An account Eufebia fond of me, and did every thing in his power to render the place agreeable. His lovely daughter was not only as civil as it was pol fible to be, but did me the honour to commence a friendship with me, which lafted from that time till death deftroyed the golden thread that linked it. 75. Reader, this young lady, Harriet of Harriot Eufebia Harcourt, was the foundrels of a reHarcourt, ligious house of proteftant recluses, who are ftill a fociety in that part of Richmondshire where firft I faw her and her father. They are under no vow, but while they please to continue members, live as they do in nunneries, and in piety, and in all the parts of the chriftian temper, endeavour a refemblance of their divine Lord and Mafter; with this diftinction however, that to the plan of the regards due from man by the divine Law to God, to his fellow-creatures, and to himself, they add musick and painting for their diverfion, and unbend their minds in thefe delightful arts, for a few hours every day. This makes them excel in these particulars. They are great mafters in all kinds of mufick, and do wonders with the pencil. Eufebia was but just turned of twenty when I first saw her, in the year 1725, and then her musical performances were admirable - her pictures had the ordonnance, I colour colouring, and expreffion of a great master. She was born with a picturesque genius, and a capacity to give measure and movement to compofitions of harmony. Her mufic at the time I am fpeaking of had a most surprizing power: and in painting, long before this time, fhe aftonished. When he was a child, nine years old, and had no master, she would sketch with a black lead pencil on a fheet of paper the pictures of various kinds. that came in her way, and make fuch imitations as deferved the attention of judges. This made her father get her an eminent mafter, and she had not been long under his direction, when he was able to infufe a foul into her figures, and motion into her compofitions. She not only drew landskips, and low fubjects with a fuccefs great as Teniers, but evinced by her paintings, that she brought into the world with her an aptitude for works of a fuperior clafs. Her pictures fhew that she was not the laft among the painters of history. They are as valuable for the merit of the execution as for the merit of the fubjects. of Mrs. 76. Her hiftories of the revelations of St. An account John, which the finished a little before her Harcourt's death, from the firft vifion to the laft, de- pictures of monftrate a genius very wonderful, and that lations of her hand was perfected at the fame time S. John, Cc 3 with the Reve Pictures, with her imagination. If this series of pictures is not in every refpect equal to Giotto's on the fame fubject, (which I have feen in the cloyster of St. Clare at Naples), yet these paintings are treated with greater truth, and shew that the imagination of the painter had a hand and eye at its difpofal to display the finest and compleateft ideas. The great artift is obvious in them. The first picture of this Series is a representation of the infide of the glorious temple, (that was made the grand scene of all the things St. John faw in the Spirit), the golden-lamp-fconce, called the feven candleflicks, which afforded the fanctuary all its light, and the auguft perfonage, who appears in refulgent brightnefs in the vifion, in the midst of the feven golden candlesticks. The majestic and godlike form which the apostle beheld is wonderfully painted. He is reprefented with more than human majefty. Like Raphael, in his picture of the Eternal Father, in one of the Vatican chapels, the does not infpire us merely with veneration, fhe ftrikes us even with an awful terror: elle n'inspire pas une fimple veneration, elle-imprime une terreur refpectueule. In his right hand, this grand perfon holds the main shaft that fupports the fix branches of the fix lighted lamps, and the feventh lamp at at the top of the main trunk, which gleam The next picture in this feries is a conti- Picture 2. nuation of, or another reprefentation of the infide of the temple, the golden lamp-fconce of feven golden candlesticks, and the auguft perfonage in refulgent brightness, and fplendors tranfcendently glorious; but with this difference, that in this piece, the divine perfonage does not hold the main shaft of the branches of lights in his right-hand, or stand in the midst of the candlesticks; but, notwithstanding his fublime dignity, is painted with a godlike compaffion in his face and manner, and with the greatest tenderness raises Cc 4 Picture 3. raifes and fupports the apoftle. You fer him (as St. John defcribes him); be laid his right-hand upon me (the hand which before. held the feven ftars, or lighted golden lamps, that exhibited..an appearance not unlike a conftellation of stars) faying unto me, fear not. I am the firft and the last. I am be that liveth, even tho I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen. And I høve the keys of bell and of death. One almost hears these words from the lips of the august form, fo wonderfully is the figure painted,→→ fo happily has the pencil counterfeited nature: and the apostle appears to revive in tranfports, as he knows from the words that it is his Lord and Master is fpeaking to him. It is a fine picture. The third painting in this feries is the fubfequent vifion, in the 4th and 5th chape ters of the Revelation of John the Divine. →→ In a part of the heavens that are opened, the throne of God is reprefented by a crystal feat or glory, and from it proceed flafhings of a bright flame like lightning and thunder, to reprefent the awful majefty of the One, and One Only, True God, the Supreme Lord of all things: feven lamps of fire are burning before this throne, as emblems of the feven fpirits, or principal fervants of God, to fhew with what purity, conftancy, and zeal, the spirits of the juft made |