of the Royal Academy, and consequently his name is pre-eminently entitled to fill the place of honour in a work, like the present, devoted to the memories of those who followed in his footsteps, and whose genius has placed that school, which he founded, on an equality with those of more ancient date-the schools of Italy, Spain, Germany, and France.

It is nevertheless surprising that our English school is thus of so comparatively modern an origin, when we recollect that some of the most honoured among the old painters had been in England, and might have given an impulse to native genius, if any existed. Holbein, More, Vandyke, and Rubens, besides Lely and Kneller, men of inferior mark, it might naturally be supposed, would by their example have called up a race of painters, able in due time to supersede the necessity of calling in foreign aid. Moreover, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the works of many of the most distinguished Italian and Flemish painters had been brought hither. Henry VIII. had founded a small picture gallery, to which Charles I. added largely and attractively, while the nobility of the land expended considerable sums in the purchase of paintings, the nucleus of not a few of those collections which still adorn our land. Still none of these things operated to the development of native talent; almost another century rolled away, reckoning from the time of the second Charles, before the pencils of Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Wilson showed that the art of painting had taken root and was springing up in English soil.

In a valley near the high-road from Exeter to Plymouth, and

about five miles from the latter place, stands the picturesque town of Plympton. The town itself is but small, and though very prettily situated, now has little to show that would interest the lover of antiquities, except the ruined walls of the ancient keep, or circular tower of its castle, once of considerable magnitude, and erected upon a lofty, conical-shaped, artificial mound of earth. Plympton contains about two hundred houses, some of which, in

the principal street, are built on arcades extending over the footway. The Town Hall bears the date 1696; it is a substantial edifice, having a paved court in front, over which is the councilchamber, supported by circular-headed arches, resting on granite columns; a quaint and picturesque character is, by these architectural introductions, given to the street.

The parish Church of Plympton is not large, yet sufficiently apportioned to the wants of the inhabitants. It does not seem to be of very ancient date, but we learn from Mr. Cotton's MSS. that it appears to have been originally a chantry-chapel to the Church

of Plympton St. Mary, and was first dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, and afterwards to St. Mauritius, "Knight and Martyr," as Leland designates him, commander of the Theban legion in the time of the Emperor Maximilian, who suffered martyrdom, with

the whole of his men, who were Christians, at Agaunum, in Savoy (now called St. Maurice), in the presence of the emperor, about the year 296, because they refused to sacrifice to the heathen deities. The bones of these martyrs were afterwards dug up, and sent into various countries, where churches were erected to their honour.

The church stands on the north side of the town, near the castle, and has a square tower of rather imposing elevation, somewhat less than one hundred feet in height.

Plympton, despite the picturesque beauty of the surrounding scenery, would scarcely have induced a traveller to turn aside

from his path, and linger awhile amid its old-fashioned dwellings, if there had not been born and reared among them one whose name is the most prominently connected with the English School of painting: Plympton will not be forgotten while the genius of Reynolds survives to keep it in remembrance; but though it may fairly boast of his birth, it is London that has more reason to be proud of his residence.

The date of Sir Joshua's birth is July 16, 1723, about two months after the death of Sir Godfrey Kneller, who, for many years, had monopolised the patronage of the great as a portrait-painter. The father, grandfather, and two uncles of Reynolds were all in holy orders, and the first-mentioned of these was master of the Grammar School of Plympton, founded and endowed in 1658. The building was erected in 1664. The school-room is a spacious apartment, with large perpendicular windows of five lights at the east and west ends, three square-headed windows of three lights, with granite mullions and transoms, in the south wall, and with two similar windows in the north wall. The master's desk is placed at the east end under the window, and over the entrance door, in the centre of the north wall, is a small gallery. The ceiling of plain unornamented wood, and the bare whitewashed walls, give a mean appearance to a room of fair and goodly proportions. Its nakedness is only relieved by a rude cornice of no sculptural pretensions, and by two shields coarsely emblazoned with the armorial bearings of the families of Hele and Maynard, the original founders of the school; the former being the real benefactor, as bequeathing certain property for charitable purposes,