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Letter from William Smith, Bury, to Sir George Beaumont, 1818 July 22 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
414553
Accession number
MA 1581.186
Creator
Smith, William, 1730-1819.
Display Date
Bury St. Edmunds, England, 1818 July 22.
Credit line
Purchased from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1959.
Description
1 item (1 page, with address) ; 22.9 x 19.0 cm
Notes
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall and to other members of the Beaumont family. See collection-level record for more information (MA 1581.1-297).
This letter was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Smith) 9.
Address panel with postmarks and seal to "Sir George Beaumont / Coleorton / Ashby de la Zouch."
Provenance
Purchased as a gift of the Fellows from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Summary
Concerning his frustration that the painter [John Jackson] has still not arrived; saying "A Painter once took great delight / In painting of the D - of C --- ;" continuing, "I think yr. Friend has [illegible] a better subject for his art than either the D - of C - or yr Suffolk correspondent - for We have heard nothing from him...For this month past I have been examining my looking glass, not as Achilles did Hector (as the old blind Poet tells us) to see where He was most vulnerable, but to find out what Feature, what Line or Mark could elicit a Likeness - but the Lottery says Blank - for I fear it must end there. I have a portrait by Hopner [sic] in my Parlour which People think was a good likeness & I am desired to have an engraving from it. Do you recollect it in the Exhibition 32 years ago? Pray give yrself no trouble about this artist, for I trust He has better game in view than Suffolk will afford him, tho' the two amateurs are impatiently expecting Him."