dovedale, Matlock baths, Cromford, Beelton-caftle, Chefter-caftle, Conway caftle, and Denbigh calle.

land-feapes, defigned and engraved by himself, and fold at a fhilling. With this the public were pleased, and the fale of it encouraged and enabled him to proceed with vigour in his future works. The paper and printing would now cost more than the fum the book was at that time fold

for.

The arts were then at a very low ebb: inferior prints, from poor originals, were almoft the only works which our English artists were thought capable of performing, nor were they (with the exception of the inimitable Hogarth, and two or three more), in general, qualified for much better things. The few people who had a tafte for higher art, gratified themselves by the purchase of Flemish and Italian pictures, or French prints; for which, even at that period, the empire was drained of very large fums of money. This, to a young man, who felt that his own intereft was hurt, and the nation dishonoured, and who was confcious that, with proper encouragement, better things might be done, must have been a mortifying profpect. But though he might lament that the courfe of the ftream ran fo much against his own and his country's interest, his powers did not then enable him to turn the current; he, therefore, for the prefent, followed it, and defigned and engraved many views of places in and about London ; which were generally published at the low price of one fhilling each. Befides these, he copied many prints from Vandevelde, Brooking, Berghem, Oftade, Caftiglione, Salvator Rofa, &c. +

The facility with which he drew, etched, and managed

the

Even at this period, he was fo much alive to fame, that after having past several months in copying an historical picture of Coriolanus, by Sebaftian Concha, he fo much difliked his own engraving, that he cut the plate to pieces.

.

the dry needle, enabled him to complete a great number of prints; and with a view of fhewing the improvement of the art fince the time of their publication, the alderman lately collected the whole into one port folio, and publish- ̈ ed it at five guineas*. In his introduction to this work, he' fairly remarks:

"That to the lovers of the fine arts it may be an objec of fome curiofity, as it was from the profits of these prints that the engraver of them was firft enabled to hold out encouragement to young artifts in this line, and thereby, he flatters himself, has fomewhat contributed to bring the art of engraving in England to fuch a state of fuperiority. It may likewise be added, that this is the first book that ever made a Lord Mayor of London. Few men have had the hap-` pinefs of feeing, in a single life-time, fuch a rapid improvement; and the publisher will be gratified, if in the future hiftory of the art, his very extenfive undertakings fhall be thought to have contributed to it. When the fmallness of this work is compared with what has followed, he hopes it ́ will imprefs all young artists with the truth of what he has already held out to them-that industry, patience, and perfeverance, united to talents, are certain to furmount all difficulties."

To return from the alderman's precepts, to his publicati-' ons. Finding that the taste for prints encreased, and that fums

* The number of these prints, which were drawn and engraved at a time when the artist had much other bufinefs to attend to, displayed uncommon industry; and the manner in which many of them were executed, evince talents, that practice, and his conftitutional perfeverance, would have rendered highly refpectable. The man who could engrave fuch a print as the Medea and Jafon, from Salvator Rofa-if he had not become the first in his profefion-must have been in the very first line. The pen and ink drawing of Wrexham-church, feveral views in Derbyfhire, &c. and a very correct and fpirited copy from Hogarth's enraged musician, are now in the poffeffion of Mrs. Nicol, of Pall-mall,