Letter from William Gilpin, Vicar's Hill, to Sir George Beaumont, 1802 July 21 : autograph manuscript signed.

Commending Beaumont for having chosen to go to Wales for the summer rather than stay in London; describing the beauties of the countryside around Keswick ("the glimmering coruscations of splendid lights, playing [...] on the summits of the mountains"); discussing his preference for sketches over paintings and describing a painting of King William on horseback by Godfrey Kneller at Hampton Court: "It is as poor, & tame a thing as you will any where see. Some years ago, I saw at Houghton the original sketch, from which this tawdry picture was taken. It was a masterpiece"; commenting on the work of Claude Lorrain and saying that while he admires Claude's coloring, he rarely finds himself pleased with his compositions: "The horizon is sometimes too high -- or the ground is patched -- or the building is awkward -- or the trees are heavy -- or there is something often of one kind or other, which disgusts"; discussing modern painters and praising the work of Richard Wilson over others: "Poussin, I thought a [heavy] painter: Gainsborough too airy. But I speak merely of my remembrance of pictures an age ago: I have not seen a picture these twenty years"; saying that he has heard from Colonel Mitford that Beaumont has plans to build in Leicestershire and cautioning him: "We are told, that whoever builds, should count the cost. Now the cost does not only consist in money, in which I doubt not, you are provided enough; but there is likewise a cost of time -- a cost of patience -- & a cost of abilities. Now I much doubt, whether you have the abilities to follow a gang of workmen patiently every day, and see every stone well squared, & every piece of timber well fixed"; asking if Beaumont has ever met with Lord Blaquiere, who has a house nearby, and describing him as "a great lover of the arts"; describing his neighbor the naval officer Sir Harry Neale and praising him very highly; quoting an assessment of his character: "Sir H.N. is one of the pleasantest men alive; if you do not come athwart him in the form of a French frigate"; saying that Neale is now attending to the king (Neale served as Groom of the Bedchamber to George III) at Weymouth, "who calls him his port-admiral; & cannot bear to sail with any body else"; mentioning that Neale has left with him "a set of Shakespear gallery-prints" and saying that he would appreciate Beaumont's opinion on them; giving his thoughts about prints, engravings and etchings, and recounting a memory of going into a print-shop and buying engravings of works by Rembrandt and Waterloo when he was "a mere boy."