THE BEGGA R. "AH, little FANNY!" faid he, taking imagination pictured before me my lovely COPY of the ARTISTS' PETITION PRESENTED to His MAJESTY GEORGE the THIRD, NOVEMBER the 28th, 1768; and which gave rife to the ESTABLISHMENT of the ROYAL ACADEMY. To the KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, WE, your Majesty's most faithful fubjects, the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects of this Metropolis (being defircus of establishing a Society for promoting the Arts of Design, and fentible how ineffectual every establishment of that nature must be without the Royal influence), moft humbly beg leave to folicit your Majefy's gracious affiftance, patronage, and protection, in carrying this uteful plan into execution. It would be too great an intrufion upon your Majefty's time to offer a minute detail of our plan. We only beg leave to inform your Majefty, that the two principal objects we have in view are, the establishment of a well-regulated School or Academy of Design, for the ufe of Students in the Arts; and an annual Exhibition, open to all Artifts of diftinguished merit, where they may offer their performances to public infpection, and acquire that degree of reputation and encouragement which they fhall be deemed to deserve. We apprehend that the profits arifing from the laft of thefe inftitutions will fully aufwer all the expences of the fift; We even flatter ourfelves that they will be more than neceffary, and that we fhall be enabled annually to diftribute fomething in useful charities to the indi gent of our profeffion. Your Majefty's avowed patronage and protection are, therefore, all that we at prefent humbly fue for: But fhould we To the EDITOR of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. THE Biographical Article at the head of your refpectable Magazine, at the fame time that it is flattering to the vanity of many an Author, renders it unneceflary for him to flatter himself, or when he publishes a Work to hang forth his own face in front, "With bays and wicked rhyme upon't." Without entering into the difcuffion, whether or not it be decorous to exhibit living characters to the public eye, it certainly is attended with this advantage, that mistakes refpecting them may eatly be corrected and omiffions fupplied. I have taken the liberty of doing both on the subject of your Biographical Article for December: and you will print it, unlefs you are of opinion that e ough has already been faid on a fubject of fo little importance to the Public. Thomas Martyn was born in ChurchLane, Chelfea, on the 23d of September 1735. He was admitted of Emanuel College the 24th of June 1752, and was matriculated of the University on the 18th of December following. He was elected to a Fellowship on the foundation of the Lady Frances Sydney, Countess of Suffex, on the 27th of April 1758. He was ordained Deacon on Trinity Sunday, May the 21ft, the fame year, at Conduit-ftreet Chapel, in the parish of St. George's, Hanover-fquare; and Prieft at Buckden, on the 23d of December 1759; both by John Thomas, then Lord Bishop of Lincoln. The beginning of this year he was an unfuccefsful candidate for the Lectureship of Chellea, then vacant by the death of his fchoolmafter, Mr. Rothery. Mr. Martyn was unanimously chofen Professor of Botany by the Senate of the University of Cambridge on the 2d of February 1762, on the refignation, not the death, of his father; for his father did not die till the 29th of January 1768. Preiently after, he was appointed, by Dr. Walker himself, who was then founding the Botanic Garden, his firft Reader of Botany. Both thefe offices were without emolument till the year 1774, when a falary of one hundred pounds a year was given by the King, whilit the Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University, was at the head of the Treafury; and fo continued to the 2d of Auguft 1793, when Mr. Martyn was appointed Regius Profeffor by patent, with a falary of two hundred pounds a year. If any merit is to be claimed from reading Lectures in English, Mr. Martyn can derive none from that circumftance; for he merely followed a cufter which he found eftablished, and which his father had adopted thirty years before. Mr. Martyn fometimes made excursions into the country with his pupils, but not fo conftantly as his father had done; the neceffity of them being in fome degree fuperfeded by the foundation of a Botanic Garden. January 6th, 1773, Mr. Martyn was prefented, by the then Bishop of Ely, to the vicarage of Foxton, in Cambridgefhire; and on December the 9th, the fame year, he was married to Mifs Marthe Ellifton, lifter to the prefent worthy Matter of Sydney College. January 1ft, 1774, he was prefented by John Borlafe Warren, Elq. to the Rectory of Ludgerfhall, in Buckinghamfhire; and on Auguft 10th, 1776, to the Vicarage of LittleMarlow, in that county, by the fame patron. Mr. Warren, now Sir John Borlafe Warren, never was Mr. Martyn's pupil, but there had been a friendship between them them for many years, and Sir John intrufted his brother to Mr. Martyn's care. On being prefented to Little Marlow, Mr. Martyn refigned Foxton, and quitted Triplow for that place on the 14th of October 1776. July 29th, 1778, he fet off for the Continent, and returned from his travels Sept. 2d, 1780. He removed to London Nov. 27th, 1784, and on June 4th, the year following, he refigned the Rectory of Ludgerfhall to his brother, the Rev. Claudius Martyn. 1786, May 18th, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and admitted on the 15th of June. 1788, June 18th, he was appointed to the donative of Edgware, in Middlesex, by William Lee Antonie, Efq. the pation. July 15th, the fame year, he was received Fellow of the Linnean Society. March 18th, 1794, he was prefented by the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture with their first gold medal, for his fervices in the original inftitution of that Society, and acting as their firft Secretary. The circumftance in a literary man's life of most importance to the Public is what works he has written and published; an accurate lift therefore of thefe is fubjoined, with their dates, in the order of their publication. Plante Cantabrigienfes; or, a Catalogue of the Plants growing wild about Cambridge, 1763. 8vo. This is the third Catalogue of Cambridgefbire Plants. The first by Ray, alphabetical. The fecond by Profeffor Jobu Martyn, accgyding to Ray's method: and this in Linnæus's arrangement. They are all now fuperfeded by Mr. Rethan's Flora Cantabrigienfis: except that the Planta Cantabrigienfes contains directions for the principal excurfions round Cambridge, and lifts of wild plants in aif. ferent counties. Heads of a Courfe of Lectures in Botany, 1764. This was not fold, but only given to pupils. Great part of the impreffion was burnt. The English Connoiffeur, 2 vols. 12mo. 1766. Diflertations on Virgil's Æneids, by the Catalogi Horti Botanici Cantabrigienfis The Antiquities of Herculaneum, tran. 4to. Elements of Natural History, Part I. Letters on the Elements of Botany; Thirty-eight Plates with Explanations, A Tour through Italy. Edit. 2. 8vo. 1791. Flora Ruftica, with Plates, by Nodder. The Language of Botany. 1793. A se- BANK OF ENGLAND NEW BUILDINGS. THE New Building fituated in Lothbury was executed under the infpection of J. SOANE, Efq. Architect to the Bank of England; it is on a neat plan; the infide, which is intended for offices, not yet finished, will add much to the convenience as well as dignity of that noble range of buildings, as it now joins the Eaft and Welt fides together. It were to be wished the fpace was wider before it, as the parfenger cannot fee is to that advantage he otherwife would. The Gateway, in particular, conveys at once neatness and grandeur, the workmanship of which will bear the nicest critical obfervation. P. |