From the Athenæum. SIR ROBERT STRANGE.* THIS book has a deep fascination. Mr. Dennistoun, if not a clear writer, was a careful one. He showed, too, in many portions of the narrative before us, a finer sense of the marking trait, the characteristic word, the moment of interest, than had been evinced in his Italian memoirs. It is true that this time he had a subject calculated to make an author's heart glad,-doubly glad, supposing that author to be a Scotchman. The career of one who gave an impulse to Art in England, at a period when Art could get small schooling here, and enjoyed comparatively little favor, and who achieved a success which, like the successes of Hogarth, Wilson, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, has not been outdone by any successor, offers an attractive theme. But more of romance than belongs to these interests was mixed up in Strange's life, by his connection with the Lumisdens, those faithful adherents to the exiled Stuarts. Though the story of his Jacobite brother-inlaw is episodical in an engraver's biography, it is so full of interest that no one will protest against the decision of Mr. Dennistoun to interweave the political with the artistic thread. We are made the more lenient by our delight in a third strain, full of humor and character, introduced in the person of Lady Strange-the engraver's wife, the Jacobite secretary's sister. No Scottish woman of the olden time more quaint, more racy, more shrewd, and more incessant exists in Mr. Galt's gallery of imaginary Miss Mizys and Leddy Grippys. It is long since such a compound of fantastic loyalty and amazing orthography, of shrill self-assertion and homely heart-warm affection-a figure so bright, so bold, and so individual, has stood before us on the literary canvas, as the helpmate of Mr. Dennistoun's hero. The biographer, we repeat, was thrice fortunate in his subject and in its surroundings. *Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange, Knight, Engraver; and of his Brother-in-Law, Andrew Lum isden, private Secretary to the Stuart Princes. By James Dennistoun, of Dennistoun. 2 vols. Longman & Co. The Strangs (or Strong Men) were an old Orcadian family,-and Robert, Mr. Dennistoun's subject, eldest son by a second marriage of David Strang, treasurer at Kirkwall, was born, on the 14th of July 1721, in the island of Pomona. The boy, till he was fourteen, was brought up among his own people, his education there "terminating in an excellent grammar-school, where he attained some general knowledge of the classics." His relations had determined on making a lawyer of "Robie "—but the boy was determined to go to sea;-and, thanks to the indulgence of his mother, and the fatherly sympathy of his half-brother, he carried his point. A cruise in a man-of-war,-the Aldborough, including a storm during the ship's homeward voyage from Gottenburg,--disenchanted the youngster, whose ideas had, probably, been merely one of those promptings of aimless restlessness by which Genius announces its presence. A born sea-boy, Orcadian to boot, would not have listened to the terrors of the first gale he encountered, still less to the sober counsels of a wise midshipman! The sea being abandoned, young Strange (as it is best to call him) consented to try the law, under the guidance of his considerate halfbrother. "Before leaving my native country," says he in an autobiographical fragment here reprinted, "I had wrote an excellent hand of write, but had been out of the prac tice of it for several months. It was not to be doubted but that I should soon recover it." This "excellent hand of write" was soon recovered, and while Robert was copying his half-brother's papers he beguiled his leisure by drawing "little sketches in penand-ink,--some few," says he, "from my own fancy, and others from the ornaments and title pages of books, etc." These were carefully concealed, in obedience, we sup pose, to the old notions, which attached loss of position--guilt, almost--to the pursuit of Art;--and which made secrecy neeessary, in avoidance of persecution. But young Strange was more unfortunate than other "visionary boys" have been. His half-brother, one day, fell upon the " 'budget" of concealed | "Mr. Robert Chambers, in his Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen,' tells us that Strange then residing in Stewart's Close, was commissioned, during the Prince's visit to Edinburgh, to engrave a half-length portrait of him; he looks out of an oval window or frame, over a stone ledge or pedestal, with the motto, Everso missus succurrere seclo. This print [was] the earliest known work of its author on his own account." Strange accompanied the Jacobite army, and was called into the councils of the Prince, who withdrew from a ball to concert, with Sir Thomas Sheridan, the renegade Murray, of Broughton, and our young artist, a plan for the issue of "one species of money or other, for the service of the army in general.' Strange produced a design for a paper note compartment, from behind which a rose issued on mon use of circulation. The Prince had at this * Next day, being Sunday, my carpenter was The rout at Culloden, which was simply and vigorously described by Strange in an autobiographical fragment, put an end to the engraver's employment as "moneyer," and drove him, like other loyal servants of the Stuarts, into holes and corners :- "Of the incidents during his hiding in the Highlands after the catastrophe at Culloden, and of his eventful escape to the Continent, we possess but scanty particulars. One printed anecdote comes to us on the authority of Cooper, his instructor, that, when hotly pressed, he dashed into a room where the lady, whose zeal had enlisted him in the fatal cause, sat singing at her needlework, and, failing other means of concealment, was indebted for safety to her prompt intervention. As she quickly raised her hooped gown, the affianced lover disappeared beneath its ample contour, where, thanks to her cool demeanor and unfaltering notes, he lay undetected, while the rude and baffled soldiery vainly ransacked the house. ** When the vigilance of pursuit was somewhat abated, he left the Highlands, and returned to Edinburgh, where, for the first time, he ing to maintain himself in concealment by began to turn his talents to account, contrivthe sale of small drawings of the rival leaders in the rebellion, many of which must still be extant, and which were purchased at the time in great. numbers at a guinea each. A fan, also, whose intended owner gave it in his eyes additional value, and on which his pencil had, on that ac count, bestowed more than usual pains, was sold at this time, with a sad heart (non hos quæsitum munus in usus) to the present Earl of Wemyss, "It consisted, I said, of nothing but the slightest who was too sensible of its value to allow it to or token be repurchased, when that was proposed a short | life. Isabella seems to have negotiated be time afterwards." This fan, we suppose, was intended for the Jacobite Lady to whom Strange was united in 1747, having won his spurs as a true knight. On proceeding further with the record of his life, we are disposed to fancy that Strange's own politics may have been, like his love of the sea, romantic rather than real. When, in 1760, he declined to engrave Allan Ramsay's full length portraits of George the Third and the Earl of Bute, in consequence of the insufficient remuneration offered to him, he explained in clear terms to Ramsay, that he "considered himself most unjustly calumniated by the prevalent reports of his having, from political feelings, refused to occupy his hand upon a portrait of the heir-apparent to the throne; and, farther, that the slights he received from Lord Bute satisfied him that his conduct must have been looked on at Court in this light." It could have offered little matter for wonder had Strange refused the allegiance of his burin to the House of Hanover, considering what its earlier labors had been, what the humor of his helpmate was, and what the principles and position of her family remained until the last spark of Jacobite hope smouldered out among the ashes! twixt him and his father, in a matter where women rarely fail to negotiate with success,--the getting of supplies for the refugee; and from this time forward---1747---the letters from the brother and sister begin to form an interesting feature in the book. Andrew describ ed foreign usages and foreign parts---“ the French stage, with an imitation of Venice Preserved,' from Otway "--and the absurdities of the Opera (then a fertile theme for satire with all who pretended to intelligence and taste),--begged to have Scot's Magazines sent to him,---and entreated "papa to use his influence with some Scotch merchants residing at "Cadix, in Spain," to do something for him. "From the Prince," he says, writing from Rouen, in 1748, "I expect nothing; his own situation is too dismal." The same tone of excuse is observable throughout Andrew Lumisden's letters. If he was passed over, he would not avow it,— if he was maltreated, he besought his sister to conceal it. By Isabella, too, the good cause was clung to, with true feminine vasity" (her own spelling). Writing to her brother in sympathetic ink or milk: 8% vi "Pray," says she, "make Robie's compliments and mine to Sir Stewart and Mr. Hamilton, and tell them my daughter sends her honest wishes to them; the poor infant has early shown the spirit of Jacobitism; she had almost suffered martyrdom the tenth of this month, for having two white roses in her cap." The Lumisdens were a devoted family, though not singular in their devotion. That spell which often constrains affection and retains loyalty a compound of selfishness, superciliousness, and sensibility--was possessed We must add other passages from the to the full by the Stuarts. They were not later letters of this sprightly woman. Shortly only served by better men than themselves, after her marriage Strange began to travel but were served on bended knees. It was on the Continent, and from the first idea of a favor (according to their code) in one of their anointed race to permit Fidelity to spend proceeding to Rome, with a view of exercisits life-blood for him; yet, after that blooding that "excellent hand" of his in miniature painting, was gradually led on to plan that was spent, Fidelity's orphan got but icy fine series of engravings from the foreign picthanks, rarely the smallest kind deed, in sub-tures, by which he is so nobly known. Is it stantial return. Few mysteries of life are more common than this subjugation of the better by the worse creature-than this waste of love and service; but even the suffering of innocent children is hardly more painful to contemplate than such a phenomenon. We have called the Lumisdens "devoted." William Lumisden, the father of Isabella and Andrew," a weak, but harsh and selfish man,' carried arms for the Stuarts in 1715, and refused to take oaths to Government. Andrew, educated for the law, joined Charles Edward's standard when he was twenty-five; and had, like his royal master, to fly the country, and, for a time, to lead a precarious, scrambling scandal to fancy that "Robie's" wandering แ * My dear little Mary Bruce is as thriving an infant as ever was seen. * I must not neg lect to tell you that I have taken great care of her education: for example, whenever she hears the word Whig mentioned, she grins and makes faces that would frighten a beau; but when I name the Prince, she kisses me and looks at her picture, and greets you well for sending the pret ty gum-flower; I intend she shall wear it at the Coronation, such is the value I have for it, as 'tis a mark of your remembering my foster." "I have taken a very pretty genteel house at the Cross, in that land where Sandy Stevenson has his shop: 'tis the third story: an easy scaled stair; looks very low from the street. I design to make more than the rent, of my five large windows at the Restoration, though it [is] fourteen pounds and a crown." About the year 1751 Andrew Lumisden joined the Stuarts at Rome, at first as Under Secretary to the Chevalier St. George. Some interesting chapters are devoted by Mr. Dennistoun to the colorless and vapid life of the exiled Court, stirred from time to time by little attempts to intrigue and conspire. Andrew Lumisden's letters, though dry and formal, and larded by those moral reflections and generous sentiments which letter-writers of those days seemed to regard as necessary as superscription or seal, are still interesting and characteristic. In 1756 his father died,-in 1766 the Chevalier St. George. But a mere note of these events must suffice us, since the career of Strange is to be followed. After some indecision, and but little employment, the young engraver joined the Scottish exiles at Rouen in 1748. While in France he worked with descamps and Le Bas. The latter engraver was the favorite engraver of pictures of the Watteau school (here somewhat unfairly contemned, by the way). But Strange began early to select for himself-picked out "a sparkling little Wouvermanns,' --a Corregiesque Vanloo, and brought out engravings from them, "at the humble price of half-a-crown each." On returning to England, he began to traffic with his brother-in-law in Roman wares, more innocent in quality than Jacobite treasons, and to import Italian engravings. This connection, and the influence of Andrew Lumisden's elegant and scholastic taste, the want of much better employment than Hunter's anatomical works could supply -the home presence of one who may have teased as much as she pleased him-may have conspired with his naturally roving disposition to encourage him in the frequent absences from England, which bore such good fruits for the print-shops, however unpalatable they were to Mistress Strange. She, however, had her own occupations and her own resources during her lord's absence. Her family, which had increased, claimed much attention; and she had to battle with absent husband and far-away brother-inlaw in defence of her educational practices, some of which seemed to distant relatives more giddy than rational. Her son, Jamie, had been taught to dance by a Frenchman of the name of Lalauze,-who, on giving what we suppose to have been a dancingmaster's ball at one of the theatres, naturally wished one of his best pupils to figure there. Hearing of this, Andrew Lumisden, noting how "the Earl of Massareen (who is now in Italy) has been laughed at by the Italians, as well as by his own countrymen, on account of his theatrical dancing," wrote a protest home to his sister, at the instance of Strange. The Lady was perfectly able and ready to defend herself and her dancing discipline; and indulged in a spirited rejoinder : "Jamie knows no more of a theatrical carriage than you do; he moves and dances like a gentleman. His master is as unlike a dancing-master neither you, nor any of the world, any reason to as your Holy Father. Fear me not, I have given suspect my want of what's called common sense. I think I have seen through things you yourself have been blind to, as to the foibles of men or women. I will but do myself the justice when I say I have as few of them as any she that ever wore petticoats. I know I have passion; and plenty of revenge, which is, to be sure, the child of the Devil, and not the brat of a weak brain. My wayward love is the only blot you can stamp [on] my scutcion: with what, when I see you, I shall vindicate myself, in the deafest side of your head. But, to begin again, Robie and you must submite the care of the children to me for this year. I foresee, tho' I might get the blame I may never be thought of: but I hope to live to was things to turn out ill, yet when they flourish tell my own merit in their education myself. Jamie never learned aught but the Minuat and Lewer, which is a sort of Minuat; he never saw a country-dance; he, nor his sister, has not been within the playhouse door since April last." * A few months later, however, we find a wail as characteristic of the woman as her "fling" had been : choose to signify to Robie. Was he to be with "I am far from being well, which I do not me to-morrow, it would do me no service. The immoderate fatigue I have had these many years in bringing in a family into the world, and the anxiety I have had in rearing them, joined to many sore hearts, has wore out the best constitution in Europe. 'Tis true I have had a severe additional fatigue since Robie went abroad, but I have had one substantial comfort; I have been my own mistress. I have had no chiding stuff, which I believe I sometimes brought on myself, but when I did, it was in defence of some saving 286 * truth. My frugality has often been dear to me, Mrs. Strange is not the first gentlewoman of "vivasity" who has scolded in substantiation of her love for "peace and quiet." Her attachment to her husband appears to have been as real as her temper was quick and her style quaint. Meanwhile the course of Robert Strange's travels across the Alps did not run smooth. He conceived that in Italy he was followed by home persecution, on the score of his politics, which took the form of denied access to the pictures which he desired to examine, copy, and engrave,--the thorn in his side being Mr. Dalton: "This gentleman, originally a coach painter, had studied in Rome, and been made librarian to the Prince of Wales, by whom, on his accession, he was sent to Italy, in order to purchase works of art for his Majesty." In the hindrances which Dalton threw into Strange's way there may have been Hanoverian vengeance and suspicion;-no less than a pure mercantile desire to play into the hands of Bartolozzi, the engraver. It may be remarked, that amateur conspirators have often no objection to assume the importance of martyrdom on the strength of their conspiracies, long after such deeds are wholly forgotten by those against whom they were directed. Whether this was Strange's case or not, the Jacobite engraver outwitted the wee bit German lairdie, and managed to secure the Aldobrandi "Sleeping Cupid," which had been offered to the King of England for 2000 zecchins, at little more than a fourth of that price, for Sir Laurence Dundas contrived, also, to engrave the picture, and by means of the Cardinals York and Colonna di Sciarra to break down the obstacles raised by English court In spite, however, of checks and chills like him, "in the summer of 1767, planning a more fixed residence with them in Castle ed |