CRADLE CARVED IN BOXWOOD.

and James, overloaded, as they gradually became, with the most incongruous details. The very profusion ofthese enrichments rendered more acceptable that return to natural types which was effected with so muchability by the genius of Grinling Gibbons , to whose merits we can scarcely be expected to do justice in ourlimited space. Walpole is inclined to believe the statement that he was born in Holland of English parents,and educated in that country till his nineteenth year; and certainly he would there have enjoyed remarkablefacilities in the study of the works of the great Flemish carvers ; it is, on the other hand, asserted that hisfather was a Dutchman, and that the artist himself was born in Spur Alley, in the Strand, London . Be thatas it may, we at least know that in the year 1671 he was found by Evelyn, during a casual walk, nearDeptford, engaged in carving a relievo from a large cartoon by Tintoretto . Impressed with the extraordinarytalent he displayed, Evelyn at once introduced Gibbons to King Charles II. , who also admired his work;but, when it was submitted to the Queen, we are told by Evelyn that “ a French peddling woman, who usedto bring baubles out of France for the ladies, began to find fault with several things in it, which she understoodno more than an ass or a monkey. So, in a kind of indignation/’ Evelyn caused the work to be removedfrom the palace, and it was afterwards sold for 80/., though “it was well worth an hundred without theframe.” Subsequently introduced by his patron to Sir C. Wren, Gibbons executed the noble works by whichhe is so well known at Windsor, Hampton Court , and St. Paul’s Cathedral.* His finest productions, however,we need hardly say, are to be found at Chatsworth, Petworth, and Burleigh; but scarcely less beautifulexamples of his skill are preserved at Houghton, Southwick, Hants, and Trinity College, Oxford . In 1714Gibbons was appointed Master Carver in wood to George I. , at a salary of Is. 6(/. per day; and he died inBow Street, Covent Garden, on the 3d of August, 1721. The characteristics of Gibbons ’ style of carving aretoo familiar to need any comment. Many Flemish carvers were employed under Gibbons , at St. Paul’s.Selden, his favourite disciple and assistant, lost his life in the act of saving from destruction by fire some ofthe carvings at Petworth; and Samuel Watson, another of his assistants, was so extensively employed uponthe works at Chatsworth, that he received, in one sum, no less than 342/. Lysons and Dallaway have, infact, doubted whether all the carvings at that place should not be ascribed to him; but, arguing from theirexcellence and the obscurity of Watson, Mr. Cunningham f ascribes the whole of the designs, and much ofthe carving, to the hand of Gibbons .

Mowatt, a French sculptor, who worked after Gibbons , and whose freedom of touch was most remarkable,deserves to be honourably mentioned. The pulpit in St. Paul’s, with some chimney-pieces, &c., at WindsorCastle, were executed by him. During the reign of Queen Anne , wood-carving of considerable merit was

employed, on tables and other small furniture, in connexion with buhl and ormolu work. Chippendale, a

carver and cabinet-maker in the time of George I. , failed, however, in an attempt to unite the style of

Gibbons with the debased characteristics of the age of Louis XV. Some Flemish carvers worked in England

about a century ago, and the royal state coach, designed and carved by Joseph Wilton, the sculptor , is afavourable specimen of the art. Mr. Hendrie, however, is, we think, fully justified in his observation that“ no name stands between those of Gibbons and Rogers, in the history of the grand, or architectural, style ofthe art.”J

* For the carvings in the choir of St. Paul’s he received 133/. 7s. 5d., and for the throne in Canterbury Cathedral , 70/.

t “Lives of the British Sculptors,” &c. J “Journal of Design,” vol. iv. p. 138.