نهد صد دسته ریمان پیش بلبل نخواهد خاطرش جز نقمت گل

No. 17.

سعدي ان بلبل شراز چمن

ندارد چو او هیچ زیبا سخن

No. 18.

ز نظم نظامي که چرخ کهن

VIII.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS OF MAJOR HAMILTON SMITH, F. R. S. F. L. S. &c. &c. &c. AND MEMBER OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION, IN A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT.

Sir,

*

THE collection of Drawings in my possession which you pronounced extraordinary, and which the Society, judging from specimens sometimes produced in the illustration of lectures, has done me the honour to notice with some approbation, may, I trust, be deserving of an abstract notice in explanation of its contents. I am induced to consider such a step requisite, because many specimens of the different series which it embraces, have been published at home and abroad, and even in America, by the Antiquarian Society, by my learned friend Dr. S. R. Meyrick, by Mr. Griffith, Dr. Leach, the late Mr. Howitt, Mr. Colnaghi, myself, and by unknown persons, sometimes with, and at others without, my name or knowledge. From the occasional appearance of such fragments, some have been led to suppose, an assemblage of ancient costumes, and others, of zoological figures, alone were

in contemplation; while even those who had seen a great part of the collection, thought it to consist, merely of sketches and drawings of middling execution, without necessary connection or subordination to a digested plan. It is therefore with some desire to rectify misconceptions, that I now address you, trusting the curious will judge them from the same point of view in which they were made, and from being acquainted in some measure with the history of this undertaking, the difficulties that were surmounted, the multitude of channels that were explored, be prepared to take them in the same light that guided me in their formation.

Encouraged by your approbation, and stimulated by the expressed desire of many members of the society, and even by several individuals, both at home and abroad, remarkable for rank and knowledge, I enter upon the subject, requesting that what must unavoidably appear personal in its course, may not be considered as arising from a wish to obtrude private concerns upon the notice of others; but that a statement of the question in all its bearings could not be made without such reference; and also that by these explanations, young men similarly situated, and possessing similar facilities, might be induced (by this example of mere industry) to pursue something of a like plan; with the certainty, at a future time, of reaping an equal or a superior harvest.

With reference to the intention of the collection, the spirit I mean which directed the acquisition of its materials, I must' observe that although it was by no means intended to undervalue the advantages of skill in designing, and beauty in the execution, of the drawings; yet the fundamental principle adhered to, being directed to the acquirement of knowledge, of all such facts and objects as could be presented to the mind, by a direct exhibition of pictorial forms, that object did not necessarily embrace a style of execution such as I had not skill to produce. But taking them as types, which by means

of lines and colours convey to the eye at one glance a more definite idea of a given object than language, however precise, can effect, I felt that with perseverance and industry, a very considerable mass of information might be collected in one focus, upon a more comprehensive plan than is to be met with in any collection of the kind, which has yet come to my knowledge. From an adherence to this plan resulted the very extensive amount of the collection; for, although the whole without almost a single exception, is the work of one hand, the number of objects delineated, amounts to about ten thousand. I must however, confess, that the greater number of drawings are only so far advanced as to contain the requisite characteristic minutiæ; few are entirely finished; and some still remain in pencil: let me add also my regret that several of the most finished have disappeared.

Although these explanations seem to account for the number of materials collected, and for the unfinished state which attaches to many, they do not point out the causes of facility in drawing outline with satisfactory precision, nor of applying a system of colours with propriety and dispatch. It is true that the steps taken to attain these powers in a passable degree were not all in consequence of a premeditated plan, but that many fortuitous incidents in life seem to have co-operated to constitute a kind of destiny to that effect. It may be irrelevant in this place to refer to private matters of detail, but I trust that what I am going to state will escape censure, because there may be interest in some parts and instruction in others; and it will appear that no work even comparatively trifling, is to be executed without preparation, trouble, and persever

ance.

By a kind of instinctive desire to form collections of figures, before I was fifteen years old I had already contrived to sketch, during the hours of interval between scholastic studies, upwards of three hundred animals, taken from the works of

I I

Buffon, Pennant, Edwards, and others; but it was not till after the first years of the war, (which occurred soon after,) had passed over; during a voyage down the coast of Africa, and subsequent residence in the West Indies that a second collection, wholly drawn from nature was made. This, however, being mostly destroyed by accident, discouragement ensued, and I resolved for a time to confine my pursuits to memorandum sketches, while a course of drawings of the human figure, sometimes with, but oftener without, the aid of masters, prepared the way to resume my plan with greater effect. For this purpose, a very extensive series of engraved statues and bas-reliefs taken from the antique were copied; at first, by tracing the whole figure, soon after by tracing only the chief points, and finally by drawing wholly by the eye. Having run through all that I could find of the ancients, and secured a competent knowledge of their style, I turned the facility thereby acquired to the human model, and studied assiduously in that climate so peculiarly favourable to display the freshness and elegant contour of youth, and the muscular vigour of physical man; unfettered by the habitual restraint of close garments, which makes the model of Northern Europe comparatively unsatisfactory, and unlike the sculptures of antiquity.

A system of shading and colouring proceeded with the drawings, but when I had resumed my plan, it was found necessary to establish a method of colouring such objects as from circumstances could not be tinted on the spot. The privations incident to a traveller who has penetrated into the wilds of America, had soon induced me to put in practice a system of indications, which if it did not completely supersede the actual use of colours at the moment, at least, produced an approximation which would differ only in the intensity of any particular hue, and therefore would not be much more remote from the precise colours of the individual object, than what will be found to occur between two specimens of the same